August 21, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 11,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 20: President Pervez Musharraf said on Tuesday that Benazir Bhutto would be arrested immediately if she flew back to Pakistan to contest the Oct 10 elections.

“She goes to jail” as a convicted absconder, the president told AFP late Monday when asked about Ms Bhutto’s much-vaunted plan to head home after four years in self-imposed exile to contest polls.

The PPP chairperson has been convicted twice this year of absconding as she failed to return from abroad for two separate graft trials.

The convictions disqualify her from the elections under a new electoral law ushered in by the government which bars absconders from running for office or leading political parties.

The president said if Ms Bhutto went ahead with her plans he would not prevent her plane landing at Pakistani airports, nor prevent her entering the country through airport immigration.

“She goes through in a normal manner and we arrest her and we take her straight to the jail,” he said in an interview at his official residence.

“Against Benazir there are dozens of cases. She better face them.”

The general accused both Ms Bhutto and PML leader Nawaz Sharif of ruining the country through corruption.

SHAHBAZ SHARIF: Shahbaz Sharif, who has been in exile with Nawaz Sharif for 20 months, would also be stymied in his homecoming bid, the president said.

“He’ll board the next plane and go back to Saudi Arabia,” if he tries to fly into Pakistan. “He can’t come back.”

Gen Musharraf said the Sharifs had signed a “confidential” document agreeing to stay away from Pakistan for 10 years.

The Sharifs deny any such pact exists.

“They went because of certain assurances from the Saudi government, on their own sweet will,” the president said.

“They felt very happy leaving this country and going. You should see the photos when they left and when they arrived there, how happy they are, so in this agreement, I know that he won’t come.”

Gen Musharraf said Pakistan needed new faces in its political arena.—AFP