Benazir Bhutto - SZABIST

Her death was an event of fearful magnitude. The assassin’s bullets got her and she fell back into her
bullet-proof Land Cruiser. The impact of her fall was seismic. A shock wave raced around the world
at electronic speed, shaking and sundering consciousnesses as it went. It toppled stock markets in
Karachi, New York, London, Tokyo, and rocketed the prices of oil and gold through the ceiling.
Disbelief, horror, anger, fear (no time yet for grieving) clutched people’s hearts. For the world, the
best known South Asian personality — for many Pakistanis, the People’s Princess — the charismatic
Benazir Bhutto had been murdered.
She was a true titan of our land and our times. One recognises this objective fact, although (let it be
stated quite clearly) this writer counted himself among her detractors. One mourns her passing hugely
and acknowledges her extraordinary stature in our failing history. In the wake of this immense event,
the petty-minded functionaries of an Establishment ignorant of the grand, unforgiving sweep of
history mouthed inanities.
One particular ‘spokesman’ continued to insist, in an extraordinarily tasteless and obtuse manner, that
her death had been somehow brought about by the poor safety standards of the Toyota Motor
Company. As a wag remarked, “If bumping one’s head causes instant death, then, considering how
often they’ve been hit by police batons, there should have been many thousand dead lawyers by now.”
Recently General (redt) Pervez Musharraf implied that it was her own fault for “sticking her neck out”
of the sunroof. Yes, General, sticking her neck out is indeed what she had been doing, perhaps
quixotically, taking risks with enormous courage. However flawed her legacy, she will be
remembered in our history books, even when this dangerously hypocritical regime is forgotten or, if it
is remembered at all, bringing only a grimace of disgust.
The ordinary people mourned her killing more dramatically. It was a savage grief, a violent
commemoration. Fire and smoke devoured the peace in our cities, an enormous suttee in reverse, as
might have been part of the mourning rites for barbarian kings of ancient times. In the words of
William Shakespeare, “Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight”. The crowds in the streets
were “ranging for revenge” and, in a cacophony of angry voices, they cried “Havoc!”
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men groaning for burial.
It is not the purpose of this article to speculate over why or by whom she was murdered. And the
establishment’s role in encouraging an enabling environment for terror is also a topic for others. What
is clear is only that the citizens of this country will no longer accept the present dispensation. There
has to be a fundamental change. More, there must be seen to be a fundamental change. Regrettably,
our retired general-president and his cohorts clearly demonstrate their intention to continue clinging
stubbornly to power.
What, then, can be done to bring about the essential change? There are only three possible paths to
change: the ballot box, the bullet and the street. The first of these will be (and was always going to be)
rigged to give ‘favourable results’. Therefore, while not ever to be ‘boycotted’ and thereby conceded
by default, elections alone will not serve to bring that change.
The second path, inherently undesirable in its very nature, is what is already being pursued by the
militants and terrorists. The only real hope is the path of peaceful agitation that had been adopted by
the lawyers’ movement and the students of Lahore. But that had not earlier succeeded in involving the