PM who could not live to see her 56th birthday

By Afzal Hussain Bokhari

Representing the combination of PPP's flag, the tricolour banner that fluttered in the end-of-the-June suffocation atop the western gate of the centrally located Lady Reading Post-Graduate Teaching Hospital said that on June 21 the party workers would donate blood in the hospital to commemorate the 56th birthday of the assassinated former prime minister and chairperson of the party Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.

Benazir Bhutto remained the prime minister of the country first from 1988 to 1990 and then after a gap of three years from 1993 to 1996. Looking at what the political establishment had done to the Bhutto family, many of the party workers were not happy when she decided to stage her come-back.

Her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the former prime minister, was still alive in jail when he wrote a book shockingly titled 'If I am assassinated'. "The Himalayas would weep and colours of the Indus would be different in case I am eliminated", he warned. Like ZAB, his daughter Benazir too had intuitive powers. After coming to Pakistan, she wrote to General (Retd) Musharraf that she feared assassination. She even named a few prominent figures that might prove instrumental in getting her physically removed from the scene.

Investigative reporters have shown that some influential persons associated with the former government did not want Benazir Bhutto to address the Liaquat Bagh public meeting on December 27, 2007 but the former PM was determined to do so. Close aide Naheed Khan revealed in an interview how Benazir persistently refused to take the phone call of a VVIP on the fateful day.

Intoxicated with the popular response after the tumultuous Liaquat Bagh meeting, Benazir climbed back into her vehicle but on Murree Road as she spotted a group of 'party activists' thumping the bonnet of her automobile, she popped out of the adjustable sunroof.

The interior ministry claimed that in so doing the lever of the vehicle hit her head and the injury proved fatal. The ministry even released a brief phone recording of militant leader Baitullah Mehsud talking to someone in Pushto implying thereby that the assassination was the handiwork of Mehsud and his men.

Just when the local television networks were busy airing the version of the interior ministry spokesman, BBC television showed the footage of the incident in which an attacker was shown firing at Benazir Bhutto and the former PM falling off to one side. Immediately after the airing of BBC footage, the interior ministry hurriedly withdrew the 'sunroof lever' story.

When the dead body of yet another prime minister arrived from Islamabad, the angry crowds at Naudero in Larkana district ran out of patience. "Pakistan na khappay", they shouted themselves hoarse, which in Sindhi meant that in its present shape, Pakistan will probably not do. Stoic in his grief, Asif Ali Zardari waved at the angry crowd to be patient and contradicted the unruly mob by saying it on television cameras that "Pakistan khappay".

The scenes at the Bhuttos' family graveyard were pathetically moving. Bushra Aitezaz Ahsan, the wife of the former leader of the Supreme Court bar association, wept and pushed aside the pile of flowers to have a glimpse of Benazir's face. BBC recorded the impressions of a man who said he had travelled long to reach Naudero. He did not belong to any party but said his heart sank when he saw the Oxford-educated men and women lying in a chain of graves, not a single of them dying a natural death.

President Asif Ali Zardari said he knew who the killers of Shaheed Bibi were. He said they were also after him. He has taken the probe of BB's assassination to the UNO.

A high-powered UN team will start the probe from July 1. If history is any guide, the chances are that like the case of Liaquat Ali Khan's murder, the assassination of BB too will very likely remain shrouded in mystery for all times to come.

By doing away with Benazir Bhutto, we killed last of the leaders that represented the federation and who gave indications that she probably had a dream and a vision for the homeland. During her last visit to Peshawar, she expressed the desire to go all the way to Charsadda and meet the widow of a party worker. However, she was told that for security reasons this was not possible.

During the 11-year-long rule or misrule of General Ziaul Haq, PPP was clearly a pariah political outfit. Its activists who had not been through any rigorous ideological indoctrination were liberally rounded up by the law-enforcing agencies and given an overdose of the dictator's wrath in dreaded places like the sunless cells of Mughal forts in Lahore or Attock or the topmost fan-less floor of Mianwali Jail in the oven-like July heat.

In the academic world, Benazir will be remembered by her three well-read books. Her first book 'Pakistan: The Gathering Storm' was published by Vikas Publications in 1983. Hamish Hamilton brought out her second book 'Daughter of the East' in 1989. Interestingly, Simon and Schuster released this book the same year under a different title: 'Daughter of Destiny: (An Autobiography). At the time of Benazir's assassination, the manuscript of her third book 'Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West', had been received by HarperCollins. Written with Mark Siegel, the book was published in February 2008.

All eminent writers like Ahmad Faraz, Fehmida Riaz and Shahida Hassan were deeply moved by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and they expressed the grief in their writings. However, one feels like ending this piece with lines from Mehmood Shaam's poetry published in the latest issue of 'Aahang', the monthly magazine of Radio Pakistan: "Aisay behnon ko to rukhsat nahin kartay bhai, aisay tareekh to qaumain nahin likhteen apni, aisay tehzeeb ka chehra nahin jhulsa jata, yoon tadabbur ko kahan zehr diya jata hai, yoon aqeedon se halakat nahin baanti jati, apnay aaeinda se yoon khauf kahan hota hai?