“Benazir Bhutto will return as scheduled on October 18. Her plane will land at Karachi at 1:00 pm on that day. There is no change in her programme,” Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

Musharraf, in a TV interview aired on Wednesday, asked Bhutto to put off her return till the Supreme Court rules on petitions challenging his candidature in the October six Presidential poll, which the General won.
The apex court will begin hearing the matter on October 17, a day before Bhutto arrives in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi.

“Benazir should not come back to Pakistan on October 18 and she should delay her return till the Supreme Court decision regarding the presidential election,” Musharraf, who last week promulgated an ordinance to provide amnesty to Bhutto in corruption cases that made her leave Pakistan in 1999, said in the interview
The signing of the ordinance by Musharraf paved the way for Bhutto’s return to lead the PPP in the general elections scheduled for January next year.

Babar also dismissed reports that senior PPP leaders would meet in Dubai to discuss Musharraf’s suggestion, saying they were in the Gulf city for “routine” parleys about the tasks that lay ahead.