KARACHI: Benazir Bhutto has expressed doubts the military would band back power to her Pakistan People’s party (PPP) which, she insisted, had/been removed by the army.
Addressing a press conference here two days after ouster as prime minister, Bhutto said Wednesday morning that the military would “force” president Ghulam Ishaq Khan to cancel the October 24 elections if its intelligence came to the conclusion that PPP would emerge the majority party.
In Islamabad, caretaker premier Jatoi announced that Bhutto would face a judicial probe over the “worst corruption in the nation’s history that she had presided upon.”
Disqualification from elections ‘was a possible punishment for those found guilty, Jatoi told a Press conference,
The Jatoi government is widely flipped to try to exclude Benazir and her allies from elections.
Affirming that the Jatoi caretaker government installed by the military intelligence would not work Bhutto told the Karachi press’ that there would be a proper military intervention within weeks followed by a “serious confrontation” if the assemblies are not restored forthwith.
Bhutto was of the view that elections would be held only if the army is convinced, through internal and external pressure, that democracy has come to stay in Pakistan.
In Islamabad, Jatoi confirmed an international travel ban on certain unnamed individuals.
PTI correspondent V Mohan Narayan says Bhutto and her family members are among forty and more political leaders and prominent businessmen who would be stopped by emigration authorities from going abroad under instructions from the caretaker government.
There is speculation in the Pakistani capital they would be arrested to face the judicial probe on alleged corruption during the PPP regime.
Beside Benazir, husband ASIF Ali Zardari and father-in-law Hakim Ali Zardari (reportedly abroad), some former Sindh ministers, a few Benazir aides and businessmen with close links to the erstwhile government figure prominently in the list.
According to informed sources in Islamabad, the caretaker government is considering a proposal to establish special courts.
The Jatoi administration has meanwhile terminated contracts of over 30 advisers, special secretaries and officers on special duty appointed by Bhutto.
Significant changes have been made at the top of the federal intelligence agencies, and the army has taken charge of the federal investigation agency at Islamabad and its branches all over the country.
Meanwhile, the: U N sub commission on human rights in Geneva has voiced serious concern over the “unconstitutional and illegal” dismissal of the elected government in Pakistan.
A government spokesman in Moscow expressed the hopes of the Soviet Union that the dismissal of Bhutto would not affect democratization in Pakistan.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 17, 1990
