ISLAMABAD, 28 January 2006 — Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said on Thursday night that the “issuance of red notices by the Interpol is a diversionary tactic. Authorities in Pakistan asked Interpol to issue ‘red notices’ to divert people’s attention from the situation in Bajour Agency.”

During a telephonic interview with Arab News from Washington, DC, she said, “There is no case against me pending in any court in Pakistan. If the authorities have created a new case I am not afraid of going back to Pakistan and facing the courts and cases.”

Interpol had issued the international notices following a request by the Pakistan government for the arrest of Benazir and her husband on corruption charges, according to officials in Islamabad.

The police body said the so-called “red notices” were not arrest warrants and that member countries could decide whether to take any action.

“As far as the red notices are concerned, I learned it from the press, and my lawyers have written to the (Pakistan) Ministry of Interior as well as to Interpol, asking them to confirm whether the news is accurate and if so, on what grounds,” Benazir told a news conference in Washington.

“As far as I am concerned, if any court wants me in Pakistan, I am prepared to catch the next plane to Pakistan,” said Benazir, 53, who led the country twice in the 1980s and 1990s as its first female premier.

Benazir, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Dubai and London for the past seven years, said the allegations were politically motivated and intended to divert the attention of the Pakistan media from current government problems.

The US Justice Department refused to comment specifically on Benazir’s case but said it generally considered Interpol requests on a case-by-case basis.

“I wouldn’t comment on the specifics of Ms. Benazir’s case but generally, the government handles requests from other governments on a case-by-case basis and we make our decisions based on the unique circumstance on any case,” department spokesman Bryan Sierra told AFP.

“We don’t necessarily automatically have to act on them,” he said.

Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the country’s corruption watchdog had asked his ministry to send the request to Interpol.

“It is not an issue of my evading presence in a court but no court in Pakistan to my knowledge has asked for me to be present and I believe that the Interpol has not been given the correct facts by the military regime in Pakistan,” Benazir said.

Her second term in office ended in 1996 amid a string of corruption claims and six court cases are still pending against her. Last year she pledged to return to Pakistan to face the charges.

In 2004 Swiss authorities also charged Benazir with alleged money-laundering of $11.7 million in purported bribes paid by companies seeking customs inspection contracts.

“Yes, my husband and I have faced these scurrilous, baseless and malicious and politically motivated charges for the last nine years and by the grace of God, there is not a single conviction against either my husband or myself for fraud or for corruption,” she said.

Benazir said the charges leveled against her were part of a campaign to divert the attention of the Pakistani media from local problems, especially recent US missile strikes targeted at terrorists in a remote tribal area bordering Afghanistan but which left civilians dead.

“Lot of questions are being asked (by the public),” she said. “To divert the attention of domestic press over the strikes, they (called for) the red notices.” “(Musharraf’s) regime does not like me to speak about democracy and it does not like me to expose their policies about ambiguity,” she said.

— With input from agencies