Homeward Bound

TIME: What is your reaction to last week's decision by the Pakistani Supreme Court to set aside your conviction?

BHUTTO: I am absolutely thrilled with the decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. I've had a very difficult four-and-a-half years fighting for justice. It's difficult in a country like Pakistan, which has had so many military dictatorships. But I was very lucky, because there was an intelligence officer, and he released tapes of conversations between the judges and the ministers, wherein the judgement against me had been dictated. So that created a public furore.

TIME: Do you view this ruling as an exoneration?

BHUTTO: Yes, because I've been acquitted. It's acquittal, but they've also ordered a retrial, and obviously it means a battle has been won but the war is still on. On merit I should have been acquitted if our country unfortunately did not have a checkered judicial history. But the judges have done justice to me in refusing to uphold my conviction. They've given breathing time for me to fight another battle, so that's good. Now I am free of any stain, I am free of any slur.

TIME: But there are charges still pending against you.

BHUTTO: Well, what is a charge? Anyone can make a charge. A charge is only important when there is an independent investigation. None of the charges against me are the result of independent investigations. Those who have seen these charges have said they're not a charge. One Pakistani judge said he had been through all this material, and it does not even amount to a charge in court, let alone a conviction, or presumption. Because there is no evidence, there are no witnesses. First of all you need a witness who says, 'Yes, I was as asked to do something.' Instead, the witnesses have fled the country. A key witness in the SGS case [the corruption case involving kickbacks to a Swiss firm for which she was convicted] — the finance secretary who negotiated it — is sitting in Canada because he was threatened that he would be imprisoned if he didn't commit perjury.

TIME: In the wake of this decision, the focus has been on the possibility of your return to Pakistan. Is that imminent?

BHUTTO: Very much so. I stayed in Pakistan for three years to clear my name, I found it was a hopeless exercise, the more I stayed, the more I was caught and paralyzed in a web of judicial deceit. Because I was caught in this web of deceit, my opponents had an open field day to propagate what they wished, where they wished, when they wished. Our counter-battle began in April '99, when I actually came out of the country, and it succeeded. But always I knew I would go back, because my people want my leadership. I lead the largest party in the country, and I'm part of the democratic movement. First we were thinking of going back in terms of an agitation, but now that the court has acquitted me, that means the court has thrown a spanner into the regime's schedule of holding elections by 2002 without me. Now when those elections are held, I am eligible to contest, even if they try me under fresh charges. So now my party leaders are coming here on the 17th of April and we will be taking a decision as to when I should return.

TIME: One of the charges still pending against you does not allow for bail. Are you prepared to face imprisonment if you return?

BHUTTO: There are no non-bailable charges. Every single one is a bailable charge. They have made a new law with a non-bailable charge. On Pakistan's own statute books, there isn't a charge that is not a bailable charge. This is a new law made with malicious intent by them. Their courts are kangaroo courts. They have set up special accountability courts which are kangaroo courts and I and my party have asked the U.N. rapporteur on Judges and the Judiciary to visit Pakistan to investigate how the military regime is giving kickbacks to judges to get them to convict opponents.

TIME: And if this is the system that is currently in place, is going to jail something you are prepared to risk?

BHUTTO: Yes, I would risk it. I think that, as we get near the election campaign, if I'm in prison and they plan to keep me in prison, it's going to make my party go to the people with a very strong point in their favor. So I think that my imprisonment can become an election issue. And I can contest the elections even from prison.