Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto emerged in the political arena of Pakistan as a true follower of her great father Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and continued her struggle with unmatched wisdom and political vision.
Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in his lifetime had decided to train and groom his daughter as his heir as he had found in her all political capabilities and abilities. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was sent to Harvard University for higher studies and Oxford, where she was elected as the President of the Oxford Union, the only Pakistani student, proving her unmatched leadership capabilities. She joined the foreign office on her return as an internee to learn foreign diplomacy and meanwhile she also had practical training in media management by working as anchor for sometimes in PTV. She visited various countries with her father and met number of world leaders across the world, and attended national and international events at various forums with her father. She witnessed how her father fought for the cause of the country and how her father reached at and signed the Shimla Agreement with the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on 2 July 1972. She witnessed during the proceedings how prudently her father Shaheed ZA Bhutto articulated the return of 90,000 prisoners of war from India and retrieved back thousands of square miles of Pakistani land.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto remained active and stayed by the side her father to enhance her political skills and to learn the real matchless qualities of leadership of Shaheed ZA Bhutto. Shaheed Z A Bhutto had refused to bow his head before a dictator and we witnessed how Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto followed the footsteps of her father and refused to bow before Gen Zia and other powerful opponents and continued her struggle against him after her father was hanged by the dictatorial regime of Gen. Zia in a flimsy case against him. To block her movement for the restoration of democracy, she, along with her mother were imprisoned and tortured but she did not submit to the wishes of the dictator.
While she, along with her mother and brothers, were in exile, the dictatorial regime of Gen. Zia manoeuvred the murder of her younger brother Shah Nawaz Bhutto in France and made possible the departure of the wife of Shah Nawaz Bhutto from France although she was the main suspect in his murder case. This shock was enough to break anyone but Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto did not budge to the tactics of Gen. Zia regime.
She made a historical come back on April 10, 1986 after more than two years in exile and this historic comeback made her opponent nervous though she had stated that she did not believe in the politics of revenge while she was returning to restore democracy and to work towards the wellbeing of her country. The world witnessed that her arrival in Lahore was unprecedented, which shook the corridors of power in Islamabad. Subsequently she came under the attack of the dictator and other political opponents. She suffered and experienced the worst kind of political victimisation and persecution at the hands of Gen. Zia and his ideological heirs throughout her political life.
Her arrival in April 1986 set the trend in favour of Benazir Bhutto and her foes could not block her struggle by threats, guns, house arrests and all sort of victimisation. The dictator’s nervousness was visible from his announcement with a warning that he would impose martial law to block her way but she ignored all the warnings and threats, and she continued to travel throughout the country and kept on addressing public gatherings in various cities and villages of the country. The world witnessed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto emerging as a stronger and brave leader and hard way of politics and sufferings made her a leader with determination to get the country free of dictatorship and she mobilised the masses for democracy. Her struggle worked and got democracy restored with the power of her people.
The world still remembers her first oath taking ceremony on December 2, 1988 when she became the first woman Prime Minister in the Muslim world. On the occasion she wore a green dress resembling the flag of Pakistan to express her unmatched love for her country. Her strong speech as the first women Prime Minister in the Islamic World is still echoing in the ears of every Pakistani.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’ sculpture in her that green dress is placed in Madame Tussaud’s Museum London in her memory and recognition of her services and to remind the visitors about her charismatic and towering political personality. She is the only political personality from the third world whose incomparable services were recognized universally.
The mind-set of the establishment and her stern opponents did not accept Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and they continued to hatch conspiracies against her. An elite intelligence agency distributed huge funds amongst the opposition politicians to influence the general elections in 1990 against the PPP led by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. The way, she was ousted from power not only for once but twice is a tragic and is a dark chapter of Pakistani history.
It is ironic that during her second stint as Prime Minister, her brother Mir Murtaza Bhutto was mysteriously killed near his house in Clifton, Karachi on 20th September 1996. It was again a conspiracy against her government. After the fall of her government for a second time in 1996, her political opponents who had turned the political differences to a personal enmity implicated her along with her husband in a number of false and frivolous cases. Her successor government influenced and pressurised the judges of the high court to convict her and her husband with a maximum sentence, which was later known as Tape Scandal. When those judges who were instrumental in the conspiracy were confronted with the taped conversation, they had to seek retirement as judges of the Supreme Court. This was the level of justice she got in her life time. No one concerned, apologised from her party for this injustice done against her and her husband.
Despite all tribulations and hindrances, she won a sizable majority while in exile but again the anti-PPP Establishment hammered a conspiracy and created patriots who ditched their leader and joined Dictator General Pervez Musharraf. This was a big jolt for my leader Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and I remember she had called those so called patriots to Dubai where they had given her a commitment that they would not betray her and join General Pervez Musharraf. I feel sorry when I see some of them around even today and remind me of that meeting in Dubai where they had committed to remain loyal with my leader but later the ministerial temptation made them betray their leader.
Eventually PPP lost the chance to form a government because of disloyal patriots. Interestingly, General Pervez Musharraf formed a government by a one-vote majority, which Mr. Zafar Ullah Jamali needed to become prime minister. For the one vote, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) Chief Azam Tariq was released from Adyala Jail and was brought to the National Assembly in order to cast that one crucial vote and in return several SSP prisoners were released in the bargain. This was the beginning of promotion of extremism with political support of the then government.
Shaheed Benazir Bhutto was a unique leader who had in her personality the islamic and eastern values and also had a moderate face for Pakistan. She had a dream of a happy, prosperous and developed Pakistan and she expressed this desire in the last speech of her life. She had foreseen the current deteriorated situation of the world because of increasing extremism and terrorism. She used to warn the world against promotion of the extremism and militancy for any political gain. Once she said, “Extremism today is a challenge. A challenge we must collectively seek to understand and overcome, before it overcomes and consumes us and leaves destruction in its wake”.
In very clear words she had warned the world to not promote extremism and militancy as this was going to become a big monster, which would come to bite everyone. Her prediction turned to be absolutely right, as today terrorism and extremism exist in every society and is biting everyone. “The force of moderation and justice must combine to confront the ugly face of extremism”, she had emphasized to the world. I wish the world had listened to Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and had well understood her vision and today the monster of extremism and terrorism would have not overcome us all.
She continued to struggle for democracy at every forum and I remember her long working and travelling from one country to another delivering lectures and advocating for democracy in Pakistan. She travelled all the way from Thailand to Nigeria to attend a world conference on democracy where she highlighted the importance of democracy. I remember there was a conference of political parties from all over the world in Bangkok where she was invited as a keynote speaker and where she interacted with leaders from across from the world including Sheikh Hasina Wajid. Shaheed Bibi’s speech was full of wisdom, vision, and was highly futuristic for which she received gratitude from every leader of the world and participants. Ms. Hasina Wajid separately sought a meeting with her and I remember how the valuable advice, Bibi gave her on the political situation in her country and worldwide. After becoming Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Ms. Hasina Wajid visited Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and thanked her for the political advices, which Ms. Hasina termed highly important and a guideline. She was the icon of world politics and all of them were impressed with her and always consulted her.
I remember the invitation of Olusegun Obasanjo the President of Nigeria who invited her as a state guest and during the visit he invited her to his residence and introduce her to his family and particularly to his daughter. At the breakfast table the President remarked-looking at her daughter, ”I want you to be like Benazir and emerge as a leader like her”.
She was tireless and consistent in her work and never left today’s work for tomorrow. She used to make her schedule well before time and believed in working for long and consecutive hours. She loved her children and always tried to spend most of her time with them. It was worth noticing her interaction with her children, which was inspiring and full of affection.
I cannot forget those painful movements when she took the last flight of Air Blue from Dubai to Islamabad on 25th December 2007 to attend a public gathering in Peshawar the next day. I feel pained to think as to how the enemies snatched the mother and her unmatched affection from, Bakhtawar and Aseefa while seeing their-mother off with smiles and a lot of courage but with sad sentiments of departure on their faces. She hugged both of them and then while departing she waved from the car to them. For the first time I saw Benazir Bhutto seeing back and waving to her children from the car till the last sight. Those days Chairman Bilawal was in Oxford for his studies and had no idea that a storm of pains would be hurling towards them in just a few hours.
How she worked for the transition of democracy from dictatorship, which is another chapter that I will explain in my upcoming book.
Despite international political pressure, General Pervez Musharraf had spelled out his mind to not to allow Benazir Bhutto to return her to the country. I do remember a conversation between General Pervez Musharraf and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. General Pervez Musharraf said ” Bibi, I expect you to come on 21 December 2007 after election and we will celebrate New Year together”. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto replied ”General, I will choose my timing to come and I will not take your dictation of time of my return, I have promised my people to returned to Pakistan and hence will return per my commitment with my people”.
Obviously it made General Pervez Musharraf dim, as he did not like the response. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has mentioned in her book the number of incidents where General Pervez Musharraf had shown his resentment on her return. It is now an open secret that General Pervez Musharraf had stated that provision of her security will depend on her level of cooperation with him. It was in the background of that mind-set, the regime did not provide her as much security as was provided to the former two Prime Ministers of Pakistan. The inadequate security provided an opportunity to the terrorists to finally succeed in their nefarious designs of elimination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto from the political scene of Pakistan, which conspiracy dates back to 1993 when the operators of Al-Qaeda had planned an assassination attempt on her in Karachi.
Books can be written on Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s tireless services and sacrifices for democracy, people of Pakistan and her country Pakistan but today I would like restrain myself to only pay rich tribute to my great leader and sister whom I witnessed closely as an unmatched personality with unmatched qualities.
I am still optimistic that those who killed her, conspired the attack on her life, abetted the killers and financed and facilitated the criminals will go to the gallows soon meeting their fate .The government of PPP got the dormant case of SMBB transferred from Punjab to FIA. The case was investigated by a high level of JIT and team was able to identify the conspirators, handlers, financier, facilitators and executors. A thoroughly investigated case was presented to the court with available arrested accused. Seven accused were mysteriously killed during the investigation of FIA.
The trial was delayed for 7 years and twenty two days. PPP expects Justice as she was not provided adequate security to as per the blue book being the twice elected PM. In the end I appeal to President Asharaf Ghani to deport Ikram Ullah Massod and the 2nd bomber who did not explode his device and left the crime scene. He is part of the conspiracy of the murder of SMBB and his interrogation is very important. He needs to be interrogated as soon as possible as he is also expected to be blown up by the master mind of SMBB murder.
I also appeal to the President of USA to inform us as to why the only drone in Khyber Agency was carried out on Ibad ur Rehman, the chief handler of murder of SMBB a member of TTP and Al Qaeda. I hope the back ground of this drone attack shall be made public to clear multiple doubts on the only drone used in Khyber where he was the sole target. We had requested earlier to USA authorities but your concerned authorities did not cooperate with the Pakistani government and Pakistani investigators. We are still waiting for the response.
The best tribute to Shaheed Benazir Bhutto today is that her workers should uphold her legacy, staying united to fulfil her dream of happy, progressive and developed Pakistan under the able leadership of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Let us strengthen our party by strengthening our chairman.
Bibi, we salute you and you shall be remembered forever in the history of the world. You are not with us today but your wisdom will continue to guide us to serve the country.
Pakistan Zindabad and Pakistan People Party Paindabad!
The writer is Chairman of think tank Global Eye & former interior minister of Pakistan. He can be reached at rmalik1212@gmail.com, @Senrehmanmalik and @GlobalEye_GSA
Published in Daily Times, December 27th 2017.
