Transition from ‘Pinky’ to ‘Mohtarma’

Perhaps after Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan, Pakistan in its twisted history of the last 75 years has produced only two political leaders, who were not born and bred in the lap of the ‘Establishment’. The first was Benazir Bhutto and the second is Imran Khan.

The latter’s name is admittedly not as ‘clean a claim’ as Benazir’s is. Even Benazir’s father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) who again on his own merit went on to become the most popular leader of West Pakistan, was raised , nurtured and modelled by the ‘Establishment’. Sadly, when ZAB emerged as a true democrat, representing the underprivileged, the downtrodden and the poor, he began to be their voice and began to exert influence upon his ‘nursery’ for the cause of the people, and that’s when he ran into troubled waters.

An act, considered political heresy, by the powers be. A revolt. A rebellion. When he began a serious quest to abandon his nursery and sought independence from its lap, he was sent to the gallows by the ‘establishment’, with a compliant judiciary in full attendance to the dance of death.

Benazir Bhutto did inherit politics in her bloodstream, but it was also the emergence of unforeseen political developments that almost catapulted her into dirty politics, without having time on her side to learn the ropes of the game. She was barely 26 years of age when the military dictator, who had earlier deposed her illustrious father, arrested her, firstly within the precincts of her residence and later in regular confinement, he kept transferring her from one notorious jail to another.

Pakistan had not witnessed a hero like Z. A. Bhutto with such daunting magnetism until 1986, when this ‘ Daughter of the East’ decided to take on the dictator after having been for years in the wilderness of political exile. In 1988, following the death of General Zia in an air crash, she was elected to the office of the Prime Minister. This was no mean feat; she became the first female Muslim prime minister.

Benazir did not merely inherit the mantle of political leadership from her father, but she also inherited his intellect, political foresight, acumen, sagacity and wisdom — all of these traits she needed most in dealing with the ageing ‘ Uncles’ of her party, who were mostly twice her age or at least were a decade older than her. She had rid herself of them in quick time.

Unlike the recent ‘heirs’ who have received inheritance of what the decedents possessed, that is intellectual bankruptcy, Benazir was fortunate to receive intelligence. In fact it is safe to call this lot as “beneficiaries” rather than heirs. Benazir had arrived from being “Pinky” (so nick named by her loving father) to being “Mohtarma”, a respected form of address, she earned from the masses.

If it is not easy to lead a life for a female in this land of pure, then one can only imagine how much more compounded would have been her predicament to seek an office designed by the ‘Establishment’ to be held only by males; though constitutionally, there was no prohibition.

The political opponents could not come to terms that a “female” could assume the office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and that too at a politically tender age of 34 years. They resisted. They criticised. She was maligned publicly. She was shamed along with her mother for possessing liberal, moderate and non- conservative political thought and social behaviour.

Regrettably and unfortunately, today her Party members and off-springs as well sit together and break bread with those who were the cause of torment and emotional distress to Benazir. These very elements vilified her character. They had edicts issued against her and Nusrat Bhutto, both of whom had stood like the Rock of Gibraltar against the military dictatorship.

Several controversial pictures, all doctored, of both these graceful ladies were scattered over the plains of Punjab, using (albeit illegally) an official helicopter. Politics is dirty, but, in our country, it is also the ‘filthiest’.

Being a novice in handling statecraft, she fell victim to machinations of palace intrigues and was unceremoniously dismissed on trumped up charges of corruption. With a combative personality inherited from her father, she again achieved the impossible by being voted in as Prime minister twice. But she was compelled and was sent packing by her own trusted and handpicked President. The politicians who had appeared to be her close associates tormented her the most, forcing her to go into self-exile for eight long years.

In my assessment as an uninitiated student of history and politics, Benazir Bhutto made the colossal mistake of signing the “charter of democracy “. It served no purpose, except convenience — more for her opponents, than her own self or the Party. She inadvertently gave space to her political rivals and in the process lost the bastion of power — the province of Punjab.

ZAB, her father, was more popular in Punjab than in the other provinces of Pakistan. After her, the Party relies on the dogma that, ‘ politics is the art of the possible’ — an extremely sad positioning for a party whose chairman went bravely to the gallows for upholding principles.

Benazir on unsound advice of the many checkmated President Gen Musharraf, who had given her reprieve, and returned to Pakistan against the agreed formula. She was a brave lady, but like all populous politicians was gullible. She yielded to the pressure despite her spouse being against the move. General Musharraf as President and Benazir Bhutto as Prime minister would have made a formidable and excellent combination, but that was not to be — Destiny had other plans for both.

Many decades back her father had written: “A politician must be patient and must also dare. At times it is not patience but risk and daring that are required. But the risk and daring must not smack of adventurism because it is fatal to play with the future of a whole people who repose confidence in their leaders”

A bold daughter of a brave father, she remained undeterred by the blast on October 18th, 2007 that welcomed her back. She survived. She remained earnest to her gruelling election campaign but got carried away with emotion while leaving Liaqat Bagh; her decision to respond by going up the hatch to her enthused supporters proved fatal.

She forgot her father’s words about the fine line between ‘daring’ and ‘adventurism’. The shortcomings of the dead must be consigned to the lowest dungeons of memory and only the positive side should be remembered and broadcasted.

Death is terrifyingly awesome in its finality and only a chosen few are rewarded with the glory of martyrdom — Benazir was one of them when she fell to a coward’s bullet. Life laid in service of the nation.

A decade and five years have elapsed. Benazir, however, will continue to live and rule the hearts of millions of her supporters.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022