Claiming that she has not struck any deal with Pakistan's military regime, former premier Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday vowed to return home on Thursday after eights years in self-imposed exile to bring democracy and human rights to the "repressed people" of her country.
The 54-year-old two-time former prime minister, who is set to fly to Karachi from Dubai, said her homecoming was the outcome of protracted negotiations that began in 1999 to usher in democracy to Pakistan and end the army's role in politics.
Accusing other parties, including the PML-N of exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, of striking deals with the military regime, Bhutto told a news conference in Dubai: "As far as the Pakistan People's Party is concerned, we have not done any deal.
"We have held negotiations for the transition to democracy and certain initial positive developments have taken place in that regard in light of the announcement by (President Pervez) Musharraf before the Supreme Court that he would take off his uniform and also through the National Reconciliation Ordinance in which the role of the opposition has been acknowledged."
The ordinance is a controversial law promulgated by Musharraf on the eve of the October 6 presidential poll to grant amnesty to Bhutto and other politicians in graft cases.
However, Sharif is not covered under the ordinance.
Musharraf had told the Supreme Court he would doff his uniform by November 15, but had recently indicated he would take a final decision on this issue after the court rules on petitions against his candidature in the presidential poll.
Bhutto made it clear that the PPP was unwilling to do business with Musharraf as long as he retained uniform.
"The PPP can't work with leaders in uniform because we want a democratic nation," she said.
"The PPP was formed on certain principles and since 1967 we have opposed the army leadership and civilian leaders that were proxies of the military. A key issue for the people was that we did not want a president in uniform and General Musharraf should take off his uniform," Bhutto said.
She admitted that the Pakistan government had been asking her to delay her homecoming in view of challenges mounted in the Supreme Court against the ordinance and Musharraf's re-election without quitting the post of army chief, but said she would return on Thursday as scheduled as she had "given her word to the people of Pakistan."
The Oxford-educated daughter of late Pakistani leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto also dismissed threats issued to her by militants opposed to her return.
"Many threats have been made from left, right and centre to try and intimidate me. I do not believe any true Muslim will make an attack on me because Islam forbids attacks on women. And Muslims know that if they attack a woman, they will burn in hell. Secondly, Islam forbids suicide bombings so I don't believe any true Muslim would do that," she said.
Pointing out that the citizens of Pakistan are among the most oppressed people in the world, Bhutto said: "I believe I have the support of the people and no power on earth can stop me from going to them."
Authorities in Karachi have deployed over 3,500 security personnel in the southern Pakistani port city and made extensive security arrangements to foil any attack on Bhutto when she arrives there.
Bhutto said she wanted to reach out to the people of Pakistan "to tell them that we don't have to agree on everything, but we must agree that we will resolve our differences peacefully and politically, by going to the people in an election and letting the people decide the policies they want."
Replying to a question about the legal challenge against the amnesty granted to her through the National Reconciliation Ordinance, Bhutto said she believed the Supreme Court would not intervene in the matter.
She also questioned why the apex court had not acted when Sharif signed a deal to go into exile in Saudi Arabia to evade a prison term and when scientist A Q Khan admitted to selling Pakistan's nuclear secrets.
"There is not only the Supreme Court but there is the court of the people and the chief justice of Pakistan knows very well that when he faced trumped up charges (during his four-month-long suspension period), 40 members of my party lost their lives to help him get reinstated because we believe political victimisation is wrong," she said.
Asked if she was sure that Musharraf would shed uniform, Bhutto said: "No one can be sure of what will happen in Pakistan because things that have happened in Pakistan are stranger than fiction."
She said the country's presidents, prime ministers and army chiefs had never been safe and that she herself had been dismissed twice as premier.
"We all hope he (Musharraf) will keep his commitment to the Supreme Court and the people of Pakistan," she said.
Bhutto was accompanied at the press conference by her two daughters, who also spoke briefly, and her husband Asif Ali Zardari.
The chief of PPP, the second-biggest opposition party in Pakistan's 342-member Parliament, has lived in Dubai and London since 1999 to avoid corruption cases against her.
She would take an Emirates airline flight to Karachi at 10 am on Thursday and reach the Pakistani city at 1 pm local time.
