Islamabad, May 4: Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto has expressed the fear that she might be arrested on return to Pakistan but said she would return home within a week to show the world that her ``hands are clean''. Bhutto, charged under several corruption cases and with all her assets and properties frozen by the court recently, told CNN in an interview that she was not afraid of being jailed.``I have been told by the (ruling) Pakistan Muslim league parliamentarians I would be handcuffed if I return. But I have to return because I have to show that my hands are clean and that I have done nothing wrong,'' she told CNN in Washington.
Bhutto, who has been asked to appear before two courts later this month, is currently on a lecture tour of Canada and the United States. Dismissing allegations that her Pakistan People's Party government had taken kickbacks in granting several power projects to foreign companies, she accused the Nawaz Sharif administration of launching a ``media trial'' to defameher.
``They want to get my legitimate assets and they want to convince the world through a media trial that these are illegitimate. They are doing it to impose a one-party dictatorship in Pakistan,'' she said. Asked about her chances of becoming the Prime Minister again, Bhutto said, ``I have reservations but my party wants me to run for PM and if that is what they want on the day of elections, I will run, if I am not disqualified.''
A number of corruption cases have been filed against Bhutto, her mother Nusrat Bhutto and jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari, including cases of receiving kickbacks from foreign companies. If these charges are proved to be true, Bhutto will be disqualified from parliament, where she is the leader of opposition at present.
Bhutto has been twice Prime Minister of Pakistan but on both occasions her government was dismissed midway through the tenure mainly on corruption charges.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
