Kitnay Bhutto?

In a simple four-point story (‘Here’s what happened’), The Daily Times on Friday summed up the event that’s shaken Pakistan...

In a simple four-point story (‘Here’s what happened’), The Daily Times on Friday summed up the event that’s shaken Pakistan: “Benazir Bhutto was leaving Liaquat Bagh after addressing the rally when her vehicle, a Black Lexus bulletproof vehicle, stopped near the venue’s gate where PPP workers were shouting party slogans. Benazir came out from the sunroof of her vehicle to respond to her supporters’ slogans when a motorcyclist opened Kalashnikov fire on her. Benazir fell inside her vehicle after receiving bullet injuries on her head and neck. The attacker blew himself up after firing the shots.”

Beyond the immediate fallout of the incident, Qazi Asif, “a reporter from Larkana”, wrote on “covering the Bhuttos”. (Larkana, also known for its proximity to Mohenjodaro, is the Bhuttos’ home place.) Wrote Asif: “Her words echo in my ears: ‘Tum kitnay Bhutto marogay? Har ghar say Bhutto niklay ga!’ How many Bhuttos will you kill? Every house will issue forth a Bhutto. This is what she had cried across the microphone to the crowd at Municipal Stadium in Larkana where I saw her last, on December 23. Her fist shook in the air. As a reporter from Larkana, I often reported on the Pakistan Peoples Party. I remember the village of Janat ji Wandh in a katcha area of Naudero where she used to arrange a medical camp every year. This village was said to be the most native village of her family.”

Rawalpindi trio

In its editorial ‘Farewell Benazir’, The News marked the irony in the site of her assassination: “Within a few hundred yards of where her father was hanged by a military dictator and at the same spot where another popular prime minister of Pakistan (Liaquat) was shot dead years ago, Benazir Bhutto, the unfortunate daughter of the east, the most popular leader of the country, the bold and fearless crusader for democratic and human rights, the only leader who genuinely represented the federation that is Pakistan, was assassinated by an assassin’s bullet in Rawalpindi, just 70 days after she returned from self-exile.”

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The editorial summed up the kind of worry expressed on its front page reports: “Her assassination threatens to derail the entire process of Pakistan returning to an elected democratic rule, especially by a coalition of moderate and liberal leaders who could confront the growing menace of religious extremism and fanaticism. This strategy had the full blessings of the west, specially the United States, as Washington carefully pushed General Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto to move closer to occupy that middle space and keep Pakistan from swinging perilously towards the right. Her death will be felt as a severe blow to US interests in Pakistan and in the region. Pakistan, it would be fair, to predict, is now in for very turbulent times.”

Family’s vigil

Garhi Khuda Bux awaits another Bhutto,’ said Dawn on its front page, noting the cloud over succession and counting the number of family members accommodated in the family graveyard after violent deaths: “It (the assassination) removed from the scene the last remaining bearer from her family of the political legacy of her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was executed, also in Rawalpindi, on April 5, 1979 by the then-military ruler Gen Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq following a controversial conspiracy-to-murder conviction. Her youngest brother Shahnawaz Bhutto was found mysteriously dead on July 18, 1985 while living in exile in a French Riviera apartment while his only other brother, Murtaza Bhutto, was killed in a mysterious shooting outside his home in Karachi on Sept 20, 1996. Bhutto’s mother, Nusrat, who led the PPP for some years after Gen Zia toppled Mr Bhutto in a 1977 coup, has been very ill in recent years and has been living in Dubai with her daughter. Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari never seemed prepared for a leadership role despite being elected to parliament and being a minister in her cabinet during the last of her two short-lived tenures as prime minister, while younger sister, Sanam, has not engaged in politics.”

Benazir Bagh now?

The Nation too lingered a while at the site of assassination: “Located at a busy place of Murree Road, Liaquat Bagh stands in the annals of country’s history with major assassination attempts on three prominent political leaders. The country’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated on October 16, 1951, when he was addressing a gathering of 100,000 at Company Bagh (later renamed Liaquat Bagh) in Rawalpindi. The record says the murderer Said Akbar was an Afghan national and a professional assassin. On March 23, 1973, the Federal Security Force, a paramilitary force attacked a public opposition rally of Awami National Party leader led by Wali Khan at Liaquat Bagh killing dozen of ANP workers. Wali Khan narrowly escaped the attempt.”

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