Islamabad : Red corner notices issued through Interpol against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto are to be withdrawn even as she has petitioned the Sindh High Court for a seat in parliament under the women’s quota.
The notices will be withdrawn “in the light of the government’s reconciliation policy”, Dawn Wednesday quoted interior ministry spokesman Brig. (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema as saying.
The notices against Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari will also be withdrawn. Bhutto has been living in exile after she was charged with swindling Rs.90 billion ($1.48 billion) during her two terms in office. Her husband was named as an accomplice.
“Whatever the government requires to fulfil the norms of reconciliation will be done,” Cheema said during a briefing on the law and order situation in the country.
The Pakistan government had promulgated the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) just before the Oct 6 presidential election granting amnesty to politicians charged with corruption. Bhutto had made this a pre-condition for supporting President Pervez Musharraf’s re-election bid and for entering into a power-sharing agreement after the general elections that are due early next year.
The former prime minister is expected to return home later this month.
Interpol had recently queried the Pakistani government on Bhutto’s status and whether she was still a “wanted person”.
Asked about Bhutto’s demand for security and bulletproof cars on her return, Cheema said: “She will be given proper security”.
Bhutto had said in London last week she feared for her life from Al Qaeda and the remnants of the Taliban.
In Karachi, Bhutto Tuesday submitted an application in the Sindh High Court seeking a National Assembly seat on the ground that the corruption cases against her had been withdrawn.
In a petition submitted through advocate Farooq H. Naek, Bhutto said that because of the NRO, she was no longer disqualified due to cases pending against her in accountability courts or her conviction under the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance.
Bhutto said she headed her Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) list as a candidate for one of the women’s seats and had filed a petition in the high court to be declared elected in the 2002 general election.
At that time, her petition was contested on account of the cases filed against her and had been pending for five years.
Bhutto urged that her new petition be heard urgently and she be declared elected to the National Assembly.