Benazir Bhutto vows to return home

Close on the heels of President Pervez Musharraf indicating that he would not allow her to come back to Pakistan, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said she would return home from self exile once the election schedule was announced by the military-backed government.

Bhutto, who is head of opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) told a meeting of her party workers over phone from Dubai that real democracy will be restored in the country soon.

The time was not far away when people's rule will be established in the country, she added.

Her comments came days after Musharraf said that if Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, another exiled former Premier, were premitted to return to Pakistan before the polls, it would lead to political instability.

Bhutto and Sharif have recently threatened to boycott the 2007 elections if they were not allowed to contest.

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said both Bhutto and Sharif are as Pakistanis as any one else could be.

Therefore, he said, they have every right to return to the country and contest the forthcoming general elections.

Jamali, who was chosen as Prime Minister by Musharraf after the 2002 general elections, told newsmen in his native town of Nasirabad that he had no intention to retire from politics and would definitely take part in the next general elections.