Remembering Benazir Bhutto

The brutal assassination of Benazir Bhutto 15 years ago was carried out for resisting the agenda of terrorists and making Pakistan a moderate, democratic and prosperous state. She waged a struggle against all the military rulers and faced numerous hardships in her political and personal life with courage.
During the decade of democracy (2008-18), and since the ouster of the Imran Khan-led government – through a no-confidence motion on April 9, 2022 – economic hardships for citizens, especially the less privileged, have been increasing with every passing day. The prevailing political impasse, grave economic crisis and reluctance to hold early elections are posing a serious threat to the state’s viability. Had Benazir been alive, things would have been much different.

As the nation faces extreme financial difficulties, political parties instead of joining hands to overcome the crisis are fighting over non-issues and protecting their interests. They are perpetuating political instability, antagonism and intolerance among the people. They are not even ready to resolve differences through dialogue and forge a consensus on fundamental issues relating to elections, national sovereignty and security – for which economic self-reliance is a prerequisite. In these circumstances, many believe that early elections, together with a charter of economy, is the only viable solution.

It is an irrefutable fact that since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007, Pakistan has repeatedly found itself trapped in dreadful conflicts. The prevailing volatile economic situation, political deadlock and attacks on our valiant armed forces and civilians by militants pose serious challenges for the state. At this point, we need national cohesion and political maturity to climb out of this mess.
It needs to be remembered that our armed forces and other law enforcement agencies provided much-needed peace after years of upheavals through relentless struggle, dedication and great sacrifices. However, it appears that the politicians have again failed to learn lessons from history and are engaged in mudslinging and creating a situation that is detrimental to our economic survival. There is national consensus about all major political parties in Pakistan, even after more than 14 years of continuous civilian rule, have failed to produce the kind of leadership that could pull the state out of the prevailing socio-economic and political mess.

The Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s (PPP) five-year rule under Asif Ali Zardari irreparably damaged Bhutto’s progressive party – corruption reached new heights, mal-administration spread like wildfire, law and order deteriorated, institutional confrontation accelerated and peoples’ economic woes multiplied. The trend set by the PPP further accelerated under the third-time elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif – later disqualified by the Supreme Court and convicted by an accountability court. During the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) rule, Pakistan was caught in a deadly debt trap and inched closer towards economic insolvency besides creating institutional rifts. Nawaz Sharif, presently in London, allegedly dictates all the major decisions being taken by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who heads the current coalition government.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) during its rule also proved that it neither possessed any pragmatic programme, nor competent people to solve the fundamental problems faced by Pakistan. The current government is also marred by bad economic governance, hyperinflation and inability to ensure economic viability of the country, besides other failures.

In today’s Pakistan, there is not a single leader who matches Benazir Bhutto’s vision and struggle to make Pakistan domestically strong, so that our voice is heard internationally on issues like the Indian forces’ unprecedented brutalities in IIOJK as well as inside our beloved motherland.

The past efforts of the PML-N, PTI, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and other political parties of reaching a ‘truce’ with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terrorist outfits miserably failed. The PTI, after sharing power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the JI, and having a soft corner for the TTP, invoked the wrath of the militants and lost many people, such as law minister Israrullah Gandapur. Ultimately, the armed forces with great determination and sacrifices uprooted the strongholds of the TTP and other militant and separatist groups during Operation Zarb-e-Azb – launched on June 15, 2014 – and Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad – in February 2017.

Unfortunately, the TTP and other militants have regrouped and started carrying out attacks. There have been many cross-border firing incidents as well as a bomb attack on Pakistan’s mission in Kabul and elsewhere under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In the prevailing circumstances, all political parties must ignore all their differences and support the armed forces in protecting the country’s national security. The recent disclosure of India sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan must be taken up at the international level, to prove that Pakistan is a continuous victim of cross-border violence.

It is an established fact that the successive governments made no efforts to punish the people responsible for Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. The verdict announced by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in the Benazir Bhutto murder case after about 10 years of her assassination – on August 30, 2017 – acquitted five TTP suspects (Aitzaz Shah, Sher Zaman, Abdul Rasheed, Rafaqat Hussain and Hasnain Gul). The court announced 17-year imprisonment for two police officials (CPO Rawalpindi Saud Aziz and SP Khurram Shahzad Haider), who were later granted bails. The ATC judge, in his 34-page detailed verdict mentioned that the two senior police officers showed “criminal negligence” by removing Bhutto’s security, destroying key evidence, and allowing the crime scene to be washed merely hours after the attack.

Many analysts believe that a lack of action against militants in the wake of Benazir’s assassination ultimately culminated in one of the most wanton incidents in human history, when on December 16, 2014 seven TTP terrorists launched an attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, killing 150 students and staff members and wounding many others.

Michiko Kakutani, American writer and retired literary critic wrote on February 19, 2008: “In Ms Bhutto’s new book, ‘Reconciliation’, a volume she finished days before she was killed, she lays out her vision of Islam as “an open, pluralistic and tolerant religion” that she says has been hijacked by extremists, and her belief that Islam and the West need not be headed on a collision course toward a “clash of civilisations”.

In her book Benazir has quoted extensively from the holy Qur’an to prove that Islam is a religion of peace, but has been brutally abused by a handful of extremists throughout Muslim history to create chaos and disorder. She has traced the factors behind militant Islam and exposed the colonial and neo-colonial forces promoting and encouraging it. These views must have annoyed the forces that want to keep the Muslim world divided.
Heraldo Munoz, a lead United Nations (UN) investigator probing Benazir’s assassination, in his book ‘Getting Away with Murder: Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination and the Politics of Pakistan’ doubts that the banned TTP independently carried out the attack. He does not discount suspicions about the involvement of intelligence operatives in her murder and the covering up of evidence. He expresses fears that the murder will remain unsolved because of the government’s lack of capacity and will.

“In Bhutto’s case, it would seem that the village assassinated her: Al-Qaeda gave the order; the Pakistani Taliban executed the attack, possibly backed or at least encouraged by elements of the establishment; the Musharraf government facilitated the crime through its negligence; local senior policemen attempted a cover-up; Bhutto’s lead security team failed to properly safeguard her; and most Pakistani political actors would rather turn the page than continue investigating who was behind her assassination,” Munoz observes.

After Benazir’s assassination, according to Dr. Sachithanandam, “politically challenged Pakistani liberals were utterly incapable of comprehending the geo-strategic context in which Benazir maneuvered to defend Pakistan’s interest”. So they slandered her, alleging Musharraf caved in to the US pressure and withdrew support to the Afghan Taliban in the wake of 9/11, when in fact “he [Musharraf] removed one excuse for the Bush Administration to ‘bomb Pakistan into stone age’, as a senior state department official had threatened”. This explains why Benazir decided to support Musharraf to resist the agenda of “neocolonialists”, as their dissatisfaction “with Musharraf’s government was palpable by late 2003, after he dodged committing Pakistani troops to prop up the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq,” Dr. Sachithanandam added.

Even after 15 years of the tragic loss of Benazir, our system has failed to punish her real assailants and unveil the forces behind her assassination.

Benazir was fully aware of the New Great Game that was launched to contain growing Russian and Chinese influences in Central and West Asia, and economically muzzle the Muslim nuclear state. Till her assassination, Benazir resisted this agenda. Her legacy should be followed by all, irrespective of their political affiliations, against all militant outfits and groups, and those bearing Hindutva ideology.

Benazir, as the leader of the underprivileged, will always live in their hearts. If the country is to be rid of economic subjugation and its security and sovereignty protected then all political parties must follow the legacy propounded by Benazir in her last book. The present political leadership must work to unite the nation to counter the forces of terrorism, bigotry, extremism, fanaticism and fascism.

The writer is a Advocate Supreme Court, has been studying the linkages of heroin trade with terrorism since 1980