DUBAI, May 10: PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto has said that capturing Osama bin Laden is not in President General Pervez Musharraf’s interest because that will deprive him of the justification for his rule.

“If General Pervez Musharraf catches Osama, he will this way seize the justification of his rule. He will lose the justification of his rule. Musharraf will not give up his leadership. He cannot want to commit political suicide by arresting Osama,” Ms Bhutto said in a TV interview aired on Wednesday.

She alleged that Gen Musharraf did not keep his words. She said he had announced that the PPP would be invited to form government if it won the elections. “In my absence when PPP won the general election in 2002, General Musharraf did not allow the party to form the government,” she said.

The former prime minister alleged that Gen Musharraf kept the parliament session suspended till he caused cracks in the PPP, adding that he succeeded in forming a government where one man enjoyed absolute power.

“Later he reached an agreement with MMA and pledged to doff his uniform. But he did not fulfil his promise,” she said.

Ms Bhutto, who has been living in exile for several years, said that during the Tora Bora operation Gen Musharraf asked the US to leave the matter to him saying that Pakistan army would arrest Osama. However, she added, he did not do so.

Answering a question, she claimed that following the disintegration of the USSR some Arab militant leaders and Pakistani generals planned to start war against the US. “However, I vetoed this plan. Thereafter, Osama started his endeavours to pull down my government. Ramzi Yusuf tried to assassinate me.”

She said the Saudi king had told her in 1989 that he had not provided money to destabilise her government. “The adviser to Saudi king told one of my ministers that Osama provided $10 million for toppling my government,” she said, adding that terrorist activities started following the dissolution of her government in 1990.

The PPP leader said that Ramzi Yusuf had tried to blow up the World Trade Towers and added that the US then sought cooperation of her government.

“I offered to US authorities to set up the FBI office in Pakistan in 1993 so that effective action could be launched to eliminate terrorism. As a result Ramzi Yousuf was arrested.”

She told the private TV channel that after the dissolution of her government in 1996, Osama re-established camps and stared recruiting people.

She said dictatorship prevailed in Pakistan and there was no system of check and balance in the country.

She said certain people were of the view that elections would be rigged. However, US President George Bush underlined the need for holding polls in a fair and transparent manner. “In November 2007, elections could be held,” she observed.—Online