A visit to Kent by former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto gave trainee reporter Luke Hollands the chance to get an exclusive interview – and claim a scoop in the process.

Medway Messenger journalist Luke has only been in the job for four months but jumped at the chance of a face-to-face interview with Bhutto, who revealed plans to return to Pakistan for a power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf a week before the national media picked up on the story.

Luke, (23), spoke to the ex-PM while she was in Rochester to give a talk as a guest of Medway Conservative Cllr Reh Chishti, who until recently was a political adviser to the Pakistani politician.

Luke said: “It’s not often that you get to interview a world statesman on a local paper, so when I was asked to report on Benazir Bhutto’s visit to Medway I jumped at the chance.

“It was a thoroughly interesting interview and I was extremely impressed at the ease with which she answered my questions.”

Benazir Bhutto with Cllr Reh Chishti

He added: “Local papers are often thought of as parochial, but in this case I was able to unveil Ms Bhutto’s plans of returning to Pakistan at least a week before the national media.

“This proves yet again that the local press is often first at breaking national, or even global, stories.”