Bhutto returns to Pak today

Claims no deal reached with military regime.

Claiming that she has not struck any deal with Pakistan's military regime, former premier Benazir Bhutto today vowed to return home tomorrow after eight years of self-imposed exile, to bring democracy and human rights to the "repressed people" of her country.

The 54-year-old two-time former prime minister, who is set to fly to Karachi from here, said her homecoming was the outcome of protracted negotiations that began in 1999 to usher in democracy to Pakistan and end the army's role in politics.

Accusing other parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, of striking deals with the military regime, Bhutto told a news conference here: "As far as the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is concerned, we have not done any deal. We have held negotiations for the transition to democracy and certain initial positive developments have taken place in that regard in light of the announcement by (President Pervez) Musharraf before the Supreme Court that he would take off his uniform and also through the National Reconciliation Ordinance in which the role of the Opposition has been acknowledged."

The ordinance is a controversial law promulgated by Musharraf on the eve of the October 6 presidential poll to grant amnesty to Bhutto and other politicians in graft cases. However, Sharif is not covered under the ordinance.

Musharraf had told the Supreme Court he would doff his uniform by November 15 but had recently indicated he would take a final decision on this issue after the court rules on petitions against his candidature in the presidential poll.

Bhutto made it clear that the PPP was unwilling to do business with Musharraf as long as he retained uniform. "The PPP can't work with leaders in uniform because we want a democratic nation," she said.

"The PPP was formed on certain principles and since 1967 we have opposed the army leadership and civilian leaders that were proxies of the military. A key issue for the people was that we did not want a President in uniform and General Musharraf should take off his uniform," Bhutto said.

She admitted that the Pakistan government had been asking her to delay her homecoming in view of challenges mounted in the Supreme Court against the ordinance and Musharraf's re-election without quitting the post of Army Chief, but said she would return tomorrow as scheduled as she had "given her word to the people of Pakistan".