By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Karachi : Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who returned to her homeland after eight years of self-imposed exile Thursday, vowed to rid Pakistan of the military dictatorship and serve the people who are “facing several threats”.
“I will work for the betterment of the nation,” Bhutto said while talking to media persons soon after she landed here.
Reportedly wearing a bulletproof jacket inside her green salwar kameez with a gown of the same colour and a white chador, the lifelong chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) thanked the people for coming to Karachi airport to welcome her.
“I’m grateful to the people – my brothers and sisters – who have come to welcome me in a big numbers,” said Bhutto, 54.
“Today my country is facing several threats including insecurity, unemployment, terrorism and hunger. I have come back to give people food, clothing and shelter,” she said while shouting a slogan “Roti, Kapra aur Makan” – the same which his father and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had raised during his election campaign in early 1970s.
Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan after a deal with the military regime led by President Pervez Musharraf, vowed to take the country back on the democracy track.
“I’ll get the country rid of military dictatorship. I haven’t come to rule the country but to serve my people, to serve them with all my abilities,” she said.
She said that during her stay in exile she studied Islamic literature. “Now I feel that I am more close to the religion,” said Bhutto, who faces threats from the extremist forces in Pakistan.