Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Bhutto's Niece Drops the goods on Her Aunt in India

Aunt Benazir's false promises

Bhutto's return bodes poorly for Pakistan -- and for democracy there.

Good Lord, I'm trying hard to not simply post the entire article here. It's MUST READ!

Ms. Bhutto's repeated promises to end fundamentalism and terrorism in Pakistan strain credulity because, after all, the Taliban government that ran Afghanistan was recognized by Pakistan under her last government -- making Pakistan one of only three governments in the world to do so.

And I am suspicious of her talk of ensuring peace. My father was a member of Parliament and a vocal critic of his sister's politics. He was killed outside our home in 1996 in a carefully planned police assassination while she was prime minister. There were 70 to 100 policemen at the scene, all the streetlights had been shut off and the roads were cordoned off. Six men were killed with my father. They were shot at point-blank range, suffered multiple bullet wounds and were left to bleed on the streets.

My father was Benazir's younger brother. To this day, her role in his assassination has never been adequately answered, although the tribunal convened after his death under the leadership of three respected judges concluded that it could not have taken place without approval from a "much higher" political authority.

I have personal reasons to fear the danger that Ms. Bhutto's presence in Pakistan brings, but I am not alone. The Islamists are waiting at the gate. They have been waiting for confirmation that the reforms for which the Pakistani people have been struggling have been a farce, propped up by the White House. Since Musharraf seized power in 1999, there has been an earnest grass-roots movement for democratic reform. The last thing we need is to be tied to a neocon agenda through a puppet "democrat" like Ms. Bhutto.

Blessings on you, Fatima. Your words ring true, and with all that I know. Blessings upon your loved ones.

Fatima Bhutto is a Pakistani poet and writer. She is the daughter of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, who was killed in 1996 in Karachi when his sister, Benazir, was prime minister.

4 comments:

MataHarley said...

Amen to thwarting a Benazir power play for sole power, Alia. Can't believe she's crazy enough to move that direction. Her party is only 1/3 of the total population. A power sharing may be justified, but certainly not completely in her hands.

And Taliban "recognized" by her government? That's an understatement. Unfortunately, the Taliban, created by the Maulana Fazlur Rahman, was done so per her request for protection again Hekmatyar's raids on cotton during Pakistan's drought in the early 90s.

And when the Maulana's Taliban turned fundamentalist ugly (as falls within his Deobandi desires), she listened to her ministers and continued the financial support. As long as they didn't disturb anything within Pakistan's borders.

She was not a welcome return, IMHO. But then, there is something to be said for a shared power, uniting Musharraf's supporters with her own.

Alia said...

Wow, Mata -- what you know. Very impressive.

In re your last, I'm not sure at all this "shared power" thing can even be remotely considered a possibility. Bhutto's takes Pakistan back to the past whereas Musharraf is trying to move Pakistan into the future.

Theoretically, the blend should work. But it can't. Crazy people hell bent on murdering those who don't agree with 'em has a way of making it utterly impossible for those like Musharraf to get through a single day without some royal 'expletive' shot to their head...

People like Bhutto don't do "share".

MataHarley said...

Actually, to oversimplify my perception of a power marriage between Bhutto and Musharraf... it's rather like a working relationship between socialist democracy (if there be such an animal) for Bhutto's group, and pro Western capitalists for Musharraf's group.

That isn't necessarily unobtainable, as we walk that line here in the good ol' USA with our socialist progressives and everyone else.

I'm not sure I give Musharraf as much credit as "moving Pak to the future". He was forced into being a US ally, and has taken many risks for doing so. But he has his baggage with past relationships as well. He is the most palatable at the moment, and has the cahones to lead despite constant assaults on his life.

Been especially reading up on Pakistani history, military strategies, and current events as I think the next battlefront hotspot in the GWOT will again be Afghanistan/Pakistan. As Iraq slowly comes under control by their truce/alliances between sects and tribal leaders against foreign Wahhabi/Deobandi jihadists, the human cockroachs are scurrying elsewhere. Namely back to Afghanistan.

So I'm looking to the not so distant future. And I'm quite sure all this shake up in the Pak gov't is somehow tied to recent battles and events on the ground with Afghanistan's Islamic jihadist surge. This all goes back to even before the German arrests/thwarting of a terror cell.

Pakistan is inextricably tied to Afghanistan and the Taliban's fate.

Alia said...

Good analysis. But then again, I've learned a plenty from the SF Bay Area. The area has been so rife with corruption, everyone is ultimately corrupted. Therefore, I can understand the whole Bhutto/Musharraf dirt.

Just makes me think of how many "conservatives" despise Guv Ahnold. Folks like me would love to have a Tom McClintock; but one has to consider the "environment" one is working within as to what constitutes reality, and what constitutes ca-ca. What is actually doable given the "human resources" available and/or dominant in an area.

(It's like a budget. Sure we all have great dreams, but sometimes the best we can do is get the leaking faucet fixed; the architectural redo will have to wait.)

I do agree with you -- it will end up all at the Afghanistan/Paki borders. Bhutto and her Pretty In Pinkos can take a flying leap at the moon. But I quite concur with you -- the intensity in re Ghan/Paki is growing. And so is the focus. In my estimate, this is good.

As you've perfected asserted, Iraq is getting more civilized by the moment. Syria and Tehran are still rattling sabers but effectively nullified, at the moment, meanwhile Paki/Ghan heat up, which of course means talks with China and India will become much more important.

It reminds me