Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

In deference to the adage, “Of the dead, speak no ill,” we should pay respect to Benazir Bhutto as a remarkable human being before the pundits get a hold of the story and tell us what she symbolized and what her death means to Pakistan.

The BBC offers an appropriate and reverent obituary.

Born in 1953 in the province of Sindh and educated at Harvard and Oxford, Ms Bhutto gained credibility from her father's high profile, even though she was a reluctant convert to politics.

Since the assassination of her father, she worked hard against the corruption and misuse of power in Pakistan. However, she constantly had to deal with accusations leveled at her, accusations which could not be substantiated.

None of about 18 corruption and criminal cases against (her husband) Mr Zardari has been proved in court after 10 years. But he served at least eight years in jail… Ms Bhutto also steadfastly denied all the corruption charges against her, which she said were politically motivated… She faced corruption charges in at least five cases, all without a conviction, until amnestied in October 2007.

Pervez Musharraf granted her amnesty and allowed her to return to Pakistan earlier this year. One reason was that she was seen as a natural ally in (the government’s) efforts to isolate religious forces and their surrogate militants.

Many of Bhutto’s critics have forgotten the good she did in her second term as Prime Minister.

In 1993, she was re-elected as Prime Minister. While in office, she brought electricity to the countryside and built schools all over the country. She made hunger, housing and health care her top priorities, and looked forward to continuing to modernize Pakistan… At the same time Bhutto faced constant opposition from the Islamic fundamentalist movement.

Bhutto’s autobiography was titled “Daughter of the East” in Britain and “Daughter of Destiny” in America. “Which are you?” she was once asked by journalist Mary Anne Weaver.

“I’m partly a child of destiny. Fate put me where I am now, against my own inner wishes, but I chose to stay on, when I could always have opted out… I have a duty to those people who believe in me and to myself… Did I have a choice?”

She also gave good reason for being the “Daughter of the East”.

“I am a daughter of the East. I was born into it; conditioned by it; thrust into a political system which is Eastern… as a daughter of the East I want other women, born into this tradition, this environment, where they’re forced to submit to those societal pressures and those fates which have been written for them, to see how I fight—as a politician, as a woman, as a mother—and how I survive.”

She survived much in her shortened life. Her father has arrested and executed. Her brothers were murdered. She was imprisoned for five years, mostly in solitary confinement. While making her prison conditions unbearable, her jailers encouraged her suicide by leaving poison in her cell. She survived many death threats and assassination attempts.

And she survived the assassination today. She continues to live in the hearts of all Pakistanis she tried to help.

Published by East West Services, Inc.
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