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Islamabad: Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto will return to Pakistan on October 18 after eight years in self-imposed exile, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) announced yesterday.
Benazir will land at Karachi and drive straight from the airport to the mausoleum of the founder of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in the port city, the capital of her home Sindh province, PPP vice-chairman Makhdoom Ameen Fahim said.
The government said she would not suffer the fate of Nawaz Sharif, who was swiftly deported when he arrived last Monday, but she would have to face corruption cases pending against her.
Fahim said Benazir's return after Ramadan would lead to restoration of "real democracy" in Pakistan and denied suggestions the PPP chairperson was coming back as a result of an understanding with the Musharraf government.
Negotiations
Fahim said the PPP had conveyed its terms to President General Pervez Musharraf and the ball was now in his court. "The door of dialogue is never closed in politics but at the moment there is silence," he said.
Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani, commenting on the PPP announcement, told a private channel that no understanding with the government was involved.
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