Benazir will risk jail to halt nation's slide into anarchy

Karachi/London: President Pervez Musharraf faced a direct challenge to his authority last night after Benazir Bhutto, the country's exiled former prime minister, vowed to return home to campaign against him.

Speaking just hours after General Musharraf insisted she would not be allowed to come back for November's elections, Bhutto told The Sunday Telegraph: "No matter what, I'm going back this year.

"I'll risk jail to stop Pakistan's slide into anarchy," she said.

Should she return, Bhutto faces arrest and possible imprisonment on corruption charges that forced her to flee Pakistan nine years ago.

Warns president

Bhutto, 53, will gamble that any moves by Musharraf to throw her in jail would backfire and hand a propaganda coup to her supporters.

She warned that General Musharraf was running a "dictatorship" that could now end either peacefully or in all-out bloodshed.

"It is unlikely that the international community or the armed forces will continue to back the present regime if domestic protests continue to escalate," she said.

"The only option for General Musharraf and his regime is to seek a political solution through a negotiated transfer of power."

She said: "It' s best for the regime to call a round-table conference of all political leaders, including the exiled prime ministers, to evolve a consensus for transparent elections."