Benazir Bhutto - SZABIST

Let us pledge to finish Mohtarma's unfinished journey. Let us buildPakistan as she envisioned in her
last speech. Let it be a nation inclusive of all religions, languages, nationalities, and ethnicities. Let us
cherish rainbow of our nation's diversity and not be threatened by it.
Let us pledge to empower our disadvantaged and oppressed brothers and sisters to complete the circle
of freedom. Let the canons of a few over many be the thing of the past. Let us turn the pyramid of
politics base up.
Let us pay a corporeal tribute to Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto by restoring freedom and dignity
of every child, woman, and man and make Pakistan a nation that we can proudly call our own.
Let the supremacy of law and governance by people to be the new tenet of the future.
In Benazir's death
Indus Asia Online Journal
January 4, 2008
Raza Rumi
It was in the dargah compound of Ajmer when our phones started buzzing with friends and relatives
wanting to share grief on the loss of a woman who was both loved and hated but never ignored. This
was the typical winter dusk and we were returning from a soulful traditional dua-i-roshnayee (presunset
prayer) where candles are lit in remembrance of the much revered Khawaja. Amidst frantic
phone calls from grieving friends, the shock was cushioned in the mystical atmosphere as one
reaffirmed that God's will was above everything. But the aching sense of loss for Pakistan haunted us
despite the calming effect of Ajmer.
It was this strong faith in God and in her mission that brought Benazir Bhutto back to Pakistan after an
exile of nearly a decade. She returned despite the knowledge that she was on borrowed time; and there
were heinous elements who wanted to physically eliminate her. Benazir was a lover of the mystics and
had visited Ajmer thrice as we found out from the deeply-shocked residents of this small medieval
town. Coming from Sindh, the land of the Sufis and poets, Bhutto was a devotee of Khawaja Ghareeb
Nawaz. Like a true Bhutto she was not afraid of death as the believers consider it to be ordained by
God in the first place. But the truth is that she is no more; and this is hard to reconcile with.
One cannot miss the symbolism of the location where Bhutto was killed. The place, Liaquat Bagh, is
named after Pakistan's first prime minister who was also shot here. The reasons for his death are still
not known other than the simple imperative that in Pakistan, legitimate politicians need to be
eliminated. This tragic place in Rawalpindi is also not far from the place where Benazir's father was
hanged in 1979; and whose legacy refuses to go away.
At least in Benazir's case, the battle lines were clearer. A patently violent brand of political Islam
masking itself as anti-imperial and aided by powerful elements within the Pakistani establishment is
hell-bent on destroying Pakistan's political and social fabric. Contrary to what many believe, this
embedded dysfunction is above all a threat to Pakistan and its burgeoning population. The region and
the world come next. In India, the comparisons between Rajiv and Benazir have been unavoidable as
the two countries have suffered from the endemic violence, dynastic politics and a symbiotic
relationship defined by cyclical political turbulence.