Pakistanis ponder a future with Bhutto
Saturday, 20 October 2007
Ashraf Khan
Under a scorching sun, Yaseen Ali religiously repaints the fading contours of a vast picture of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto hoisted on the approach road to her ancestral residence in southern Pakistan.
The 26-year old unemployed arts graduate is among many in the two-time premier's hometown of Larkana who are dreaming of a brighter future -- including a job -- once she returns from an eight-year exile, slated for this week.
"I drew this picture some years back but weather messed up the colors," Ali said. "Now I am redrawing it to pay homage to the lady and welcome her home."
This city of about 1 million people is a stronghold of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and hopes to benefit economically if she returns to power.
Bhutto, whose two governments between 1988 and 1996 were hounded by accusations of mismanagement and corruption, has the status of a heroine here. The streets are festooned with billboards, posters and stickers of her and her late father, another former prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Benazir Bhutto was in Karachi, on Thursday. Thousands of supporters were to greet her, many of them traveling from Larkana.
While many Pakistanis remain skeptical about Bhutto, amid accusations she has sold her democratic principles by securing an amnesty in corruption cases against her from President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, people here are still crazy about her.
"We missed her so much, and for us, she will always be a prime minister," said Riaz Phulphotto, her estate manager at her ancestral home in Naudero, a few miles north of Larkana.
Set in about 4,000 acres of rice and sugarcane fields and guava orchards, Bhutto's sprawling residence is testament to her family's vast landholdings and wealth.
Like much of the city, it was being decked out in ornamental lights to add to the carnival atmosphere when Bhutto travels here after touching down in Karachi, just after the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
Mohammad Hasan Bhutto, 70, a loyal servant, said he remembered the young Bibi -- as Bhutto is affectionately known here -- playing in the courtyard as a child.
"Ever since she left I have forgotten how to draw joy from anything. Even Eid brought no happiness in our lives," he said. "This year, I will celebrate Eid for the first time in 10 years."
Police and scores of Bhutto's own people guard the house round-the-clock and bar outsiders from going inside, amid fears she could be targeted by Islamic militants.
Bhutto, who was the Muslim world's first female prime minister, is respected in the West for her liberal views and tough rhetoric on fighting al-Qaida and the Taliban. She is seen as an anti-terror ally for Musharraf if her party fares well in elections due by January.
That brings its own risks. Earlier this month, a powerful pro-Taliban militant leader Baitullah Mehsud reportedly vowed to greet her return to Pakistan with suicide attacks.
In a sign of the security fears, a special shipping container fortified with bulletproof glass is being readied to convey Bhutto through the streets of Karachi.
Bhutto went into a self-imposed exile in April 1999, after she was charged with corruption by her successor Nawaz Sharif, who himself was sent into exile when Musharraf ousted him in a bloodless coup in 1999. Bhutto has spent most of her exile in the United Arab Emirates and Britain.
Musharraf, who has seen his own standing erode after a botched attempt to fire Pakistan's top judge this spring, has softened his old contempt for Bhutto, and signed into law an amnesty for long-standing graft cases against her and other politicians to smooth her return.
That was a key demand of Bhutto's in talks that could eventually see the two bitter political rivals share power -- a deal that has drawn withering criticism from other opposition parties.
Even some former supporters unfavorably compare it with the fate of her father Zulfiqar, who was executed by Pakistan's last military ruler, Gen. Zia-ul Haq, in 1979 for allegedly plotting the murder of a political rival.
But Khursheed Junejo, a former mayor of Larkana from Bhutto's People's Party, predicted her welcome would exceed Bhutto's famous arrival in Pakistan in 1986, when hundreds of thousands greeted her from a five-year exile following the hanging of her father. He said a convoy of 1,000 buses, cars and other vehicles would transport party workers and volunteers to the Karachi airport to greet her on Thursday.
"Ms. Bhutto's arrival has given us an opportunity to start our election campaign in full swing," he said.
But like Musharraf, Bhutto has legal headaches that could spoil the homecoming.
Supreme Court judges are deliberating if the corruption amnesty benefiting Bhutto is constitutional.
"The people have had a strong reaction to removal of corruption cases against Ms. Bhutto. But she is free to come and the laws of the land will apply to her like any other citizen of Pakistan," Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told CNN's "Late Edition"
Musharraf, meanwhile, is waiting for a ruling on whether he can take up a new five-year term as president, amid speculation he could declare martial law if blocked.
He recently warned Bhutto to delay her return.
Despite some expectation that could happen, her supporters remain adamant she will land in Pakistan on schedule.
"Once she decides, she never backtracks, not even an inch. Her decision to come to Pakistan is unshakable now," Junejo said.Error! Not a valid filename.
— AP
Under a scorching sun, Yaseen Ali religiously repaints the fading contours of a vast picture of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto hoisted on the approach road to her ancestral residence in southern Pakistan.
The 26-year old unemployed arts graduate is among many in the two-time premier's hometown of Larkana who are dreaming of a brighter future -- including a job -- once she returns from an eight-year exile, slated for this week.
"I drew this picture some years back but weather messed up the colors," Ali said. "Now I am redrawing it to pay homage to the lady and welcome her home."
This city of about 1 million people is a stronghold of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and hopes to benefit economically if she returns to power.
Bhutto, whose two governments between 1988 and 1996 were hounded by accusations of mismanagement and corruption, has the status of a heroine here. The streets are festooned with billboards, posters and stickers of her and her late father, another former prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Benazir Bhutto was in Karachi, on Thursday. Thousands of supporters were to greet her, many of them traveling from Larkana.
While many Pakistanis remain skeptical about Bhutto, amid accusations she has sold her democratic principles by securing an amnesty in corruption cases against her from President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, people here are still crazy about her.
"We missed her so much, and for us, she will always be a prime minister," said Riaz Phulphotto, her estate manager at her ancestral home in Naudero, a few miles north of Larkana.
Set in about 4,000 acres of rice and sugarcane fields and guava orchards, Bhutto's sprawling residence is testament to her family's vast landholdings and wealth.
Like much of the city, it was being decked out in ornamental lights to add to the carnival atmosphere when Bhutto travels here after touching down in Karachi, just after the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
Mohammad Hasan Bhutto, 70, a loyal servant, said he remembered the young Bibi -- as Bhutto is affectionately known here -- playing in the courtyard as a child.
"Ever since she left I have forgotten how to draw joy from anything. Even Eid brought no happiness in our lives," he said. "This year, I will celebrate Eid for the first time in 10 years."
Police and scores of Bhutto's own people guard the house round-the-clock and bar outsiders from going inside, amid fears she could be targeted by Islamic militants.
Bhutto, who was the Muslim world's first female prime minister, is respected in the West for her liberal views and tough rhetoric on fighting al-Qaida and the Taliban. She is seen as an anti-terror ally for Musharraf if her party fares well in elections due by January.
That brings its own risks. Earlier this month, a powerful pro-Taliban militant leader Baitullah Mehsud reportedly vowed to greet her return to Pakistan with suicide attacks.
In a sign of the security fears, a special shipping container fortified with bulletproof glass is being readied to convey Bhutto through the streets of Karachi.
Bhutto went into a self-imposed exile in April 1999, after she was charged with corruption by her successor Nawaz Sharif, who himself was sent into exile when Musharraf ousted him in a bloodless coup in 1999. Bhutto has spent most of her exile in the United Arab Emirates and Britain.
Musharraf, who has seen his own standing erode after a botched attempt to fire Pakistan's top judge this spring, has softened his old contempt for Bhutto, and signed into law an amnesty for long-standing graft cases against her and other politicians to smooth her return.
That was a key demand of Bhutto's in talks that could eventually see the two bitter political rivals share power -- a deal that has drawn withering criticism from other opposition parties.
Even some former supporters unfavorably compare it with the fate of her father Zulfiqar, who was executed by Pakistan's last military ruler, Gen. Zia-ul Haq, in 1979 for allegedly plotting the murder of a political rival.
But Khursheed Junejo, a former mayor of Larkana from Bhutto's People's Party, predicted her welcome would exceed Bhutto's famous arrival in Pakistan in 1986, when hundreds of thousands greeted her from a five-year exile following the hanging of her father. He said a convoy of 1,000 buses, cars and other vehicles would transport party workers and volunteers to the Karachi airport to greet her on Thursday.
"Ms. Bhutto's arrival has given us an opportunity to start our election campaign in full swing," he said.
But like Musharraf, Bhutto has legal headaches that could spoil the homecoming.
Supreme Court judges are deliberating if the corruption amnesty benefiting Bhutto is constitutional.
"The people have had a strong reaction to removal of corruption cases against Ms. Bhutto. But she is free to come and the laws of the land will apply to her like any other citizen of Pakistan," Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told CNN's "Late Edition"
Musharraf, meanwhile, is waiting for a ruling on whether he can take up a new five-year term as president, amid speculation he could declare martial law if blocked.
He recently warned Bhutto to delay her return.
Despite some expectation that could happen, her supporters remain adamant she will land in Pakistan on schedule.
"Once she decides, she never backtracks, not even an inch. Her decision to come to Pakistan is unshakable now," Junejo said.Error! Not a valid filename.
— AP