Under the Wide and Starry Sky
By Dr Shahid Athar
Indianapolis, IN
It is a very sad day for Pakistan and the world. In a country where most women are kept indoors for “protection” to be busy in cooking and raising children, the fearless “Daughter of Pakistan” as Benazir Bhutto was called, decided to venture out, get educated at Oxford and Harvard. She got elected as Prime Minister twice, was exiled only to return home to challenge dictatorship and start a process of democracy.
Today, so sadly, the forces of evil have silenced her. Her assassination reminded me of the tragic death of Bobby Kennedy. Benazir Bhutto’s murder is a slap and warning to those in the Third World who want to end the status quo and establish a “government of the people, by the people and for the people.” My hope is that by giving her life for this cause, Benazir will inspire many men and women in her country and the Muslim world to carry on her mission for democracy.
Incidentally in 1951 the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, a pro American, was also assassinated in the same city and at the same place after a political rally.
My heartfelt condolence is to her family especially her children and all Pakistanis. An English poet said it so beautifully:
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill
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