Benazir Bhutto returns home to grand welcome: IBNLive.com > Videos
SAFE PASSAGE: Pakistan's Information Minister says there would be no problem for Bhutto on her return.
WINDS OF CHANGE IN PAK
Benazir Bhutto returns home to grand welcome
ibnlive.com
Published on Thursday , October 18, 2007 at 14:30
Karachi: Pakistan People's Party leader and former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto returned home from her eight-year exile on Thursday.
Bhutto broke down after landing at the Karachi Airport as thousands of her supporters waited outside to greet her.
"I believe in miracles and my returning home is a miracle," an emotional Bhutto said in her first comments after emerging from the plane.
Her London-based younger sister Sanam, two nephews, several close friends and a large media contingent accompanied her from Dubai in the flight.
Also accompanying her were Pakistan People's Party vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Nahid Khan, Rehman Malik, Sanam Bhutto and Laila, other leaders and party workers.
She said she was carrying "a message of change and hope for a better future for democracy" in the country.
The Karachi city turned into a sea of humanity as over 1.5 million people proceeded to the airport to receive their leader.
The flag-waving supporters chanted 'Benazir welcome' as they gathered outside the airport. On the streets of Karachi, thousands of PPP workers, who converged on the city in caravans coming from the country's four provinces, danced to frenzied drum beats and chanted slogans, waving the party's flag.
Banners and posters featuring pictures of Bhutto and her father, late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, hung from almost every lamppost and power pylon.
Some 35,000 security officials, including police and paramilitary rangers were deployed on the roads from the airport to Ms Bhutto's official 70-Clifton residence.
Helicopters hovered outside the Karachi International Airport as a tight security blanket was thrown across the city.
In the face of threats of suicide bombings by pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, authorities in Karachi have thrown a massive security blanket over the airport and the route to be taken by Bhutto to Mazar-e-Quaid, the mausoleum of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Restrictions have been imposed in over 20 entry points to and from Karachi as the commercial flight carrying Bhutto, 54, from Dubai landed at about 1345 hours local time (1415 hours, IST) at the Karachi International Airport.
PPP sources said Bhutto plans lead a procession on a bulletproof truck, which will go via the Jinnah mausoleum to the Bilawal House.
There was, however, speculation on how the Musharraf administration is going to receive her. Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf had earlier advised Bhutto to delay her return.
While some suspected Bhutto's arrest on arrival, political experts talked of a deal between Gen Musharraf and Bhutto, paving the way for her return.
The Pakistan Government has remained non-committal on whether Bhutto would be arrested on arrival or not.
Pakistan Minister of State for Information, Tariq Azim, however said he doesn't see any problem for her. "We do not see any trouble with Benazir's return. We have made adequate security arrangements for Benazir," he said.
"We do not see any trouble with Benazir's return. We have made adequate security arrangements for Benazir," state minister Shiekh Rashid told CNN- IBN.
The Nawaz Sharif camp, too, welcomed Bhutto's return.
Earlier Bhutto left Dubai for Karachi in the morning, flanked by her daughters. She described her return to Pakistan is a watershed moment. “I think my return to Pakistan will be the return to democracy in the country,” she said.
Benazir, who is traveling alone, said she expected to be greeted by a sea of people in Karachi, much like the way she was received when she had landed there nearly 20 years ago. The only difference perhaps was that in 1988 she returned to take on Zia ul Haq, the man who toppled her father.
With the general elections in Pakistan scheduled to take place in the first half of January next year, Bhutto hopes to campaign for her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in the poll.
Bhutto, a mother of three, fled Pakistan in 1998 fearing arrest in graft cases and has been shuttling between London and Dubai for the past eight years.
Earlier this month, Gen Musharraf promulgated an ordinance granting amnesty to Bhutto in the corruption cases and paving the way for her return ahead of the general elections, but its legality has been challenged in the Supreme Court.