Many regard Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan's best hope to restore democracy
 
LONDON — London's Hyde Park may seem like an odd place to find one of modern history's iconic political figures, but Benazir Bhutto passes time here on warm summer afternoons, strolling through the tree-lined paths, counting out the days of her political exile.

She finds these walks a respite from the frantic pace of her life. Her only lament: park regulations mean she and her three children can no longer feed the swans and squirrels that live in the ponds and oaks.

Her days of wandering the park appear numbered. Ms. Bhutto – leader of Pakistan's largest political party – is positioning herself for a remarkable political comeback, a high-stakes gamble aimed at making her, once again, the most powerful person in her notoriously volatile homeland.

In the eight years since she went into self-imposed exile, hounded by controversy and allegations of corruption, she has carefully plotted her return, staying plugged into the political currents that crisscross the globe in an effort to maintain her influence and profile. That includes frequent lobbying sorties to Washington and London, as well as keeping a firm grip on the political party that holds out the promise of a return to power.

 In Lahore, Pakistan, April 10, 1986,  Benazir Bhutto stands before welcoming crowds shortly after her arrival from exile. Now, in 2007 Ms. Bhutto – leader of Pakistan’s largest political party – is positioning herself for a remarkable comeback. Arthur Tsang / Reuters

In Lahore, Pakistan, April 10, 1986, Benazir Bhutto stands before welcoming crowds shortly after her arrival from exile. Now, in 2007 Ms. Bhutto – leader of Pakistan’s largest political party – is positioning herself for a remarkable comeback.

 

“I find that I have very little time for myself and for my family,” she recently told The Globe and Mail in an interview in her London apartment, speaking in low, measured tones. “I slot in time for everything. I even slot in time for my children, and it really makes me upset. I even slot in relax time and you can't really relax when it's slotted.”

London has played home to many political dissidents over the years. Vladimir Lenin, Napoleon III, Charles de Gaulle and Augusto Pinochet all were exiled in this city at one point or another. Some of these figures made triumphant returns to their homelands, some did not. It remains to be seen under which category Ms. Bhutto will fall as she lays the groundwork for her return and the resurrection of her tragedy-tinged family dynasty.

Her prospects have never been better for a return to Pakistan, where she's seen by many as the best hope to restore freedoms and liberties to the country's besieged democracy.

She's vowed to return before the end of the year, and has met not-so-secretly with Pakistan's current leader, General Pervez Musharraf, to sort out a power-sharing agreement.

The only woman to have governed an Islamic state in the modern era, Ms. Bhutto, 54, was born into one of her country's wealthiest dynasties. She was groomed into politics and attended both Oxford and Harvard. After her father was deposed and executed, she picked up her family's political torch and led Pakistan as prime minister during two terms before being ousted from office.

Her political and personal fall was severe. Her brothers were killed. Her husband was tortured. Her name was tarnished by scandals both inside Pakistan and abroad when she fled her homeland in disgrace in 1999.

“I must confess my life is as difficult as it is interesting,” she wrote in her latest memoir, Daughter of the East. “I live from suitcase to suitcase, travelling the world lecturing on Islam, democracy and women's rights before universities, business associations, women's organizations and foreign-policy think tanks.

“I continue to pound the halls of the House of Commons and Congress.

“I remain the chairperson of the [People's Party of Pakistan].

“I visit my husband, who is having medical treatment in New York. I prepare my children for their exams in Dubai … I lead the combined democratic opposition of the secular political parties of Pakistan.  

“It may seem much too full a plate. But that is the nature of my life, and I accept it.”

In London, Ms. Bhutto works from a fourth-floor apartment decked out with unremarkable furniture near the city's Imperial College. They are humble digs for a woman who, along with her husband, is plagued by charges of money laundering, kickbacks and other corrupt practices in Pakistan.

Though she's comfortable wielding the powers of a world leader, she's not without her weaknesses. It's said her personal library in Dubai houses four shelves devoted to self-help books. A lover of Ben & Jerry's caramel fudge ice cream, chocolate cake and meringues, she keeps her impulses in check by switching from one diet to another. Although, for a treat, she enjoys lunch at Harrods, London's famed department store.

Though much of her professional life is based here, her immediately family is elsewhere. Her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, lives at her part-time residence in Dubai, as do her three teenage children.
 

Ms. Bhutto's eldest son, 19-year old Bilawal, has a keen eye for politics and history, just like his mother, according to her long-time friend and adviser, Wajid Hasan, a former Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom.

But whether Bilawal or his two sisters will follow their mother and late grandfather's path into politics is unclear and Mr. Hasan is quick to point out that Ms. Bhutto's children have endured much of their family's hardships at a very young age.

Asif Ali Zardari, Ms. Bhutto's husband of 19 years, currently lives in New York where he receives medical treatment. He had a heart attack soon after his release from a Pakistani prison in which he was tortured, had his neck slit, his tongue cut and was almost killed.

When not in Dubai with her mother and children, or New York with her husband, she travels Europe, the United States and South Asia on invitation to give talks and attend conferences.

She mixes public engagements with political meetings, recently speaking with congressmen and senators in Washington. Last month, she was the guest of honour at a reception held by the British House of Lords.

She recently spoke to The Globe of the realities of being a female leader in a male-dominated culture.

“There's male prejudice everywhere,” she said, dressed in a casual shalwar kameez. “Every working woman everywhere faces it, and I think, for us women, we just feel that we have to go the extra mile, work harder to prove that we're just as good as men.

“So I work as hard as I possibly can.”
 

That passion has led her to work not only with Gen. Musharraf, but with her former political opponent, Nawaz Sharif – the man in charge of Pakistan when her husband was tortured. He has come to London via Saudi Arabia after falling out of favour with Gen. Musharraf.

Perhaps it's their proximity and mutual plight that has led Ms. Bhutto and Mr. Sharif to join as partners in the quest to return to Pakistan under a coalition government.

“Politics began as a duty for me,” she said. “My father used to say that politics was a romance for him, a romance with the people of Pakistan. For me, politics was a duty but now it has become a passion.”