Daily Times

Pakistan is a very enigmatic country. It is a land of opportunity for politicians too. Not only that, every Tom, Dick and Harry can easily get away by claiming political martyrdom. One can find dime a dozen born again democrats having basked under the protective wings of dictators, claiming a pound of flesh in return for what they call their phantom sacrifices and sufferings hitherto unmatched by any one. These claimants to undeserved fame are so psychopathically sick that they genuinely believe in their false pretensions.

Today we are passing through such a vicious atmosphere in which claims of unbelievable sacrifices are being made and history is being rewritten by a family that has had nothing but butter, milk and honey courtesy dictators.  Currently it is going through a process of divine retribution of getting paid for its sins to its political adversaries and other victims.

That being a subject for a lengthier article, I would here restrict to reminding all of them that no other political family in Pakistan or even India other than Benazir Bhutto’s has been subjected to physical elimination and history’s most vicious establishment sponsored internal and external character-assassination campaigns during the last 50 years that sporadically continue even today. Ever since martyred Zulfikar Ali Bhutto chose a different path than adopted by dictators — to fight for the national honour rather than surrender — ZAB was singled out by successive regimes and the perpetrators of vested interests as their main target of attack — both physical and political.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has warned that another JIT will convene next year — a reference to general elections. But he must not forget, as Shakespeare said, ‘there sits a judge above that no king can corrupt’

After ZAB’s elimination through judiciary by General Zia, his daughter Benazir Bhutto (Born June 21, 1953) emerged as a rare phenomenon in Pakistan’s politics. Like her iconic father, the more she was targeted by her adversaries, the more she was maligned by them, the more popular and endeared she became with the crestfallen and downtrodden masses that saw in her a leader that would lead the country out of the stormy ocean to safer shores. Like her father she too was a towering symbol of resistance to the forces of status quo, powerful military establishment, economic exploitation, state oppression and remained a Colossus for the people showering upon her their everlasting loyalty that even today Bhuttos rule from their graves.

Benazir Bhutto besides being heir to the great leader and having inherited most of his qualities, had her own resilience and dauntless determination that gave her credibility among the masses who stood by her father and his political philosophy through thick and thin rendering sacrifices in blood that have no parallel in the history of the sub-continent. It was his glorious legacy passed onto Benazir Bhutto that gave her strength to defy dictatorship and inspire the masses to seek democracy as a means to a better life and greatest good of the largest number.

ZAB preferred to become “horrible example” at the hands of American hired executioner General Ziaul Haq rather than barter national honour and give up his pursuit for nuclear glow. Before she left for Pakistan she told me a horrible fate awaited her and yet she accepted General Musharraf’s challenge or threat to her and decided to singe the beard of the General in his den.

Benazir Bhutto was chip of ZAB’s block. She was the flag bearer of his proud legacy and she proved that she indeed was his “dearest daughter” by sustaining his mission through blood, toil, unbending determination and perseverance. Despite Musharraf’s threats she dared to return to Pakistan as her people were waiting for her. She had to get back home to retrieve the national honour, revive Pakistan’s sovereign independence by demolishing the myth of a failing state and revert Pakistan back to Quaid and ZAB’s vision of an egalitarian, social welfare state from a security state. Her primary aim was restoration of democracy, 1973 Constitution, rule of law, independence of judiciary, human rights and above all empowerment of the people including women and minorities.

Like her father she also believed that only full autonomy to the provinces, economic independence with masses as the stake-holders in the state’s socio-economic and political management and not the numerical strength of the military or hugely pyrrhic defence budgets — can guarantee honourable continuity to the existence of the state.

Benazir Bhutto — dauntlessly supported by the people of Pakistan — had proved her mettle for acquitting herself well in most difficult circumstances and onerous challenges. Described by a foreign commentator “brave, bright and beautiful” she had kept ZAB’s mission alive and remained to her last day the sole challenger to the forces of status quo and the Bonapartists scavengers of power and national resources.

Now we hear Prime Minister and his family complain of oppressive accountability, they forget how they had targeted Bibi for a malicious gender war, persistent character assassination campaigns, and accused her and her husband of fabricated corruption cases, kept him incarcerated for over eleven years and got them convicted by ordering the judges most brazenly. Indicted as Godfather, Al-Capone and Pablo Escobar all rolled into one running the government like Sicilian mafia — it now seems to be nothing but divine retribution. One heard the Prime Minister warn of a JIT next year meaning elections. He must not forget that much more than that, as Shakespeare said — “there sits a judge above that no king can corrupt”.

The writer is former High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK and a veteran journalist

Published in Daily Times, June 21st, 2017.