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Benazir Bhutto arrives in Karachi

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto arrived at Karachi airport from Dubai after President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency.

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KARACHI: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was sitting on a plane at Karachi airport after returning from Dubai on Saturday following a decision by the government to impose a state of emergency in the country.
    
Media personal including dozens of television cameramen and reporters converged on the Quaid-e-Azam International airport as soon as confirmation came in that Bhutto had left Dubai for Karachi.
    
There is an increased presence of security personal at the airport with doubts existing over whether Benazir would be allowed to come out of the terminal building.
    
Otherwise there were no visible signs of any reaction from the masses or political parties to the imposition of emergency in the country although there was hectic activity around and at the Governor house as 10 of the 24 judges of the Sindh High Court were called to take oath under the new Public Constitutional Order by the chief of the army staff.
     
Sources said six of the judges had publicly refused to take oath under the PCO.
   
Southern Karachi was also hustling and bustling as usual on Saturday night even after the imposition of emergency in the country. However there were increased roadblocks and pickets on the main roads and on the main artery leading to the airport.
    
There was a mixed reaction to the latest development among the people with many expressing disappointment at government's decision to black out the private independent television channels and some FM radio stations.
    
The few lucky ones who had dish transmission facilities were able to watch the transmission of the private channels without any interruption otherwise all the cable operators in the city were told to stop showing the news channels.    

"In this age of technology and information what purpose is the government serving by blacking out news channels. People can still follow the events on the internet and through other means," Nadir Khan, who owns a tea restaurant on Karachi's fleet street complained.
    
He said since the channels started broadcasting news of the impending emergency he had been doing good business but than the news channels were taken off air.
    
Nadia Mistri who had come to attend a wedding at a hall said she was disappointed and depressed with the latest development.
    
"Musharraf is being desperate he should handle such issues politically. He didn't need to do this he is still popular and if he stands in elections he will get our votes," she said.
    
How much of an impact the electronic media has made in Pakistan was visible from the broadcasts available through satellite with most of the channels questioning Musharraf's emergency orders and giving their viewers minute to minute details," she said.

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