Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday vowed to return to Pakistan on Thursday after eight years in self-exile to bring democracy and human rights to the "repressed" people of the country and "free them from dictatorship".
Addressing a press conference in Dubai, Bhutto said Pakistan's people are "extremely repressed" now and "no power on earth" would prevent her from going back to work for their empowerment.
Though the Pakistani government has suggested that she should delay her homecoming, Bhutto said she had promised the people she would return on October 18 and she was bound to deliver on her pledge.
She asserted that her Pakistan's People Party would not be able to work with people in uniform who are in power as it had always endeavoured to provide democracy to the people.
President Pervez Musharraf's promise to the Supreme Court that he would give up the post of army chief by November 15 is a major achievement for the people as it would pave the way for democracy, she said.
Bhutto said threats had been made from "left, right and centre" by Afghan and Arab militants to prevent her homecoming, but she believed any "true Muslim" would not attack her as Islam forbids violence against women and suicide bombings.
"I am not intimidated by (these threats)," she said. "The way to make a change is not through death and violence. We don't have to agree on everything, but we should agree to resolve our differences peacefully," she added.
