Daily Times

It says so much about so many things that 14 years after the assassination of former two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, there’s not much more known about who killed her and why than on the day of the incident itself. That PPP was in government in the five years immediately following the murder, and still, no headway was made, is also very revealing. Meanwhile, her legacy, which she so painfully carved despite allegations of corruption, has simply fizzled away and her party is now reduced to languishing in just one province.

The democratic culture within our political parties is unheard of so it was no surprise that her husband inherited her party till her son came of age. But that transfer of power also changed the very personality of the People’s Party as, under Zardari, its niche came to revolve around old fashioned wheeling and dealing, more specifically buying and selling of politicians and their loyalties, as opposed to the party’s original mandate of people’s rights, roti, kapra aur makaan, etc. Hopes that young Bilawal would fill his mother’s shoes would have to wait for a while because while’s he’s coming around nicely and making a place for himself in the country’s politics, the party’s direction is still pretty much controlled by his father; not the least because its present position needs the elder Zardari’s kind of approach that enables moving pieces across the chessboard to one’s own advantage.

The party’s main line these days is that it is in the process of re-inventing itself in Punjab, and then all over the country. A good test of the claim shall soon enough; with the local body polls in March/April. But going by the signs so far, the party is still a shadow of what it was when BB led it from the front. Senior and junior Zardari together have not been able to replace her foresight, wisdom, courage and especially charisma. In countries like Pakistan, where politicians usually learn on the job, there can be nothing more shameful than sending leaders to early graves just when they had properly learnt the ropes. In this case, BB was like her father because both their lives and hence their contributions to Pakistan, were cut abruptly short for unforgivable reasons.

The least the state of Pakistan can do for its two-time former leader is take her murder case to its proper conclusion so the culprits can be awarded fitting punishments and her family, like the rest of the country, can find proper closure. *