Pakistan President's Woes Deepen

Supporters of Pakistan's ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif share sweets to celebrate the Supreme Court's decision in favor of the former leader, Friday, Aug. 24, 2007, in Multan, Pakistan. Immediately after Pakistan's highest court ruled he could return, former Sharif said he would go home soon to lead his party's campaign to oust the general who overthrew and exiled him eight years ago. (AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer) (Khalid Tanveer - AP)

Her party shares Musharraf's secular, socially liberal outlook and says it is negotiating a "facilitated return" to democracy with the unpopular general to avoid political chaos.

But with talks stalled, Bhutto said her party could still join Sharif and his supporters in a powerful anti-military alliance.

"We have left the doors of our alliance open" to Sharif's party, she said.

"The uniform blurs the distinction between democratic government and military rule," Bhutto added.

Like Sharif, she left open when exactly she would return.

Bhutto and Sharif as well as Pakistani commentators have been urging the United States, which has bankrolled Musharraf's Pakistan with billions of dollars, to live up to its democratic ideals and press for an immediate return to full civilian rule.

"If the polls are to have any credibility, it is essential that all political parties and their leaders should be allowed to participate," The Dawn newspaper said in an editorial Friday.

Musharraf insists elections will go ahead despite swirling speculation that he could impose a state of emergency and postpone the balloting for a year. Earlier this month, he backed away from a state of emergency after widespread criticism that it would be seen as a power grab motivated by political troubles.

Stoking concern that the army could slam on the brakes is a wave of violence in parts of the northwest, where U.S. officials worry al-Qaida is regrouping and perhaps planning a 9/11-style attack.

Musharraf sent thousands more troops into the remote region in July, sparking bloody clashes with Taliban guerrillas and their sympathizers.

"In the past one month, we lost about 60 soldiers in suicide and other attacks," Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a military spokesman, told the AP. Security forces killed about 250 militants in the same period.

On Saturday, officials said that a group of pro-Taliban militants kidnapped an army officer, two of his guards and a government official as they were standing near their base in northwestern Pakistan. The incident happened late Friday in Ladha, a town in troubled South Waziristan tribal region. No one claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

Insecurity and government controls have put the border region virtually out of bounds to reporters, and Arshad's claims could not be verified.

The fighting has been particularly intense in the North Waziristan tribal region, where militants pulled out of a September peace deal that U.S. critics said allowed extremists to take control.

On Friday, a suicide car bomb, a roadside blast and a rocket attack in North Waziristan killed six soldiers and wounded 19 others, security officials said.