KARACHI: Former president and Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari will return home on Dec 23, ending what is widely believed to be his 18-month-long self-exile.

Mr Zardari left Karachi on June 25, 2015 a few days after making a controversial speech which was considered to be against the armed forces. The sudden departure of Mr Zardari — who spent his time abroad in Dubai and London — had sparked speculation that he had fled the country in anticipation of a legal action against him.

Announcing the decision about Mr Zardari’s return at a press conference at the party’s media cell in Clifton on Sunday, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said: “This is not the outcome of any backdoor diplomacy...he is returning home for the sake of democracy.”

The announcement follows a meeting of the party leaders held at Bilawal House with the young leader in the chair. The meeting finalised arrangements for Mr Zardari’s return and the public meeting to be held on the death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27.

Comeback decision not outcome of any backdoor diplomacy, says Bilawal

The PPP leader said, “if Asif Zardari would be with us, we would be able to get our demands accepted by the federal government soon.”

He said that after Mr Zardari’s physicians had allowed him to undertake the travel, the co-chairman had decided to return home and he would be accorded a warm welcome on his arrival in Karachi on Friday.

He said that making arrangements for a befitting reception to be accorded to Mr Zardari at such a short notice is a big challenge for the PPP Karachi, particularly when the party’s city president Dr Asim Hussain is under detention of what he called the prime minister and the interior minister. He deplored that Dr Asim was being victimised politically and the victimisation had been launched against the party to stop it from launching a campaign for the acceptance of its demands.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that a multiparty conference would be called to chalk out a strategy for the campaign, adding that it would prove to be a decisive movement of the opposition against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

In an apparent rejection of any unconstitutional measures against the premier, the young chairman reiterated, “We believe in democracy and our demands are democratic”.

To a question, he said efforts were being made to stop the PPP from opposing the government. “We want democratic accountability of the Panama [Papers leaks] scandal and we have submitted only four demands, including the passage of the Panama Bill by the assembly...to empower the judiciary to carry out investigation into the scandal in the right direction,” he said.

The other demands of the PPP are appointment of a full-fledged foreign minister, formation of a parliamentary committee on national security and implementation of the resolution passed during a multiparty conference on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor held in May last year.

Answering a question, he said: “If Panama Papers contain my name, I should also be investigated because whosoever is mentioned in the leaks, action should be initiated against him.”

Making a dig at PM Sharif’s family, he said PPP did not need help from any Qatari prince because neither his name nor that of his mother’s had appeared on the Panama website.

Senior Minister and PPP Sindh chapter president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Deputy Speaker of Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza, Senator Saeed Ghani, General Secretary Syed Waqar Mehdi and Senator Aajiz Dhamrah were present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn December 19th, 2016