The party rejected the idea saying that the date would not be changed. All arrangements for the heroic reception of the PPP chairperson, who spent over 11 years in self-exile, have been finalised. The PPP had announced last month that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto would land in Karachi on October 18, and she would be received by the party 'diehards' as emotionally as she was received in 1986.
Later on, a broad-based understanding was also developed between the Musharraf regime and the PPP followed by promulgation of the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) by President General Pervez Musharraf giving indemnity to the politicians against whom cases are pending in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The Ordinance not only paved the way for the PPP chairperson to end her decade long self-banishment, but also helped General Pervez Musharraf in holding his controversial presidential election with the invisible support of PPP.
Now President Musharraf has been facing the only legal hurdle in taking oath as a President for another five-year term ie, the final verdict of the 11-member apex court bench on the Constitutional petition filed by his rival candidates - Mukhdoom Amin Fahim and former Justice Wajiuddin Ahmed.
Under these circumstances, President has suggested Benazir Bhutto to wait till the decision of the court. It seems the President would evolve a strategy if the court decided against him. But the PPP leadership dispelled the idea to postpone the announced date of her return. Talking to Business Recorder, PPP Secretary Finance Senator Babar Awan said that his party would not change the date under any circumstance and October 18 is the final date for the return of Benazir.