ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is urging exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to delay her return until the country's Supreme Court rules conclusively on a law granting her amnesty, an official said Saturday.
Bhutto - a main political rival of U.S.-allied President Gen. Pervez Musharraf - is set to arrive in Pakistan on Oct. 18, ending an eight-year exile to campaign for upcoming parliamentary elections.
Musharraf last week signed an ordinance quashing graft cases against the two-time prime minister and dozens of other politicians and bureaucrats. But, the Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear petitions against the ordinance.
The court didn't suspend the ordinance, but it added to Pakistan's political uncertainty by saying the law was reversible.
On Saturday, Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim said it was in Bhutto's political interest if she waited for the court's ruling. The Supreme Court has said it will hear the case next month.
"President Musharraf also wants her to (wait), and I think she should consider it," Azim said.
He said it would create a "conducive environment" if Bhutto accepted Musharraf's proposal. "At this point, the cases against her stand withdrawn, but if the court rules against the ordinance, she will have to face the cases."
Azim's comments came a day after Musharraf, in an interview with the BBC, said that Bhutto should delay her return, although he added that he would not prevent her from coming back if she decided to do so.
"There is a lot happening here. There are court cases, and I think she should come after that," he told the BBC.
Musharraf, who has held talks with Bhutto on the possibility of sharing power after the parliamentary elections due in January, said he was yet to receive any reply from Bhutto.
Bhutto fled Pakistan in 1999 to avoid arrest in corruption cases registered against her by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Musharraf seized power in the 1999 coup by ousting Sharif's government.
But Musharraf is now facing the worst political crisis since March when he made a botched attempt to fire the chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, sparking street protests before the court ordered Chaudhry's reinstatement.
Musharraf swept a presidential election on Oct. 6, but faces at least a week or so of political limbo until the Supreme Court rules on whether the military leader was eligible to contest the election.
If the court rules in his favor, he has promised to relinquish command of the army.
Most political analysts expect the court would rule in Musharraf's favor when it resumes hearings in the case Oct. 17.
