PAKISTAN:Pakistan's supreme court threw a spanner into Benazir Bhutto's plans for a smooth homecoming yesterday by declaring that the former prime minister could still face prosecution on long-standing corruption charges.
An amnesty signed into law by President Pervez Musharraf last week could yet be overturned at a hearing three weeks from now, said the chief justice, Muhammad Iftikhar Chaudhry. Any politician covered by the law, which spans 1986 to 1999, "would not be entitled to claim any protection" if it was later found to contravene the constitution, he said.
The ruling is also a setback for Gen Musharraf, who introduced the amnesty to underpin a possible alliance with Ms Bhutto after general elections due by mid-January. Gen Musharraf is already waiting for the supreme court to approve his re-election as president - he was returned with 98 per cent of the votes on October 6th - at a hearing due to resume on Wednesday.
Ms Bhutto plans to fly to Karachi on Thursday, ending eight years of self-imposed exile. "Obviously it's a mousetrap situation for her," said a senior lawyer, who declined to be named. "She steps back into the country but one month later faces the possibility of prosecution."
Ms Bhutto faces corruption accusations in Spain, Switzerland, Pakistan and the UK. Most are related to alleged kickbacks from her second term of office as prime minister between 1993 and 1996. Ms Bhutto says the charges are politically motivated.
The Pakistan government is being quietly assisted by the US and UK, which believe a powersharing deal serves their strategic interests.
But experts say the amnesty is poor law and has a good chance of being struck down. "It flies in the face of several hundred judgments of the Pakistani courts," said the senior lawyer. A senior figure in Ms Bhutto's People's Party who was in court said he "had the impression the judges were not comfortable" with the ordinance. "Everything is a mess."