Pakistan to grant amnesty to Bhutto ahead of vote

PAKISTAN: Pakistan agreed to grant former prime minister Benazir Bhutto an amnesty on corruption charges Tuesday as President Pervez Musharraf named a new army chief just days before he seeks re-election.

The day of dramatic developments came as military strongman Musharraf, a key US ally who seized power in 1999, faced growing opposition to his plan to win another five-year term in Saturday’s presidential vote.

The move to drop a raft of graft charges against Bhutto, who has vowed to return to Pakistan on October 18, satisfied one of her key demands for a power-sharing deal with the embattled Musharraf.

“The government has agreed to grant an indemnity on cases against Benazir Bhutto,” Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, a close confidant of Musharraf, told AFP.

“The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.” The political turmoil surrounding the election intensified Tuesday as 85 opposition MPs resigned in protest at Musharraf’s candidacy.

Musharraf has promised to step down by November 15 if he wins the presidential ballot in the national and federal parliaments, where his allies hold a large majority.

Lawmakers from the anti-Musharraf All Parties Democracy Movement handed their resignations to the parliamentary speaker on Tuesday in a mass bid to wreck the credibility of the election. Two female lawmakers from the ruling party also quit, state media said.

The Supreme Court earlier said that it would hear on Wednesday legal appeals lodged by the two candidates standing against Musharraf in the presidential election.

Former Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmad, who quit rather than swear allegiance to Musharraf after his 1999 coup, and Bhutto party vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim both both called for the vote to be halted.

Musharraf won a major victory in the Supreme Court on Friday when it threw out opposition challenges and ruled that he was eligible to stand in the vote.

ISLAMABAD, Wednesday, AFP