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Maseeh Rahman

Pakistan's former prime minister can still count on the support of thousands

After failing to meet earlier personally set deadlines for her homecoming, former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto now plans to return from exile before the end of the year.

Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will organise 'protest camps' later this month to demand her  return, even as it recruits at least 25,000 supporters  in the event of the  former leader getting thrown into jail by President Pervez Musharraf's government when she finally arrives home.

'Come what may, she will return in 2004,' said PPP leader Qasim Zia.

Though she has lived in exile in London and Dubai for about six years to escape punishment on charges of corruption,  Bhutto remains a  popular figure in her homeland.

A 48-year-old supporter in her home province of Sindh, Dhani Bux, died in hospital last week after  setting himself alight in January as a gesture of support for her. Pakistan is a conservative Islamic society, and the religion strongly disapproves of suicide.

Among his demands was the release of Bhutto's imprisoned husband, Asif Ali Zardari. He has been in a Karachi jail, facing  charges of murder, extortion and drug running, since  Bhutto's government was sacked in November 1996 for gross corruption.

For more than two years,  she has been trying to negotiate a deal with General Musharraf for ending her exile. But while the government has said there is no bar against her return, it has also refused to withdraw the corruption charges. She has even been sentenced to jail in absentia for failing to appear in court.

Now the Lahore daily Nation, quoting PPP sources,  said that she is 'keen to end her exile this year, most probably in September, when weather conditions in Pakistan would be conducive for organising [political] gatherings'.

Bhutto could actually be waiting for a more conducive domestic political situation. Until now General Musharraf, who seized power in 1999, has had no use for mainstream politicians such as  Bhutto, or her old rival and another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was also accused of corruption and is in exile in Saudi Arabia.

Instead,  he has sought to gain political legitimacy with the support of right-wing religious groups who now control two provinces - Baluchistan and the North West Frontier  bordering Afghanistan.

But in recent weeks, under increasing pressure from the United States, Islamabad has been forced to act against  radical Islamists.

This has annoyed the Muttahida Majlis-e-Ammal,   the umbrella group of Islamic political parties supporting General Musharraf.

'The mullahs are very angry, very upset, because they feel General Musharraf is doing a total U-turn,' said Rehana Hakim, Karachi-based editor of Newsline magazine.

'It's still unclear though if he will go the whole hog and completely alienate the mullahs,' she added.

'But if that happens it'll create another political vacuum which can only be filled by liberal politicians like Benazir,' she said.

By the end of the year, there is likely to be another hopeful development for Bhutto - General Musharraf is due to step down as army chief on December 31.

'It will make a qualitative difference,' said Ms Hakim. 'The army is all powerful, so General Musharraf may feel the need to secure his position as president by doing a deal with mainstream politicians.'



Bhutto sets sights on comeback from exile