Bhutto vows to return to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The party of former premier Benazir Bhutto rejected a call Thursday from the president to delay her return from exile, insisting she would land in Pakistan as planned next week to campaign for January elections.

Bhutto, who went into self-imposed exile in 1999 to escape corruption charges, plans a grand homecoming Oct. 18. After months of power-sharing talks, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf last week enacted an amnesty quashing cases against her and other politicians.

But Wednesday, Musharraf urged Bhutto to postpone her return to Pakistan until after the Supreme Court rules on his own eligibility for a new five-year presidential term.

The court is due to resume hearings on Oct. 17, a day before Bhutto is scheduled to land in Karachi.

Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, said the two-time prime minister was sticking to her plans.

She "will come on Oct. 18 as scheduled," Babar told The Associated Press.

He denied a report in the respected Dawn daily that Bhutto would discuss a possible delay with senior aides on Thursday. He confirmed the meeting was taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, but said a postponement was not on the agenda.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, swept a presidential election by lawmakers last weekend, but faces at least a week of political limbo until the court decides whether he can take up office. If the court rules in his favor, he has promised to relinquish his command of the army.

Opponents argue that Musharraf should have been disqualified from running under a constitutional bar on public servants -- including army officers -- seeking elected office.

Bhutto and Musharraf are eyeing a possible alliance if her party fares well in the parliamentary election, which will be held in January.

Although longtime rivals, Bhutto and Musharraf both are pro-American and have called for moderate forces to reverse a resurgence of Taliban and al Qaeda militants along the Afghan border.

Violence linked to growing Islamic militancy in Pakistan has killed more than 1,000 people in a little over three months, fanning opposition to the country's close alliance with the United States.

On Thursday, a prominent tribal elder accused Pakistan's army of killing dozens of civilians this week in fierce fighting near the Afghan border.

At least 50 people were killed Tuesday when jets and helicopter gunships targeted suspected militant positions in Epi village in North Waziristan, pushing the death toll in fighting since the weekend to 250. Witnesses said the village bazaar was bombed.

"We know that the army killed 55 innocent people, and they included women and children," Maulana Nek Zaman, a local lawmaker for the hardline party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, told the AP. "We know it because we buried them."

Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, an army spokesman, said there were reports of civilian casualties, but did not say how many. He blamed militants for opening fire on security forces from villagers' dwellings. He said the estimated 200 dead militants included about 50 foreigners, including 25 Uzbeks, some Arabs, Afghans and Tajik fighters.

Adding to the current political uncertainty, the party of another exiled former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, threatened Thursday to boycott the parliamentary vote, claiming the current election commissioner was biased toward the government.

"These elections under Gen. Pervez Musharraf cannot be free and fair," Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of Sharif's Pakistan's Muslim League-N party, said.

Opposition parties largely boycotted Saturday's presidential vote. They claimed that the election commission had altered election rules in favor of Musharraf. They also protested him seeking a new term from outgoing assemblies rather than a new parliament. E-mail to a friend

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