Benazir’s unfinished agenda

On the longest day of the year 1953 was born Pakistan’s most dynamic leader Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. Had she been alive today she would have been 64, leading Pakistan as a front rank country onto pastures new, playing a lead role in the comity of nations, respected and held in awe by others. Her assassination was yet another colossal tragedy like that of her father’s judicial murder by General Ziaul Haq that dealt an irreparable blow to Pakistan. It was a combination of an insatiable lust for power of General Pervez Musharraf -with religious militants in cahoots-to assassinate Pakistan’s most outstanding leader. Benazir’s murder snatched from the people hope of a better future.

It was no insignificant coincidence that she was murdered at the same location where Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was shot in a public meeting by an Afghan Pathan in 1951. It is alleged that as in case of murder of Liaquat Ali Khan, the plotters used Afghan Taliban killers for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. And not far away from this spot in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, another prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was- martyred on April 4, 1979 to give comfort to General Ziaul Haq—the father of all religious bigotry, extremism, sectarianism, ethnicity, parochialism, who pitched one Muslim against another so that divided people could not challenge his hold on power. 

The curse that Zia was continues to have its deep ramifications in various manifestations in all walks of our life rendering it short, brutish and nasty. His political heirs have rendered all state institutions into mocking birds, ineffective, helpless and ridiculous though with lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. Just look around at the state of affairs, government of the day has left no stone unturned to undermine judiciary and the Praetorian establishment as reflected in the diatribe indulged in by Senator Nihal Hashmi against the judiciary and Dawn leaks that led to clear gun-point indictment of three of the top functionaries of the government. When the rulers are judicially branded as godfather, Al-Capone and Pablo Escobar and their state management as of Sicilian mafia— there should not be any doubt that there is something terribly rotten in the state of Denmark. 

I was wondering whether we have a face and courage to pay tribute to martyred Benazir Bhutto on her 64th birthday anniversary. Have we done her any proud to her sacrifice in blood? Most certainly not! She dared to return home despite threats of the General in power and his rent-a-jihadi supporters that she would be eliminated the moment she steps onto Pakistani soil. Yet she did come back-all friends and supporters-opposing her return. She took the plunge as she believed that it is only worthwhile to do or die for the cause that one believed in. She returned to singe military dictator’s beard in his den.

With no emotional control over myself— to write or not to write—it was difficult to pen my painful note in her memory. I heard her calling upon all those who cared for her and her Pakistan to save the country from going to dogs. I can recall her words- “did I and thousands of others sacrifice their lives, walked to gallows, faced long and torturous incarcerations at the hands of dictators usurping democratic rights of the people with their naked bayonets and lethal bullets - deserve to be pushed back into dark ages? Its time for the nation to wake up from its deep slumber and save Pakistan from being submerged by a deluge- by getting tougher as challenges are enormous and our internal and external enemies too formidable. We have not only to revert Pakistan to the liberal, secular and democratic vision of the Quaid and martyred Zulfikar Ali Bhutto but to protect our pristine Islam - a religion of peace-from the horde of suicidal terrorists.”

Indeed, it is time for decisive actions. Her sacrifice in blood no doubt got us back democracy in 2008. However our march onward remains on roller-coaster. Current rulers have rendered Parliament toothless, weakened other institutions, the hydra-headed evil of corruption is the favourite tool of those usurping the power of the state rendering democratic applecart under threat of sudden disruption. Media being not too kind to democracy as reflected in its venomous hostility, dubious players in the field hopefully banking on umpires to raise their finger and terrorists out there to devour us-we don’t know who is coming or going.

People have been perforce divided. There is total polarisation and regional compartmentalisation of politics, weakening of national political parties by conjured shifting of loyalties at the behest of invisible forces—all put together do not sound good for democracy for which Benazir Bhutto struggled all her life.

Just when she was to return to Pakistan she was profoundly perturbed by the state of economy, menacing threat of Talibanisation, growing economic and political polarisation, the plight of the poor and lack of services to the have-nots. She was not hesitant to confess that problems faced by Pakistan were Herculean and to her, these could only be grappled by the wisdom of the collective leadership and best brains in the country within the framework of a strong democracy. Instead of following this road map, incumbent rulers have by their contempt for the Parliament given enormous space to extra-constitutional forces just for the taking.

Benazir Bhutto had a grasp of multifaceted global issues and domestic problems including terrorism. She was workaholic. Work and more work, education and more education-were her weapons. Service nothing but service to the people was her motto, empowerment of the less privileged, men, women, children and minorities-was her life-long mission. Rightful place, unshackling the poor and the deprived from the stranglehold of exploiters-was her unfinished agenda. Democracy for her was a means to a larger end-the greatest good of the largest number. Her vision was pluralistic and democratic Pakistan where all its citizens were to be equal, free to practice their religions and the state was to be secular in governance. That is what Pakistan’s founder Quaid-e-Azam wanted. It was clearly manifested in his August 11, 1947 speech in which he was categorical that Pakistan would neither be a theocratic state nor religion shall have anything to do with the business of the state.

Regretfully our current rulers cannot detach from running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. It is time they abandoned forces of bigotry hiding in their closets, punish extremist like Maulana Aziz, Hafiz Saeed and declare their adherence to Quid’s vision of Pakistan and not what the clerics force upon them by their blackmail. Surrendering to them would be Talibanisation of Pakistan-a sure recipe for the denouement of the state that was to be a democratic model for the Muslim Ummah.

Though our rulers look good in western suits, internally they are party to a systematic induction of an oppressive way of life that the religious militants believe. They must understand what Benazir observed in her last book that the Taliban had “twisted the values of a great and noble religion and potentially set the hopes and dreams of a better life for Muslims back a generation.” Muslims, she believed “became (al-Qaeda’s) victims too.” She regretted that Islam’s egalitarian traditions were constantly hijacked by the despotic Muslim rulers/dictators who reduced religion to a tool to consolidate their hold on power. Her observations in “Reconciliation” are true manifestation of the real spirit of Islam as reflected in the concept of Ijtehad. As a befitting tribute to her we need to reiterate the Quran’s message of peace and tolerance and not let it drown in a sea of extremism.

  (The author is a former High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK and a veteran journalist)