Who killed Benazir Bhutto?

General Mirza Aslam Beg, COAS when Benazir was the Prime Minister 

"We all killed her, in east and west, orient and occident, north and south. We of the globalised beastly generation that transformed political violence from an occasional crime to an ideology and an addiction."  Says the 2006 Pax Chiriste International Peace Award laureate Rami G. Khouri, and hastens to explain: "Watching leaders being assassinated, foreign armies topple government, local colonels seize power, foreign occupations persist for garbage, constitution being ignored, and in the end, ordinary people finally deciding that they will not remain outside history. Or invisible in their own societies. Instead, they decide to write themselves into the violent and criminal scripts. They kill, as they have been killed. Having been dehumanized in turn, they will embrace inhumanity and brutality."

The damage is done and the search will continue to find the perpetrators of the crime. The Scotland yards' detectives have been commissioned, the third time to help Pakistan. After the assassination in 1951, the Scotland yard had done only a few weeks of investigations into the assassination of the Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, when they were asked to leave Pakistan, for reasons never disclosed, nor the authorities revealed anything about the investigations. In 1996, when Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's own brother Murtaza Bhutto was killed in cold-blood, a few yards distance from his 70, Clifton residence, the Scotland yards' services were commissioned, but soon were dispensed with by the government. The task for the British investigators, now is much more complex because the PPP leadership doesn't approve of them, and the evidence without a proper postmortem of the body would remain inconclusive. The results are obvious.

          It is important for us to remember, that with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's politics has undergone a sea-change, such as:

1.      The regime change in Pakistan, now will take place according to the wishes of the people of Pakistan and not Capitol Hill. This has been possible as a result of he struggle launched by the civil society, which has created a new consciousness and awareness amongst the masses to fight for their rights.

2.      The Bush administration has decided to support the masses of Pakistan and with this shift in American policy, Pak-American relationship for the first time, will enter into a new phase of a meaningful partnership based on self-respect and mutuality of interests. But unfortunately the "˜Mother of all Evil' - "foreign occupation of Afghan", will continue to poison Pak-US relations, more intensely than before.

3.      Pakistan Peoples Party, no doubt, will get sympathy votes, but, with Asif Zardari pointing the accusing finger at the Kings Party and the un-necessary exhibition of hatred against Punjab, at the time of Bhutto's burial, has pushed the Punjab voters towards Nawaz Sharif, while the PPP itself would be embroiled in the struggle for succession with Murtaza Bhutto's family and the intriguing investigations into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Thus PPP would hardly find time to win the majority seats in Sindh. The Indian scholar Seema Mustafa, rightly comments: "It is difficult for parties run by families to rise to any occasion. Dynasty brings with it a certain servility that does not allow independence of thought and action. It institutionalizes authoritarianism that, in turn, lives off factionalism. Family rule exerts dictatorial control over a political party, where strength is taken as rebellion, with independence of thought and action providing sufficient cause for disciplinary action."

4.      Nawaz Sharif is emerging as the national leader. His efforts to implement the Charter of Democracy, the formation of the All Parties Democratic Movement and his resolve to form a national government after the 18^th February elections, are the crying need of the time, to consolidate the Federation of Pakistan. He puts the interest of the country above the self, and that is what makes him relatively taller than others.

5.      General Musharraf is fighting a loosing battle against the tribals in the northwest, against the civil society which provides the consciousness to the people of Pakistan, of their social and political rights, and the expanding alliance of the opposition "“ the PML(N), PPP and the APDM "“ which will determine the political destiny of Pakistan. Yet Musharraf will not leave, waiting for the new parliament to deliver the coupe de grace.

Such are the challenges, facing our people, our leaders and the new government. The diminutive and the weak hearted would bemoan of the treacheries of our friends and foes and the looming threat to national security, whereas the brave and the courageous, with an enlightened mind would rise to the occasion, believing that out of the depths of sorrow and sacrifice, Pakistani nation will rise, to find its rightful place, in the comity of nations. The nation stands united, as never before, to carve-out a new destiny for itself, based on socio-economic justice and supremacy of law, within the framework of the Constitution of Pakistan, that is - "a liberal democratic order, based on the principles of Quran and Sunnah" "“ the raison d'etere, which determines, the "core value" of the Pakistani nation, has not changed nor it has diminished since it voted for Pakistan in 1947, and leaves no room for the extremists, fundamentalists or the fanatics. That is the "˜fundamental direction' determined by Quaid-e-Azam, the nation follows despite the trauma of dismemberment of Pakistan and a life full of treachery, turmoil and turbulence.

          Napoleon said: "There are only two things that unite men "“ fear and interest." The fear is patently clear in the dastardly death of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and the wave of conspiracies to destabilize the country. The interest is how to preserve the federation of Pakistan as a viable nuclear entity. Fortunately a new political dynamics has emerged which is a revival of the spirit which led to the creation of Pakistan "“ and will also sustain Pakistan, in the future, Insha Allah.