A Word on Bhutto Celebrations
By Ahmed Quraishi
Islamabad, Pakistan
As a Pakistani citizen, I find the exaggerated government attention to former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's death anniversary tasteless and disturbing. And I have a strong reason for this. Before explaining it, let me just say something about Mr. Bhutto.
I respect Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto because he was the prime minister of my country. I disagree with most of his policies and political style. He supported Pakistan's strategic programs and he brought the Arab and Muslim countries together. For this I am grateful to his memory. At the same time, I cannot but regret that ZAB played a major role, along with Mujib Rehman and Gen. Yahya Khan, in paving the way for India to violate international norms and intervene in East Pakistan. His economic policies destroyed a rising Pakistan and we haven't been able to recover ever since.
The manner of Mr. Bhutto's execution after a court found him guilty of ordering the murder of one of his political opponents was not right. I emphasize the manner and not the execution itself because, although I wish he was pardoned, I have not seen any evidence that suggests that the court did not conduct a fair trial. President Zia ul Haq should have been fairer than he was in treating a former prime minister.
Not exercising his power to pardon Mr. Bhutto is debatable. But not letting his family meet him before the execution was unnecessary harshness and is reprehensible. The murder case itself, however, has been politicized in the debate that resulted from the harsh manner of the execution.
There is evidence that Mr. Bhutto did resort to unusual tactics to deal with his opponents toward the end of his rule when he had also become authoritarian. I have not read from any lawyer who presented any evidence that the trial itself wasn't fair. But overall, I am proud of Mr. Bhutto as I am of most of the men, and one woman, who came to lead Pakistan after Independence. They were all unique and strong personalities with a mixed record.
While there is nothing wrong if the PPP government wants to mark the execution of its founder, the exaggerated manner in which this is being done in tasteless to say the least. I object to placing the pictures of Mr. Bhutto, or his daughter Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, or the party flag, at equal level with the portraits of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Only the Quaid's portrait and the flag of Pakistan should adorn the walls of the federal and provincial government offices. No political party should be permitted this violation that the PPP is committing.
State-run PTV and almost all the private television channels have never celebrated the Quaid-i-Azam and his life the way they're doing now with Mr. Bhutto's. Again, nothing's wrong if the PPP wants to mark this anniversary. But there should be a law that defines where a sitting government should put the memory of the Quaid-i-Azam and the other Founding Fathers and where it should place the memories of their party founders and heroes. Party founders cannot be national heroes. The Founding Fathers are, indisputably.
I understand the tragic way in which Benazir Bhutto died. And I have no doubt that her brutal murder was part of a larger scheme to destabilize Pakistan, a scheme whose marks lead to 'non-state actors' in Washington and London. That's why I understand if the Information Ministry under Sherry Rehman arranged in 2008 for the PTV to produce an extravagant week-long event marking the life of the late Mrs. Bhutto-Zardari. This event was lavish and unprecedented. The PTV in its entire half a century never celebrated the life of the Quaid-i-Azam and the other Founding Fathers of Pakistan in the same way. Some PTV officials privately complained at the time that the extravagant celebration of a party leader was not the work of Ms. Rehman or the PPP itself but a desperate attempt by the director of PTV [Yousaf Baig Mirza, now the director of Dunya TV] to save his job. Needless to say, it didn't work and he was booted out.
The point is this: All parties are free to eulogize their party heroes the way they see fit. But a party in government cannot glorify a party leader in a way that overshadows the Quaid-i-Azam.
