Adil Najam
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated one year ago today, December 27.
I remember being in utter shock when I first heard that news. In some ways I am still in shock. Indeed, as our wall of newspaper covers showed, the whole world was in shock. That shock, I believe, is also still alive.
And, yet, so much – so very much – has changed. An elected government holds power. Benazir Bhutto’s arch-nemesis Gen. Pervez Musharraf is no longer President of Pakistan. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, is. We still do not know who was behind her death, but speculation remains rife. The economy remains in nosedive. An energy crisis is upon us. One Chief Justice still awaits reinstatement. Another is embroiled in scandal. War talk with India on the East is the rage. Drones pound us on the West. And Pakistan continues to lose both territory and citizens to the extremists who continue to wage a war within Pakistan and on Pakistan. Most of all, anger and angst still define the social disposition.
None of this is new. As a re-reading of our review of 2007 would show there is no evidence that 2008 was any more depressing than 2007 was. It just feels that way. Good things have happened (including elections) but so many bad things have piled on that it becomes difficult to remember what they were. Each new day brings new headlines of death, depression and despondency. And each headline chips away at the national psyche. The angst compounds within us. Gloom adds to gloom and the emergent analysis becomes ever more gloomy.
Speculative it surely is, but even if only for speculation’s sake, what if she had not been killed on that fateful day a year ago?
What if she had survived the attack? Would things have been different? Would the nature of the government she would have formed or run have been different from Mr. Zardari’s government? Would Gen. Musharraf’s fate have been different? Would Justice Iftikhar’s fate have been different? Would the pressure on Pakistan from abroad have been different? Would Pakistan’s response to extremists have been different? All of this, of course, assumes that she would have won the elections and assumed power had she lived. But, would even that have been so?
I do not know the answers to any of these. No one does. But a part of me would like to believe (for the sake of my own sanity) that things in Pakistan would, indeed, have been different – and better – if she had not been killed, even if nothing else had been any different from what it is today. Simply, because the blot of her assassination would have been one less stain for our collective soul to cleanse off. And she would still be there to give hope to at least a few!
1- person who had spent most of her life abroad, that is, away from Pakistan
2- could hardly speak URDU which is the national language of the country
3- raised her children abroad as well
CANNOT be sincere to the country or its people.
Those who think otherwise are either living in SELF DENIAL or are ILLITERATES like the majority of the population, or have some vested interests like the corrput stake holders and the politicians of the country.
God save Pakistan!
@Umar Akbar,
Zia ul Haq’s legacy is that despite getting a delayed, orchestrated a grand State Burial in a grand spot in Islamabad he stays almost unnoticed where even the Khakis–his true ‘support base’ don’t bother to organize events. That was after 11 years of absolutely tyrannical rule. His true legacy, however, is agreed upon now: Drug, gun, and jihadi culture which turned a Sufi-oriented Pakistan to a fundamentalist hotbed in a mere decade. His son lost his seat in his home town to PPP candidates in the last elections.
History is sometimes written in front of our eyes. Imagine if ZAB was not judicially murdered in 1979? Would PPP have permanently lost Punjab to these Muslim Leagues so fast? May be. Probably not. And then the BB murder. Next AAZ is in line to be killed. PPP is being dismantled after killing its leadership one after another. The only national level political party of Pakistan is being broken up. What does that mean to the ethnically divided country of Pakistan?
Also, it makes you wonder as to how NS, Imran Khan and almost all others can so proudly and fearelessly address pubic meetings while, for mere ‘corruption’ charges, PPP’s leaders are under mortal threat. Are there no other corrupt ‘leaders’ in Pakistan worthy of being hunted down?!
By the way, those who come here and cheapen the discourse by calling every PPP supporter as ‘Jiyala’ open themselves to being labeled themselves–as the myopic supporters of dictatorships. These people, in their hatred for the Bhuttos, are quite willing to accept even the back-to-square-one Khaki rule. Then they sometimes get tired of the Khaki rule and ask for ‘democracy’.
I support PPP’s right to rule and I am not going to be ashamed of this stand. If, through a constitutional process, this govt. falls and Nawaz Sharif or Imran Khan or Qazi Hussein Ahmad or even Baitullah Mehsud come to power then so be it. So long as rulers can be changed by constitutional processes they are acceptable. Khaki rule is unaccountable and therefore extremely dangerous. Zardari may be jailed, rightly or wrongly, but you can NOT touch Musharraf nor you would be able to touch Kyani who some of you want to come to power in a military coup.
Finally, by all means hold Zardari accountable for any corruption or incompetence. But this automatic suspicion of him being the murderer of BB goes too far. While I don’t rule out anything there are some things which defy logic.
What did Zardari say to Bilawal while they were throwing ‘mitti’ over Benazir while burying her: ‘Son, I have killed your mother. Now you can I can rule Pakistan and become Mr. 200%’. If you guys claim to know so much then I bet Bilawal would know more about any role his own father would have in BB’s murder.
It’s a recurring theme with PPP supporters: Bhutto’s ‘Legacy’, Benazir’s ‘Saga’ and Zardari’s ‘Vision.’
Take any sentence, then add these few words, and voila!, you have a deceptively convincing claim to greatness.
Why not take these same words and apply to others, like: ‘Zia-ul-Haq’s Legacy’, or ‘The Nawaz Sharif Saga’ or ‘Chaudhary Shujaat’s Vision’?
Joseph Goebbels would be proud. :-)
Yes ! things must have been much better, leave other things apart, I talk only about the level of vision and intellect BB had is not found in any leader here at the moment. There must be many people with more intellect and vision but are not leaders.
Word leader means entirely differrent.
@Aqil,
if you’re even half-serious about considering Zardari a suspect, then I must say that this is by far the most ridiculous thing you’ve said on this blog.
If we are to follow this twisted logic, why not also put Bilawal’s name on the prime suspect list? After all, no one paid any attention to him before that, and now he’s heading the only truly national political party in Pakistan.
The idea that you consider accusations against extremist organizations as conspiracy theories is utterly absurd. Is it really too much of a leap to imagine that the groups who proudly claim responsibility of bombing girls schools would be against having a woman as prime minister?
I think this is an example of what is wrong with Pakistan, and the Muslim world at large. We do not think rationally about people; instead, we classify them as either heroes or villains.