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SCU Mir Murtaza Bhutto speaking to reporter (5 shots)
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JENNINGS: "Do you seriously, in your own heart, believe that your father's death sentence is definitely going to be carried out?"



BHUTTO: "I sincerely believe that the military is very, extremely determined to implement, to carry out the death sentence. If it is not that serious, it would not have gone through this tortuous process. I mean, it does not make sense that you dislodge the entire country, arrest thousands of people, you impose a state of siege on the nation. People do not play with fire. You do not catch, you do not catch, you do not make explosive cases for yourself. What is the point of them arresting my father in a humiliating manner, subjecting him to fabricated charges, bringing dubious witnesses to testify against him, antagonising world opinion. If....(indistinct) comes tomorrow, finish the case and say 'I am sorry. It is just a joke!"



JENNINGS: "If your father is executed, what would be the political consequences for Pakistan?"



BHUTTO: "If my father is executed, I honestly do not believe we can talk of Pakistan as it is today. We cannot talk of a viable, of a viable country; of a coherent and united country. Pakistan cannot stay united; Pakistan will disintegrate. This I sincerely believe. That we will head headlong for civil war if my father is executed."



JENNINGS: "How about the political stability of the region surrounding Pakistan? What would be the effect of your father's execution?"



BHUTTO: "It cannot, my father's execution cannot, serve the interest of anyone in that region. It cannot, definitely cannot, serve the interest of Iran. No country wants instability on its borders. No country want instability to spill over from a different country into its own confines."




Initials BB/1600


REPORTER: NICHOLAS JENNINGS

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The son of the ousted Prime Minister of Pakistan has predicted a civil war if his father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, is executed. Mir Murtaza Bhutto said his father's supporters had no faith in Pakistan's Supreme court, which is now hearing Mr. Bhutto's appeal against a death sentence, because he claimed, it was subservient to the military rulers. He said the court was taking an insulting and humiliating attitude towards Mr. Bhutto's case, and the Chief Justice had been acting as a spokesman for the government. Mir Murtaza Bhutto, who is a student at Oxford University, was speaking to newsmen in London on Wednesday (5 July) -- the first anniversary of the military coup which toppled his father. He said he would be locked up if he returned to Pakistan, and felt he could do more to help Mr. Bhutto outside the country. In an interview with Visnews reporter Nicholas Jennings he spoke of the military's determination to get rid of his father.