Bhutto return vow deepens Pakistan crisis

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's political crisis deepened on Sunday after exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto vowed to return home having failed to reach a power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf.   

Key US ally Musharraf now faces the spectre of two ex-premiers flying home to challenge his shaky eight-year military regime, with Nawaz Sharif, the man he ousted in a 1999 coup, also pledging to come back.   

The nuclear-armed Islamic republic has been wracked by instability ahead of an election due in September or October, in which Musharraf plans to make a hotly-opposed bid to win another five-year term as president-in-uniform.   

Two-time premier Bhutto said on Saturday that she was determined to end her self-imposed exile over corruption charges and would announce the date of her return on September 14, four days after Sharif is set to fly home.   

"No understanding has been arrived at and we are making our plans to return," Bhutto told a press conference in London when asked about the week-long backroom negotiations with Musharraf.   

"I plan to return to Pakistan in the next few weeks to work for a moderate, a democratic Pakistan," said Bhutto, who has come under fire in her own Pakistan People's Party for dealing with a military ruler.   

Musharraf has sent his aides back to London in a frantic bid to rescue the deal with Bhutto, who served as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996, sources here said.   

The United States and Britain have reportedly been pushing behind the scenes for the pact, seeing the Oxford-educated Bhutto as a natural ally for the relatively moderate Musharraf.   

The talks ran into trouble after the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Party opposed her demands that Musharraf shed his uniform before reelection, cede his powers to dissolve parliament and allow premiers to serve a third term.   

A cabinet minister told AFP Saturday the Muslim League had told Musharraf he should not give in to the demands, which would pave the way for Bhutto or Sharif to return to office.   

Analysts said the situation remained uncertain for the main players and for Pakistan.   

"It is a very confusing situation. Bhutto is trying to gain time by saying that the date of her return will be announced on September 14, shortly before the schedule for the presidential election is out," political analyst Talat Masood told.   

"She wants some settlement and she will not give up her position on Musharraf's uniform especially when Nawaz Sharif has decided to return," he said.    

"Deal or no deal, she was likely to come back."   

But both Musharraf and Bhutto would like to reach some settlement, even though the president is feeling the heat from the Muslim League, his allies since the last general election in 2002, he said.   

"I think negotiations will continue. Musharraf will try to get Bhutto's support and she may try to get some concessions," Masood said.    

Musharraf's arch foe Sharif has announced he will return to the country on September 10 despite warnings from the government that he was obliged to remain in exile for 10 years from 2000 under a deal brokered by Saudi Arabia.   

Sharif urged the West on Saturday not to give "blind support" to the US-backed Musharraf and to distinguish between democracy and his "misrule".   

"This dictator has his own personal agenda, which differs from the agenda of the country, and he's using the army to perpetuate his illegal rule," Sharif said in an interview with AFP in London.