Daughter of the East returns - with
West's aid By Beena Sarwar
KARACHI - The much ballyhooed "deal"
between Pakistan's twice-elected, twice-deposed
former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and President
General Pervez Musharraf has cast a shadow over
her triumphal homecoming on Thursday, after nine
long years of self-imposed exile.
The
National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO),
promulgated on October 5 by Musharraf a day before
presidential elections, gives Bhutto immunity
against corruption charges brought against her
after she was ousted from power in 1996. In
exchange, her
Pakistan People's Party (PPP)
lent the presidential election legitimacy by
abstaining from the vote. The rest of the
opposition boycotted the proceedings in protest at
Musharraf's nomination as president while still
army chief.
The NRO cleared the way for
Bhutto's return to Pakistan without being arrested
under the various corruption charges facing her
since she was ousted from power in 1996 (she
points out that none of these charges have been
proven in court). The NRO also absolves absconding
bureaucrats and political workers accused of
corruption or criminal activities.
Public
opinion is divided between acceptance of the NRO
as a pragmatic way forward in the democratization
process, and disgust at what Supreme Court lawyer
Zahid F Ebrahim terms an "unseemly bribe" and a
"white-washing" of corruption in order to usher in
a nominal democracy that suits the United States
in its "war on terror" and allowing Musharraf to
stay on as president.
A last-minute phone
call from Washington reportedly clinched the
understanding (see From Washington to war in
Waziristan, ATol, Oct 11,2007) but
speculations about it have been rife particularly
since the political crisis that engulfed the
country after Musharraf "suspended" Chief Justice
Iftikhar Chowdhry in March. This triggered off
lawyers' demonstrations demanding Chowdhry's
reinstatement and quickly built up momentum that
had Musharraf on the defensive.
The
protests continued for four months and
government's attempts to muzzle the media, through
police attacks and hastily introduced legislation
backfired.
After the Supreme Court
reinstated him in July, Chowdhry began taking up
the cases of the "disappeared". The independent
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has filed 150
such cases. As many as 3,000 or more activists of
various persuasions are missing, many arrested in
the name of the "war on terror".
The
return of the world's first Muslim woman head of
government is also overshadowed by the situation
in Pakistan's northwest tribal areas bordering
Afghanistan. Under intense pressure by Washington,
Islamabad continues its aggressive military
approach to deal with "Talibanization". The army's
recent bombardment of these border areas has
resulted in an exodus of villagers seeking safety
- and in an increase in militancy.
"The
ethics of revenge in the tribal area means that
for each civilian who is killed there, there will
be 10 family members wanting to take revenge
against the Pakistan army," notes Imran Khan, the
former cricket hero turned politician who heads
his Tehreek-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice)
political party. "If there's no military solution
in Iraq, there's no military solution in
Pakistan."
Khan is among those who disdain
Benazir Bhutto's "political compromise" with the
army. But there is jubilation among PPP workers at
their leader's impending return, and bus- and
truck-loads are heading to Karachi from all over
the country to receive her.
With its
slogan of "Roti, Kapra, Makan" (Bread,
Cloth, Housing), the PPP has always appealed to
the poor. "But the Benazir that her party workers
are streaming on foot, on bicycle, and on buses to
greet, is not the same," observes lawyer Ebrahim.
Talking with IPS, he added, "She is still seen as
a symbol of the fight against tyranny, but how
does that translate when she is power? Will the
state invest in health, in education? Will she cut
back on the ongoing privatisation and retrenchment
of public sector employees? She raises the slogans
but has not touched on any of these essential
issues."
Even so, hundreds of billboards
and hoardings have cropped up, particularly in the
area around Bhutto's fortified, palatial Karachi
residence. Despite the city administration's
attempts to get these sponsored banners removed -
the police refused, citing preoccupation with
security arrangements - the city remains virtually
plastered over with images of Bhutto's smiling
face, head duly covered with a dupatta
- the scarf that women in this region
traditionally don over shalwar suits (long tunics and
baggy trousers) - and a portrait of her late
father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Bhutto's head-covering is
seen as a nod to Pakistan's conservative religious
forces that oppose a woman head of state. "She did
the biggest disservice to the women of Pakistan by
donning the dupatta," observes cardiologist and
prominent citizen M Sharif.
A demurely
covered head symbolizes the pure woman across
South Asia. The Harvard (Radcliffe) and
Oxford-educated Bhutto admitted in a recent
television interview that not having to wear a
dupatta is more "convenient".
She
was flung into politics in 1977 when the army
dictator Gen Zia ul-Haq deposed her father. Two
years later, Zia hanged Bhutto on trumped up
murder charges, crushing political opposition with
massive arrests, torture, floggings and
executions. In her autobiography, Daughter of the
East, Bhutto recounts the hardships she
faced during this time under house arrest and
solitary confinement, until Zia allowed her to
leave the country in 1984.
Washington had
by then enlisted Pakistan as a front-line state in
the war against the Soviets in next-door
Afghanistan and unconditionally supported the
Pakistani Army and its new unofficial
foot-soldiers, the mujahideen - who have since
morphed into the Taliban.
Zia finally
allowed Benazir Bhutto to return in 1986 and
participate in politics under his "controlled
democracy". However, her return this time is very
different from the widespread euphoria she
generated in 1986 when she challenged the dictator
Zia. This time she returns having entered into a
deal with a military chief who has held sway for
almost a decade.
Zia died in a mysterious
mid-air explosion along with the US ambassador,
Arnold Rafael, in August 1988. Elections three
months later ushered Bhutto into power, with a
slim majority forcing her to compromise on issues
like finance, the military and foreign policy.
Between 1988 and 1999, Bhutto's PPP government
alternated in power with Zia's protege, Nawaz
Sharif, and his Pakistan Muslim League (PML). Both
were elected and deposed from power twice in this
period.
In November 1999, Musharraf took
over power and slapped criminal charges carrying
capital punishment on Sharif. Shortly afterwards,
in a deal brokered by the Saudi monarch at the
request of his father, Nawaz Sharif agreed to
exchange his prison cell for exile in Saudi Arabia
and desist from politics for 10 years.
Sharif was unceremoniously bundled back to
Saudi Arabia hours after landing in Islamabad on
September 10, following an attempt to reenter
Pakistani politics. Opinion was then divided
between indignation at denying him a citizen's
inalienable right to return and the view that he
had brought this ignominy upon himself by entering
into this agreement in the first place.
Although the government is ostensibly
allowing Bhutto to return, Musharraf requested her
to delay her arrival - she refused - and warned
her that she may be the target of a suicide
attack. Bhutto has scoffed at such warnings with,
"I do not believe that any true Muslim would
attack me because I am a woman and Islam forbids
attacks against women. Secondly Islam forbids
suicide."
She has nevertheless taken the
precaution of ordering armored vehicles for
herself and her arrival is expected to take place
amidst tight security. Schools have been ordered
closed because of expected traffic chaos from her
supporters streaming into the city in the tens of
thousands.
Her arrival may yet receive a
damper if the Supreme Court upholds the petitions
it is currently reviewing against the
constitutionality of the NRO. Musharraf too may
receive a setback if the court upholds other
petitions challenging his nomination as president
while still holding army office. However, this may
push the country into a worse political crisis,
particularly since Musharraf has promised to doff
his army uniform "soon".
"If Benazir lands
in Pakistan safely, it will be the most important
political development in Pakistan in the last
eight years," Asad Sayeed, an economist at the
Karachi-based thinktank Collective for Social
Science Research, told IPS. "It will open up
political space for representative rule, with
civilians taking over at least some space from the
military. It may not be enough right now, but
there will at least be some transition."
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