ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: The Pakistan People’s Party says it is confident of winning the elections, but the question of its leader Benazir Bhutto’s return remains unanswered because there is still no change in the military government’s plan to arrest her.

“She may come before the elections...(or) it may be after the elections,” Makhdoom Amin Fahim, head of the party’s electoral formation People’s Party Parliamentarians, said on Monday.

He told reporters after unveiling the party’s election manifesto at a news conference that the decision about Ms Bhutto’s return would be taken by the party Central Executive Committee.

But he would not say whether the CEC would meet before or after the elections, from which Ms Bhutto has been barred by the controversial decrees of President Pervez Musharraf, who has also said the PPP leader would be arrested to face corruption charges as soon as she lands in Pakistan.

“When the time comes she will definitely come to Pakistan,” said Makhdoom Fahim, who leads the party in the absence of Ms Bhutto.

The PPP has been saying Ms Bhutto would end her exile before the elections to contest for a national assembly seat. But its hopes faded after her nomination papers for two general seats and one reserved women’s seat of the national assembly from Sindh province were rejected earlier this month on the ground of her convictions by special accountability courts for failing to appear before them to contest corruption charges she denies.

However, the PPP says it is confident to emerge the largest party in the elections for the national assembly and the provincial assemblies — in which it is confronted by split traditional rivals contesting from different platforms.

The Sindh High Court is yet to rule on Ms Bhutto’s appeal against the rejection of her nomination papers and a challenge — fixed for hearing on Wednesday — and the disqualification decrees, including one banning her and Nawaz Sharif from ever becoming prime minister again because they held the office twice each.

Mr Fahim on Monday also reaffirmed the party’s confidence in Ms Bhutto’s leadership despite her absence from the country and President Musharraf’s past vows not let her and Nawaz Sharif play a role in the country’s political future.

“We will follow her,” he said, blaming what he called “Bhutto-specific” laws for her absence from the country.

The PPP sources also blame a perceived danger to Bhutto’s life and what they see as a government pressure on judiciary for the party leader’s continued self-exile, and ruled out the possibility of Bhutto’s teen-aged son Bilawal and elder daughter Bakhtawar coming to Pakistan to appear at PPP rallies to fire up a dull campaign.

“Majority of hard-core PPP workers do not favour asking Benazir Bhutto to return for the time being because of a danger to her life,” a party spokesman, Nazir Dhoki, told Dawn .

“Extremists associated with the government can be a danger to her life,” he said.