Benazir Bhutto - SZABIST

Today's subcontinent has all but forgotten the tolerant and inclusive Islam that was practised by the
Sufis and which in large measure shapes the belief system of a vast of majority of Muslims and non-
Muslims alike. This is what the militancy and its official backers are now set out to achieve but they
forget that centuries of tradition of peace and inclusion can be dented but cannot be reversed.
Bhutto's mass appeal remained a formidable challenge to the Pakistani establishment that failed to
undo the legacy of people-centred politics for three decades. The Bhutto brand of politics came about
without the manipulations of the bureaucratic steel-frame that shaped Pakistani politics, often in
tandem with foreign interests. Benazir's return in October showed that her popular support was intact
despite the corruption charges, trials -- real and media-led – and continued impression of
incompetence and opportunism in a culture of misogyny and violence against women. Her worst
opponents could not deny her dazzling articulation and grasp of global politics. And, now like her
father she also demonstrated an uncanny sense of history, of seizing the moment and dying for the
cause of political process in the militarized Pakistan.
This fearlessness of death is a Sufi trait as death is just another phase in our journeys and struggles.
The inclusive and multicultural legacy of the Sufis is endangered by the rise of militant Islam and
politics of elimination. Benazir Bhutto had drawn on this legacy and in her death we are reminded of
the urgency to revisit and build on that legacy.
It took bullets to stop her
The News
January 12, 2008
Saba Naqvi Bhaumik
Benazir Bhutto, by her own admission, was the "daughter of the East"—the title of her autobiography.
But she was more than just the chosen successor of a martyred father. "She was a personality in her
own right," says Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who had a unique vantage view into the Bhutto
home. Between 1978 and 1982, Aiyar, then a career foreign service man, was posted to Karachi as
consul-general. His home, India House, was next door to the Bhuttos' Bilawal House in Karachi's
plush Clifton area.
In 1979 Zulfiqar Bhutto was hanged, and Aiyar says he saw in the young Benazir "a fierce
determination to carry out her father's legacy". In death certainly, she followed the path of her father.
Both died young, with so much left to achieve. Both murders left an open wound on the soul of
Pakistan, and dashed the hopes of millions.
Pakistan watchers in India say that Benazir's death is bad news for the sub-continent. Vikram Sood,
former raw chief and now vice-president of the orf Centre for International Affairs, says when there is
chaos in a heavily armed neighbouring country, it inevitably is bad news for India. "There is now
uncertainty about the elections, that lacked legitimacy to begin with, but would have at least thrown
up a government people could deal with. The future now seems to suggest more killings and suicide
missions, a growth in radical Islam and chaos in Islamabad." The biggest worry for India, he says, can
be summed in six words: who is in charge of Pakistan?
What's more, Sood believes Benazir was genuinely inclined towards reviving the peace process. She
may have reneged on some commitments to India during past tenures as prime minister, but analysts
put this down to the schizophrenia every Pakistani premier has to contend with. Even the best
intentions of peace and harmony go nowhere when trapped in the labyrinth of the military
intelligence-army network that often reduces elected leaders to mere puppets.