Thousands await Bhutto's return from exile

Thousands supporting former prime minister Benazir Bhutto gathered in Pakistan’s biggest city today to welcome her home from eight years of exile to centre stage of the country’s volatile politics.

Authorities were mounting a massive security operation to protect Bhutto, a two-time premier, from possible attack by Islamic militants on her planned arrival in Karachi.

By early morning, supporters were pouring from hundreds of buses festooned with the red, green and black flags of her Pakistan People’s Party along the highway from the airport into the city.

Most had come from the surrounding province of Sindh, the heartland of the Bhutto’s political dynasty, but some had also travelled from further north.

On the asphalt, crowds of men performed traditional dance routines to music blaring from loudspeakers.

“I’ve come to welcome back Benazir. She’s a blessing for the poor people of Pakistan,” said Habibullah, a 47-year-old fishmonger who had travelled 190 miles overnight from the city of Sanghar.

Asked about warnings that suicide bombers could target Bhutto, Habibullah said: “Our sister is coming and we’re not afraid of anything.”

Bhutto has paved her route back in negotiations with President Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup. He is promising to give up his command of Pakistan’s powerful army if he secures a new term as president.

The months-long talks yielded an amnesty covering the corruption cases that made Bhutto leave Pakistan in the first place, and could see the arch-rivals eventually team up in a US-friendly alliance to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Bhutto, 54, is vowing to bring democracy and fight religious extremism. But there is public scepticism she can turn the bold rhetoric into reality.

“My return heralds for the people of Pakistan the turn of the wheel from dictatorship to democracy, from exploitation to empowerment, from violence to peace,” she said yesterday at a news conference in Dubai.

She left her villa in a wealthy neighbourhood of Dubai today with her husband and two daughters, bound for the airport.

She is due to touch down in Karachi around 1pm local time (9am Irish time).

Some 2,500 paramilitary troops had been deployed around the airport and 10,000 more were on standby, said Capt Fazal Mahmood, spokesman for the Sindh Rangers. Officials say another 3,500 police, including seven bomb-clearing squads, and 5,000 party volunteers were guarding the route.

Bhutto, whose two elected governments between 1988 and 1996 were toppled amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement, is vying for a third term if her party can win parliamentary elections in January.

She described the current situation in Pakistan, with rising militancy and enduring poverty, as “very grave”.

“The internal situation is very dangerous and there is tension and danger on our frontiers,” she said at the news conference.

The PPP is hoping for a grand welcome that promises to paralyse Karachi, the already chaotic city of 15 million people.

The party is predicting more than a million supporters from across Pakistan will greet her. Other observers forecast more than 100,000 – still a far greater turnout than rival politicians in Pakistan could hope to muster.

The risk of political clashes in a city famed for them has been eased by the apparent willingness of the Mutahida Qaumi Movement, a pro-Musharraf party that dominates Karachi, to accord her a peaceful welcome.

But authorities are warning of the threat of suicide attacks and roadside bombings by Islamic militants.

The provincial government had appealed to Bhutto to abandon plans for a slow 10-mile procession to the tomb of Pakistan’s founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, where she planned to make an address.

But Bhutto, who shares Musharraf’s support of the US-led war on terrorism, was undeterred.

“I am not afraid of any threat. My father sacrificed his life for the people and country,” she said, referring to former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who was executed by Pakistan’s last military ruler in 1979.

“I do not believe that any true Muslim will make an attack on me because Islam forbids attacks on women and Muslims know that if they attack a woman they will burn in hell.”