LARKANA: Former president and co-chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari is set to make his first major appearance on Tuesday alongside the party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on the ninth death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto after returning from a year and a half self-imposed exile.

Thousands of PPP workers and supporters in caravans are arriving in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, Naudero and Larkana from different parts of the country to pay their tributes to their leader.

Security in and around the stage, the mausoleum and near the main parking area in Naudero has been beefed up with special commandos and police officials deployed along the roads and main entrance points.

Reception camps have also been established. Leaders of the PPP and workers started reaching at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh from Monday afternoon.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah along with his cabinet members arrived at the mausoleum on Monday and checked overall security measurements for the main event today.

Zardari returned to Pakistan from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last Friday amid fanfare. Murad Ali Shah and Yousuf Raza Gilani welcomed him at the Jinnah International Airport Karachi along with PPP’s Qamar Zaman Kaira, Khursheed Shah, Nisar Khuhro, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and others.

“There is a lot of dismay at the moment in the country but I am in Pakistan with a hope,” said Zardari.

In his arrival speech, Zardari had also promised some ‘good news’ to the party workers on December 27 (today), on the occasion of Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary.

It is going to be seen what surprise Zardari has in his kitty to stun his political opponents.

The slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, twice elected prime minister, was killed in a gun and suicide attack after an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. No one has yet been convicted of her murder.