Benazir’s Legacy

Just over a year ago, Pakistan’s all-powerful president and chief of the army staff was firmly entrenched at the helm of affairs. He had taken several steps to ensure his absolute power; the ‘corrupt’ politicians were in exile, and their parties were in disarray. Indeed, analysts were predicting that Pervez Musharraf would remain in power until 2015.

Three factors, occurring over a span of two years, changed this course. First, former archrivals Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif, both then in exile, joined hands in May 2006 to sign a ‘Charter of Democracy’, aimed at ousting the military from Pakistani politics. Second, an increasingly independent judiciary began taking on previously taboo issues, including the disappearances at the hand of the intelligence agencies since Pakistan’s alliance with the US in the ‘war on terror’. Third, dozens of independent television channels, which had sprung up since 2002, were covering events critically and energetically.

These three factors eventually converged when Gen Musharraf tried to ‘suspend’ the Chief Justice in March 2007, sparking off the extraordinary lawyers’ movement that had the general in crosshairs. The media’s dogged coverage contributed to sustaining the movement and sparking widespread public outrage. The political parties remained in the background, but their activists formed the bulk of the movement’s street power, bearing the brunt of the arrests and beatings.

‘Civil society’, much of which had supported Gen Musharraf’s 1999 takeover (and which benefited from the ‘bankers’ economy’ set in place since), now finally turned against him. The political space wrested from March 2007 onwards expanded immeasurably with the triumphant return of Benazir Bhutto on 18 October. Benazir had spent the past few years lobbying the Western powers that were propping up the Musharraf regime – primarily the Americans– to convince them that the ‘war on terror’ could not be won by military means alone.

Musharraf’s emergency rule of November 3, 2007, tipped the balance further against him. Indeed, for once, civil society and the political parties were in agreement: the dictator had to go. Disagreements arose only regarding the methodology. The non-politicians tended to adopt a purist view and clamoured for immediate change. Benazir, undoubtedly Pakistan’s most prominent politician, retained a pragmatic outlook, berated at the time by the idealists as unprincipled and opportunistic. Arguing that political parties could not take on and win against military might except through politics, she got Washington, DC to broker the much-maligned deal that allowed her, and later Nawaz Sharif, to return to Pakistan and participate in the forthcoming elections.

Benazir’s return from exile electrified the political atmosphere. Cynics attributed her obvious radiance to the realisation that she was again close to power. Others saw it as stemming from an inner sense of peace at being home and among her people once again. The hope Benazir brought to the poor was palpable even after the bomb blasts that killed around 150 on the day of her homecoming. Benazir’s legendary courage even surprised journalists and government agencies alike when she paid an unscheduled visit to the injured in hospital the next morning. She had clearly matured during the years of exile, speaking of reconciliation rather then vengeance, for dialogue and patience. She even wore her hair differently, pulled back simply and covered with her trademark white dupatta – very different from the high bouffant and haughty manner which had characterised her earlier visage.

Benazir’s assassination on 27 December deprived Pakistan of its most popular leader. Ironically, it also cleared the way for her successors to prove that they, too, had matured over the past decade -- not just Benazir’s husband Asif Ali Zardari, but also her former foe, Nawaz Sharif. Indeed, both seem to have learnt much from her. Had she not convinced Sharif to participate in the elections that he had been planning to boycott, Pakistan would not today be witnessing this transition to democracy. Their parties joined hands, along with the secular Awami National Party, to form a comfortable majority in the National Assembly – a crucial factor in political stability. Benazir had not given her husband a party ticket for the elections, preferring that he help her from the party platform. Zardari has thus far confounded critics by sticking to the role assigned him as a king-maker rather than a king. His widely hailed nomination of Yusuf Reza Gillani, no ‘yes-man’, as prime minister rather than Amin Fahim, the man popularly seen as Benazir’s choice, demonstrated his pragmatism and refusal to succumb to emotional blackmail.

Perhaps Benazir’s legacy is the fact Pakistan is today poised to move forward into a democratic future. Thus far, Zardari and Sharif have made all the right moves, and displayed a statesmanship and maturity that would have been unthinkable a year ago. One can hope that the legacy- and memory- of Benazir Bhutto will keep them together at least until Pakistan is well on its way to democracy and stability.