Sunday, October 28, 2007
Yasser Latif HamdaniBenazir is back. Without drumming about the salience of the events of last week, it should suffice to say that she is back with a bang- a bang that resonated — where no previous Pakistani bang resonated – in that hallowed hall of international diplomacy that is United Nations Security Council. It seems that the international community does not seem to notice the loss of hundreds of innocent lives anywhere in the third world, unless of course it came close to killing someone of significance on the global stage. Still there is no downplaying that the fact as far as significance goes, Benazir Bhutto is the most significant individual on the world stage right now. Linked with her is the future of a country of 160 million people, the second most populous nuclear-armed Muslim majority nation, and a country that has played a pivotal role in global politics since the Second World War. Therefore, it is no surprise that when Benazir travels in and around Pakistan this week, the world will be watching her every move.
A lot has been written, indeed right from her first homecoming, about the comparison with her famous father, the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The elder Bhutto was a global figure in his own right. Because he was passionate and patriotic, he electrified the people of Pakistan. On the global stage he positioned himself as a great third world and Islamic bloc leader challenging the might of the super power – though he was enough of a diplomat cut from the cloth of Talleyrand himself to have a good working relationship with the US. He failed because Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was, despite his Berkeley and Oxford education, at the end of the day steeped in the feudal politics of honor and revenge. Never financially corrupt, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was capable of considerable cruelty and guile towards his enemies real or perceived and in many ways, he had risen too high too early. This was also the cause of his downfall. Had he become the Prime Minister a decade or two late, he would have a statesman of the highest caliber who would have never made the tremendous mistakes he did. He paid for those with his life. If Benazir Bhutto becomes the Prime Minister next year, she will be 55 years of age. That is five years older than the age her father died at. Her first two terms in office came at a difficult time. She was a newly married young woman who carried the burden of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s martyrdom on her arms. Her mistakes were horrible and they dented her credibility considerably. The Benazir of 2007 is markedly different from Bhutto’s daughter of 1986. While she owes her constituency to her father, Benazir’s style of politics is at considerable variance to his, at time diametrically opposite.
For one Benazir Bhutto is unabashedly pro-West. While her father had quit the British commonwealth — a largely ceremonial cultural fraternity – it was Benazir who re-joined it. Unlike her father, she is not swayed by the romance of revolution. Her politics is not red by any stretch of imagination. We got a glimpse of that when the stock exchange shot up to unprecedented levels on the day of her return. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on the other hand is rightly credited with the most devastating blow to the business sector of Pakistan with his ill-advised nationalization. In many ways despite being the inheritor of the glorious Bhutto legacy of populist politics, Benazir is increasingly coming into her own as a leader who has ready to make hard choices and take tough decisions. But does she have it in her to carry out the monumental task before her? The very fabric of Pakistan’s society has been torn asunder by parochial concerns and the military establishment’s manipulation of right wing Islamic groups. All over the world Pakistan has been projected – with some truth to it albeit exaggerated – as a violent and extremist society. In these circumstances, even the most well-meaning and honest of politicians like Imran Khan are clueless. They honestly believe that religious extremism is not an issue in Pakistan. The media — completely free and independent – reflects the middle class’ flirtation with this the re-hashed and Islamised “anti-Americanism”. A TV anchor who narrowly escaped death last week in the Karachi suicide bombing was seen lamenting the fact that while condemning Islamic radicals for their activities, no one condemned the “liberal fascists” for their actions. As if the “liberal fascists” were going about blowing themselves up in crowds of people.
Benazir must — to use her father’s phrase – pick up the pieces. Her stand must be clear. The answers are well known: While respecting its Islamic heritage and sense of identity, Pakistan must become for all practical purposes a secular state with clear separation of church and state. She must undo the terrible legacy of outward and hypocritical Islamization, which ironically was initiated by her own father. As the leader of the largest and the strongest party she must go at it alone without any futile consensus building exercise. Benazir must learn to live in the solitude of great leaders. She must leave her father behind and rise above him not for the sake of popularity but posterity. Despite her many faults, Benazir today commands the support of the people. For once Uncle Sam also seems to be on the right side of the Pakistani current, dragging the army and the establishment along kicking and screaming. The soldier-president must also know that while he will fade away into oblivion, Benazir is the best hope for the future of his agenda of enlightened moderation. A democratically elected strong woman Prime Minister like her alone can further the little good Musharraf has achieved. He must therefore come out in total support of Benazir Bhutto.
Also if and when this battle is fought and won, Benazir must also preside over the institutionalization of the great Pakistan People’s Party as a truly broad based political party of the masses, no longer dependant on caste and biradari politics of rural Punjab and Sindh. The Pirs and the Makhdooms must ultimately give way to party workers like Jehangir Badr and Fauzia Wahab — extracted from the people. Pakistan People’s Party must also, for itself and for Pakistan, break away from the South Asian tradition of the cult of personality. Benazir must ensure that she is absolutely the last Bhutto to lord over this party, but is the first of many Benazirs that the party will produce from within its cadres in the service of the nation. Only then will she be able to go down in history as a truly epoch-making figure. May Allah help her succeed in her stated objectives and protect her from those who want to harm her. Amen!
The writer is a lawyer. Email: yasser.hamdani@gmail.com
Government parties, military and Taliban seem to be uneasy with the lady. Ladies’ apartment is specifically separate, that explains.
One candidate who could stop her from surfacing again as PM is probability of keeping Shahbaz Sharif around the seat. Government previously had the ‘Little’ Sharif in good books. Lately, it would be possible, Government might have initiated some talks with the brothers. ‘Elder’ Sharif might not extend warm hands to the Government, to save face. But the Junior brother was scurried unscathed, the card is ready. Let’s see how things turn up. The General is waiting for the Supreme Court’s ruling for him or against him.
But cards are ready for yet another showdown.
Kaptain Korner 
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