Benazir Bhutto to return to Pakistan in '07

She said that she did not want the only election choices to be between President Musharraf and the militants.

Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto has said that she plans to return to Pakistan ahead of the next general election in 2007, even if it means risking arrest.

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Addressing a large gathering of the Pakistani community, the former prime minister criticised the Pakistani government for what she termed the 'genocide of innocent lives in Waziristan and Balochistan'.

Bhutto, who heads the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), said that a few corrupt generals had maligned the entire Pakistan Army, an institution she greatly respected.

Referring to several cases of corruption against her in Pakistan, under which she faces arrest on returning to the country, she said that she and her husband Asif Ali Zardari had served many jail sentences.

Going to jail was nothing new and neither of them was afraid of prison, she remarked.

Bhutto has been living in self-exile in London and Dubai since the mid-1990s.

She said that the red corner notices issued against her by Interpol on the request of Pakistan amounted to 'a conspiracy to malign her'. She would not succumb to such threats and abandon politics, Bhutto added.

Meanwhile, appearing on a TV programme, she said, "I believe that I must go back to help Pakistan's democratisation process before the next general election."

Saying that she did not want the only election choices to be between President Musharraf and Islamic militants, Bhutto said that she had to restore democracy in Pakistan.

"I welcome US President George W Bush's firm commitment to promoting freedom, and I believe Pakistan should not be an exception," she added.

Bhutto said that Musharraf was not doing enough in the search for terrorist outfit members due to lack of broad political support.