Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples' Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has called upon the political forces to join hands and work for the holding of free and fair elections, restoration of democracy and safety of Pakistan.
After her arrival from Dubai on Thursday afternoon, ending eight years of self-imposed exile, Bhutto addressed the electronic and print media at the Karachi airport and said her arrival is the beginning of a new journey towards the restoration of democracy and peoples' rule in Pakistan.
She said that Pakistan was in danger and "if we save democracy, we save Pakistan." She said she was thankful to the City Nazim for his co-operation and that by asking the police to keep off the procession the Nazim had done her a favour.
The Emirates flight EK-606 scheduled to reach Karachi at 1 pm arrived about 1:45 pm. Bhutto reached by bus from the runway to terminal number one where party leaders greeted her. As soon as she emerged from the airplane, tears rolled out her swollen eyes. The emotionally charged Bhutto looked towards the sky and thanked God for her safe journey, return to her motherland and for being among her people. She had Imam Zamin on her arms. She was clad in green colour resembling the colour of the Pakistani flag.
She took about two and a half hour before coming out of the airport building and climbing the specially ordered bullet proof 14-ft high truck. Leading party leaders escorted her.
In about four hours the truck could travel one km as the crowd had broken all security barriers and instead of being remaining at the Star Gate had reached the airport building that was out of bound for them. It was a rousing welcome.
The welcome accorded to Bhutto was unique in many respect: one party workers had come from all over the country, two, the crowd was disciplined; three, there was complete understanding between the party workers and the law enforcement personnel; four, people who had opposing political opinion showed tolerance and five, vehicular traffic followed the directions of the city police and adopted alternate route to reach their destinations.
Though there were chaotic scenes that disturbed the party workers but the show of sense of balance was quite evident from the participants of the procession. They were seen managing their own affairs with extra responsibility. Ten of thousands of party workers and well-wishers of the PPP had come to welcome Bhutto from across the country.
They all wanted to have a glimpse of their leader and cheer her on her arrival. It was a sea of people that had covered the entire area and had left any space for the movement of Bhutto's cavalcade. This caused slow movement of the procession.
There were more than 5,000 PPP party workers chosen with care to provide security to Bhutto. It was in addition to 12,000 rangers under whose control the entire airport and its surrounding area was given for security reason. Security reasons also forced cancellation of arrival and departure of 17 domestic and international flights.
The movement of the procession was slow. A large number of cars, trucks and motorcycles moved at snail speed and those who were on foot had no problem in keeping pace with the speed of the procession.
From the airport to Drigh Road Bridge it was jam packed with people and only heads covered with PPP flags and caps could be seen. The entire route had big hoardings, banners and posters pitched at convenient places. The PPP flag flattered on top of the buildings and on the protective walls of bridges.
The procession that was to reach Mausoleum of the Quaid-e-Azam in the evening where Bhutto was to address a mammoth public meeting was still 8-km away from the mausoleum at the time of filing this report.
However, a large crowd waited at the public meeting site for the arrival of their leader. To keep the crowd comfortable the organisers continued to play PPP songs in different languages.
The Sindh Government had declared one-day holiday for all the educational institutions. However, there was complete closures of shopping areas throughout the city, limited activities were seen in the five industrial areas of Karachi, and many of the offices were closed.
Banks and other financial institutions and multinational companies opted to remain closed for fear of untoward incident. However, the Karachi Stock Exchange welcomed Bhutto by showing impressive growth in its index.
AFP adds: "I have learned a lot over the last 20 years but we are still fighting a dictatorship, we want to isolate extremists and build a better Pakistan," she told AFP. Bhutto fled Pakistan in 1999 to avoid corruption charges arising from her two previous terms in power, but they were quashed by key US ally Musharraf earlier this month in an apparent gesture of reconciliation.
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