Beneficiary of Benazir's death: who?
Monday, 31 December 2007
Maswood Alam Khan
WHILE playing chess one must remember three golden rules: Foresight -- to look into futurity and consider the consequences that may attend an action; Circumspection -- to survey the whole chessboard, the scene of action, the relationship between pieces: kings, queens, rooks, knights, bishops and pawns with a view to checkmate the opponent's king; and thirdly Caution -- not to make moves too hastily. In my schooldays a friend of mine -- who was basically twitchy -- used to first blush and then turn the chessboard upside down whenever he could sense that his king had no way to escape. He would have killed me if he had the option open because he was too weak to put up with defeat.
In the afternoon of December 27, a gunman fired some bullets, a suicide bomb was detonated as Benazir Bhutto was leaving a rally in the Liakot National Bagh in Rawalpindi after giving her fiery speech in a political campaign ahead of elections due in January 2008. Benazir, leader of PPP -- the largest opposition party in Pakistan -- was pronounced dead after being taken to Rawalpindi General Hospital. Twenty more people most of whom were escorting Benazir as human shields including the assassin were also dead. Thanks to worldwide media networking BBC and CNN broke the news when people in the western world just got up from their sleep and tuned in to their favourite TV channels. Presidents and Prime Ministers all over the world echoed their shocks at the tragic death of the two-time prime minister of Pakistan.
Undoubtedly it was someone like my schooldays friend who could not stand to see Benazir alighting upon the seat of premiership for the third time attempted to make everything topsy-turvy when the country was poising herself to restore democracy. The whole world blamed terrorism for the carnage but no world leader pinpointed in clear terms the main beneficiary of Benazir's death. The gun has been blamed, but the gunner has not been named. The assassin who (reportedly) shot fires and detonated the suicide bomb was merely a misguided tool of power politics. He was just a gun -- an insane derelict infused with some concocted political ideology and specially trained to kill public figures blindfold. Assassins are usually drugged with hashish and opium before they are sent for killing missions. Murdering a prominent person is a joy the assassin enjoys when s/he is mentally deranged and his/her life is replete with sorrows. Masterminds of assassinations know who they should recruit as their guns to kill their opponents.
Pakistan's President Parvez Musharraf wore a sad and grave look while condemning the death of Benazir Bhutto and proclaimed a three-day national mourning with all national flags to be flown at half mast. Supporters of Benazir wept, threw stones at cars, ransacked whatever they came across and chanted "Dog, Musharraf, dog" to air out their steamed up angers and frustrations. Some opposition groups said that the assassination could lead to civil war, and other commentators said that the upcoming elections will likely be postponed. World leaders sent their condolences to the bereaved families. Newspapers and television channels blasted their headlines.
Commentators published their opinions and conspiracy theories. The world price of oil and gold rose with news of the assassination. And Benazir Bhutto sank into the pages of history the way Nawabzadah Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan was assassinated in 1951. Perhaps, nobody would ever know who the mastermind behind her death was if the perpetrator behind the scene, like a far-sighted chess player, had orchestrated the murder in impeccable tactics.
The perpetrator may hoodwink illiterate and emotional people of Pakistan into believing whatever is made printed in newspapers or broadcast in news imedia in his country. But those who know the mastery of grand perpetrators are not easily carried away by what they view in televisions or read in newspapers; they are trying to decipher the language visible in faces of leaders who ostensibly were condemning the death and they also looked aghast at the sight of fire brigade personnel frantically sweeping and washing the crime spot with powerful fire hoses to rid the street of the last speck of forensic evidence.
A glimmer of hope of democratisation, nevertheless, conjoined with her return to Pakistan and with the election on January 8. Many of us in the subcontinent were keeping watchful eyes on the political events in Pakistan with the hopes or trepidations that positive or negative developments in Pakistan may influence many of the governments on and around the Indian Ocean to adopt strategies either to nurture or to gag democracy.
The American President and the British Premier both eulogised Benazir as a soldier who fought for democracy and they were hopeful that democracy would not be a casualty as an aftermath effect of Bhutto tragedy. Mr. Hamid Karzai, the President of Afganistan who met Benazir only a few hours before her death, was visibly shocked while condemning the assassination. Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, while expressing his sadness described Benazir Bhutto as a woman who wanted to fight her battle until the end with just one weapon -- that of dialogue and political discussion. U.S. President George W. Bush condemned the assassination as a "cowardly act by murderous extremists," and encouraged Pakistan to "honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life.
The one in Pakistan who hoped to tramp on Benazir's dead body to kill democracy with an ulterior view to ushering in autocracy must be feeling upbeats of his heart if the election, as is rumoured, is now deferred; his heart must be throbbing downbeats if people of Pakistan pay their tributes to their assassinated leader by compelling their government to hold election in time to bring civil rule in the true sense of the term.
Military in Pakistan has a tradition of overthrowing elected governments in kind of dramatic ways---mostly on the pretext of continued civil unrest---whenever the military chief finds himself under retirement threat from civilian government and once military takes over they are loath to go back to the drudgery of barracks. The litany of military takeovers was launched in 1958 by Field Marshal Ayub Khan whose footsteps were religiously followed in by General Yahiya Khan, General Ziaul Haque and the latest army chief General Parvez Musharraf.
In October, 1999 someone whispered to General Musharraf, when he was on a visit to Sri Lanka, that President Newaz Sharif was going to ditch him to place then-intelligence chief General Ziauddin as army chief. Within minutes a 17-hour human drama was unfolding with General Pervez hopping on an airplane in Colombo, Mr. Sharif appointing General Ziauddin as army chief, air traffic controllers at Karachi airport refusing permission for the plane carrying General Pervez to land, soldiers surrounding vital installations and under order of General Pervez the pilot of his plane circling Karachi and at last landing the airport with only seven minutes of fuel remaining.
The drama concluded with Mr. Sharif dismissed and Gen Pervez installed as head of the government of Pakistan.
Pakistan is reeling from spates of arson attacks, shootings and violence since Benazir was slain. A 'shoot on sight' order was issued in Benazir's home province of Sindh after unidentified gunmen shot dead a policeman and wounded three in the southern city of Karachi. Now that Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for Benazir killing it is obvious that the group who planned the murder at the behest of any other person or group was afraid of seeing Benazir at the helm of Pakistan lest she should defeat her political opponents or crush the terrorists. This is what we as commoners understand while reading newspapers. The mastermind of the murder (if s/he was not associated with Al-Qaeda, for instance) did his/her homework much ahead of the day of commission. S/he could herself/himself have issued a press release or conveyed a message over telephone or internet that it was Al-Qaeda who had to get rid of Benazir, their future enemy as a smokescreen to hide the inner motive. Digging out the real culprit may be impossible if the culprit is enmeshed in the present corridor of power in Pakistan.
It is hard to reconcile Benazir's political ambitions with the political terrains in Pakistan strewn with booby traps. After spending eight years of self-exile in Dubai and London, one now obviously wonders, why has she come back to Pakistan on 18 October? After escaping an attack during her homecoming that left 134 people killed why did she dare to carry on her journey to prepare for the 2008 national election? Knowing full well that enough security measures would not be taken by the present government of Pakistan why did she venture to greet people from the rooftop hole of her SUV while leaving the rally in Rawalpindi? To kiss her death? Many assassination attempts on Parvez Musharraf's life narrowly failed, but why did the assassination attempt in Rawalpindi on Bhutto's life succeed? These are only a few of many questions that will be haunting many of us who like to see democracy flourish in our subcontinent.
Death seems to have been a familiar visitor to homes of political dynasties in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Benazir entered politics only after her father, a one-time prime minister of Pakistan and a charismatic leader who founded the political party PPP, had been executed by the military. So did Khaleda Zia, three-time prime minister of Bangladesh, after her husband President Zia had been assassinated. Deaths of prominent leaders like Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh, Indira Gandhi of India and Solomon Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka decided the fates of their children in their respective political domains.
Power of a premier in any country of our subcontinent is tantamount to power of a king in ancient times. Toxicity of power makes the aspirants blind and oblivious to risks the future political fields entail. Our leaders perhaps did not like the idea of dying of cancer or from a road accident; they perhaps fancied to die for their country, no matter it was from an assassin's bullet or from a suicide bomb. They all had the courage to stare at the eyes of death without any fear. The only personality in the subcontinent who commanded the strength of shying away from the throne of power was Sonia Gandhi, now the most popular leader of Congress Party of India. Sonia fought like a tigress to prevent Rajiv from entering politics and she herself shunned Indian premiership and opted to enter history as a Mahatma, not as a prime minister. To her peace is perhaps more intoxicating than power. The question is: will children of Sonia and Benazir listen to the lessons now being pronounced in loud voices?
The writer is General Manager, Bangladesh Krishi Bank who may be reached over email:
maswoodalamkhan@gmail.com
WHILE playing chess one must remember three golden rules: Foresight -- to look into futurity and consider the consequences that may attend an action; Circumspection -- to survey the whole chessboard, the scene of action, the relationship between pieces: kings, queens, rooks, knights, bishops and pawns with a view to checkmate the opponent's king; and thirdly Caution -- not to make moves too hastily. In my schooldays a friend of mine -- who was basically twitchy -- used to first blush and then turn the chessboard upside down whenever he could sense that his king had no way to escape. He would have killed me if he had the option open because he was too weak to put up with defeat.
In the afternoon of December 27, a gunman fired some bullets, a suicide bomb was detonated as Benazir Bhutto was leaving a rally in the Liakot National Bagh in Rawalpindi after giving her fiery speech in a political campaign ahead of elections due in January 2008. Benazir, leader of PPP -- the largest opposition party in Pakistan -- was pronounced dead after being taken to Rawalpindi General Hospital. Twenty more people most of whom were escorting Benazir as human shields including the assassin were also dead. Thanks to worldwide media networking BBC and CNN broke the news when people in the western world just got up from their sleep and tuned in to their favourite TV channels. Presidents and Prime Ministers all over the world echoed their shocks at the tragic death of the two-time prime minister of Pakistan.
Undoubtedly it was someone like my schooldays friend who could not stand to see Benazir alighting upon the seat of premiership for the third time attempted to make everything topsy-turvy when the country was poising herself to restore democracy. The whole world blamed terrorism for the carnage but no world leader pinpointed in clear terms the main beneficiary of Benazir's death. The gun has been blamed, but the gunner has not been named. The assassin who (reportedly) shot fires and detonated the suicide bomb was merely a misguided tool of power politics. He was just a gun -- an insane derelict infused with some concocted political ideology and specially trained to kill public figures blindfold. Assassins are usually drugged with hashish and opium before they are sent for killing missions. Murdering a prominent person is a joy the assassin enjoys when s/he is mentally deranged and his/her life is replete with sorrows. Masterminds of assassinations know who they should recruit as their guns to kill their opponents.
Pakistan's President Parvez Musharraf wore a sad and grave look while condemning the death of Benazir Bhutto and proclaimed a three-day national mourning with all national flags to be flown at half mast. Supporters of Benazir wept, threw stones at cars, ransacked whatever they came across and chanted "Dog, Musharraf, dog" to air out their steamed up angers and frustrations. Some opposition groups said that the assassination could lead to civil war, and other commentators said that the upcoming elections will likely be postponed. World leaders sent their condolences to the bereaved families. Newspapers and television channels blasted their headlines.
Commentators published their opinions and conspiracy theories. The world price of oil and gold rose with news of the assassination. And Benazir Bhutto sank into the pages of history the way Nawabzadah Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan was assassinated in 1951. Perhaps, nobody would ever know who the mastermind behind her death was if the perpetrator behind the scene, like a far-sighted chess player, had orchestrated the murder in impeccable tactics.
The perpetrator may hoodwink illiterate and emotional people of Pakistan into believing whatever is made printed in newspapers or broadcast in news imedia in his country. But those who know the mastery of grand perpetrators are not easily carried away by what they view in televisions or read in newspapers; they are trying to decipher the language visible in faces of leaders who ostensibly were condemning the death and they also looked aghast at the sight of fire brigade personnel frantically sweeping and washing the crime spot with powerful fire hoses to rid the street of the last speck of forensic evidence.
A glimmer of hope of democratisation, nevertheless, conjoined with her return to Pakistan and with the election on January 8. Many of us in the subcontinent were keeping watchful eyes on the political events in Pakistan with the hopes or trepidations that positive or negative developments in Pakistan may influence many of the governments on and around the Indian Ocean to adopt strategies either to nurture or to gag democracy.
The American President and the British Premier both eulogised Benazir as a soldier who fought for democracy and they were hopeful that democracy would not be a casualty as an aftermath effect of Bhutto tragedy. Mr. Hamid Karzai, the President of Afganistan who met Benazir only a few hours before her death, was visibly shocked while condemning the assassination. Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, while expressing his sadness described Benazir Bhutto as a woman who wanted to fight her battle until the end with just one weapon -- that of dialogue and political discussion. U.S. President George W. Bush condemned the assassination as a "cowardly act by murderous extremists," and encouraged Pakistan to "honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life.
The one in Pakistan who hoped to tramp on Benazir's dead body to kill democracy with an ulterior view to ushering in autocracy must be feeling upbeats of his heart if the election, as is rumoured, is now deferred; his heart must be throbbing downbeats if people of Pakistan pay their tributes to their assassinated leader by compelling their government to hold election in time to bring civil rule in the true sense of the term.
Military in Pakistan has a tradition of overthrowing elected governments in kind of dramatic ways---mostly on the pretext of continued civil unrest---whenever the military chief finds himself under retirement threat from civilian government and once military takes over they are loath to go back to the drudgery of barracks. The litany of military takeovers was launched in 1958 by Field Marshal Ayub Khan whose footsteps were religiously followed in by General Yahiya Khan, General Ziaul Haque and the latest army chief General Parvez Musharraf.
In October, 1999 someone whispered to General Musharraf, when he was on a visit to Sri Lanka, that President Newaz Sharif was going to ditch him to place then-intelligence chief General Ziauddin as army chief. Within minutes a 17-hour human drama was unfolding with General Pervez hopping on an airplane in Colombo, Mr. Sharif appointing General Ziauddin as army chief, air traffic controllers at Karachi airport refusing permission for the plane carrying General Pervez to land, soldiers surrounding vital installations and under order of General Pervez the pilot of his plane circling Karachi and at last landing the airport with only seven minutes of fuel remaining.
The drama concluded with Mr. Sharif dismissed and Gen Pervez installed as head of the government of Pakistan.
Pakistan is reeling from spates of arson attacks, shootings and violence since Benazir was slain. A 'shoot on sight' order was issued in Benazir's home province of Sindh after unidentified gunmen shot dead a policeman and wounded three in the southern city of Karachi. Now that Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for Benazir killing it is obvious that the group who planned the murder at the behest of any other person or group was afraid of seeing Benazir at the helm of Pakistan lest she should defeat her political opponents or crush the terrorists. This is what we as commoners understand while reading newspapers. The mastermind of the murder (if s/he was not associated with Al-Qaeda, for instance) did his/her homework much ahead of the day of commission. S/he could herself/himself have issued a press release or conveyed a message over telephone or internet that it was Al-Qaeda who had to get rid of Benazir, their future enemy as a smokescreen to hide the inner motive. Digging out the real culprit may be impossible if the culprit is enmeshed in the present corridor of power in Pakistan.
It is hard to reconcile Benazir's political ambitions with the political terrains in Pakistan strewn with booby traps. After spending eight years of self-exile in Dubai and London, one now obviously wonders, why has she come back to Pakistan on 18 October? After escaping an attack during her homecoming that left 134 people killed why did she dare to carry on her journey to prepare for the 2008 national election? Knowing full well that enough security measures would not be taken by the present government of Pakistan why did she venture to greet people from the rooftop hole of her SUV while leaving the rally in Rawalpindi? To kiss her death? Many assassination attempts on Parvez Musharraf's life narrowly failed, but why did the assassination attempt in Rawalpindi on Bhutto's life succeed? These are only a few of many questions that will be haunting many of us who like to see democracy flourish in our subcontinent.
Death seems to have been a familiar visitor to homes of political dynasties in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Benazir entered politics only after her father, a one-time prime minister of Pakistan and a charismatic leader who founded the political party PPP, had been executed by the military. So did Khaleda Zia, three-time prime minister of Bangladesh, after her husband President Zia had been assassinated. Deaths of prominent leaders like Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh, Indira Gandhi of India and Solomon Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka decided the fates of their children in their respective political domains.
Power of a premier in any country of our subcontinent is tantamount to power of a king in ancient times. Toxicity of power makes the aspirants blind and oblivious to risks the future political fields entail. Our leaders perhaps did not like the idea of dying of cancer or from a road accident; they perhaps fancied to die for their country, no matter it was from an assassin's bullet or from a suicide bomb. They all had the courage to stare at the eyes of death without any fear. The only personality in the subcontinent who commanded the strength of shying away from the throne of power was Sonia Gandhi, now the most popular leader of Congress Party of India. Sonia fought like a tigress to prevent Rajiv from entering politics and she herself shunned Indian premiership and opted to enter history as a Mahatma, not as a prime minister. To her peace is perhaps more intoxicating than power. The question is: will children of Sonia and Benazir listen to the lessons now being pronounced in loud voices?
The writer is General Manager, Bangladesh Krishi Bank who may be reached over email:
maswoodalamkhan@gmail.com