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Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto declared she would return and contest the presidential polls against Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, if she wasn't allowed to seek re-election as prime minister in the October election.
She said this in an interview to a Pakistani daily The News published on Tuesday.
She had constituted a new subsidiary party on Monday -- the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians -- to escape disqualification under new rules.
She said her party did not want to waste its time with the legal maze of the Election Commission, which was 'trying to dislodge her party from the election process altogether'.
Bhutto brushed aside all doubts on her 'backing out' from Pakistan following the change in the legal title of her party, and said she was determined to come back and lead the new subsidiary party in the October election.
"Let me confirm that I will come and lead the people in this hour of test and will not let them (supporters) down," she said.
Her threat implied that she could contest against Musharraf himself in the presidential poll, as he contemplated getting elected as president by the parliament and provincial assemblies, after the general elections.
His recent victory in the April referendum has limited legal standing once the military rule ends and the constitution was restored, the paper observed.
Bhutto accused certain elements in the Musharraf administration, for patronising Al Qaeda militants, in order to create an uncertain political situation, by pushing the mainstream liberal forces to the wall.
"This was being done to help the extremists to manoeuvre their way out of the present crisis," she said to the paper.
EARLIER REPORTS: Pak not to allow Shahbaz Sharief to return Benazir keeps Musharraf guessing Benazir plans to stage a dramatic return
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