Expatriates view Bhutto return as a beacon of hope Originally published in Gulf Times on october 19, 2007

Bhutto landed in Karachi yesterday, ending more than eight years of self-exile, amid allegations of back-door power sharing ‘deal’ with the ever-weakening military regime.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) local chapter president, Azim Khan backed his party leader’s attempts at negotiating with army and returning to Pakistan saying: “The road to fully-functional democracy is rough and full of negotiations. In the absence of a powerful opposition, BB’s assurances to rid the country of dictatorship were based solely on talks - be it Washington-backed or self-seeking.”

Khan’s delight came as no surprise as PPP, as the largest National party, has a ‘cult’ following.

“Supporters were organised and sent from Qatar to Dubai as well to greet and congratulate Ms Bhutto before she set out for her historic journey to Karachi,” Khan pointed out.

“We now hope that her other vital demand - of hosting a free-and-fair general elections in the country with every single eligible person able to exercise the right of franchise - gets paid some heed by the establishment as well,” added an extremely hopeful Khan.

Salim Kapoorwala, associated with Professional Toastmasters Club (PTC) expressed his optimism on the homecoming of a leader who is described as a ‘liberal moderate force’ in a country mired in rising extremism and Talibanisation.

“She has shown the resilience and was brave enough to announce her intentions to curb the extremist elements if given the premiership for the third time, even scoring an assassination threat in the process,” said Kapoorwala.

According to Kapoorwala, the growing menace of extremism can be witnessed from the north to south of the country and if not contained or nipped in the bud it can engulf the masses and plunge the country into an abyss in the next 10-15 years.

“This is not us. The world needs to realise that we are a peaceful lot, desperate to get on with pursuit of happiness, and Benazir Bhutto provides that edifice for the world to witness,” he added.

Malik Tawheed, an avid supporter of PPP, that Benazir Bhutto heads, went to the extent of saying that “he would have gone to receive her in person, if he could.”

Tawheed rejected the perception that Benazir Bhutto is walking into a trap laid by the General Headquarter, but she is rather cornering the military, whose grip on the volatile politics of the country has been loosening of late.”

“Look at the way the astute politician has successfully entered the country without being sent to jail or arrested by the present regime. Now she will lead her party to win the general elections and once in the government, will then ask the dictators to go back to barracks,” said Tawheed, while chalking out the immediate future plan for Benazir Bhutto and her party.

Faiz A Shahid, an accountant by profession and a long-time Doha resident, while expressing that “he had hoped for a similar ‘VIP’ treatment meted out to Mian Nawaz Sharif with 20,000 police personnel and armour cars and helicopters”, however offered a completely different insight into the Pakistani politics:

“The fact that the corrupt and cursed progeny of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - a war criminal is returning to rule Pakistan again, shows that even our national collective unconscious has not learnt any lessons from the past. Benazir Bhutto has openly humiliated our benefactor Dr A Q Khan and promised his ‘rendition’ to USA. She has opulently spent our hard-earned tax-money along with the industrialist elites, the bureaucratic elites, the army elites and the others of the feudal Jurassic Park, so they can all rule over us from the army, Parliament and Judiciary. To me the news of her arrival after self-imposed ‘self-exile’ on fear of corruption charges is part of the social circus that has come to be known in the world as Pakistan. In other words, it is 1986 all over again.”