Osama’s arrest will eliminate need for Musharraf: Benazir Bhutto

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Osama’s arrest will eliminate need for Musharraf: Benazir Bhutto

May 10, 2006
Daily Times - Thursday, May 11, 2006
Osama’s arrest will eliminate need for Musharraf: Benazir

DUBAI: The arrest of Al Qeada Leader Osama Bin Laden will eliminate the justification for President General Pervez Musharraf remaining in power, said Pakistan People’s Party Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto in an exclusive interview with a private television channel on Wednesday.

“Musharraf will be unable to justify his rule if he catches Osama. Musharraf will not give up his leadership and will not commit political suicide by arresting the Al Qaeda leader,” said Benazir. Musharraf said he would invite the PPP to form a government if it won the general election, and when the party won the 2002 general elections, he did not allow the party to form the government, she said.

She alleged that the president had suspended the parliament session - until he caused splits within the party. “Musharraf succeeded in forming a government where one man enjoys absolute powers,” she said. The president later reached an agreement with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and pledged to doff his uniform - he did not fulfil his promise, she added.

“Following the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, some Arab militant leaders and Pakistani generals planned to go to war against the US. However, I vetoed this plan. Thereafter, Osama started his endeavours to pull down my government,” said Benazir, adding that Ramzi Yusuf tried to assassinate her. A Saudi ruler told me in 1989 that he had not provided money to destabilise my government, she added. “An advisor to the Saudi king told one of my ministers that Osama Bin Laden provided $10 million to instigate the collapse of my government.”

She said that terrorist activities had started following the dissolution of her government in 1990. “Ramzi Yusuf tried to blow up World Trade Towers,” she said adding that the US asked her government for cooperation. “I offered to set up Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Pakistan in 1993 so that effective action could be launched to eliminate terrorism,” she said. “As a result, Ramzi Yousuf was arrested.”

The PPP chairwoman claimed that Osama set up camps again and stared recruiting people after her government was dissolved. She said democracy was a “better and new way of governance” for the Muslim world. She added that dictatorship prevailed in Pakistan and no check and balance system were in place here. Online