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Daughter
of East who befriended West goes down
WSN Bureau
 KARACHI/ISLAMABAD:
Eras have a way of ending; some taper off gradually while some
change in as much time as it takes a shot to fire or a human bomb to
press the button. On December 27, Pakistan watched Benazir Bhutto's
assassination marking exactly such a point. Though it will take some
time for the dispassionate analyses to emerge, in her death, Benazir
lived up to her name. Rarely has the subcontinent witnessed someone
as brave as her who knew death was brushing her by but continued to
stare it in the face, determined to play a role in her nation's
destiny and sure that it was her fate to lead Pakistan.
The
Daughter of the East went down in history as a martyr, and proved
that bravery could be a strain so redeeming that it can force the
world to overlook even her role in backing the Taliban. A son has
risen, and a husband too, after her death. Will it mean a new sun
rise for Pakistan?
Unfortunately, her death was followed by a row over how she went.
Gun shots and human bomb, and then came along an Interior Ministry
spokesperson saying she hit against the sun-roof lever, lost a lot
of blood and that was all. That brought forward people who claimed
they say a bullet wound while the body was being washed. Flip flop
continued from government side.
Now, Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman and husband Benazir, Asif
Ali Zardari, has now said the assassination was an act of followers
of Yazeed’s philosophy. Yazeed was the man whose army killed Imam
Hussain. He has tagged the pro-Mush Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam
as the ‘Qatil League’ and is pressing for holding polls on time. He
has also demanded a UN investigation into the murder.
Meanwhile, twelve members of the US Congress have rejected the White
House contention that Benazir's murder is an internal matter for
Pakistan and have instead urged an international investigation as in
the case of Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri.
In
a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,, they have also
asked for withholding of $50 million aid to Pakistan as decided by
Congress.
The
letter is signed by House of Representative members Steve Israel,
Joseph Crowley, Ron Klein, Carolyn Maloney, James McGovern, Donald
Payne, Adam Schiff, Allyson Schwartz, Brad Sherman, Loretta Sanchez,
Ron Kind, and Adam Smith. Key members of the US House Appropriations
Subcommittee on State and
 Foreign
Operations have threatened Pakistan with more aid cuts if elections
are not held on time.
Dispassionate analysis will also tell us how Benazir carried out his
politics for years from London and Dubai, a study in a fight from
exile, challenging rulers, reorganising and running a party by
remote. For the Diaspora, it will be interesting to know that she
started her political activities from London in 1984 during her
exile, and before returning to Pakistan in 1986, spent most of her
time in London and Dubai. Rehman Malik’s house in London remained
the de facto PPP headquarters during these periods.
US
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already called for
an international investigation into the assassination before
releasing any more aid to Pakistan.
Pakistan is now under extreme internal and external pressures to
reinvent the national polity, for the old directions are dead,
heaped up like fossils of an age gone by on the dung-heap of what
passes for history.
The
military adventurism and the fires of religious extremism are
threatening to result in a failed state.
No
more can the dictator-turned-civilian President Musharraf weave the
different strands of national destiny around his own person.
Pakistan has witnessed over the years the top one per cent of the
population getting richer, leaving other sections of society far
behind; and the gulf between the people and the army widening.
Political arena is marked by a poverty of alternatives. Instinct and
perception will be influencing the way Pakistan goes now.
But
then instability can often be creative and Pakistan will have to
find a window of hope in this chaos. The dangers facing Pakistan are
real. While everyone and his alter ego says that it needs to guard
against the spread of religious militancy, Pakistanis and the world
must realize that the rise of religious militancy is a response to
the failure of the state to protect its democratic ethos. The
country must also weigh its losses and gains in fighting the
Taliban. Pakistan has long been fighting America’s war against its
own people in the tribal areas. War on terror has to have a layered
perspective. A black and white reading only results in the kind of
black Thursday that threatened Pakistan's destiny in as short a time
as it takes to fire a gun, to press a button on a human bomb.
Martyrs such as Shaheed Bhagat Singh and the great Tipu Sultan of
Mysore don’t return from the dead. But their example becomes an
inspiration for those who follow. When the history of Pakistan comes
into its own and in some mound, over which for sure a befitting
monument will be raised, the last remains of dictatorship are buried
— ensuring the fulfillment of that promise which lay behind
Pakistan’s creation — the courage of Benazir will be writ large. As
for a dispassionate view, wait for some time and keep an eye on
Islamabad.
2 January 2008
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