Benazir the Matchless

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Whoever killed her, snuffed out the last major representative of liberal/moderate voices in Pakistan

By Anwaar Hussain

benz-3.jpgI met Benazir. I spoke to her.

Some twenty years back, she became the first woman elected to head a Muslim state and was feted as a sensational feminist symbol of modernity. She was only 35. People magazine included her among its Fifty Most Beautiful People. Common Pakistanis started dreaming the dream of free people. She was the central figure in those dreams. She was their symbol.

In early 1989, the newly elected Prime Minister embarked upon a goodwill visit to all military cantonments. A spectacular air show was arranged for her on one of the Air Force bases. The airplanes involved were the American supplied state of the art F-16 aircraft. I was in one of those planes.

When the show was over she asked to meet the pilots. She was brought over to the Air Defense Alert hut where she shared a cup of tea with us all. Being a young woman, she appeared to be visibly impressed by our air dance. Unbeknown to her of course, and to many amongst us too, it was decided before hand that the meager flying allowance that we pilots were getting would be tactfully brought to her attention. Needless to say, young Anwaar, the scribe, was made the scapegoat.

It was thus that on a cue from my commanding officer I approached the Prime Minister and asked her, ” Madam Prime Minister, do you know how much we get paid for these maneuvers that you just witnessed and so liked?” “Why, no” she said. “Less than a taxi driver makes every day” I said. “Also, it was your father the late Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto who had last raised it more than 15 years back” I further added.

Her gasp of disbelief was audible to all. She called the Defense Minister right then and asked to be reminded of the issue the first thing in the morning in her office. To our pleasant surprise, we found a 500 percent increase in our flying allowance in the very next pay check. Not only that, she also introduced a clause into our pay structures that would make the flying allowance increase automatically every year to keep pace with the inflation. Pakistan Air Force’s fighter pilots are still enjoying that perk.

Not very much later, the dream shattered.

Both her prime ministerial tenures were brought to abrupt halts by the Pakistan Army. In both her terms, stories of her husband Zardari and his cronies making sickeningly large fortunes in less time than one can say the word dollar started doing frenzied rounds in our mess halls. The nation was abuzz with the dizzying tales of unbelievable gluttony and naked nepotism of the husband-wife team and their side kicks. The remnants of Zia’s Jihadis in the armed forces, in the intelligence agencies and in the civil society made sure that those rumors did not die.

Her husband became known as Mr. 10 percent for a whole lot of inventive kickback ventures that weaved across many continents. In 1999, Bhutto and her husband were sentenced to five years in jail and fined $8.6m (£4.3m) on charges of taking kickbacks from a Swiss company hired to fight customs fraud. A higher court later overturned the conviction as biased. Bhutto was abroad at the time of her conviction and chose not to return to Pakistan. Zardari spent eight years in prison before being released on bail in 2004 with no charge proven against him. Despite her repeated claims that the allegations were politically motivated, she was indelibly stained. Mistrusted by the army and the powerful intelligence services, and reviled by Pakistan’s Islamist clerics and parties, she virtually became a pariah.

Then came the ‘War on Terror’ and Benazir’s slow road to rehabilitation.

The Jihadis sired by the USA, mothered by Pakistan, midwifed by some powerful Muslim countries and nurtured by the West, found themselves jobless after a defeated Soviet Union. Bringing along fringe lunatics from all over the Muslim world, they came home to roost and turned their guns on their own countrymen. Pakistan soon earned the dubious distinction of being called ‘the ground zero of terror’.

A convenient 9/11 later, the ‘War on Terror’ started in real earnest. The Pakistan Army’s grand vision of ‘strategic depth’ in Afghanistan quickly folded on itself. The general staff soon backed off from their majestic self-view and started singing the latest American tunes in unison and with great enthusiasm. Six years down the line, a bungling Musharraf, the resurgent Jihadis in Pakistan and a rapidly deteriorating situation in the neighboring Afghanistan, for which Pakistan was always blamed, all fused together into a curious mix carving yet another role for Benazir.

On January 27 2007 she was invited by the United States to speak to President Bush and congressional and state department officials. Washington was concerned, and not too improperly at that, that Musharraf’s insistence on holding presidential elections while remaining as commander-in-chief would make a travesty of his claim to have a democratic mandate. A re-laundered Benazir in the new governmental setup would not only ensure the whole charade seemed a genuine democratic exercise, the Americans would have in Pakistan not only a man but a woman too.

With American blessings, a deal was hatched. Bhutto was given immunity from prosecution on all corruption charges and Musharraf would relinquish his uniform - but only after kicking out the senior judges and chief justice who tried to block him standing for election again. The expectation was that he would remain as civilian president and she would be prime minister.

It was thus that in October this year she embarked upon the fateful journey. She survived a horrific bomb attack on her very first day in Pakistan. Close to 700 hundred people were killed and maimed in that attack. Her enemies, however, were determined. In the very next attempt, her tragic death at the hands of her assassins is only too well known by now. She had to be lucky many times, her enemies only once.

The entire world is stunned at this heinous act. From Moscow to Washington to New Delhi and points in between, dismay, condemnation and rage, along with concern for the stability of this volatile region are pouring forth over her assassination. World leaders lauded her bravery and commitment to democratic reform. International stock markets plummeted. Pakistan is ablaze since then. Full blown loot and arson is going on even as these lines are being written and Army has been called out in many Pakistani cities.

Who killed her?

One thing is clear though. Assassination with suicide bombings is not the work of some petty criminals. It requires resources available only to powerful actors acting at the behest of a state or an organization like Al-Qaeda.

The most obvious suspects, therefore, must be religious militants. Benazir was very vocal against these extremists. She repeatedly said that she will rein them in once in power and seemed genuinely convinced of the cause. Moreover, the very nature of the attack, death by shooting and a suicide bombing in a public place with many casualties, points in that direction. A Taliban commander by the name of Baitullah Mehsood had earlier threatened to send squads of suicide bombers to kill her. Other militants too had made similar threats, saying she was a target because of her perceived close relationship with the west and with the US in particular.

Next in line of suspicion are the field operators, retired or semi-retired, of the powerful Pakistani Intelligence agencies. General staff may have a rethink on strategies, the field operators seldom do, especially when the cause is so thoroughly mixed up with religious zealotry and fervor. These operators had breast-fed the extremists in the heady days of the Afghan Jihad. They just cannot break off from the euphoria of those days when they were the heroes of the whole free world. Even Rambo then used to fight on their side in Hollywood movies. The tide may have turned but they cannot disown their own creations. In all probability, old alliances are alive, the dream is on, the Jihad is on, only the enemy has changed. It is simple as that.

The killers could be either one of the above singly or, having worked closely before, both working in tandem. It is hard to imagine at this time that her political opponents, being non-entities by comparison, or any one else for that matter having planned the kill. The news, though, is coming in thick and fast at this time and you never know.

After the first assassination attempt in October, Benazir blamed the ‘remnants’ of General Zia for the attack. She spoke bluntly about who she believed wanted her dead. “I know exactly who wants to kill me. They are dignitaries of General Zia’s former regime who are behind extremism and fanaticism,” she told the French magazine Paris-Match. Later she blamed “closet supporters” of the militants and spoke of her fear that retired military men wanted her dead. She pointed an accusing finger at the army’s powerful intelligence arm, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

There were death threats even before Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan two months ago after years in self-imposed exile. However, as is with all such assassinations, the truth may never emerge. Nobody knows who killed Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Liaquat Ali the first prime minister of Pakistan, General Zia and a score of other world leaders.

Literally in Urdu language, Benazir means matchless. Her father’s favorite, she was called Pinky by him due to her very pink complexion. Matchless or not, two facts are noteworthy and will not be denied by even her diehard opponents. First, whoever killed her, snuffed out the last major representative of liberal/moderate voices in Pakistan. However corrupt she may have been, no one came close to her in being the liberal symbol of moderation in Pakistan. Next, though a woman, she was the bravest leader Pakistan has ever produced. We are left with weaklings now whose knees are as wobbly as their spines are elastic.

A journey that started for Benazir in UAE’s glamorous Dubai ended in a dusty grave in her family mausoleum in her small ancestral village of Garhi Khuda Bux in the Pakistani province of Sind. The graves of her father and two of her brothers, all killed, are already there. She lies next to her father.

Draped in a tear drenched shroud, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pinky returns to him.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain

TS Admin : An absolute must read with this article is “Pakistan, My Fatherland, I Weep for Thee” also by Anwaar Hussain



Comments

20 Responses to “Benazir the Matchless”

  1. Carl on December 29th, 2007 8:19 pm

    Anwaar;

    I share your sorrow she was all and everything Pakistan could want. Good leadership in my opinion is more a symbol, a star to steer by, and the compass that guides us to a destination of goodness and safe harbor, than one to clear the jungle. As a free people we expect much and there are so many who want to share nothing but fear.

    She was still a beauty.

    Keep well.

    Carl

  2. Michael Carmichael on December 29th, 2007 9:06 pm

    The news of yet another assassination of a progressive political leader swept across the planet like a bolt of lightning. In a daze for days, I awakened to find your brilliant column in my inbox. Anwar, I wept upon reading it. I weep for Pakistan. I weep for the world. In my lifetime, we have lost: The Mahatma; JFK; MLK; RFK; Indira Gandhi; Sanjay Gandhi; Rajiv Gandhi; Yitzhak Rabin; and the Bhutto family from Zulficar Ali Bhutto to Benazir - just to name a few. At Oxford, we were thrilled by Benazir’s rise to political influence and power in Pakistan. As a genuinely feminist head of state, she contrasted so sharply with Margaret Thatcher, who was not feminist in the least. The world of Islam is suffering in a contorted agony of internal dissension and distorted process of mental and political torture by external manipulators. Please, keep doing what you are doing - probing and publishing the truth.

  3. Masroor ul Hassan on December 29th, 2007 9:20 pm

    Anwaar

    Your words ‘We are left with weaklings now whose knees are as wobbly as their spines are elastic.’
    My addition:
    … and moral values of amazing agility’

    I enjoyed reading this one. Probably the best yet from your pen. Perfect.

    Keep it up

    Masroor

  4. Warren on December 30th, 2007 1:34 am

    Dear Anwaar

    Thank you for a enlightening article, as sad as it may be. I followed the troubles of late in Pakistan and felt that Benazir brought the calm and sensibility needed to what is a very combustable situation. Why do all the good people always have to suffer? May she rest in peace

    Warren

  5. Shahid on December 30th, 2007 3:22 am

    Beautifully written and touchingly insightful in its honesty.

  6. Tom Edgar on December 30th, 2007 3:31 am

    She won’t be the last. Whilst the Pakistan Government has really jumped onto the American bandwagon of blaming Al-Quaida there could be a dozen other organizations or even just a mind distorted single individual to carry the blame.

    The misogynistic extremists will no doubt be pleased if not too blame, The fundamentalists too will not be displeased, along with the supporters of the present Pakistan Government.

    It is unlikely that we will ever know the truth. The distortions and lies had already started before Benazir had even reached the morgue.

    I’ll look forward to further disclosures of truth of this matter, but I guess it will only be from the pen of Anwaar.

    Tom Edgar…….Australia.

    tomedgar@halenet.com.au

  7. Adnan on December 30th, 2007 4:55 am

    Unfortunately I am still not convinced that she had no part in the corruption. I believe, even if she wasn’t corrupt she at least turned a blind eye on her husband’s loot which is equally bad for a person who had taken an oath to honestly serve and protect her country. It will take me long time to get over the facts that she was saying everything and anything to the folks in Washington whatever they wanted to hear. For example, she was willing to hand over A. Q. Khan to the UN, or her willingness to allow NATO troops to operate within the Pakistani territory. In all honesty, I think she was hungry for power.

    However, I also believe none of her shortcomings, whatsoever they might have been, amounted to the fate she met. Nevertheless, she is gone and I am waiting to make my peace with her.

  8. Jane on December 30th, 2007 5:18 am

    I am in total awe of you and your abilities to report/write such a balanced article on a, to say the least, loaded subject.

    I have got to tell you - I am simply not convinced that the possibilities you pose are correct - something is completely out of balance.

    The US felt, that Musharraf wouldn’t listen, he was sliding a bit out of their iron grip - connecting with other masters. So what do the morally corrupt bunch do? They get a hold of Benazir, get her pardoned and back to Pakistan - just to have a secondary control point! Musharraf flexes muscle and declare, what is essentially martial law - and “Death Squad” Negroponto pays a visit. Now remember, I am only speculating - Bhutto is received as a “savior”, she gets more support and backing than she could ever have dreamed about…..now she feels strong and MAYBE she is telling the thugs in Washington to back-off! So they decide to murder her - the genius of it all is, that the Pakistanis will blame Musharraf….who in turn instantly blames it all on al Quaeda and “terrorists”, complete with “intercepted communications”. SO with all these nukes laying around, Musharraf on the skids and Bhutto gone - the US immediately sends military and trainers (read death squads) to Pakistan ready for all eventualities. So now they have the boot on Musharraf’s throat - either he does exactly as they tell him to do, or he is a goner - perhaps suffer Bhutto’s fate…..the US will be ready to take control of an “interim” government - the excuse will be, that they have to be there because of the nukes, something which the UN will certainly sign off on without a second thought. The real bonus is, that now al Quaeda and “terrorists” have taken the blame around the world - Musharraf inside of Pakistan.

    I know this is simple in its assumptions - but by Jove, it is the only pattern making sense to me. I just have a gut feel, that this is what has been happening. Maybe I am a simpleton.

  9. Highlander on December 30th, 2007 5:26 am

    A brilliant commentary on a sensitive subject. My heart goes out to the Pakistani peoples. I wish they wake up and put an end to their tribulations. Only they can do that.

    By the end line of the article, I have no shame in admitting, I had joined the Michael Carmichaels of this world in weeping over the fate of the Bhuttos.

  10. Afsar Malik on December 30th, 2007 12:49 pm

    My Dear Anwaar,

    I completely agree with you. I also met her in in 1993 before her second term as Prime Minister. I was then Airport Manager Saidu Sharif and she had come there to offer her condolences to a bereaved family of some late Politician. My wife and I were extremely happy for having met her that day. Later, however, I also somehow got convinced that all politicians, top bureaucrats and Generals in a third world country can simply not resist the temptation of making fortunes out of public funds, as a rule rather than exception.

    Was she an otherwise honest politician with some personal weaknesses or a victim of mud slinging, I am not sure. Nevertheless, I still find it hard to believe that she is dead.

  11. Shahid Nisar on December 30th, 2007 6:08 pm

    Anwaar,

    Brilliant as usual. A cover-up has already started with the stupidly naive government spokesman trying to make us all digest that she died because of her head hitting the sunroof lever!! This is exactly the kind of statement that is sure to ignite more violence and is like rubbing salt on the wounds of the Pakistani nation.

    Benazir’s assassination is indeed very tragic and a hard blow to liberal Islam. The nation is still in a state of shock and the life has come to a grinding halt, people are afraid to go out because of the loot and arson going on. As a nation we need to unite and not give the opportunity to the political opportunists to sway the public grief towards the attainment of their myopic agendas. Let us face the fact that it has always been a war between the liberals and the strayed fundamentalists. We must stand up to the challenge, unite our strength and in her death find our slogan against our common enemy: the enemy which is within our own ranks, using religion for their ulterior motives, killing innocent Muslims in mosques and on streets —– not in the US, mind you, but in the Muslim countries. I pray that our politicians act prudently and be selfless leaders (Am I asking for too much?!)

    BB’s demise may be the beginning of the end of liberal life and progressive Islam in Pakistan. I hope I am proven wrong.

  12. Michelle on December 31st, 2007 7:17 am

    First off, let me state that I am sincerely saddened by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto; her children will mourn their loss forever.

    I totally disagree with any attempt to portray Bhutto for anything other than what she was or represented. This description by New York Post’s Ralph Peters sums up what Bhutto was all about:
    “Bhutto was a frivolously wealthy feudal landlord amid bleak poverty. The scion of a thieving political dynasty, she was always more concerned with power than with the wellbeing of the average Pakistani. Her program remained one of old-school patronage, not increased productivity or social decency.”

    To set her up as a martyr, or even a flawed hero, sends a wrong message to the people of Pakistan.
    So what is the message being sent when the likes of Ghandi, JFK, RFK, MLK, and now Bhutto are assassinated (Bhutto just before the elections in Pakistan)?
    “Great men and women are dying for this cause, get out there and defend them…with your vote! What great power the people have!”

    I think the problem with this line of thinking is that we are giving these people personal characteristics, as if it was their strong inner convictions and unwavering commitment to truth, justice and equality that brought them to prominence.

    Being born into a political dynasty is what brought Bhutto to prominence. As far as her being a champion for liberal democracy….well….. Bhutto had a strange variety of democracy. One should actually call it a form of elective feudalism. During her first 20-month long premiership, she failed to pass a single piece of major legislation. Her reign was marked by massive human rights abuse: Amnesty International accused her government of having one of the world’s worst records of custodial deaths, extrajudicial killings and torture. Bhutto’s premiership was also distinguished by epic levels of corruption. In 1995 Transparency International named Pakistan one of the three most corrupt countries in the world. Bhutto and her husband, Asif Zardari, plundered billions from their country.

    Bhutto conspicuously did little to help the cause of women. She never, for example, repealed the Hudood Ordinances, Pakistan’s controversial laws that made no distinction between rape and adultery. She preferred instead to kowtow to the mullahs in order to cling to power, forming an expedient alliance with Pakistan’s Religious Coalition Party and leaving Pakistan’s women as powerless as she found them.

    There’s also her involvement with the Taliban; the whole of Pakistan and region is on the verge of collapse and turmoil because of the mistakes of Benziar Bhutto and her government’s support of Taliban. At London School of Economics Benazir admitted, “We made a mistake in supporting [creating] Taliban.”

    Support for the Taliban under Bhutto resided mainly in the interior ministry, according to some analysts. According to Ahmed Rashid, Bhutto’s interior minister, Gen. Naseerullah Babar, created the Afghan Trade Development Cell in the ministry ostensibly to promote trade routes to Central Asia but also to provide the Taliban with funds. Moreover, says Rashid, the state-owned Pakistan Telecommunications Corporation set up a telephone network for the Taliban; the public works department repaired roads and provided electricity; the paramilitary Frontier Corps, a part of the interior ministry, set up a wireless network for Taliban commanders; the Civil Aviation Authority repaired Qandahar airport and Taliban fighter jets; and Radio Pakistan provided technical support to the Taliban’s official radio service, Radio Shariat. [Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam…, pp. 184-85]

    Maybe the PTBs, the U.S., or the ISI/CIA engineered her return, exploiting her idealism whether real or faked, with the idea that she would be martyred at some time. By assassinating these types of people and creating martyrs, the masses are led to idolize these people, emulate their characteristics, and accept their flawed politics or…shameless opportunists like Musharraf, Benazir, and from my reading, every leader Pakistan has been cursed to endure.

    If the people can be convinced that there is a constant power struggle between the forces of good and evil within the system, then they are more inclined to fight for their rights within the system. They are therefore more easily ruled. Is this the makings of another guinea pig to study how the masses can be handled and outcomes anticipated?? Or was Bhutto that stupid to believe that she would be protected by the Pak military and Washington?! If I were a citizen of Pakistan, I might start pondering on the following questions: “Who’s really in charge here?” and: Exactly why was Pakistan created? Where it is today? and Where is Pakistan heading toward?

    And to Jane’s comments, I’d say: “Hold that thought.” See: http://tinyurl.com/26kapu

  13. Asad Rasheed on December 31st, 2007 10:39 am

    Dear Anwaar Hussain

    The nation is still in a state of shock and mourning the loss of Benazir Bhutto.There was a systematic loot and plunder that ensued.Police and rangers watched as bystanders from a safe distance and gave free hand to these goons to carry on with their looting spree.It is also strange that Army was deployed after three days of unhindered loot and plunder.

    I believe the assassination of Benazir Bhutto seems part of a bigger conspiracy against Pakistan than what it apparently appears. I hope i am wrong. Only time will tell. May god help us in these testing times.

    Secondly i want to acknowledge and thank you (although belatedly) for your tactful act that not only benefited the fighter pilots (you guys) as you have mentioned in your article, but also a lot of faceless minions like us.

  14. Jonathan Stephenson on December 31st, 2007 11:11 am

    Dear Anwaar,

    Again I offer my condolences to another people saddened by the constant attempt by fascist to silence or marginalize all progressive movements, this has come to your country all to often. A previous poster listed so many progressives who have been assassinated for their attempts to do right by their people. One name missed is a perfect example of why this is done, a man by your name, Anwaar Sadat, a peacemaker and man of the people.

    We see these acts again and again, but seemingly fail to connect the dots on a Worldwide conspiracy of a global elite to own and control everything, and reduce the common man to the status of slave once again. Were these men and women killed all saints? No far from it they had many faults and warts, yet they believed in the rights of all persons to have an opportunity to live their lives as they chose, the best they could, and for this one thing the globalist elites silenced them, for the fear they have about the truth becoming known to the common man.

    This will not stop at this murder or a thousand more until mankind stops standing enthralled by men and women who’s goal is to enslave them. Friends, the enemy of us all is greed, and those who have made it their God. Muslim, Jew, Christian, Buddhist, Animist, Shinto, Communist, Wiccan, and all other faiths not based on greed have a common problem, and only until we cooperate with each other on the level of common person hood as common men and women will we throw off the shackles of this International Conspiracy of Organized Criminality, the wars between which, we the people are the continuous cannon fodder for.

    May God open all our eyes to the truth, that good persons of all faiths, races, sexes, and political leanings start to work together to relieve the world of these devils, and become free people, with real free choices for the first time in modern history. I ask all to make their New Years resolutions to educate themselves to the truth, and dedicate themselves to fighting this great evil for ourselves and all the people and especially the children of the world!

    God please help and protect the people of Pakistan now, in their desperate time of need!

    God bless you Anwaar, stay strong for your nation.

    In much sorrow and despair, Jonathan

  15. Carl on December 31st, 2007 6:07 pm

    Pakistan is now the third member in the troika of infamy, America, Israel and Pakistan. I hope that her son can be like Alexander the Great. I am convinced that she was killed because she was going to win this election in a big way.

    Carl

  16. Jeff KHAN on December 31st, 2007 11:30 pm

    Michelle, I totaly agree with you. Your analysis is correct. I can not see what more colud be said.
    She had nothing Pakistan could not do without. She never cared about the ordinary Pakistan. If she or other politican had then today she would have been among us today. And the military in baracks. In fact it could be said she killed herself by not providing, whenever she had chanse for it, what the youth of Pakistan need most: education and jobs. Why do not people with good jobs blow themsselvs up?
    And what has her son to offer Pakistan? It is so tragic that it is worthless to write more….
    Jeff KHAN
    Oslo Norway

  17. Jeff KHAN on January 1st, 2008 8:17 am

    Anwar bhai, it saden me a lot to read that when even very well educated people like you are so easy to buy. She raised, surely very much timely and needed, your pay and you were sold to here. But what about rest of the people, who were not that lucky to reach here?
    So if Pejja gives me a good job, with a lot of perks, suddenly he is a good person or leader for all Pakistanis?
    Man, one the very reason for why corruption never ends in our country is that we are very easy to be impreesed or sold if just only OUR problem is solved. We never ask: This is very good for me, but is it also good for my country? Is this leader as good to the common man as he\she is to me?
    I often ask myself: If Sadam`s generals had asked themselv one day: ok, we are earning a lot moeny because of this guy, but is what this man is doing, also good for Irak\islam?

    BTW it is worth notice that who many people are praying for her, when she hadde so little. How much MORE would not people have preyed for her if she(or any other leaders of ours) was even better?
    Will her son now have any chanse to study? When whole world knows him?

  18. Tanzeel Ahmad on January 1st, 2008 9:47 am

    Beautifully written and a good attempt to analyze conspiracy of her assassination but the darker side of picture is Benazir ruled Pakistan twice alternatively and couldn’t really make a difference to the nation. Even if we forget her stories of corruption for sometime we can’t forget the damage she had done to the Karachi in 1992 in the form of extra judicial killings. She might have benefited PAF pilots but at the same time her dubious intentions towards our Nuclear arsenals were not hidden either. She couldn’t do much for the common man either. The nation is indeed poignant not because it lost Benazir its’ because a renowned political figure has died, soon the fad would be vanished and life would be back on track.

  19. Anwaar on January 1st, 2008 2:37 pm

    Thank you all for commenting. Here is the latest on Benazir;

    Bhutto had “proof” state, spy agency rigging poll KARACHI, Jan 1 (Reuters): Benazir Bhutto was poised to reveal proof that Pakistan’s election commission and shadowy spy agency were seeking to rig an upcoming general election the night she was assassinated, a top aide said Tuesday. Senator Latif Khosa, who authored a 160-page dossier with Bhutto documenting rigging tactics, said they ranged from intimidation to fake ballots, and were in some cases unwittingly funded by U.S. aid. Bhutto had been due to give the report to two visiting U.S. lawmakers over dinner on Dec. 27, the day she was killed in a suicide bombing. “The state agencies are manipulating the whole process There is rigging by the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), the election commission and the previous government, which is still continuing to hold influence. They were on the rampage” Khosa, a top Bhutto aide and head of her Pakistan People’s Party election monitoring unit, told Reuters. (Posted @ 15:20 PST)

    Source : http://www.dawn.com/2008/01/01/welcome.htm

  20. The Olive Ream on January 4th, 2008 11:12 am

    Anwaar, this is by far the finest commentary I have read anywhere on Benazir since her demise. Your words never cease to enlighten, bravo!

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Anwaar’s articles appear simultaneously here at Truth Spring and at Soul Vibes in The Pakistan Tribune.


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