NEW DELHI, April 20: President Gen Pervez Musharraf continues to strongly support Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz contrary to indications of their aloofness, Tourism Minister Nilofer Bakhtiar said here on Friday, citing recent closed door meetings of the cabinet with the president.

Ms Bakhtiar, on an official visit to India to promote regional tourism, also told Dawn that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto would have to face certain court cases that were still pending against her “if and when she chooses to return to Pakistan”.

“We’ve heard reports of her impending return since such a long time that some people have started treating the whole thing as a joke,” Ms Bakhtiar said. She was responding to a question whether she thought Ms Bhutto’s return would be good for Pakistan.

“It is only when she actually arrives that our party (the ruling PML) would take a position on how to approach her. But as far as the ‘deal’ with this government is concerned, I have only read of it in newspapers.”

Commenting on widespread speculation that Prime Minister Aziz was on a sticky wicket with the president after the fiasco involving the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Ms Bakhtiar said: “I can tell you from my personal knowledge of the cabinet’s closed doors meetings with President (Gen) Musharraf that he holds the prime minister in high regard and trusts him completely."

Ms Bakhtiar was also asked to comment on reports that Pakistan was ready to allow the Indian consulate-general in Karachi to start working even if Islamabad’s mission might take some more time to resume work in Mumbai. Ms Bakhtiar said that it would be a good idea because Pakistanis were being inconvenienced by unnecessary delay in operationalising the consulates.