I’m returning to Pakistan on Oct 18 to coalesce the forces of moderation against extremism, announced Benazir Bhutto at a gathering in Washington. “Our goal, quite literally, is to save democracy in Pakistan.”

She kept the promise she made at this meeting of the Middle East Institute at the Russell Senate Building on Sept 25, 2007 and returned to Pakistan as announced. Her third homecoming also proved to be her last as on Dec 27, 2007, she was assassinated at a rally in Rawalpindi.

Her return came less than a year after she and Nawaz Sharif signed a document — the Charter of Democracy — in London to bring an end the then military regime. Some argue that the document, signed on May 14, 2006, has assured the continuation of democracy in the country by creating an understanding between the country’s two main political parties — the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Take a look: Benazir Bhutto: The strongest woman to lead Pakistan both in life and death

Ms Bhutto, who lived in London but regularly visited the US capital, made more than one visit to Washington in 2007. This was the year when the Bush administration was working quietly to unite Pakistan’s military and political forces in the fight against religious extremists, particularly the Taliban.

On Feb 4, 2007, she first announced her plan to return to Pakistan at a news conference at the home of a local PPP leader in Washington where she also unveiled the roadmap for democracy that she intended to discuss with the then military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

Rejecting Mr Musharraf’s plan to keep her and Mr Sharif out of the country, she said: “That’s not President Musharraf’s decision. This has to be decided by the people of Pakistan.”

In every statement she made in Washington, she insisted that Mr Sharif had as much right to return to Pakistan and contest the 2008 election as she did. She also pointed out that political rivalries often paved the way for non-political actors to topple democratic set-ups.

Such statements cemented the impression that she took the Charter of Democracy seriously and wanted both the PPP and the PML-N to avoid the mistakes that allowed previous military takeovers.

How she won Washington’s support for restoration of democracy in Pakistan

Ms Bhutto also rejected the Musharraf government’s intention to hold the presidential election before 2008, instead of seeking a vote of confidence from the new parliament, which could have been dominated by the PML-N and the PPP.

“Nobody has the authority to do so, neither the government nor the federal cabinet. Even the election commission and the judiciary cannot hold presidential election before schedule,” she said.

But when the Musharraf government insisted on seeking a vote from the outgoing parliament, Ms Bhutto announced at her Sept 25, 2007 news conference in Washington that Makhdoom Amin Fahim will file nomination papers as the PPP candidate for the Oct 6 presidential election while Faryal Talpur will be his covering candidate.

She said PPP was fielding a candidate for the presidential election because it wanted to remain in the political process

She then offered three conditions to Mr Musharraf for the PPP’s support and said that his response would determine which of the three choices her party would opt for.

These included the demand for him to resign from the post of the army chief, revoke the two-term ban on the re-election of a prime minister and offer an across-the-board amnesty to all political leaders.

By Sept 25, 2007 it had become obvious that the Bush administration supported the plan for her and Nawaz Sharif’s return to Pakistan and saw her as the future prime minister.

During this visit, which was also her last to Washington, Ms Bhutto visited the US Senate, flanked by her husband Asif Zardari and a former PPP Senator Khwaja Akbar. She received a standing ovation from a select gathering of US lawmakers, diplomats, academics and media representatives. This contrasted sharply with her previous visits to the US capital when she received little attention.

In her speech, Ms Bhutto, reminded the Bush administration that it had made “a strategic miscalculation” by backing the Musharraf government.

She also rejected the argument that Gen Musharraf stood in the way of extremists hoping to overrun nuclear-armed Pakistan. “In fact, military rule is the cause of the anarchic situation in Pakistan,” she said.

The Bush administration, however, no longer needed such reminders.

By then, it had already realised that the military alone could not defeat terrorists and was working on its plan to combine military and political forces to defeat terrorism in Pakistan.

It was during this visit that the late Congressman Tom Lantos, who then headed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, arranged a telephonic conversation between Ms Bhutto and Mr Musharraf.

Congressman Lantos, enjoyed good relations with Mr Musharraf, but he also played a key role in attaching democratic reforms as one of the conditions for continued US assistance to Pakistan to a new law the US Congress passed in 2007.

Media reports claimed that in this conversation, Ms Bhutto sought some assurance from the general on her return to Pakistan and also allayed Mr Musharraf’s concerns about his future under a democratic set-up.

On Oct 8, 2007, then US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice telephoned both Gen Musharraf and Ms Bhutto and reports in the US media claimed that the call was made to ensure that the two Pakistani leaders had reached an agreement. The next day, the Musharraf government announced that it would drop criminal cases pending in Pakistan against Ms Bhutto.

A day before Ms Rice called Musharraf, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan leader Baitullah Mehsud had threatened to target Ms Bhutto when she returned to Pakistan. Ms Rice is also believed to have discussed this threat with Mr Musharraf.

Ms Bhutto’s Sept 2007 visit to Washington was more fruitful than her all previous visits. She was everywhere in the media — from Washington Post to CNN — giving interviews, writing articles and issuing statements.

She also met several senior US officials and about a dozen lawmakers. At least two cabinet-level officials attended the dinner hosted by a Pakistani-American member of the Republican Party.

The Bush administration, however, had started sending friendly signals to Ms Bhutto before her last visit to Washington. On Sept 14, 2007, US State Department’s spokesman Sean McCormack said at a news briefing that Ms Bhutto would not receive the same treatment that was meted out to Nawaz Sharif when he attempted to return to Pakistan earlier that month.

“I’m not sure the two cases would be equivalent,” said Mr McCormack when asked if the US expected Ms Bhutto to be deported like Mr Sharif.

What happened to Mr Sharif “all took place in the context of an agreement that was said to be arrived at among the Saudi government, the Pakistani government and Mr Sharif,” he said. “That whole legal question centred on that particular point.”

And on Nov 7, 2007, days after Ms Bhutto’s return to Pakistan, the White House warned Gen Musharraf not to take the US patience as “never-ending”.

The same day, Gen Musharraf reached out to two key congressional leaders asking them to understand his position while US lawmakers called for freezing all ‘non-reimbursable’ aid to Pakistan unless the government restored democracy.

At the White House, US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said that the United States expected President Musharraf to return to the path of democracy ‘now’. “This is not a never-ending process,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2018