Benazir Bhutto’s foreign policy during her two tenures in power - from 1988 to 1990 and then from 1993 to 1996 - is somewhat complicated. The directions it took are not easy to characterise, possibly because they did not stem from some deep ideological roots or a particular mission as a leader. While she was widely regarded as liberal and progressive, especially in the West, this was not always the way she chose to describe herself. In her handling of the national economy for example, Benazir an economist herself, admired the privatisation-led policies of Margret Thatcher and made no effort to break from efforts to emulate them, especially after her first term in office. Instead, she broke away from the ‘socialism’ her father said he stood for.

Her foreign policy aims were also informed by an obvious desire to remain in power and the consequent need to appease the powers that ensured that she was able to do. Unlike her father, she was not willing to break with these powers or defy them when they demanded something of her. Given the baggage of the 1980s, she understood that this was the way things were run in Pakistan. This was especially true after the experience of her first tenure, during which she did take on the ISI as it intervened on the side of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Benazir had replaced the high profile ISI chief Hamid Gul and made it clear that she did not support the idea of a Taliban government in Afghanistan, which at that time was led by a socialist set-up.

Later, however, it became more difficult and perhaps more complicated for her to continue to pursue such ideas. As her experience grew, she learned that staying in power was important for a great many reasons. Her detractors would allege that these included a desire to accumulate wealth through illegal means. When she returned to power in 1993, she had a different approach to strategy.

During her first period in office, she was seen as being ‘soft’ towards India. She seemed to get along well with Rajiv Gandhi, then premier of India. She was later to attend his funeral when he was assassinated. The two leaders had agreed to take a step back on their nuclear programmes and to try and set up a nuclear-free subcontinent. The initiative did not survive long and Benazir later pursued the aim of weaponising the country’s nuclear capability stating, in 1996, that if India used its nuclear power programme to develop a weapon, Pakistan would do the same.

One of Benazir’s advantages as a diplomat was her image in the West. Educated at Harvard, and then Oxford, Benazir Bhutto could easily mingle with the Western elite, including the leaders of the US and the UK. Though the US governments did not always support her policies or her governance, she did find support among US legislators almost every time she visited the country. There were several visits to the United States during her period in office and President Bill Clinton agreed to lift some of the sanctions that had previously been imposed on Pakistan for supporting militancy.

She also charmed other leaders around the world, including those in Europe, and through them was able to build a better image for Pakistan than Nawaz Sharif or the dictators who at various times led Pakistan. In her own country, she was opposed by hard-line supporters of militants, who also protested against her in the West and by extremist religious leaders, who insisted a woman could not be the head of an Islamic Republic. She resisted the pressure and made it a point, like her father before her, to establish good ties with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and most other countries in the Islamic bloc. Early in her tenure in office, she also had good ties with President Gaddafi of Libya and ignored Western pressure to break away from this relationship as Gaddafi had been a staunch supporter of her father.

A lack of ideological conviction meant that Benazir followed no definite foreign policy. She did succeed, however, in improving Pakistan’s image in many countries, notably in the West, as a woman, and as a leader, with clearly progressive and mainly secular ideas about how nation states should be run. This stood her in good stead on many occasions. She made friends among top journalists and top leaders, which helped her pursue her ideals. She however angered some in the Islamic world with rumours that she had considered recognising Israel, perhaps under pressure from the US and other leaders during the 1990s. But beyond that, her main role was that of a strong diplomat for Pakistan. She was however, a diplomat whose relationship with various countries often fluctuated as it did with India. There was hostility during her period in power with Narasimha Rao, the then premier of India, in contrast to her relationship with earlier Indian leaders. There was also tension on the border between the two nations. Apart from this, she did attempt to establish better ties with Afghanistan and most importantly, to show the world that Pakistan was a progressive country, on its way to global success.

The author, a freelance analyst, is a former editor of The News