Benazir Bhutto - SZABIST

she had any hand in her brother's death are insane. The second is the time I went to see her after
quitting the party in November 1996 and joining Mr. Leghari's cabinet.
I felt that it was only fair that I must tell her why I have done so.
We met for over an hour and as it turned out this was my last real meeting with her. For someone who
should have been angry at my quitting the party, she was gracious and only said that I was being
misled. This is a person who people think was vindictive. May she rest in peace.
The News
January 2, 2008
Memories, pain and grief
Javed Jabbar
HAVING been fairly sceptical and critical of Benazir Bhutto since my resignation from the PPP in
1995, during her second tenure as prime minister (1993-1996), I was shocked at my own self for two
of my reactions on Dec 27.
In the afternoon, in response to a friend’s question as to who I would vote for on Jan 8, 2008 , I
spontaneously replied to the effect that if I did vote, it would be for the PPP. In view of my earlier
condemnation of the decision by major parties to take part in the polls being held under a dispensation
violative of the fundamental principles of justice and fairness, I was surprised at my own answer.
Despite all my reservations, developed over the past decade and more, about certain aspects of PPP’s
top leadership, I have now come to realise that if the electoral process is to be used to combat the
demons of darkness in Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was the most potent rallying point to combine the
forces of modernism and secularism.
To recognise her primacy in the struggle against obscurantism was not to detract from the sincerity or
the strength of other political personalities and parties that share the same broad approach. By being
forthright on this issue, by refusing to equivocate with provisos and qualifiers, she was mobilising a
new politically credible resistance to primitivism.
My second reaction on Dec 27 came when I heard of her death on my way home. Fortunately, I was
not on the steering wheel. The driver too was taken aback by my reaction. Leave alone he, I too was
unprepared for the pain and grief that suddenly surged in me.
Between the tears and gasps of shock, there came up enormous affection and empathy for her,
sentiments I had obviously pummelled deep inside my psyche over the past ten years, as one’s
cerebral views took over almost entirely from partly emotional responses.
Our first meeting was in 1986. As a member of the independent parliamentary opposition group I
joined other members in welcoming her to a meeting in Rawalpindi. Our last meeting turned into a
three-hour, one-on-one lunch in, of all places, Damascus in 2000 where she had come to pay homage