KARACHI, PAKISTAN — By foot, bus and bicycle, thousands of followers of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto converged Wednesday, preparing to welcome her home today from eight years of exile.
Bhutto’s expected return to this sprawling, chaotic port city that was her birthplace adds a complex new dimension to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s struggle to retain power. She and the general have reached agreement on some elements of a power-sharing alliance, but deep mistrust persists on both sides.
As preparations for Bhutto’s homecoming intensified, a panel of Supreme Court judges in the capital began hearing a legal challenge to Musharraf’s re-election this month by Pakistani lawmakers.
If the Oct. 6 vote is declared invalid, it is widely feared that the Pakistani leader will respond by declaring martial law.
Musharraf had urged Bhutto to stay away until after the court delivers its verdict, which could take days or weeks. She rejected any delay, however, voicing determination to return and lead her party in parliamentary elections that are to take place by early next year.
“My return heralds for the people of Pakistan the turn in the wheel from dictatorship to democracy, from exploitation to empowerment, from violence to peace,” she told journalists in Dubai, where she has maintained a home in exile.
At the news conference, Bhutto brushed aside security concerns, though she acknowledged threats against her by Islamic militants and others.
“No one can be sure what will happen in Pakistan,” she said.
Thousands of police and paramilitary troops were being deployed in Karachi, the country’s largest city, and bomb squads on Wednesday night began sweeping the 10-mile route from the airport to the city center. Bhutto was to travel on a small mobile stage fitted with bulletproof glass.
Party leaders said they expected up to 1 million people to line the procession route, which was festooned with banners and billboards featuring larger-than-life images of the 54-year-old politician in her trademark white head scarf. Posters bearing the green, black and red colors of her Pakistan Peoples Party fluttered from lampposts and hung from tree branches.
At the party’s headquarters, disheveled followers showed off oozing blisters they said came from making the trek to the city on foot from outlying villages to welcome her.
“I would give my life for her, so to walk for five days was nothing,” said 27-year-old Shahkar Lal Koli.
