![](\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/benazir_assassination.jpg\")
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
An assassin\u2019s bullets and suicide bomb have ended the life of Pakistan\u2019s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Tragically, she followed in the footsteps of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister [1973\u20131977], who was brutally hanged by political rival and subsequent military dictator General Zia al Haq nearly thirty years ago. The legacy of this family elucidates the political instability and schizophrenic personality of modern-day Pakistan: a complex, volatile and multifaceted nation whose diverse features have increasingly and frequently become accentuated by violence.<\/p>\n
Bhutto and nearly 20 civilian supporters were killed while stumping for the upcoming January Pakistan parliamentary elections in the army stronghold of Rawalpindi. As of Friday morning, Bhutto\u2019s death catalyzed widespread riots, vandalism, and civilian unrest directly resulting in 15 reported deaths. President Musharraf, who recently lifted November\u2019s State of Emergency that temporarily suspended the Constitution and implemented a \u201cmini Martial law,\u201d officially declared 3 days of \u201cmourning\u201d and vowed to continue his resolve against extremists and terrorists. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif, the once exiled former Prime Minister of Pakistan and potential rival to Musharraf, promised, \u201cWe will avenge [Bhutto\u2019s] death,\u201d and has boycotted the upcoming elections. World leaders and dignitaries, specifically Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates, quickly issued press releases and television interviews admonishing the assassination, pledging their vow to root out \u201cIslamic terrorism,\u201d and supporting Musharraf and Pakistan\u2019s \u201cmove towards democracy.\u201d [Presidential candidate Huckabee had to be reminded, embarrassingly, that Pakistan was no longer under martial law \u2013 an auspicious sign of our future leaders\u2019 knowledge and understanding of foreign policy and world affairs.]<\/p>\n
\u201cRage Boy\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
The vast majority of Pakistani citizens, according to my friends and family who live there, lament the tragic actions of an extremist minority that continues to pollute and threaten the spirit, character, and personal safety of the nation. To the ears of \u201cWesterners,\u201d whose only exposure to Pakistan by the US media has been a simplistic, cartoon-like depiction of angry extremism [\u201cRage Boy\u201d] and enlightened \u201cmoderation\u201d of a military dictatorship [Musharaff], this sentiment rings false and hollow. Indeed, \u201cRage Boy\u201d has become the ubiquitous image of not only Pakistani politics, but also 160 million Pakistani citizens; \u201cRage Boy\u201d is a bearded, irrationally angry, frothing, anti-American extremist whose occupation consists of three full time jobs: burning American flags, studying at an Islamic fundamentalist madrassas, and engaging in anti-American terrorist activities. Any proper student of history or anthropology with even a modicum of knowledge regarding Pakistan\u2019s diverse socio-cultural identity would scoff at that simplistic depiction. Sadly, nuances and complexity are not afforded media air-time amidst Pakistan\u2019s continuing and repeated, albeit isolated, acts of sensationalistic violence. <\/p>\n
This dualistic and Manichean representation of Pakistan manifests itself with the description of the personality at the center of this recent, contagious conflagration: Bhutto. Mere hours after her assassination, Bhutto was both praised as a \u201cshaheed\u201d [a martyr], \u201ca beacon for democracy,\u201d \u201ca model of progress,\u201d \u201ca loyal friend to democracy,\u201d and condemned as \u201ca traitor,\u201d \u201ca US puppet,\u201d and everything in between. When extremism, political fervor, and selfish interests marry, the resulting progeny is usually instability, uncertainty and violence; common sense, rationality, and moderation are generally aborted.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Bhutto<\/b><\/p>\n
Before outlining the possible motives and culprits of this dreadful assassination, a cursory look at Bhutto and her political career is needed. Following in the dynastic footsteps of her father, the Harvard and Oxford educated Bhutto became the head of the PPP [Pakistan\u2019s People Party] and was elected as the country\u2019s first female Prime Minister in 1988. In a stunning twist of fate, irony, or cunning (depending on whom you ask), she succeeded the assassinated General Zia al Haq, the same man responsible for hanging her father in 1977. Although plaudits and adulations have been heaped on the recently deceased Bhutto, her political tenure in Pakistan was marred by ineffectuality and widespread charges of corruption, which effectively ended both of her terms as Prime Minister. [It should be noted that Nawaz Sharif\u2019s first term was dismissed for corruption charges as well.] <\/p>\n
Specifically, Bhutto was accused of stealing more than $1 billion from Pakistan\u2019s treasury, and Switzlerand convicted Bhutto of laundering nearly $11 million. Furthermore, Bhutto\u2019s husband, Asif Zardari, is affectionately known in Pakistan as \u201cMr. Ten Percent,\u201d an honorable title he earnestly earned for receiving a \u201c10%\u201d commission from all government contracts. <\/p>\n
Also, it is worth noting that Bhutto, who in the past few hours has been hailed as \u201cPakistan\u2019s last hope for democracy and reform,\u201d financially and militarily supported and strengthened Afghanistan\u2019s repressive, extremist and misogynist Taliban government that came to power in 1996. The Taliban\u2019s disastrous and archaic human rights policy, hardly democratic or progressive, was conveniently swept under the rug in lieu of pacifying the Afghan region to ensure beneficial and lucrative trade routes to Central Asia. Like a scene from King Lear or Godfather 2 \u2013 if Bhutto\u2019s own niece and political critics are to be believed \u2013 Bhutto engineered the still unsolved assassination of her estranged brother, Murtaza, in 1996 to consolidate political leadership of the PPP. Bhutto\u2019s political history, thus, is marred by several questionable controversies, rank corruption and abuse. Why, then, was she promoted by the United States as a harbinger of peace and democracy?<\/p>\n
The fateful triangle<\/b><\/p>\n
Reports indicate that the United States, Musharraf and Bhutto recently agreed to a brokered power sharing deal, whereby Musharraf would retain his Presidency, Bhutto would be named Prime Minster and her numerous corruption charges would bypass the courts and be \u201cdropped\u201d due to the creation of a \u201cNational Reconciliation Ordinance.\u201d The deal was suspect from the beginning and only further deteriorated with Bhutto\u2019s return from exile to Pakistan in October, when a devastating assassination attempt on her life, still unsolved, left nearly 140 people dead. <\/p>\n
The nail in the coffin was hammered by Musharraf, who unilaterally implemented a State of Emergency in November. Experts state his action was motivated by the Supreme Court\u2019s adverse ruling regarding his eligibility to lead Pakistan, thereby denying him a right to lead as both President and Chief of Army Staff, a title he relinquished only recently. As a result, The United States\u2019 erstwhile democratic ally, Musharraf, undemocratically suspended the Constitution, ousted and jailed Supreme Court judges and lawyers critical of his policies and leadership, detained nearly 2,000 human rights activists, and silenced independent media and news stations. Although publicly reprimanding Musharraf\u2019s \u201cquestionable\u201d (one could say \u201cundemocratic\u201d) actions, the White House remained loyal to their dictator-of- choice, because the US has provided Pakistan with nearly $10 billion in aid as \u201cgood will currency\u201d in its support to hunt al-Qaeda and extremists within Pakistan\u2019s borders. Specifically, President Bush said he wants democracy in Pakistan, but \u201cat the same time, we want to continue working with [Musharraf] to fight these terrorists and extremists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two weeks before the State of Emergency prompted his unlawful arrest, incarceration and subsequent kidney failure, Muneer Malik, Pakistan\u2019s former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association and prominent critic of Musharraf, gave me an exclusive interview, in which he proclaimed a statement shared by many in Pakistan: \u201cThe US supports dictatorships that suit its interests. It is never interested in the masses of Pakistan. The power sharing between Benzair and Musharraf will only perpetuate military hegemony. The mindset of the politicians is that the road to Islamabad [Pakistan\u2019s capital] leads from Washington and not from the streets of Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n
A grand irony results from observing this alliance. The United States wants to support democracy in Pakistan by allowing Musharraf to implement undemocratic measures and dictatorial practices to ensure Pakistan\u2019s future democracy. That is akin to endorsing an avowed pacifist who feels forced to purge his enemies through murder and violence in order to bring peace.<\/p>\n
Precisely due to Musharraf\u2019s recent array of dictatorial and undemocratic suppressions of dissent \u2013 specifically the sacking and arrests of Supreme Court justices and attorneys \u2013 and extreme unpopularity amongst his own people, the US hoped Bhutto would serve as an ameliorative and reliable presence for their interests. Her political presence, it was argued, could act as a counterbalance to Musharraf, thus ensuring some semblance of stability in Pakistan. Specifically, before returning to Pakistan in October, Bhutto had publicly stated she would allow the United States within Pakistan\u2019s borders to assist in hunting Al-Qaeda operatives and terror cells. Bhutto said,<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hope that I would be able to take Osama bin Laden myself without depending on the Americans. But if I couldn\u2019t do it, of course we [Pakistan and US] are fighting this war together and [I] would seek their co-operation in eliminating him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Her critics questioned her sincerity and motives in potentially allowing Pakistan\u2019s sovereignty to be threatened by inviting America to strike within Pakistani soil. The critics responded by calling her America\u2019s \u201cstooge\u201d and \u201cpuppet,\u201d a woman willing to appease Western nations by any means to ensure her political power. <\/p>\n
This charge and allegation of \u201cservitude to the United States\u201d arguably ensured her assassination or, at the very least, cemented her unpopularity amongst an extremist political segment of Pakistan. However, with the January parliamentary elections around the corner and the power sharing deal all but quashed by Musharraf, Bhutto changed her tune. In her final speech on the day of her assassination, she passionately declared, \u201cWhy should foreign troops come in? We can take care of this [referring to resurgent Al Qaeda extremists in Pakistan], I can take care of this, you [Pakistani citizens] can take care of this.\u201d Did this duplicitous, flip flop statement make Bhutto a Janus<\/i> \u2013 a two headed Roman God \u2013 or was this a sincere change of conviction? Sadly, Pakistan will never know the answer. <\/p>\n
The smoking gun?<\/b><\/p>\n
What is known, however, is that Bhutto foreshadowed her death, or at the very least was extremely cognizant of potential attempts on her life. In October, she informed her spokesman, Mark Siegel, via email to make public the following statement if she was to be killed in Pakistan: \u201cI [Bhutto] would hold Musharraf responsible.\u201d Bhutto\u2019s aides told CNN that she accused Musharraf of \u201cdeliberately failing to provide adequate security measures\u201d in Rawalpindi, which included failing to provide her a four-car police escort and jamming devices against bombs. After the devastating October assassination attempt on her life, Bhutto accused Pakistan\u2019s intelligence services [the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI] in having a hand in the suicide attack on her convoy. Although it is premature to conclusively determine who masterminded the assassination attempt, Bhutto\u2019s supporters place the blame firmly on Musharraf\u2019s shoulders, whom they believe either engineered the attack or acted negligently in failing to deter it. <\/p>\n
From one angle, Musharraf\u2019s recent actions portray a consistent pattern of unilateral power grabs by stifling opposition and criticism. His state of emergency and declaration of temporary \u201cmartial law\u201d serve as prime evidence of that argument. This recent tragedy has further destabilized the country prompting mass protests and vandalism thereby giving Musharraf a rationalization and excuse, according to his critics, to impose martial law yet again if he so chooses and curb the democratic process. <\/p>\n
Since the United States has no political allies in Pakistan that it feels it can remotely trust, one can argue they will be forced, out of necessity and desperation, to tacitly endorse Musharraf and promote him as an \u201cally against terrorism\u201d and \u201chope for democracy.\u201d The West fears that the nuclear weapons and technology of Pakistan will fall in the hands of an extremist minority that will align itself with Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces, thus endangering US presence not only in the Middle East but South Asia as well. However, it is imperative to note that the extremist element of Pakistan (aka \u201cRage Boy\u201d) is but a despised minority that doesn\u2019t even have enough legitimacy to secure a political majority in even the most fundamentalist regions of the North Western Frontier Province and Punjab. <\/p>\n
Yet, this miniscule fraction of the population, when united with ideologically like-minded sympathizers within the ISI, could have orchestrated this latest round of violence according to Pakistani intellectuals and pundits. As of now, no group has claimed responsibility. However, many believe rogue elements of Pakistan\u2019s highly secretive and powerful ISI in association with al-Qaeda sympathizers bear scrutiny. When asked who engineered the October assassination attempt on Bhutto, Muneer Malik simply stated, \u201cthe intelligence agencies.\u201d When I asked him about the July \u201cRed Mosque\u201d tragedy, and specifically who armed the radical students [in July, the military raided the Red Mosque that was besieged by heavily armed radical Muslim students resulting in nearly 173 deaths], Malik replied, \u201cIt was a scam of the intelligence agencies. How could arms have been smuggled in the Masjid [Mosque] that is located less than a kilometer from the ISI headquarters?\u201d In fact, Bhutto\u2019s husband, Asif Zardari, pointed his finger at the ISI for the October assassination attempt as well: \u201cI blame the government for these blasts,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is the work of the intelligence agencies.\u201d Many share this belief.<\/p>\n
A Pakistani requiem<\/b><\/p>\n
Perhaps the identity of the real culprits may never be known. One can only hope that they are found soon. Regardless, Benazir Bhutto has now been buried next to her father in their family\u2019s ancestral village on the day of juma<\/i> (Friday), a holy day for Muslims. As her mourners ascribed to the rituals of the Islamic funeral procession, many have taken turns supporting her casket on their shoulders, eventually guiding the deceased to her burial grounds. For some, they will literally carry their last vestige of hope for a democratic Pakistan. Others will carry the last of a dynamic and volatile political dynasty. Most will carry a tragic but common reminder of violence that has claimed too many of Pakistan\u2019s icons and leaders. The Namaaze-I-Janaza<\/i>, the Islamic requiem as it is known in Urdu, requires Muslims attending the funeral to supplicate Allah asking His forgiveness and blessings for the recently deceased. Perhaps they can pray for Pakistan as well.<\/p>\n