After eight years in exile the ex premier returns to her homeland. 200 thousand supporters greet her, but also 20 thousand police and soldiers: Bhutto is being threatened by Islamic extremists. The first stop this evening, the mausoleum dedicated to the Nation’s founding father Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

Karachi (AsiaNews) – A clear demonstration that miracles do happen. And this according to the first words pronounced by ex prime minister Benazir Bhutto on her arrival at Karachi airport, is the meaning if her return home this morning after 8 years of self impose exile.  Immediately after a visit to her native city, the former premier will travel to the mausoleum dedicated to the nation’s founding father Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

 

The leader of the People’s Party is being accompanied by about 100 deputies from her bloc, who have announced that they “intend to share with her whatever her return to the country has in store”.  They are referring to the threats launched against Bhutto, but also to the possibility of her arrest by authorities.  In fact the charges of fraud and corruption which forced her exile just months before Musharraf’s military coup are still valid.

 

On her arrival, Bhutto was greeted by a crowd of about 20 thousand soldiers and police, deployed by the central government who fear the threat of Islamic extremists, and by over 200 thousand supporters.   Her popularity is explained by their identifying Bhutto as her father’s heir, Zulfiqar Bhutto, hung to death in 1979 two years from the death sentence passed down by General Zia ul Haq, who came to power in the military coup.  In Benazir, Pakistani’s see a staunch opposer of  Musharraf and the fundamentalist tendencies of the Muslim League.

 

This vision however is partly countered by reality: in order to return to the country, the leader of the Peoples Party signed an agreement with General Musharraf , an “Ordinance for National Reconciliation”, who sets out her party’s support of the current government in exchange for Bhutto’s election as premier in November’s parliamentary elections.  This agreement was criticised by both the President’s and Bhutto’s parties: People Party directors accused her of having forgotten the political instances presented to the general, such as the release of all democracy activists and his withdrawal from leading the army.

 

However it must be underlined that only by such an accord could Bhutto have returned to the country.  Without Musharaf’s promised amnesty, the democratic leader – admired both in the United States and in Britain – would never have been able to make a return to the nation’s political stage.

 

• PAKISTAN
• BENIZIR
• BHUTTO