Bhutto, who was making a grand homecoming after eight years in self-exile, was rushed from the site of the blasts to her home, Bilawal House, soon after the explosions past Thursday midnight, Pakistan People's Party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.
Some 20,000 airport security personnel, policemen and paramilitary personnel as well as bomb disposal squads have been deployed in Karachi to protect Bhutto, who is returning to Pakistan following secret parleys with President Prevez Musharraf for a power-sharing arrangement.
As she prepares to return the home country in next few weeks after being in exile for over eight years, Bhutto said it was in Pakistan's "own interest and regional security for us to dismantle the terrorist networks and militant cells
Pakistan's Law minister Babar Awan resigned on Wednesday to appear as the government's counsel in a case in the Supreme Court seeking a review of the death sentence awarded to former premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. President Asif Ali Zardari, who also heads the ruling Pakistan People's Party, recently asked the apex court to review the death sentence awarded to Bhutto in 1979.
She left Karachi airport for home after being made to sit in the plane for several hours after flying in from Dubai. On her arrival in Karachi, she was not allowed to de-board. Some supporters of her Pakistan People Party gathered at the airport to greet her.
Bhutto, who has been living in self-imposed exile in London, said that the militants Pakistan "nurtured" during the Afghan war against the Soviet Union had returned to haunt them.
He said the general elections would be held by the end of the year in a fair and transparent manner, and any political action could be considered after viewing their outcome.
Slain former premier Benazir Bhutto's 24-year-old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday made his formal entry into Pakistani politics, pledging to protect his country and its fledgling democratic system from dictators and terrorists.
He attributed the nation's predicament to unseen forces orchestrating decisions from behind the scenes, reducing elected officials to mere puppets.
The Election Commission of Pakistan stripped Imran Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, of its electoral symbol -- a cricket bat -- on technical grounds on Sunday January 14, 2024.
Conduct fair polls or quit by July 31, the two exiled prime ministers have told Musharraf.
Clearly, her father hopes that a successful tenure in Lahore will give Maryam the ballast to be prime minister after the next general election.
The formal trial of former Pakistani former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in connection with the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto began on Tuesday.
The United Nations on Tuesday delayed till April 15 the release of its probe panel's report on the assassination of former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto following a request from Islamabad.
The conspirators, who killed former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto, wanted to "provoke" her supporters with her assassination so as to hasten the process of "balkanisation" of Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari has said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said on Wednesday he intended to set up an international commission to probe the assassination of former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto during a meeting with her widower, President Asif Ali Zardari.
Fatima had the first launch of Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter's Memoir at Clifton Gardens at the exact spot in the port city of Karachi where her father Mir Murtaza Bhutto was killed nearly 14 years ago.
Days after he vowed that Pakistan will take back entire Kashmir, the country's 'Gen Next' politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying Pakistan can retaliate "unlike his victims from Gujarat".
Sanam Bhutto, the sister of Zardari's slain wife Benazir Bhutto, had denied giving any interview to journalist Daphne Barak which was the basis of the reports in the Pakistani media, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement issued in Islamabad on Wednesday.
Former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto's son and Pakistan Peoples Party's heir apparent, Bilawal, will test electoral waters for the first time in 2013 from the party stronghold of Lyari, his father, President Asif Ali Zardari announced on Monday.
"God forbid, if Pakistan implodes? It will have far-reaching repercussions not just on our region but the wider world community," Bhutto said in an interview published in the latest issue of Hello magazine. Bhutto also spoke about her dream of eliminating militant groups to usher stability in crisis-ridden Pakistan and her desire to work with India and Afghanistan.
Sharif, who had described the killing as the most tragic event in the history of Pakistan, had earlier planned to travel to Larkana in Sindh province to join the funeral at Bhutto's ancestral graveyard in Garhi Khuda Buksh. But when Sharif spoke to Bhutto's husband today morning on the phone, Zardari advised the Pakistan Muslim League-N chief not to travel to Larkana in view of security concerns. PPP workers have already staged violent protests in Larkana.
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has decided to apply for anticipatory bail apprehending her arrest on arrival in Pakistan on October 18.
"We feel it was a baby, kidnapped, and its clothes were rigged with explosives. He kept trying to hand it to people to hand to me. I'm a mother, I love babies, but the (streetlights) had already gone out, and I was worried about the baby getting dropped or hurt," Bhutto said, adding that she would have been killed had she not stepped back to loosen the shoes on her swollen feet.
Intelligence reports suggest that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan, that country's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has said. She said if a Pakistan Peoples' Party government came to power it will honour its commitment to India and extradite Dawood Ibrahim, who is allegedly the mastermind behind the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.
Bhutto's husband Asif Zardari and her three children, who arrived in Islamabad late on Thursday night, had a brief chance to see the body before the plane left for Sukkur near Lakarna.
Benazir Bhutto had too many elements against her -- anti-US, pro-Al Qaeda jihadi elements, the Zia-ul Haq loyalists, junior members of the Pakistan army and, possibly, the Pakistan air force.
Bhutto said she was expecting the National Reconciliation Ordinance -- which would grant amnesty to political leaders in corruption cases -- to come out on Thursday.
By indulging in agitation, Bhutto, the leader of Pakistan People's Party, is "strengthening the impression that she is sure of her party's defeat in the elections", Musharraf said at a farewell meeting with members of the outgoing assembly of Punjab province. "The politicians, including Benazir Bhutto, who are pursuing agitational politics, should do away with it and focus on electioneering so that elections could be held in a peaceful atmosphere," he said.
"The limited X-ray material, the absence of a full post mortem examination and CT scan, have meant that Cary, who has been consulted in this case, is unable categorically to exclude the possibility of there being a gunshot wound to the upper trunk or neck," the report said.
'Outrage will take place sooner than later, because it's not only that their mandate has been stolen, but the most important issue right now is the sinking economy in Pakistan.' 'Inflation is 26%-27%. It is backbreaking inflation.' 'Food, energy, education, health, which are the primary things that every family requires, is going beyond the reach of the masses.'
Fifteen-year-old Aitezaz Shah, who was arrested from Dera Ismail Khan town of the North West Frontier Province, identified the bomber as a man named Bilal who belonged to the South Waziristan tribal region, Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah said.A team of investigators has gone to South Waziristan to meet Bilal's family to get more information about him. Reports said that the investigators had shown a photograph of the suspected bomber to Aitezaz Shah, who identified him.
Just two months before she was killed in a terror attack, former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto had approached the United States ambassador in Islamabad, asking for help to evaluate her personal security. But her request was ignored, the latest cables published by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks have revealed. Bhutto handed over a written request to US Ambassador Anne W Patterson two months before she was killed, asking her to carry out an evaluation of the security
Television footage showed torn limbs and parts of flesh were spread around the Liaqat Bagh park, the venue of the rally by the former prime minister and the leader of the Pakistan People's Party.
"Why would I be informing her about all these intelligence reports that we have against her, the threat to her? Why would I be doing that? I can't prove it legally, I can't prove my innocence legally. But I can prove it only through what I stand for as a person," he said.
No one was injured in the pre-dawn blast damaged the building in Yakatoot area of Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province.
A leader said Bhutto and her husband's frozen wealth, including both inland and offshore bank accounts as well as assets, is worth $1.5 billion.
A senior police official probing the suicide attack on former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto's convoy in Karachi has been removed in the wake of objections raised by her Pakistan People's Party. DIG (Investigation) Manzoor Mughal, who was heading the probe, has applied for leave and will no longer be handling the probe, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.
A day after Pakistan agreed to grant former prime minister Benazir Bhutto an amnesty from prosecution in corruption cases against her, Interpol has put the govt in a fix by enquiring about her status. Interpol had issued red corner notice on Bhutto.
Acknowledging that she has met secretly with President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has said that the power sharing deal with the general is not possible unless he takes concrete steps towards democracy.
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