In Benazir’s death
It was in the dargah compound of Ajmer when our phones started buzzing with friends and relatives wanting to share grief on the loss of a woman who was both loved and hated but never ignored. This was the typical winter dusk and we were returning from a soulful traditional dua-i-roshnayee (pre-sunset prayer) where candles are lit in remembrance of the much revered Khawaja. Amidst frantic phone calls from grieving friends, the shock was cushioned in the mystical atmosphere as one reaffirmed that God’s will was above everything. But the aching sense of loss for Pakistan haunted us despite the calming effect of Ajmer.
It was this strong faith in God and in her mission that brought Benazir Bhutto back to Pakistan after an exile of nearly a decade. She returned despite the knowledge that she was on borrowed time; and there were heinous elements who wanted to physically 
eliminate her. Benazir was a lover of the mystics and had visited Ajmer thrice as we found out from the deeply-shocked residents of this small medieval town. Coming from Sindh, the land of the Sufis and poets, Bhutto was a devotee of Khawaja Ghareeb Nawaz. Like a true Bhutto she was not afraid of death as the believers consider it to be ordained by God in the first place. But the truth is that she is no more; and this is hard to reconcile with.
One cannot miss the symbolism of the location where Bhutto was killed. The place, Liaquat Bagh, is named after Pakistan’s first prime minister who was also shot here. The reasons for his death are still not known other than the simple imperative that in Pakistan, legitimate politicians need to be eliminated. This tragic place in Rawalpindi is also not far from the place where Benazir’s father was hanged in 1979; and whose legacy refuses to go away.
At least in Benazir’s case, the battle lines were clearer. A patently violent brand of political Islam masking itself as anti-imperial and aided by powerful elements within the Pakistani establishment is hell-bent on destroying Pakistan’s political and social fabric. Contrary to what many believe, this embedded dysfunction is above all a threat to Pakistan and its burgeoning population. The region and the world come next. In India, the comparisons between Rajiv and Benazir have been unavoidable as the two countries have suffered from the endemic violence, dynastic politics and a symbiotic relationship defined by cyclical political turbulence.
Today’s subcontinent has all but forgotten the tolerant and inclusive Islam that was practised by the Sufis and which in large measure shapes the belief system of a vast of majority of Muslims and non-Muslims alike. This is what the militancy and its official backers are now set out to achieve but they forget that centuries of tradition of peace and inclusion can be dented but cannot be reversed.
Bhutto’s mass appeal remained a formidable challenge to the Pakistani establishment that failed to undo the legacy of people-centred politics for three decades. The Bhutto brand of politics came about without the manipulations of the bureaucratic steel-frame that shaped Pakistani politics, often in tandem with foreign interests. Benazir’s return in October showed that her popular support was intact despite the corruption charges, trials — real and media-led – and continued impression of incompetence and opportunism in a culture of misogyny and violence against women. Her worst opponents could not deny her dazzling articulation and grasp of global politics. And, now like her father she also demonstrated an uncanny sense of history, of seizing the moment and dying for the cause of political process in the militarized Pakistan.
This fearlessness of death is a Sufi trait as death is just another phase in our journeys and struggles. The inclusive and multicultural legacy of the Sufis is endangered by the rise of militant Islam and politics of elimination. Benazir Bhutto had drawn on this legacy and in her death we are reminded of the urgency to revisit and build on that legacy.
This piece was published by the News on January 12, 2007
Image top left courtesy
Image below shows BB at the Ajmer shrine
January 13th, 2008
in
Personal, Journalism, Politics, All My Posts, Sufism, media, fundamentalism |
January 13th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
January 13th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Benazir Bhutto matured after blunders and was ready to change the course of history. Rajiv Gandhi was finished at the moment where he could have blossomed.
The situation in Pakistan as we see is out of control. India is any day better but we are facing fear of internal terrorists.( Who is responsible for the security of the country?)
Terrorism is an unadulterated evil.
We need a solution to this problem.
Whether it is Pakistan, India or America
I recall reading=
‘There are none so deaf as those who don’t want to hear’
A paranoid, abhorrent obsession
please point me if i am wrong
January 13th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I think it is more than possible that the murder had nothing to do with the conspirators’ religious beliefs at all, even if they successfully manipulated those of the men who actually killed her.
January 14th, 2008 at 12:20 am
Strong faith in God? Give me a break! It would have been nice to know what God loving acts did she perform? Living off of looted money or the lust for power?
Her death was a tragedy indeed but this eulogy is facts defying.
January 14th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Shehlaji: you are quite right - this came alas when she had actually blossomed and matured as a leader..
Sidhu: well, the truth will take time to come out - but we need to remember that she was always a target of the fundamentalists..
Anwar Sb: thanks for visiting and leaving the comment. I respect your point of view - however, politics is about seeking and gaining power - and about the ‘loot’ - the cases against Mohtarma were never proved despite the full efforts of the state machinery.. anyway, each to his/her own.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Raza, I am saddened that you pushed this line”lover of the mystics” and the whole ‘religious’ angle of this piece. I think that’s quite unfair of you. I know it tallies with your own interests, but still…
for one, B.B. never expressed, as far as i know, her religious views at the public level, just as she didn’t talk about sindh -and rightly so. The PPP was, fundamentally, a secular nationalist party.
to talk about party politics on the same level as the fanatics-i.e in terms of what or who represents the ‘real’ Islam is already to miss the reasons why the party had mass appeal and to concede too much to them. It was because the Party talked about the needs of the common man, about the ordinary worker, that it had support. The syncretic tradition,as I know it at least, means NOT talking about religion all the time…it’s about what Khaled Ahmed called ‘liminal communities’.
Best wishes,
b.
January 14th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Benazir ka gham to aisa hai.. kya kahoon. among the muslims community (1.5 billion world-wide), Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, were the best we could produce as a group (inspite of their personal failings, if any… they were human after all). The leadership content they possessed, was a rare jewel. First of all., to hang a person of the stature of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was outrageous. W`oh to preserve karne kee cheez thee. (inspite of personal flaws)… but… Qadr-e-Nemat., Baad-az-zawaal. After Zulfiqar Bhutto, the decline started. Ultimately this impoverishment would lead to total destruction and total chaos. Fundamentalism will destroy Pakistan sooner than later. Its on the brink already. Same will happen to India, if it adopts saffron-fundamentalism. Fanaticism is evil and worse than AIDS. It destroys the beauty of the human heart and soul.
January 14th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
As one british journalist said, ‘She talked a lot about the poor, but did sod all for them’. It is not appropriate to talk ill about the dead, but thank god pakistan did not have to bear that imperious, limelight-hugging, globe-trotting sad excuse for a person with a soul.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Naveed, I think you’re profoundly wrong.
first of all, if she or the Party did “sod all” how is it that people still turned up in their millions to support her? How is it that the PPP still commanded national level support?
Secondly, it’s not clear that she did, in fact, little for the poor. the electrification of southern Punjab, for instance, is said by many to be one of her achievements.
Thirdly, please remember that the PPP has hardly been in power. In her first stint the Punjab “blocked” her .
And fourthly, the PPP -irrespective of its record on the ground-offered people hope..and that’s no mean thing. anyone who can inspire people, who can bring them along in the political discussion, engage with them, all of these things hardly constitute “sod all”. But then again, what should one expect from a British ‘journalist’!
You say it’s not appropriate and then go on to say a “sad excuse for a person”. How utterly bizarre. Bad form on your part, I’m afraid.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Billo
you are absolutely right. Bibi never mentioned religion at the public level. In fact her strong secular credentials became one of the reasons for her death. However, she always talked of enlightened Islam. For instance she is the only political (Pak) leader to have referred to Ijma and its use in settling controverisal issues. Further, she was also talking about how ‘Islam’ was abused in attacking women. Having said that, I take your point and apologise if I went a little off-line here
But the religious tone was actually more to do with how I coped with her death in the mystical setting and thought of her respect for the Sufis. And also how the Sufi thought was a counterpoint to the ideology upheld by those who wanted her dead.
Naveed: I would not like to base my judgement on a British journalist as I am not shure where he is coming from. This is a long discussion - what she did and what she could not do.. I respect your point of view
January 15th, 2008 at 3:49 am
“And also how the Sufi thought was a counterpoint to the ideology upheld by those who wanted her dead.”
Yes, and your invaluable contributions are much needed in this regard Raza..to remind people that the fundamental traditions of this country are as radically opposed to Saudi fanaticism as they are to their ‘chamchas’ and admirers in this country.
My only slight quibble with you-and this is nothing between friends-is that you suppose these buggers actually have an ideology
For me, these people are nihilists, full of hatred and bitterness.
Sometimes it is better to go “off-line” than stay “on-line”.
Keep well,
b.
January 15th, 2008 at 4:57 am
Really your piece is quite disgusting. Calling her a sufi !! You obviously have no understanding of who a Sufi is. All you liberal idiots need to be put on a ship and sunk in the middle of the ocean. You indeed Sir are part of Pakistans foolish and inept elite and so part of the huge problem that keeps the country from going anywhere. You’re also historically quite challenged. There was an unprecedented rise of fundamentalism during your so called Sufi’s tenure, or are you unaware of that?! Pathetic
January 15th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Thanks for that. It is mystical and political - quite
brilliant. Unfortunately, for many in Pakistan the
battle lines are not that clear. They would be, in
retrospect, but then it might be too late. “This is
not our war” has astonishing proponents.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:22 am
GK, you obviously don’t have very good reading skills. raza quite categorically says that she drew on this legacy. That is hardly the same thing as calling her a Sufi!
The wider point remains valid (in my opinion): fundamentalism is primarily a legacy of General Z and the fostering of fanatics by the establishment -what Khaled Ahmed calls the military-mullah nexus.
To say that there was an “unprecedented” rise of fundamentalism in her tenure doesn’t make much sense (since it only lasted a few years and, more importantly, because the taleban and Kashmiri jihadis were supported by the military /ISI (and Saudi money, no doubt).
It is precisely that type of vitriolic response -”liberal idiots”-that Raza is talking about when he says how this is opposed to the syncretic , liberal traditions of Pakistan. It is the same type of response by certain sectors that looked on B.B. with horror and disgust..that thinks ’secular’ and ‘liberal’ are tainted words.
And I would suggest that it is precisely that type of reaction that is keeping this country back.
So, yeah, sink your ships, blow people up you don’t like. What a joke!
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:24 am
The fact is bb really was capable and she was killed for that. Such a brilliance, intellect, valour and maturity is very very rare and i dont see any person of her caliber coming in next many decades to come. Our problem is we dont acknowledge others until we lose them. May Allah bless her and forgive her ameen