By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Supporters of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) are depressed by the announcement that the party’s chairperson and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has no immediate plans of visiting any place other than her hometown for security reasons.
“This is sad that she isn’t coming here, we had made lots of plans for her reception,” Afzal Sarosh, a college student in Islamabad, told IANS. He said that he and his friends were looking forward to seeing Bhutto for the first time.
“I’ve read a lot about her, seen her on television but I want to see her in person…But it is possible only if she visits Islamabad,” the teenager said. He was just nine years old when Bhutto left the country in April 1999.
Her homecoming celebrations on Oct 18 ended on a tragic note when 140 people were killed and hundreds injured in two suicide blasts near her iron-plated truck.
Bhutto, who was whisked away to her house in Karachi minutes after the blasts, is almost confined there and has only stepped out to visit a local hospital where she consoled the injured. However, PPP spokeswoman Sherry Rehman Thursday said Bhutto would be visiting her hometown Larkana Saturday but has no immediate plans of visiting Islamabad or other parts of the country.
“In such a situation, she needs to be extra careful,” PPP leader Raja Pervez Ashraf told IANS. Bhutto has received assassination threats from unknown groups and the government has provided her security.
Bhutto has said she suspects that some members of the government masterminded the Oct 18 blasts but believes that President Pervez Musharraf was not involved.
She has expressed lack of confidence in investigations into the blasts and has demanded probe a by British and US investigators as she says Pakistan lacks modern facilities.
Bhutto is also in power-sharing talks with President Musharraf, and many believe that these talks would end with her being installed as prime minister and Musharraf continuing in the president’s office.
However, Musharraf Thursday told the MPs of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) that he will not ditch them despite international pressure to work with Bhutto.
Media reports said that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has asked Musharraf to work more closely with moderate forces, including Bhutto who came back to the country after she was given amnesty from various corruption charges under an order issued by the military dictator.
There are many in this part of the country who are waiting for Bhutto’s visit and are preparing to receive her in a big way, but security issues may not allow her to lead a procession like she did in Karachi.
In 2002, Musharraf reduced the age at which Pakistanis can cast their vote to 18 from 20 and most of the young people have become blind followers of charismatic Bhutto.
“She’s the most daring lady in the world and I would definitely vote for her,” said 19-year-old Kamran Ali.