Thursday, August 2, 2007

Benazir Bhutto interview on Sky TV

The Pakistani cabinet has endorsed government contacts with exiled Pakistan People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto. Benazir was prime minister 1988-1990. In recent years she and her husband were menaced with corruption trials, and military dictator Gen. Pervez had threatened to have her tried if she returned. The charges against her appear to have been dropped, and Musharraf may be angling to bring her back to contest the fall elections with the expectation that she will become prime minister. Musharraf's military regime has been shaken by serial crises (see Manan Ahmed's posts below) and he may feel the need for a PM with genuine grass roots.

Video interview via YouTube with Benazir Bhutto on her recent contacts with the Musharraf government:

3 comments:

tmufti said...

It's a pity that you fail to mention that the corruption cases against Ms. Bhutto were instituted by the civilian, elected government of her Nemesis, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, in 1998, one year before the military coup.

Anonymous said...

the Bhuttos are a very corrupt couple, there is not much to hope for from them. Its not just a shame but a tragedy that Pakistan has nothing better in the way of leadership. Musharraf is hoping this will help him, but I think its going to work to his detriment in the end. "BB" is just no good.

Anonymous said...

Was she really that bad? She's pretty smooth. I guess the cache of being exiled and persecuted by a military dictator is an easily swallowed hook for an uninformed Westerner. In my defense, her performance was only going to get me to The Google to see if there was actually something hopeful going on. I seem to remember her being criticized on the Left when she was in office.