Bhutto defies new death threat
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said today she would defy a new death threat to start campaigning in cities across the country.
Five days after the suicide bombing that killed at least 136 people at her homecoming procession in Karachi, Mrs Bhutto said her lawyer received a letter from an unidentified “friend of al-Qaida” threatening to slaughter her “like a goat.”
“There are elements who want to kill us,” Mrs Bhutto said at her heavily guarded residence in Karachi.
“They are petrified that the Pakistan People’s Party will return (to power) and that democracy will return.”
“They are trying to derail the democratic process because they know if the people are employed and educated the forces of extremism and terrorism will be weakened,” she said.
Mrs Bhutto returned last week from eight years in exile to campaign for parliamentary elections due in January, after months of talks with President Musharraf that could see them working together in the next government.
She said that after discussions, her party had decided she should avoid staging mass rallies because of the risk of suicide and roadside bombings, but would still address public meetings.
“The party decided I should go from Karachi to Islamabad, Lahore or Larkana (Bhutto’s hometown) in the next couple of days. We will not be holding public rallies but will be travelling to meet the people in other provinces,” she said.
Mrs Bhutto blames the bombing on extremist elements in the government and the security forces.
She alleges they include remnants of the regime of former military leader general Zia-ul Haq, who oversaw mujahedeen groups that fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and then became Taliban and al-Qaida.
She claims that some members of the ruling party, including its chief, were behind Thursday’s attack.
That has raised questions about how the parties could form a coalition in support of President Musharraf after the elections. Although Mrs Bhutto and the president are rivals, both are moderates keen to combat religious extremism.
Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a close aide of the president, predicted today that the People’s Party would be part of the next government. “There is good understanding between general Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto,” he said.
Mrs Bhutto’s two governments between 1988 and 1996 were toppled amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
There is a ban on prime ministers serving more than two terms, but she remains determined to secure the position, possibly through a constitutional amendment.
