KARACHI, Nov 3: Benazir Bhutto has postponed her return to Pakistan indefinitely due to the fear of being killed by the Taliban or Al-Qaeda networks.
According to well-placed intelligence sources, the Pakistan People’s Party chairperson, who has been denied an additional passportbook or more leaves for the travel document for unspecified reasons since last month, had formerly decided to return sometime in November.
The sources said she had been given assurances by the present government that some kind of deal or deals that had been discussed in the past could come under discussion again.
Such a proposition, the sources said, was subject to her presence in the country with her wholehearted support to the government’s internal and external policies with regard to the Afghanistan crisis.
However, the sources added, Benazir, who had been convicted by a court of law in the country, had to change her decision following receipt of information that she might be target of an assassination attack if she returned to the country.
The sources said her statements against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda networks following the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were taken by extremist elements in Pakistan and Afghanistan seriously.
They said Benazir had received incriminating evidence suggesting an attack or attacks on her life if she entered Pakistan after her about three years absence.
When the acting secretary-general of the PPP, Mian Raza Rabbani, was contacted, he rejected the impression that Benazir was afraid of the Taliban or the Al-Qaeda.
“The timeframe of her return will be decided by the central executive committee of the party alone,” he told by telephone from Islamabad.
He said Benazir was not afraid of the Taliban or extremist forces when she was in power and had announced her support to international efforts against all forms of terrorism.
About her passport, he said, there weren’t any more pages in her passport for the stamp of new visas.
“It is her constitutional right to get a passport, but it has been denied by the military regime,” he said.
Now, he said, Benazir Bhutto was in Dubai and would return to the country once she got a nod from the party.
PPI adds: Renewed passport of the PPP Chairperson and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, is likely to be handed over to her today (Saturday).
The passport would be handed over by a representative of the Pakistan diplomatic mission in the UAE.
The PPP however complained that the government had not yet issued a Pakistani passport to Benazir Bhutto.
A spokesman for the party said, in a statement here on Saturday, that Ms Bhutto was being denied a passport for which she had applied on Oct 2.
He however confirmed that a representative of the Pakistan diplomatic mission in the UAE had contacted the former prime minister’s office to inform that the passport would be given on Saturday.
