Adil Najam
Whatever her opponents may think of her, Benazir Bhutto was a most recognized and much-loved international figure. An icon in the best sense of the word. The shock of her death – and the manner of her death – was not confined to Pakistan. As comments on our earlier post suggests, in that moment, the entire world stopped in its tracks. It was not just the most tragic of moments, but also a most historic moment.
These are the pictures of the front pages from just a few newspapers from across the United States and across the world. They are but a fraction of the hundreds, possibly thousands, of newspaper front pages that mourned her death. They make a fitting tribute to a woman who served twice as Pakistan’s Prime Minister, but was also a global citizen in heart and in spirit.
Regular readers of ATP know our fascination with newspaper front pages, which we feature often as pictures in our political posts. But credit for this fine collection goes to the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) who have featured this collection (ATP added a few images) on SAJA Forum. My gratitude to them for this, please do visit the SAJA page where you can click on each of the front pages images for more detail in them. Additional images of international newspapers were found at another wonderful post here.
Your readers may be interested in the Blog comments of David Milliband the British Foreign Secretary at
http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/blogs/david%5Fmiliband/
You can submit comments directly to him as well, so if there’s anything anyone wants to say about his policies this is a chance to do so.
Good post. Frontpages of English, Hindi and Urdu newspapers of India are missing. Some of them like Urdu dailies like Hindustan Express Delhi and Etemaad of Hyderabad gave unprecedented coverage and the frontpage was much better than Jang.
As a Pakistani I find it appalling that the media and some people of Pakistan have named Benazir bhutto the so called
oops! its ….Articulate…1st line
She he was an atriculate, charismatic and a courageous woman, who spoke her mind. Whatever her weaknesses and failings, nonetheless she was popular among the masses of Pakistan, in all the four provinces. A woman of conviction, who stood her ground in the face of the fascist military regime…not once but a number of times until the fascist and the reactionary forces got rid of her forever…..May she rest in peace and Allah bless her soul.
Her senseless assassination which caused her untimely departure left many like me shocked and speechless. Regardless of what the technical details of this murder and the direct agent or perpetrator of this criminal and cowardly act, the threads of the conspiracy definitely reach high up. The so-called Islamic fundamentalists and jihadis are only the puppets and hired assassins of reactionary forces that are entrenched in the Pakistani ruling class and the state apparatus, lavishly funded by the Pakistan Intelligence Services (ISI), drug barons with connections with the Taliban.
This murderous onslaught on the PPP came in the middle of an election campaign where, after years of military dictatorship, the masses were striving for a change. There was a wave of support for the PPP, which probably would have won the National and provincial assembly elections that were due to be held on 8 January 2008.
The dictator Zia murdered Benazir’s father but failed to destroy the PPP in the 1980s. The forces of state terrorism murdered Benazir’s brother, Murtazar….blaming her for it. Then they exiled Benazir and installed a new dictatorship. That also, did not prevent the PPP from experiencing a new resurrection when millions of people came onto the streets to welcome her back.
These elements (especially military and intelligence agencies) have always destroyed the picture of popular public figures (leaders and intellectuals alike) by branding them as traitors. They have marred their images with the graffiti of corruption or treason charges which were never completely proved…. as these elements were the real deal makers and still are…..Mr. 10% is more talked about but who gets away with the 90% of the country’s wealth…..was and is never questioned.
People, especially the (middle and upper middle class) are programmed to believe that without the military (rule)