On 27th December, 2007, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in an attack during an election rally in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi. The park is named after Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, who was killed in the same vicinity, on 16th October, 1951. The killers of both leaders escape justice to this very day. While Ms Bhutto’s death anniversary is marked with commemorative gatherings all over the country, it has also become the day her entire life is put under a microscope, and scrutinized. However, engaging in a pursuit of the fine detail has its downside; one is likely to completely miss the big picture.
The critics must see beyond politically inspired allegations, especially when the personality under question has so much more to offer. Was Benazir Bhutto a saint? Of course not. No one is. She was flawed, like all mortals are. But, she was extraordinary, too. Only in her 20s, she took on a feared military dictator, Gen Zia ul Haq, and was condemned to almost 6 years of house arrests and imprisonments, including being held in solitary confinement in a desert cell in Sindh during the summer of 1981. It was her poor health and the pressure from the international community which would push the Zia regime to allow the Bhutto family to travel abroad for medical treatment. The rest is history.
Pakistan is largely a conservative country. Traditions, cloaked in religion, ensure that women stay in their place – which is inside the house, in their understanding. The same country elected Benazir Bhutto as the first woman ever to lead a Muslim state, and it did it twice. People forget that she was in power for merely four and a half years, in two brief stints, out of more than 30 years of her political struggle. While in office, she had to fight against the military establishment which never trusted her. And, definitely didn’t appreciate being led by a woman. From plotting to set election dates in accordance with her pregnancy report in order to limit her physical mobility during elections, to dressing in specific uniforms to justify not saluting the head of the state, they threw it all her way. Nothing worked. She just wouldn’t quit. She never did.
Benazir Bhutto worked in an environment, in a system, which was always at odds with her and what she stood for. They understood what she symbolized, and the power that symbols hold. An educated, intelligent, independent woman, a mother, struggling for democracy, against the mighty Pakistani establishment and the vicious far-right segment of the populace.How many other women, or men, do we know in this country, and in this world, who could achieve even half of that?