Benazir will be back
By Husain Haqqani
Gulf News, January 17, 2007
Pakistan's Opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has made
it clear that she will return to Pakistan in time for the 2007 elections and
that her Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) would not accept any deal with the present
government that allows General Pervez Musharraf to retain his military uniform.
"The raison d'etre of the PPP is to end military rule, not to perpetuate
it," Bhutto recently told this columnist.
Given the PPP's long history of opposition to military rule and the sacrifices
of Bhutto and her family for the restoration of democracy, this categorical
stance should surprise no one. Bhutto's return to Pakistan will likely lead
to massive mobilisation against military rule, much like her 1986 return from
exile marked the beginning of the end for General Zia-ul Haq's entrenched military
regime.
The rumours of an impending deal between the PPP and Musharraf have been periodically
spread by the Pakistani establishment and denied by the PPP. These rumours served
the purpose of confusing and dividing the opposition, in addition to making
Musharraf look invulnerable. The persistence of these rumours was partly a reflection
of the establishment's effective media manipulation and partly a manifestation
of the willingness of some elite Pakistanis to believe the worst about the PPP
and the Bhuttos.
Pakistan's elite loves to hate the Bhutto family. Before Bhutto's father, Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto, founded the PPP in 1967, Pakistan's politics were confined to the
drawing rooms of Karachi and Lahore.
He brought the unwashed masses of present-day Pakistan into the political equation,
a "sin" for which he has not been forgiven by the country's oligarchy
of senior military officers, civil servants, international bankers, industrialists,
major landowners and multinational corporation executives.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and for that matter the PPP and other members of his family,
were not perfect and much can be (and is) said about their mistakes, especially
while in power. But the fact remains that the real reason for the Pakistani
establishment's resentments towards the Bhuttos and the PPP has little to do
with their real and perceived flaws.
Major challenge
Since General Zia-ul Haq deposed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in a military coup in 1977,
the establishment has recognised the Bhutto name and the PPP as the major challenge
to the establishment's dominance of Pakistan. After executing Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
in what is now universally recognised as a show trial, Zia-ul Haq initiated
a major campaign of demonisation against the PPP and the Bhuttos.
Zia-ul Haq's successors continued the vilification of the Bhutto family and
persisted with efforts to divide and break the PPP. Benazir Bhutto's two terms
in office were cut short by establishment-orchestrated dismissals from power.
She lost both her brothers to assassinations under mysterious circumstances
that are still unresolved. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, has been a target
of particular disparagement. He was first imprisoned from 1990 to 1993 on corruption
charges, only to be released without being convicted in any of the 18 cases
brought against him. Not learning any lessons from the failed prosecutions of
1990-93, Zardari was imprisoned again in 1996, only to be released eight-and-a-half
years later on bail. None of the charges against him has yet been proven and
Zardari is quite confident that his persecutors will end up with egg on their
faces once again.
Since assuming power in a coup d'etat in 1999, Musharraf has tried to use the
prosecutions against Zardari as a bargaining tool to seek the PPP's cooperation.
But having paid the high price in personal suffering, it is clear that Benazir
Bhutto will not accept Musharraf's uniform in return for the withdrawal of cases
against herself and Zardari.
It seems that the people of Pakistan are willing to give Benazir Bhutto and
the PPP another chance because they have never been given the opportunity to
vote out the party after voting it into office. For once, the Pakistani establishment
should give the people of Pakistan a free choice in selecting their leaders.