Benazir's anti-Punjab card by Humayun Gauhar

Don't run down the Punjab just to exploit Sindhi sentiments. It is a very dangerous game and can lead to unintended consequences.

141 are dead, 534 injured as two bombs rip through Benazir's procession. This is totally unacceptable. That it was a tragedy foretold doesn't justify it. Who's counting? Entire families have been destroyed.

People have become nameless statistics. Awesome force applied shockingly systematically dehumanises humans, a favourite tactic of state and non-state terrorists. All that people were doing was welcoming their leader.

They had every right to do so. They were not creating any trouble. They were rejoicing. The atmosphere was festive. It was a carnival. Their opponents had no business to stop them by creating a killing field. Political opponents have to be defeated politically and legally, not murderously.

The government should not have allowed a huge procession in the violent city of Karachi over so many hours, despite the danger of the People's Party accusing it of denying them their democratic right. Having been warned repeatedly of the danger of a terrorist attack, Benazir Bhutto can be accused of giving more importance to scoring political points than to the lives of innocent and ordinary people who, after all, are her followers. But the prime blame lies on America.

Having deluded itself that a Musharraf-Benazir ganging up will help it achieve its objectives, it forces a Benazir homecoming by shoving the satanic money laundering ordinance down our throats, making corruption no longer an issue.

Benazir gets amnesty from her many corruption cases. At the end of the day, the final blames lies with Musharraf for caving in to American pressure. What makes it worse is that he knows that this is wrong. If you cannot stand up to America even when it demands things that are against our much overused national interest, better to call it a day and depart with dignity, ensuring yourself a good place in history instead of doing the wrong thing and handing Pakistan over to America. Let someone who can better stand up to American perfidy take charge.

That tragic day made it clear that Benazir is still hugely popular. How much that translates into seats only elections will tell. But the elections have already been rigged by America. The perceptions that she represents America and has bagged Musharraf, which means the intelligence agencies, could help her immensely.

The Pakistan Muslim League vote remains split between the Nawaz and Shujaat factions. They will cancel out each other and hand the advantage to Benazir, as happened in 2002. The chances that they will reunify are dim, because the intelligence of those in charge is even dimmer.

It seems that the take over of Pakistan by America was total and complete. Zindabad America! Why this perception?

» It is no secret that America brokered the deal, with Britain acting as go between. In fact, when it seemed last month that the negotiations might fall through, it is straight to the British foreign office that Benazir went running. Britain informed the Americans who brought them back on track.

» Various American officials have said repeatedly that a Musharraf-Benazir cabal is necessary to win the war against terror, because it would be "˜moderate' and "˜secular', whatever that might mean in an Islamic country.

Secularism, as in matters temporal, is inherent in Islam. What it really means is that Benazir would allow American-NATO forces into Pakistan's tribal areas to hunt down Osama, Zawahiri, Al Qaeda and the Taliban. America is scared that if Pakistan's nuclear arsenal would fall into their hands.

» Perhaps America has come to the conclusion that they have had enough of this frightening nuclear-laced Muslim country which was created as a buffer between the Soviet Union and India. Now that the Soviet Union is gone, there is no need for the buffer. Best to disintegrate it, more or less reverting to the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946.

All this would still have been in the realm of theorising had Benazir not reinforced it herself. Answering a question after a lecture in America, she said that she would allow the IAEA to interrogate Dr A Q Khan under certain circumstances and allow US forces into Pakistan to hunt down Osama.

This was quite rightly interpreted as implementing the US agenda, despite feeble excuses that she was being judged out of context. We know the context. Then came her unfortunate outburst at the press conference in Dubai a day before her departure, when she was asked about her reaction if the Supreme Court shot down the NRO as unconstitutional.

I hope unwittingly, she played the anti-Punjab card. Where was the Supreme Court when her father was hanged, she asked. They killed him because he was a Sindhi, not a Punjabi, pardoned a convicted Punjabi prime minister and let him go to Jeddah with 40 suitcases, while they hounded her for years on trumped up charges.

People could not believe what they were hearing. Was she trying to pitch the Punjab against the rest of the country to break Pakistan?

She was not done. She accused the Supreme Court of reinstating a Punjabi prime minister when his government was dismissed but not acting when her government was thrown out twice. She asked where the Supreme Court was when Dr A Q Khan publicly confessed to his crime of selling our nuclear secrets to many countries and yet was pardoned.

One fully sympathises with her regarding her father's wrongful hanging. No child ever accepts that a parent has been rightly convicted, especially when the case is politically motivated and the proceedings lack due process.

Bhutto's killing was judicial murder, not an execution. But it had nothing to do with him being a Sindhi. Look at the facts, Madam.

» Your father won the 1970 elections in West Pakistan because of the Punjabi vote, not the Sindhi vote. Sindh only started owning him properly after he was assassinated.

» You became prime minister twice because of the Punjabi vote.

» Reinstating Nawaz Sharif's government in 1993 was a good decision and should be lauded rather than parochialised.

» In December 2000 Sharif cut a deal with Musharraf, was conditionally pardoned, and was sent to Jeddah. You too cut a deal with Musharraf, were granted amnesty and allowed to return to Pakistan. He did a deal to get out; you did a deal to get in. That's all.

» Saudi Arabia and Lebanon facilitated the deal for Nawaz. America and Britain brokered it for you. Which countries are better regarded?
» You are coming out of Washington; Nawaz came out of Pakistan's Supreme Court.

» You are home again to share power if the US can help it. Nawaz is out in the cold.
» The government did everything to ease your return. Nawaz Sharif was locked up in Islamabad Airport for hours and then unceremoniously bundled off to Saudi Arabia.

» A big difference: Nawaz Sharif forfeited part of his property; you didn't give back an iota.
» Genuine reconciliation will happen if you apologise to the nation and return at least part of the loot. I would urge you to do so, for then you could start with a clean slate. You will be surprised at how some of your opponents become your admirers.

It seems to me, Madam, that the Sindhi girl is doing rather better than the Punjabi boy, what? So have a heart and don't run down the Punjab or its establishment just to exploit Sindhi sentiments. It is a very dangerous game and can lead to unintended consequences.

One learned wiseacre commented that by virtue of the size of her reception, Benazir stands exonerated. If the size of processions is going to be the determinant of justice, let's close down the courts. Hitler would stand exonerated by the size of his rallies. And if you allow Osama to come to Karachi without hindrance, can you imagine the size of his procession?
Not only would the whole of Pakistan be there, but Muslims from every country would fly in to receive him. Would that exonerate him? This is demagoguery. Such puerile nonsense is the stuff that fascism in the garb of moderation is made of.

In our politics the best of people get polluted without their realising it. This whole horrible business has forced me to sound parochial, which I certainly am not. I feel unclean.