It has been ten years now that martyred Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in the garrison town of Rawalpindi — nearer to the spot where Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liquat Ali Khan was shot dead and a little further away where Pakistan’s only elected prime minister — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto — was hanged by a military dictator on the trumped up charge of murder. These three un-natural deaths sum up Pakistan’s chequered history — each had a fall out worst than the previous. Benazir Bhutto seems to be the one that happened yesterday. However, its traumatising impact continues to reverberate in Pakistan’s polity as well she is missed globally. British Prime Minister Theresa May in her address to the 72nd annual session of the United Nations reminded of her. “This year is the tenth anniversary of the death of Benazir Bhutto who was brutally murdered by people who actively rejected the values that all of us here at the United Nations stand for….” Indeed, only a leader of Benazir Bhutto’s courage could have taken on the challenge posed by the extremists to global peace. While world’s future has passed into the hands of a leadership that only knows how to bask in a cauldron of uncertainties created by it, Pakistan is not better than she had left. Rather its future seems to be as unpredictable as it was under dictatorship. Having singed the dictator in his den, election in 2008 was the price she had to pay with her blood. Another election around the corner, events in the country starting from the Panamagate, disqualification of an elected prime minister by the Supreme Court followed by confrontation with the judiciary on the issue of what the ruling party and Sharif family thinks ‘questionable judgements’, there naturally is a big question mark whether there would be yet another elected government or not. Notwithstanding the pious note of commitment to democracy by army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa in his Senate briefing, one cannot rule out the eventuality of a situation that could lead to an out of box action. There is no doubt that Nawaz Sharif and his party by their lack of interest in Parliament, abdicated enough space to those elements who would rather see umpire raise his finger. Despite PML-N’s betrayals, it must thank its stars that Pakistan’s other major political force — the PPP and its leader Bilawal Bhutto — are not giving up their principled stand that PML-N government must complete its tenure. British Prime Minister Theresa May mentioned BB in her address to the 72nd annual session of the United Nations, saying ‘This year is the 10th anniversary of the death of Benazir Bhutto who was brutally murdered by people who actively rejected the values that all of us here at the United Nations stand for….’ Bhutto died for a pluralistic democratic society, governed on the basis of equality and social justice with religion being a private affair. Unfortunately whatever she, her father or the founder wanted Pakistan to be — have been rendered into unachievable goals. Instead of sustaining empowerment of the underprivileged including women and converting Pakistan into a secular polity, there is serious talk of mainstreaming terrorists who were responsible for bombing of our children, killing of the soldiers and people at large — nearly 80,000. Emergence of Milli Millat Party (MMP), Labaik Party, Pervez Musharraf’s 23-party alliance and revived MMA — are ominous signs. Why do they smell of rat is simple. It has something to do with politics of engineering by powers that be. I had originally planned this article to be a tribute to the memory of Bibi especially of my association with her for nearly 35 years. She was assassinated when Pakistan needed her most — for its very survival. And this was the reason that she shrugged aside with contempt — the threats of death to her. I can never forget her words before she left for Pakistan. While lot of her supporters and admirers were listed to accompany her I was not. Intrigued I was and before I could question her she had the answer for me. “No I don’t want you to accompany me as something horrible is going to happen to me.” Conversation revealed that she was under death threat but she was determined to go back to her people waiting for her. Dictator General Musharraf had repeatedly told or conveyed to her what was in store for her. She, however, believed that “the path we choose will determine the outcome of the battle between extremism and moderation. By empowering the people and building political institutions, we can prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a nation can only be won in democracy and not through barrel of the gun.” When I tried to dissuade her she looked at me pensively and said — “which death would be better — to be run over by a double decker bus while crossing the road or to die for the cause you have all your life struggled for. We must die for the cause we lived for.” I tried to argue her out but she wouldn’t listen. Her faith in the people was reflected when she said: “I am confident about the future of Pakistan. I believe that a nation that is inspired by democracy, human rights and economic opportunity will turn its back decisively against extremism. I look forward to the day that a truly democratic Pakistan, unhindered by extremists and military rule, takes its place on the world stage” were some of her last words. Once discussing the extremist threat to Pakistan’s liberal and secular agenda, growing intolerance and use of such elements by the Establishment, I found her to be under no disillusions. Her view was religious forces in Pakistan could be a physical threat but politically marginal. Whether it were Barelvis or Deobandis — it didn’t matter. Had they a vote bank all the religious parties put together would have captured the parliament. She was of the view that the Barelvis, Deobandis and others clobbered together by Pervez Musharraf even then he had to engineer results in 2002 elections to get MMA respectable number of seats. Although media experts are over magnifying the role of Barelvis and Deobandis in Pakistan’s electoral politics, I tend to agree with the view that the people don’t cast their vote on the basis of religion. It is the media analysts who engineer results on grounds of religion. Had religion been a factor then there would not have been Pakistan today under a leader who the rightists called an infidel. The writer is the former High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK and a veteran journalist Published in Daily Times, December 27th 2017.