Undeterred by the treatment meted out to Nawaz Sharif on his return to Pakistan, former premier Benazir Bhutto has vowed to stage her homecoming irrespective of the outcome of her talks with President Pervez Musharraf on a power-sharing deal.
The Pakistan Peoples Party chief, who is in self-imposed exile, kept her hopes alive on reaching an agreement with Musharraf despite breakdown in talks, saying the "window is not totally shut."
"We haven't still got to a point where there is an agreement. Certainly time is running out. But the window is not totally shut. So it is certainly open," she told Karan Thapar's Devil's Advocate programme on CNN-IBN.
Media reports quoting a minister considered close to Musharraf had last week said that talks on the power-sharing deal had broken down over Bhutto's demand that prime ministers must be allowed a third term.
Bhutto was also undeterred by the failure of Sharif, another political heavyweight in Pakistan, in his bid to return home.
"Whether there is an understanding or no understanding, I will return to Pakistan," she said.
"My party will announce the date on the September 14 from the soil of Pakistan," she said.
The schedule for the president's election is likely to be announced after September 14 and Musharraf is planning to get re-elected between September 15 and October 15 by the present assemblies.
Bhutto denied that she was under pressure from the US to strike a deal with Musharraf and insisted that her rapprochement efforts were not aimed at ensuring withdrawal of corruption cases against her.
"If I wanted the corruption charges dropped alone, there would be no problem. They will be too happy to do it, as they dropped corruption charges against Nawaz Sharif and remitted his sentences," the former prime minister said.
Asked why she was negotiating with a dictator despite having stood against military rule, the daughter of former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged by the General Zia-ul-Haq regime, said she was not supporting Musharraf but transition to democracy.
"I want to remind you that General Zia-ul-Haq had visited my father in Muree in 1977 to seek political settlement. My father met him, but did not agree to the dictatorship and I have not agreed to dictatorship.
My husband spent eight years in prison. I chose to face the consequences of opposing a military dictator," she said.
Bhutto also denied Sharif's allegations that she was providing a lifeline to Musharraf.
"We are not supporting him. We are supporting a transition to democracy. We are supporting the holding of fair elections," she said.
She trained guns at Sharif for "compromising his position by involving Saudi and Lebanese leaders to get out of prison."
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