Dubai: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's plan to return to Pakistan after eight years of self-exile looks increasingly in doubt as pressure grows to delay her arrival.
A senior Pakistan government official, however, told Gulf News that top aides of President General Pervez Musharraf will hold fresh parleys either with Bhutto or her senior party leadership today in a last ditch effort to persuade her to delay her return.
Bhutto, chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, yesterday summoned senior party leader Makdoum Ameen Fahim to Dubai for discussions on the rapidly changing scenario prior to her return on Thursday.
"Plans for her return are hanging in the balance, but there is a high probability that she will go because of the massive preparations to welcome her," said a senior PPP leader.
"There is no change in the plan," Sherry Rahman, PPP Information Secretary, told Gulf News from Karachi.
Raja Pervez Ashraf, Secretary General of PPP Parliamentarians - the electoral arm of the PPP - said: "We are all set to welcome her. The ruling party is spreading rumours to jeopardise our reception plans. We have been told to hold press conferences all over the country to give details about her reception."
Bhutto recently said that she would fly from Dubai instead of London. She also told Gulf News earlier that the ruling party is afraid of her return, but General Musharraf is not.
Several recent developments have also created doubts about her return.
Earlier, Bhutto rejected Musharraf's call to delay her return until the Supreme Court's verdict on his eligibility to contest the presidential election. The calls were repeated by a federal minister and ruling party President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
In an interview with CNN yesterday, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Bhutto is free to return but the corruption charges may return to haunt her.
"Bhutto is also not comfortable with the new developments, especially after the Supreme Court put on hold the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which granted amnesty to political leaders and bureaucrats in cases from 1986 to 1999," said a senior government official.
The NRO had prompted Bhutto to plan her return because it guaranteed her free movement and campaigning for the next general elections.
