Adil Najam
News is just breaking that former Prime Minister and head of the Pakistan People’s Party, Benazir Bhutto was killed in Rawalpindi in a terrorist attack.
She was gunned down by an assassin who then blew himself up in a suicide attack. This happened at the end of her rally in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi; the same place where Liaqat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s first Prime Minister was assassinated. Major news networks are now reporting that following bomb blasts at Benazir Bhutto’s rally in Rawalpindi, shots were fired directly targeting her. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari says that one of these shots hit her in the neck and killed her.
According to early BBC reports:
Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a presumed suicide attack, a military spokesman has announced on TV. Earlier reports said Ms Bhutto had only been injured and taken to hospital.
Ms Bhutto had just addressed a pre-election rally in the town of Rawalpindi when the bomb went off. At least 15 other people are reported killed in the attack and several more were injured. Ms Bhutto had twice been the country’s prime minister. She was campaigning ahead of elections due in January.
‘She expired’
The explosion occurred close to an entrance gate of the park in Rawalpindi where Ms Bhutto had been speaking. Benazir Bhutto had been addressing rallies in many parts of Pakistan
PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar initially said that Ms Bhutto was safe. But later he told the BBC that Ms Bhutto had died. Another member of the PPP, Wasif Ali Khan, told the Associated Press news agency from the Rawalpindi General Hospital: “At 6:16 pm (1316 GMT) she expired.”
I, like most Pakistanis, am still too numb with shock and grief to think coherently about what has happened or what the implications of this are for the country and for the world. But this I know, whether you agreed with her political positions or not you cannot but be in shock. Even as I type these lines I am literally shaking. Hers was a tragic life story. So tragic that had it not been real no one would have believed it.
At this point all sorts of thoughts float through the politics of this. Why did this happen? Why was it not stopped? What could have been done to stop this senseless murder? Maybe she should not have come back? Who did this? What will this mean for the elections? What will this mean for the PPP? What will this mean for Gen. Musharraf? What will this mean for Pakistan? But all of these are paled by thoughts about Benazir as a person. The woman. The wife. The mother. The human being. What about her?
I have not always agreed with her politically but there was always a respect for her political courage. I had met her many times, first as a journalist covering her when she had just returned to Pakistan in the Zia era and before she became Prime Minister. Later a number of times in her two stints as Prime Minister and thena few times during her exile. In that last period she toll to referring to me as “Professor sahib” and some of our exchanges were more candid (at least on my part) than they had been earlier.
At a human level this is a tragedy like no other. Only a few days ago I was mentioning to someone that the single most tragic person in all of Pakistan – maybe all the world – is Nusrat Bhutto. Benazir’s mother. Think about it. Her husband, killed. One son alledgedly poisoned. Another son assassinated. Daughter rises to be Prime Minister twice, but jailed, exiled, and finally gunned down.
Today, in shock, I can think only of Benazir Bhutto the human being. Tomorrow, maybe, I will think of politics.
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She is history now. She did not know mathematics and the Pakistani nation does not know mathematics as well as psychology to understand their leaders who are corrupt and compulsive liars. They openly launder money and keep them in Western Banks. They buy expensive real estates in foreign countries and openly deny owning them. Western society keeps tab on ownership and keep record of transactions. The Swiss government has indicted the couple and it is public record and still this stupid and brain damaged nation elect them. It is disgusting.
One of Bibi’s very close American friend once sarcastically told me that if your Prime Minister is hired as a Manager of one small Sears Department Store, she will not be able to show profit and will make it go bankrupt. I told him that she is an intelligent and American Educated lady. He retorted and promptly told me that if an Ass goes to Makkah seven times, he will still be an Ass. I did not want to argue further because many of the Westerners who are very close to our leaders have pretty much conception of extent of sincerity of our leaders for their homeland. They are very complacent and are not concerned about how they treat their countrymen as long as they entertain them lavishly as friends.
Allama Iqbal about 100 years ago cited his observation how others perceive Muslims in one of his verse:
Gadar-e-watan kehta hai isay ko Brahman,
Angraiz samjta hai Musalman ko gadagar.
All norms of decency and honesty are compromised and we have become laughing stocks of the world. We still follow the same old beaten path of judging people on the feudal scale.
She was assassinated in front of thousands of people and failed to see the gun man. And requested UN commission to write a report of the incident and paid an hefty sum of money. None of the member of the Commission were present on the scene of the incident and the demography of the area was equally alien to them. How could they write that report? Did the Commission members possess crystal ball? This whole incident reflects the intelligence of the Pakistani decision makers. It is disgusting,
One of the Arabic saying is: A man’s stomach is never filled with greed and fame but with dirt of the grave”. BIBI and her greedy husband had billions stacked but still wished to accumulate more under the guise of serving the down trodden and poor. One of my poet friend described the predicament of BIBI’s incessant penchant for money in one verse: He refused to call her Shaheed:
Dastur-e- Muhabat hee nahi jan sey guzar jana,
Kar jatay hain ye kam kabi ahl-e-habs bee.
It was a greed and nothing else. NRO was not sufficient but NRO plus. Do you need any other evidence, I hope not. If you do then God help you,Pakistan Paindabad
“If you have tears, shed them now” Shakespeare .
I AM VERY IMPESS THE PARSNALITY OF BIBI.HE WAS VERY GOOD POLITITION WOMAN.MUJAY AJ BE UN KA WORD YAAD HAI.JAWAD U KEEP IT.I LIKE
I wonder what BB will make of her party and what it is doing today!
Mush is 100 times to be blamed he was in power
we always love to the great leader and remember her in our soul…..
EVENT MANAGER
Yes,it was a tragedy.But the violence that erupted in the immediate aftermath was equally shocking.So many lives were lost and private property worth billions was destroyed.What was the crime of the people who lost so much in the violence ?
WHAT’S WRONG WITH PAKISTANI SYSTEM, A LEADER WAS MURDERED AND TILL TO DATE NO CASE REGISTERED, NO INQUIRY HELD EVEN THE GOVERNMENT POSITIONS ARE HELD BY PPP, MAY BE PEOPLE IN POWER ARE INVOLVED. I FEEL SORRY FOR PAKISTANI PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO ONE TO LISTEN EXCEPT ALLAH.