A New Kind of Revenge


Written by S.G. Jilanee • Cover Stories • September 2010

1-1 When teen-aged Bilawal Bhutto Zardari spouted the one-liner, "Democracy is the best revenge" he was trying to sound pompous to befit his new role which his mother's assassination had fortuitously shot him into.

Who prompted him to blurt the words out is not known. Yet the lad made the statement quite pompously at a press conference after his mother's demise. The event cleverly choreographed to reveal the serendipitous discovery of his mother's will, bequeathing the throne of chairmanship of the Pakistan Peoples' Party jointly to him and his father.

Too callow for the diabolic politics of Pakistan, the young boy did not know what he was talking about, but parroted the words he had been taught. This is evident from the fact that they make quite a good jingle with all the sound and some fury, but they signify nothing.

Obviously in the context of Benazir Bhutto's murder, the slogan could mean that best way to take revenge for the crime would be to launch democracy in Pakistan. But revenge against whom? Against Baitullah Mahsud who was blamed for the act by President Pervez Musharraf and later by the United States? If so, did it mean that a democratic set up in Pakistan could automatically emasculate Baitullah, something the rule by an unelected military ruler had failed to achieve.

Or was democracy aimed as revenge against Pervez Musharraf? But in that case it could be a revenge for his usurpation of power rather than Benazir's blood.

A third conclusion may be that the co-chairpersons intended to obfuscate the issue of Benazir's assassination by drowning public clamor for an inquiry and bringing the culprits to book, with the jingle.

Indeed, such a conclusion finds support in the subsequent events. With democracy installed, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto appears to have been avenged. Instead of instituting a judicial commission of inquiry, on the pattern of the Warren Commission in the case of JFK's killing or the Lord Hutton inquiry in the case of the British scientist, Dr. David Kelly's death, a drama was staged with a group of international players.

By inviting a United Nations inquiry at a hefty cost to the poor Pakistani taxpayers the planners had plotted only to elevate Benazir to the status of Lebanon's Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri. But, even that did not happen, because, the circumstances attending the two incidents were quite different. Hariri's murder had roused world conscience; Benazir's killing was Pakistan's internal affair.

Moreover, the sponsors of the UN inquiry were not at all serious about its outcome one way or the other. This is evident from the government's negative reaction to the inquiry report and its refusal to follow its recommendations.

Benazir's removal from Pakistan's political scene has no doubt plunged the country into a sea of problems. The perpetual standoff between the government and the judiciary is one that vitiates the atmosphere. Terrorism is another. Despite the catastrophic floods, violence continues in KP without respite. America kills some people with its drones. Suicide bombers kill some more by blowing themselves up in crowded places such as bazaars and mosques.

In Karachi, violence has assumed the more dreadful character of what goes as "target killing," in which workers of rival political parties are shot dead. Though the fighting is largely between the Amami National Party (ANP) and the Muttaheda Qaumi Movement (MQM), but workers even of other parties such as PPP, Jiye Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) also sometimes fall victim to the killer's bullet. Target killing has claimed some lives in Balochistan as well in recent times.

On other fronts as well the country festers with problems. Corruption, of course, is endemic. But the revelation, that a substantial number of legislators contested the election fraudulently with fake educational degrees, has smeared Pakistan's already battered image abroad, while exposing the quality of Pakistan's lawmaker community.

On the top of it all, came the floods in July. According to Guardian figures, they have affected approximately 20 million people in more than 11,000 villages and an area of 100,000 sq. km. "almost the size of England," including 2.6m acres of cultivated land; and destroyed an estimated 23% of the current crop including much of the cotton crop," which is the country's major export earner.

Guardian reports 1,539 deaths and 1.2 million houses damaged or destroyed besides agricultural loss of 200bn rupees. But these figures are preliminary. Flood is still raging in Sindh. A fuller picture of the widespread devastation that has been described by experts, as worse than the Haiti earthquake and the tsunami combined, with details of bridges and roads and electric pylons and other infrastructure swept away and livestock killed will be available only after the floods have fully subsided.

However, the catastrophe seems to be a Divine test for the rulers. But their performance has not been up to the mark. Instead some of the radical Islamist outfits whose resurgence the West fears have outperformed government agencies in bringing relief to the sufferers. The government on the other hand is being accused of inadequate or, at best, a lackadaisical response to the calamity.

The critique over President Zardari's visit to Europe, while the floods were at their peak, refuses to go away, despite his robust defense of his action. Talking to the Independent "he bristled at the mention of criticism of his failure to cut short" the trip, "particularly his decision to visit a family chateau in Normandy" and retorted, "I have my own reasons for being where I was and at what time," he said. "This is a long term situation and one has to have the capacity to sustain yourself for three years, or even more, and not exhaust yourself immediately ... Anyway, that's part of the past and that's happened and that's gone and I'm here."

Leaders set examples. They blaze a trail. But, whereas actress Angelina Jolie has donated $100, 000 to Pakistan flood relief, the people of Pakistan are yet to know how much the president, the prime minister and the Sharif brothers have contributed to the Relief fund.

The government is said to be mulling over imposing flood tax. Finance Minister Abdul Hafiz Sheikh talks about increasing GST. But, he has forgotten his promise before the annual budget, to levy agricultural income tax that would conveniently yield a few billion of urgently needed rupees. Besides, while in Britain, which does not take IMF and other loans for its survival, ministers have been denied chauffeur driven cars and encouraged to travel by public transport, in Pakistan, which lives on foreign alms, the ministers continue to enjoy chauffeur driven cars and other lavish perks.

Moreover, government officials in the flood affected areas have been blamed often for working to serve the interests of local politicians. There are many reports that officers diverted flood waters to inundate other lands in order to save the crops of a particular political figure.

These factors have generated not only the worst trust deficit ever between the government and the people but also anger. In contrast, people display greater trust in the army because it has been active in providing relief and rescue. MQM Chief, Altaf Hussain's latest remark welcoming a martial law like action against the political parasites and feudal Draculas by patriotic military officers, therefore, seems rather to echo public feelings than his personal love for military rule.

If democracy means the chaos that has been ushered and is being nurtured, then it would seem that it has been Bilawal's revenge on the people of Pakistan.

As to poor Benazir, R.I.P., with no autopsy allowed after her assassination; no inquest held; and no serious attempt at a thorough investigation ever made.