Happy 65th birthday, Shehzadi

Sartaj Chaudhary

I don’t think the regime can touch me. The people will just burn the airport down!” spoke Benazir in a soft voice from exile in London soon after Pakistan lifted the Martial Law in 1985. So right she was! She was greeted by a humungous crowd at Lahore airport and an estimated 20 lakh heard her at Iqbal Park, where she rallied against Zia’s authoritarian regime.

Originally from Jaisalmer, the Bhuttos were Bhati Rajput warriors who had settled in Larkana. They had converted to Islam in the early 17th century and had come to own 2,50,000 acres spread over three districts. Benazir’s grandfather, Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, entered the Legislative Council of Bombay Province, of which Sindh was a part. His third child, Zulfikar Ali was a shy boy to begin with but grew into a true aristocrat. 

Zia’s coup against him subjected the whole family to imprisonment, house arrest and torture. Benazir’s cell was “boiling hot” and often intentionally infested with scorpions to break her will. The authorities regularly administered “medicines” (sedatives and psychoactive drugs) to Benazir; it took a brain surgery for her to become herself again. 

Benazir in Urdu means incomparable, unparalleled. After being released, she visited her father in jail every week. Her plea to hug her father before his execution was denied and Bhutto had to settle for a last physical touch with his “princess” with the prison bars in between. 

She had an arranged marriage with Asif Ali Zardari who came from a much smaller landowning family. A friend asked her, “Was he the only one you could think of?” She giggled, “He was the only one willing to marry me!”

Zia died in a plane crash in 1988 and Benazir won the subsequent elections to become the first woman PM in a Muslim-majority country. Her tenure was difficult; marred by an uneasy relationship with the President. In a male-oriented society, some military men refused to salute her and she was kept in the dark about the nuclear programme! Her pregnancy in office sparked a hue and cry. Nevertheless, true to her character, she stood her ground. 

Unfortunately, her first tenure was marred by corruption. In August 1990, her government was dismissed. She again became PM three years later but her government was again dismissed in 1996 and Nawaz Sharif was elected Prime Minister in 1997. Benazir served as the leader of opposition for two years till Gen Pervez Musharraf seized power.

Benazir spent most of her time outside Pakistan, fighting cases of corruption and misconduct. By 2007, the people of Pakistan and its Western “allies” were losing faith in Musharraf and Benazir was being seen as an alternative to constrain Pakistan’s domestic problems.

She admitted that she would most likely be killed on her return. But go back she did. Before leaving Dubai, she told her son Bakhtawar where she had kept his birthday present. A young Bakhtawar told her, “But Mummy, my birthday isn’t until January!” Benazir hugged him and said, “Life is uncertain, you never know!” 

She was right. She was killed on December 27, 2007. No one has been convicted. She would have turned 65 today. Happy birthday, Benazir!