Benazir Bhutto - SZABIST

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The writer is British Foreign Secretary Foreign Commonwealth Office December 28, 2007 The future Pakistan deserves Muhammad Nawaz Sharif There is no law and certainly no order in my country. What happened this past week has shaken every Pakistani. Benazir Bhutto was no ordinary person. She served as prime minister twice and had returned to Pakistan in an effort to restore our country to the path of democracy. With her assassination I have lost a friend and a partner in democracy. It is too early to blame anybody for her death. One thing, however, is beyond any doubt: The country is paying a very heavy price for the many unpardonable actions of one man -- Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf alone is responsible for the chaos in Pakistan. Over the past eight years he has assiduously worked at demolishing institutions, subverting the constitution, dismantling the judiciary and gagging the media. Pakistan today is a military state in which a former prime minister can be gunned down in broad daylight. One of my own political rallies was fired upon the day Benazir Bhutto was killed. These are the darkest days in Pakistan's history. And such are the wages of dictatorship. There is widespread disillusionment. At all the election rallies I have addressed, people have asked a simple question: Criminals are punished for breaking laws, so why should those who subvert the constitution not be punished? Those who killed Benazir Bhutto are the forces of darkness and authoritarianism. They are the ones who prefer rifles to reason. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and my own Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) have traditionally been political rivals. We fought each other through elections. We won some. We lost some. That is what democracy is all about. Whoever has the majority rules. Bhutto and I both realized while in exile that rivalry among democrats has made the task of manipulation easier for undemocratic forces. Wetherefore decided not to allow such nefarious games by the establishment. I fondly remember meeting with Benazir in February 2005. She was kind enough to visit me in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where I lived after Musharraf forced me into exile. We realized that we were fighting for the same thing: democracy. She, too, believed in the rule of law and rule of the people. A key point of the Charter of Democracy that we signed in May 2006 was that everyone should respect the mandate of the people and not allow the establishment to play dirty politics and subvert the will of the people. After the Jeddah meeting we regularly consulted each other on issues of national and international importance. On many occasions we tried to synchronize our strategies. We had agreements and disagreements, but we both wanted to pull Pakistan back from the brink of disaster. And while the PPP may have been our traditional rival, it is a national asset whose leadership has inspired many Pakistanis. Political parties form part of the basis on which the entire edifice of democracy rests. If our country is to move forward, we need an independent judiciary, a sovereign Parliament and strong political parties that are accountable to the people. Without political parties, there will be hopelessness, and authoritarianism will thrive. Dictators fear the power of the people.
That is why they pit parties against each other and then try to destroy those parties -- to further their own agenda. This is what has happened in Pakistan in recent years. So, what is the way out of the depths to which Pakistan has been plunged? First, Musharraf should go immediately. He is the primary and principal source of discord. Second, a broad-based national unity government should be immediately installed to heal the wounds of this bruised nation. Third, the constitution should be restored to what it was in 1973. The judiciary should be restored to its condition before Nov. 3 -- countering the boneheaded steps Musharraf took under the garb of "emergency" rule. All curbs on the media should be removed. Finally, fair and impartial elections should be held in a friendly and peaceful environment under such a national government so that the people are able to choose their representatives for a Parliament and government that can be trusted to rebuild the country rather than serve the agenda of a dictator. These are the only steps that will give the country a semblance of stability. If Musharraf rules as he has for the past eight years, then we are doing nothing but waiting for another doomsday. The world must realize that Musharraf's policies have neither limited nor curbed terrorism. In fact, terrorism is stronger than ever, with far more sinister aspects, and as long as Musharraf remains, there remains the threat of more terror. The people of Pakistan should not be antagonized any further for the sake of one man. It is time for the international community to join hands in support of democracy and the rule of law in Pakistan. The answer to my country's problems is a democratic process that promotes justice, peace, harmony and tolerance and hence can play an effective role in promoting moderation. With dictatorship, there is no future. The writer is head of the Pakistan Muslim League and was twice elected prime minister of Pakistan Not having lived in vain The Washington Post January 1, 2008 Tariq Islam AFTER she had kissed her sister’s face and bid her farewell, my cousin Sanam Bhutto turned to me and said: “Benazir had spent a lifetime writing obituaries for loved ones. It is time now to write her obituary. I know my sister would have wanted you to write it.” Well, where does one begin? The pain is yet too sharp, the wounds too raw and the tragedy too overwhelming. Words and tears can not flow together. At the end of our summer vacation in London in July, we had spent a family evening together. Whilst leaving, I turned to her and said, “BB, please don’t come back … they will kill you.” She held my hand and smiled, there was sadness in her eyes. She said nothing. Her eyes said it all. She knew death awaited her upon return. She knew that somewhere, in some dark corner, a sniper was lying in wait. But she was not going to run from death. She was the daughter of the East, daughter of destiny. She was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s daughter. I was with her on that truck on Oct 18 when the bomb blast ripped apart the soul of a nation. For any other person, it would have been an opportune time to heed the warning and retreat. But no, not her. She was what she had always been. She was Benazir.As children we grew up together. But today when I look around she is not there. In leaving us for another world, she has left us only with flashes
Page 1 and 2: Reflections on Benazir Bhutto Edito
Page 3 and 4: Dedicated to the martyrs of Pakista
Page 5 and 6: To Benazir, in the heavens 57 Ghaza
Page 7 and 8: Foreword We cannot let my mother's
Page 9 and 10: and a presidential sword of Damocle
Page 11: BritainUSA December 31, 2007 Benazi
Page 15 and 16: had to go. But they had not mastere
Page 17 and 18: She also continued to campaign for
Page 19 and 20: tell that we were all wrong and she
Page 21 and 22: the United States must review its p
Page 23 and 24: My life with Benazir Christina Lamb
Page 25 and 26: Was she in love? Announcing her eng
Page 27 and 28: without compromise. To the constern
Page 29 and 30: Pakistani military intelligence cou
Page 31 and 32: the American investigative reporter
Page 33 and 34: Arkansas friend calls Bhutto a tire
Page 35 and 36: She would have been in a good posit
Page 37 and 38: Within days of that attack she was
Page 39 and 40: But probably she miscalculated eith
Page 41 and 42: the peak of the Zia dictatorship, a
Page 43 and 44: My BB, my boss Shafqat Mahmood Prim
Page 45 and 46: she had any hand in her brother's d
Page 47 and 48: A tribute to Benazir Bhutto Nafisa
Page 49 and 50: called Benazir, which will continue
Page 51 and 52: How Benazir let her hair down Daphn
Page 53 and 54: I also remember her discussing Dian
Page 55 and 56: Later that day as we finalised our
Page 57 and 58: Pakistan loses a fighter for democr
Page 59 and 60: Who killed Bhutto? Interestingly, t
Page 61 and 62: Death of an icon Imtiaz Alam She ha
Page 63 and 64:
The writer is editor current affair
Page 65 and 66:
assassinate her. She then added, "H
Page 67 and 68:
familiar?). Still, Benazir’s stor
Page 69 and 70:
Bhutto's death will almost certainl
Page 71 and 72:
It took her over 19 hours to travel
Page 73 and 74:
We are all Bhuttos now Fasih Ahmed
Page 75 and 76:
As she got up to leave, she stopped
Page 77 and 78:
She represented the hope, the desir
Page 79 and 80:
The ‘seniors’ assured her, inst
Page 81 and 82:
Gulf News December 29, 2007 An icon
Page 83 and 84:
Both the judiciary and media, two p
Page 85 and 86:
changed circumstances, even a thoug
Page 87 and 88:
The Nation December 29, 2007 The tr
Page 89 and 90:
Hope now dead and buried; Faces dep
Page 91 and 92:
and pathetic how, with every stop s
Page 93 and 94:
Pakistan’s ruling establishment h
Page 95 and 96:
She died at the hands of terror, no
Page 97 and 98:
in Pakistan, it is also a loss to t
Page 99 and 100:
Like all such tragedies, the assass
Page 101 and 102:
two terms in power, she has come fu
Page 103 and 104:
Cry my beloved land. Tanvir Ahmad K
Page 105 and 106:
Today's subcontinent has all but fo
Page 107 and 108:
was the first glimpse some of us ha
Page 109 and 110:
Her death was an event of fearful m
Page 111 and 112:
Bhutto's assassination could be a s
Page 113 and 114:
Extremism looms as a threat, but it
show all

Benazir Bhutto - SZABIST

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?