Published on January 29, 2008
in Politics.
KARACHI (January 29 2008): The following is an unconfirmed and unverified account of a person who wishes to remain anonymous. The account is the narration of experiences of a senior foreign ministry official who, according to the writer, was privy to ZA Bhutto-Henry Kissinger talk and later witness to General Ziaul Haq’s outburst of anger against US in front of its ambassador.
The question of veracity of this write-up remains unanswered and the identity and whereabouts of the official and the author of this story are yet to be ascertained, it makes for interesting reading, nevertheless:
It was the year 1976 and the US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was on a visit to Pakistan, to meet the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulkiqar Ali Bhutto. The Americans wanted Pakistan to give up their nuclear project, and Henry Kissinger was on a mission to deliver the US President’s message to Bhutto. Mr Bhutto listened to Kissinger very patiently and then addressed him, “you are my friend, please advise me what I should do.” Kissinger smiled a bit, and said softly, “Mr Prime Minister! In the game of diplomacy and power, nobody is any one else’s friend. I am only a messenger at this time. You should consult one of your own advisors”. Bhutto smiled and replied in a beautiful tone, “I still consider you my friend despite that and so request your advice.” Henry Kissinger laughed heartily, and looking at Bhutto, said, “you are really a chess master.” Bhutto stared at him silently. Continue reading ‘That time hasn’t come, has it? (Business Recorder)’
Published on January 18, 2008
in Politics.
The Pakistan Peoples Party is right to keep her family in charge.
By Husain Haqqani
Los Angeles Times, January 16, 2008
The Pakistan Peoples Party’s decision to elect Benazir Bhutto’s 19-year-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, as co-chairs of the party in the aftermath of her assassination is being criticized as representing dynastic politics that do not promote democracy.
But a distinction needs to be made between dynastic politics and the politics of family legacy. And the context of such family-based leadership needs to be understood. Continue reading ‘Beyond Benazir by Husain Haqqani’
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Amber Darr
On Dec 27, Benazir Bhutto was brutally and tragically murdered. Her death is a national loss, not because of what she may have delivered as a politician but for what she represented. Her image was that of a highly educated and sufficiently westernised and liberal leader who had the potential to free Pakistan from the yoke of military rule and lead it into democracy. Her image was also that of an eastern woman who despite her fragility had the courage to stand up to military dictators and despite her strength had the gentleness to nurture a family. For a country that is fast becoming synonymous with gun-wielding terrorists, her image was important. Continue reading ‘Benazir: no hidden stooge of the government’
Benazir Bhutto did five years of hard time in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, after her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was overthrown and hanged by the worst of Pakistan’s military dictators, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. But she was a woman who liked her privileges and her luxuries, and she was never a very effective politician.
I got to know Benazir Bhutto a bit in the mid-1970s, when she had finished her degree at Harvard and was doing graduate work at Oxford University. She actually spent much of her time in London, in a grand flat she kept just off Hyde Park.
If you knew a lot of people in town who took an interest in Middle Eastern and subcontinental affairs (I had been studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies), and you weren’t too old or too boring, you were likely to end up at her flat once in a while, at what some would call a salon but I would call a party.
A fairly decorous party as those things went in 70s London, to be sure, with everybody showing off their sophisticated knowledge of the region’s politics and nobody getting out of hand, but definitely a party. The hostess was well informed and quite clever, and she obviously had money coming out of her ears. We knew her dad had been prime minister of Pakistan before Zia overthrew him, of course, but she was neither a serious scholar nor a budding politician. Continue reading ‘Bhutto Assassination by Gwynne Dyer’
Six hours before she was executed, Mary, Queen of Scots wrote to her brother-in-law, Henry III of France: “…As for my son, I commend him to you in so far as he deserves, for I cannot answer for him.” The year was 1587.
On 30 December 2007, a conclave of feudal potentates gathered in the home of the slain Benazir Bhutto to hear her last will and testament being read out and its contents subsequently announced to the world media. Where Mary was tentative, her modern-day equivalent left no room for doubt. She could certainly answer for her son. Continue reading ‘My heart bleeds for Pakistan. It deserves better than this grotesque feudal charade by Tariq Ali, The Independent’
By Fatima Bhutto
KARACHI — We Pakistanis live in uncertain times. Emergency rule has been imposed for the 13th time in our short 60-year history. Thousands of lawyers have been arrested, some charged with sedition and treason; the chief justice has been deposed; and a draconian media law — shutting down all private news channels — has been drafted.
Perhaps the most bizarre part of this circus has been the hijacking of the democratic cause by my aunt, the twice-disgraced former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. While she was hashing out a deal to share power with Gen. Pervez Musharraf last month, she repeatedly insisted that without her, democracy in Pakistan would be a lost cause. Now that the situation has changed, she’s saying that she wants Musharraf to step down and that she’d like to make a deal with his opponents — but still, she says, she’s the savior of democracy. Continue reading ‘Aunt Benazir’s false promises By Fatima Bhutto’
Published on November 12, 2007
in Politics.
Benazir Bhutto returned from self-imposed exile last month
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Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto says she has ended negotiations with President Pervez Musharraf on a power-sharing agreement. “We are saying no to any more talks. It is a change from my past policy,” she told journalists in Lahore.
The United States has been pushing for a power-sharing agreement to provide more support for Gen Musharraf in his fight against Islamist extremism.
But Ms Bhutto said the state of emergency made talks impossible.
Ms Bhutto also said she would go ahead with a rally on Tuesday from Lahore to the capital, Islamabad.
Continue reading ‘Bhutto ‘ends power-sharing talks’, BBC’
So, she’s finally joined in:
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has announced plans for a massive rally in the city of Rawalpindi Friday to protest emergency rule. VOA’s Barry Newhouse reports from Islamabad that the rally could mark a new stage in the crisis that began with President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency decree on Saturday.
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Pakistani lawyers shout anti-Musharraf slogans during a protest in Peshawar, Pakistan, 07 Nov 2007
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Rawalpindi officials insist they will not allow the rally to take place Friday. But Ms. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, or PPP, has a history of turning out large numbers of supporters.
In recent days, thousands of lawyers have clashed with police, calling the emergency unconstitutional. But opposition parties so far have not taken to the streets.
Continue reading ‘Benazir joins in the protest; thousands of lawyers arrested; Anti-Terrorism laws being used’
Published on October 24, 2007
in Politics.
By Imran Khan, The Telegraph
I’m sorry to say this, but the bombing of Benazir Bhutto’s cavalcade as she paraded through Karachi on Thursday night was a tragedy almost waiting to happen. You could argue it was inevitable.
Everyone here knew there was going to be a huge crowd turning up to see her return after eight years in self-imposed exile. Everyone also knows that there has been a spate of suicide bombings in Pakistan lately, especially in the frontier region where I am campaigning at the moment.
How was it ever going to be possible to monitor such a large crowd and guarantee that no suicide bombers would infiltrate it?
This may sound equally harsh, but she has only herself to blame. Continue reading ‘Benazir Bhutto has only herself to blame - Imran Khan’
Published on October 22, 2007
in Politics.
Guest Post By Adil Akbar
So, is this where the mortal struggle for the nation begins ? Now that two former Prime Ministers have flown back to Pakistan (one sent back promptly from whence he came and another being greeted by the all-too-familiar death and destruction of suicide bombs), floodgates of opinion have opened and the great debate can now begin.
Does the layman Pakistani citizen side with the exiled ‘messiahs’ and herald a new beginning in the history of Pakistan, or do they maintain unspoken but wavering allegiance to the tyranny of military rule ?
Continue reading ‘Dictocracy’
