KARACHI, Oct 13: Despite the alleged threat by militant leader Baitullah Mehsood and the message by Gen Pervez Musharraf asking Benazir Bhutto to reschedule her homecoming, the Pakistan People’s Party chairperson has not changed her programme.

“Come what may, BB will return as per schedule and we warn the ruling coalition that if any attempt is made to either obstruct or impede her homecoming, or arrest her on arrival, we will confront them ,” said provincial general secretary of the PPP Nafees Siddiqui at a news conference in the Karachi Press Club on Saturday. Karachi will be the PPP’s city on that day, he added.

He claimed that PPP supporters from all over the country would arrive here to accord a historic welcome to Ms Bhutto and the crowds would be bigger than that of her return to Pakistan in 1986.

He said the PPP was not afraid of arrests and claimed that Ms Bhutto would lead the party from the front in the run-up to the coming general election with a new manifesto and programme.

About the National Reconciliation Ordinance, he said the PPP had not agreed to anything that was in conflict with the Charter of Democracy or was PPP-specific.

Ghulam Abbas, PPP’s Punjab general secretary, said the party had challenged dictatorship and repressive forces in the past and was prepared to give more sacrifices for the transition to democracy.

He said if the rulers tried to obstruct Ms Bhutto’s homecoming, her supporters and democracy-loving people would confront them everywhere in the country. He said he feared that due to the government’s policies, the country was facing internal insurgency and alienation and the rulers might push the country into another cycle of emergency or martial law.