KARACHI Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto said Monday she is confident of winning general elections in Pakistan if they are free and fair.

She said a major obstacle to her return after two years in exile was removed this month when the Supreme Court upheld her appeal against a 1999 corruption conviction and accused the trial judge of fixing the verdict.

"The people of the country support me and if fair elections are held, I am confident of being elected," she said in an e-mail interview from London, AFP reported.

The Supreme Court verdict vindicates my claim of being a victim of a state conspiracy to politically eliminate me.

"By setting aside the wrongful conviction, the Supreme Court removed a major hurdle from my path to political comeback."

The court ordered a retrial after setting aside the convictions of Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari and unanimously declaring the verdict politically motivated.

Bhutto was accused of taking kickbacks from a Swiss firm during her 1993-96 rule, but the appeal bench found that "bias is floating on the surface of the record" and accused trial judge Malik Mohammad Qayyum of accepting favors from then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif to produce the guilty verdict.