It has been one week since one of the greatest tragedies of our era has happened - The martyrdom of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. The repercussions and implications of the event are yet to get completely unfolded. The immediate results are the postponement of the election date at Pakistan from 8th January to 18th February, and more importantly the anointment of the young Bilawal Bhutto Sardari, son of Benazir Bhutto, as the Chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the most popular political party in Pakistan.
The life of Benazir Bhutto is in itself the tale of the troubled history of Pakistan, a country mired with Islamic extremism, xenophobia towards Indians and India, high handedness of the military, military coups, and clumsy economic development. Benazir, which means without comparison/unique in Urdu, was born in a very affluent landowning family in the Sindh province of Pakistan in 1953 and her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had served as the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan. She had a privileged childhood with her school education from the Jesus and Mary Convent School in the Punjab province and her college education from the Harvard University and the Oxford University. During her days at Oxford she was known for her oratory skills and was a regular participant in the debating competitions and was also the first Asian woman President of the Oxford union. After her studies she returned to Pakistan in 1977 to pursue a career in the foreign services, but fate had something else in store for her. In 1979, Zulfiqer Ali Bhutto was executed by Gen.Zia-ul-Hag who had usurped the power from Mr.Bhutto through a military coup. Benazir was also arrested and was put into house arrest and then into jail. She was released in 1984 but she went to exile in Britain and later came back in 1986 after the martial law was lifted in Pakistan. She organized civil disobedience movements against the General and came to power in the general elections of 1988 after the death of General Zia-ul-Haq. After that she had been the Prime Minster of Pakistan for two times and both times her ministry had been dismissed by the President using the controversial powers vested on him by the article 58-2 B of the Pakistan constitution. Again she went into self imposed exile in 1999 and came back to Pakistan in October 2007 and was killed in December 2007.
There are conflicting and contrasting opinions on the attitude Ms.Bhutto had on India and how she handled the Islamic extremists and the ISI which were always against India. And there were always criticism against her on corruption and her husband Mr.Asif Ali Zardari was notoriously called Mr.10 percent for his alleged skimming off commissions for all Government projects. And it was always these allegations of corruption which had resulted in her downfall from the post of Prime Minister both times when she held that position. But what should interest us is not what her flaws were, but what legacy she had left behind for Muslim women, political leaders, human rights activists and the general public at large.
One can only get amazed on the bravery this woman politician had shown to come back to Pakistan under such a chaotic situation, particularly so when we compare her with other of her contemporary politicians. There are some odd views that she had risked her life and came back to Pakistan for the love of power, for the confidence that she can make it big this time in the elections and thus regain her political power back from the General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf. But the bravery and audacity that she showed to risk her life for uplifting the values of democracy, has to be appreciated. Whatever may be the political situation in Pakistan, one cant help but say that Ms.Bhutto would have been the best bet for Pakistan and the international community, as the Prime Minister. This is strictly because of her undoubted belief in the tenets of democracy, irrefutable hostility towards extremism, her unusual political will and her strong conviction on economic justice as the sole factor behind the socio-economic development of a nation.
She had always been the target of the extremists and the military backed ISI and they always took umbrage at her deeds because she had the political will to make moves against them and the courage to challenge the very fanatic idealogy which represented them. Ms.Bhutto would have been an ideal person to counter the terrorism pronounced by the extremists and the covert attempts of the ISI to scuttle the peace and tranquility of India and other nations facing the military backed religious extremism emerging out of Pakistan. No wonder why the United States was so much interested in manipulating a deal between Musharraf, their long time non-NATO ally on the war on terror and Ms.Bhutto, whom they consider the only populist liberal leader of the second largest Muslim country in the world.
Ms.Benazir Bhutto was a pretty much a complex human being with enormous bravery born out of her intriguingly complex life which witnessed unusual deaths of her father and two younger brothers. Her political background, made strong by her all powerful second name 'Bhutto', her oratory skills, which she cultivated during her stay at Harvard and Oxford and her striking appearance gave her a larger than life image and a mass appeal among the people of Pakistan. She was the only person who would have given the Pakistan the right path towards democracy, where there is less intervention of the military, where there is social justice and economic development and above all a peaceful co-existence with the international community jettisoning the tag of being the "most dangerous place on earth." But now, with her demise Pakistan's worst fears are here to stay and it would be still in political turmoil, economic backwardness, human rights desertion and be the devil's own land of Islamic extremism and lunatic terrorism endangered by the senseless military and the rogue intelligence services.
It is the greatness of the gallant, though flawed Ms.Bhutto that the fate and fortune of her country is very much in association with her own fate and fortune and now it is up to the Pakistanis to work towards upholding Mohtarma's vision of a democratic Pakistan by participating in the election en masse and putting Pervez Musharaff and his autocratic, outrageous rule into distant oblivion and dumping his King's Party, the PML(Q) into the debris of forgettable history . One can only hope with good heart that her country would not face the tragic end that she had faced in the hands of the enemies of mankind who are the merchants of death, destruction, carnage and utter chaos. (Here, I sincerely thank Ms.Sonia Gandhi for providing us with the expression "merchant of death" which I've used here with her unconditional generosity and largesse.)
Long Live Mohtarma Benazir's aspirations of true democracy.
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