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Significant Events

As much as one admired Ms Benazir Bhutto for many leadership qualities that escape lesser beings, in the matter of corruption she has been a major disappointment. As much as one thought that the BJP ultra-nationalism militated against Pakistan, one had to concede that they at least had coalesced a political mandate to effect meaningful changes in India’s policies. For the moment both are derailed, albeit probably temporarily, but the manner of their leaving may leave behind festering wounds that may never heal.

Ms Benazir Bhutto has led the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for over 20 years. She has effectively carried the baggage of the legacy of her father, late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had his own extreme moments, contributing significantly to the break-up of Pakistan in 1971 but then almost single-handedly consolidating the western wing as an independent entity. Giving the country a workable constitution in 1973, he emasculated it simultaneously by a number of amendments. His tinkering with the growth-oriented economy by nationalising everything in sight put us back two or three decades at a crucial time with respect to our place in the world economy. In short, he beggared us, put us in a hole that every successive government since then has put us deeper into. Maybe because of her youth, maybe because of her courage, certainly because she was educated and articulate and certainly because she had charisma, a number of us forgave her the sins of her father and looked at her as a national leader having international standing and instant name recognition. The crowning moment of her glory came when she came to Lahore in 1986. The accolades of the mass population were well deserved. Even when she went and married Asif Zardari, one gave her the benefit of the doubt. To almost anyone but Karachiites who knew him far better, Asif Zardari was a good match. The fact of the matter was that his family was in hock to the banks. A scion from a landed family fallen on hard times, one could forgive AZ his ham-handed attempts to play the rich dilettante, a playboy. Playboys have money, by the time he met up with Benazir, AZ (and his father) needed a golden goose badly to stay financially afloat. AZ wanted money alright, and tons of it, but to Benazir’s (and PPP’s) detriment he hankered after power more. After a few ham-handed attempts at petty extortion during Benazir’s first term, AZ came into his own post-1993 i.e. during her second term. As much as people say that he ran a government within a government, he actually ran the government and everyone and sundry paid homage and obeisance to him. These included politicians, industrialists, businessmen, bankers, generals and senior bureaucrats, etc, some of whom became “specialist advisors” in guiding him in milking the Pakistani cow. This was not an open secret, it was good public knowledge and anybody who denies this is a liar. Throughout this period, we gave Benazir the benefit of doubt. We were ready to believe anything but the obvious, we wanted to believe that she knew nothing of what was going on and even if she knew, she was not a willing party but was being emotionally blackmailed by her husband.

The SGS-Cotecna case has removed that doubt. However, the trial may have been conducted, whatever the antecedents of the judges and their credibility thereof, the evidence on record is damning. The fact remains Boomer Finance, an off-shore company, was owned directly/indirectly by AZ and Benazir was a recipient of funds from SGS through this conduit. No doubt she says the truth when she says the government of the day is victimizing her to remove her from politics. What is also true is that while she may fight on technical grounds, she is as guilty as her husband is, whether in all his “enterprises” one does not know but certainly SGS is a “smoking gun” she cannot escape. As PM Ms Benazir advises all those targeted by her regime to seek justice from a court of law, surely she will appeal but if the verdict goes against her in the Supreme Court (SC), will she abide by it?
Mr Vajpayee’s Government fell by one vote but there is no satisfaction in Pakistan for BJP’s meeting its come-uppance.  There is greater maturity in recognising that Pakistan has a better chance in dealing with foes with known views and a stable government, rather than coping with an unstable coalition ruling our massive neighbour. The upsurge of regional parties in India is good news for Pakistan, only a workable coalition government having constituent partnerships throughout India that look more towards domestic needs can take tough decisions can lead to a solution of the Kashmir problem. People seem conveniently not to remember that there are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan. Despite many travails and provocations, the Quaid consistently sought peace with India; one major reason was the mass Muslim populace remaining in India. Today more than ever we cannot turn our backs on them. The logic itself is mind-boggling, for several million souls in Kashmir why should we consign the hundred and fifty million plus Muslims to the dustbin of history? Vajpayee’s BJP has more hatred for Muslims than all the other political parties combined, as such to conveniently forget the animosity of top BJP leaders Thakre and Advani as well as their virulent colleague and comrade Shiv Sena’s Bal Thackeray would amount to criminal negligence at the State level. India has been swept by the winds of HINDUTVA, Hindu nationalism fanned to their electoral advantage by BJP, their symbol of infamy being the Babri Masjid. While our basic formulation of policy is to deal with whoever is in power, to expect that the BJP will ever give way on Kashmir is a pipedream. The rule of regional parties’ and their support of a minority government led by Congress is our best bet. However, one cannot thank BJP enough for having served Pakistan’s cause well. Before the May 28 blast we were singularly vilified as a possible “nuclear outlaw” by one and all, thanks to BJP we have come out of the nuclear closet and into grudging respectability in the world comity. Similarly in the case of missiles, BJP, in trying to shore up their own political fortunes, has afforded Pakistan a golden opportunity to test both our liquid fuel and solid fuel rockets, the missiles having range enough to reach almost all of India. Most important, the world now recognises us at par with India since it takes India to be the instigator of both nuclear and missile escalation in the region.

If the PM Mian Nawaz Sharif thinks that he has railroaded Ms Benazir Bhutto and the PPP into oblivion, he should think again. He may have given them a new lease of life, rejuvenating PPP after its disastrous 1997 electoral showing. As the strike called by PPP has shown, on the national scene the response was spotty but the interior of Sindh is still very much PPP country. That is not good news for Pakistan. PPP has always been a national party and we need them either in Government or in the Opposition, not as a regional entity. Moreover, Benazir is at her best when the chips are down, as much as the corruption muck will not come off easily, the fighter that she is she could easily convert the sympathy support into an electoral force. What is bad news for the Sharifs is that by convicting Benazir they may have inadvertently opened a Pandora’s Box for themselves. As much as Achilles’ mother entreated with him not to kill Hector since his demise would not be far behind, having supposedly “slain” the Bhutto potency, Mian Nawaz Sharif and family are now going to be the focus of a whole lot of unwelcome attention, orchestrated by the Establishment that has no love lost for either. Quote “Let him cast the first stone, he who has not sinned”, unquote. We are in for interesting times. Benazir may be as guilty as her husband, the greater national interest as well as self-interest in political survival demanded she should have been handled with greater sophistication.

One can be assured BJP will use Pakistan as a whipping horse if election looms near, any new government will shy away from being too cosy with Pakistan. In short we have left the Kashmiris fighting in the State without any lifeline for the future, that comes out of short-term attention not only to policies but also to detail. Today Mian Nawaz Sharif is surrounded by a cabal of bureaucrats. Sometimes the democrat in the PM asserts itself but he is basically a “last man, last ear man”. Despite his very capable younger brother, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, but the present stranglehold of bureaucracy is awesome. Pakistan has seen many of these men for all seasons over the five decades of independence; they are all strikingly similar in intent and lack of vision. To counter the significant events that are affecting Pakistan; they have no gameplan except the mundane, the routine and the glaringly obvious. Unless the PM breaks out of the bureaucratic stranglehold he has got himself into, we shall go further down the river of no return.

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