The Hindu : International : Benazir to land in Karachi on October 18, says PPP

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Saturday, Sep 15, 2007
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Benazir to land in Karachi on October 18, says PPP

Nirupama Subramanian

She will have to face graft charges: Minister

— Photo: AP

Revved up: Supporters of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, celebrate the announcement of their leader’s return in Karachi on Friday.

ISLAMABAD: Supporters set off firecrackers, threw rose petals, cheered and sprayed party snow from cans as the Pakistan People’s Party announced that its leader Benazir Bhutto would end eight years of self-exile and return home on October 18.

With talks between Ms. Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf tripping, but neither side yet prepared to lock the door on negotiations with each other, it is not clear what reception from the government is in store for the PPP leader.

PPP vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim announced the date of Ms. Bhutto’s return at a press conference, and said she would land at Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, and go straight from the airport to the mausoleum of the country’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

“I want to give the good news to the millions and millions of Pakistanis who want to know the arrival date of Mohatarma Benazir Bhutto. The date is October 18,” he said.

Celebrations erupted immediately among the army of PPP workers present at the press conference held at the party headquarters. Party supporters broke into shouts of “Jiye Bhutto [long live Bhutto]”, and “Benazir, welcome; welcome, welcome” and lit up an overcast sky with fireworks.

There was immediate speculation that the date had been chosen keeping in mind that the presidential election is to be held between mid-September and mid-October, and that Ms. Bhutto had decided to keep out of the way during this period, to enable Gen. Musharraf’s re-election.

But Mr. Fahim denied this, and said the date was chosen so as not to inconvenience supporters during the month of Ramzan, which began on Friday.

He said there was no breakthrough in talks between Ms.Bhutto and the Musharraf regime, which she has described as “a dialogue for transition to democracy”, but declared that the PPP leader would come back despite this.

“Our talks are only with the people of Pakistan. Ms. Bhutto will return to lead the country to a genuine democracy,” he said. But he did not rule out further negotiations with the government — “in a democracy you never close the window of talks” — emphasising that the ball was in the government’s court to respond to the PPP’s demands.

The talks tripped on Ms. Bhutto’s demand for the removal of a bar on a third term for Prime Ministers, and for a constitutional amendment to take away the President’s powers to dissolve Parliament.

Ms. Bhutto also wants Gen. Musharraf not to contest a second term from the same Parliament, and she is not prepared to support his re-election in uniform. She also wanted corruption cases against her dropped.

The government indicated that while there were no restrictions on Ms. Bhutto coming back, she could face arrest in the cases against her.

Minister of state for Information Tariq Azeem said on Thursday Ms. Bhutto “was always allowed to come back” unlike the recently re-exiled Nawaz Sharif — he was packed off to Saudi Arabia a few hours after his return on September 10 — who had to honour an agreement that enabled him to cut short his jail sentence and leave the country in 2000. But with regard to the corruption cases against Ms. Bhutto, he said the law would take its own course. “Everybody has to face cases against them and the same applies to her,” he said. Mr. Fahim said “we are ready for any eventuality”, but pointed out that the cases were fabricated and that the government had not been able to come up with any evidence for any of the cases.

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