October 19th at around midnight two suicide bombers killed themselves right along side the motorcade escorting Benazir Bhutto on her arrival back home after an 8 year self exile. Benazir arrived in Karachi at around 2pm in the afternoon of the 17th and the procession slowly inched its way to her final destination at Bilawal House located in Clifton, but around Karsaz intersection two explosions ripped through the procession killing over 150 people and leaving 500 injured.
It is without doubt a tragic day for Karachi and Pakistan, and we the citizens of this city are yet again threatened to not get involved in politics as catastrophes like this will generally keep the innocent away leaving the arena open to the hardened crooks.
In light of this sad incident a funny SMS has been making its rounds in Pakistan
Benazir Bhutto is a true leader of Pakistan, Because:
She traveled 9 km in 12 hours, but after the blast
25 km in 5 mins !!!
Phatti tau Bhagi, like all Pakistanis
Though my political opinions may not exactly coincide with the daughter of the east, but I am glad that she is safe and emerges from the devastation without so much as a scratch. God forbid if she had been killed in this attack then I suspect it would have made her a hero and catapulted the party into power for a good 5-10 years, as the sympathy vote bank would have really out poured. A father and daughter martyred at the hands of a ruling Army General, truly a perfect heart touching story which can be used as an important trump card to pull the voter into the polling station. Its been over 20 years since the hanging of ZAB (Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto) and till today his martyrdom is honestly less used as a sign of respect but more so as a sympathy evoking trump card to eventually convert into electoral seats.
A good recent example is Sardar Bugti who was killed about a year back, to be honest this aged guy was so close to his death bed at the age of 79 that he may easily have rocked himself to sleep in a few months if not more, leaving this world with only memories of a dynasty, and his followers would have mourned the loss then moved on with life. The simple act of killing this old man suddenly transformed this tyrant into a hero, people in Pakistan easily forgive the dead and now celebrate him instead to have fought for his people against the tyrant military dictator. What a role reversal of arguments, which changed simply with the way he died. Bugti in short is a bigger hero dead than alive
I suspect that if Benazir had been killed, her name would have suddenly transformed into a larger then life hero handing the country on a silver platter to the new found PPP leadership to run with unrestricted rule for a good many years. Hence my honest opinion, Thank God, Benazir Lives
Disclaimer: I make these comments more so as an opinion but with the utmost respect for the hundreds who lost their lives on the fateful day. May Allah Have Mercy on their souls
Comments
12 responses to “Thank God, Benazir Lives”
Man,i received twitter feed of this post at about 5.15 am.Being A Doctor,I dont know why you are destroying your health by working up till this much late.
You have raised very good points in the post.I also liked the sms.
disagree with this:
….if she had been killed in this attack then I suspect it would have made her a hero and catapulted the party into power for a good 5-10 years…
my reasons:
* elections are a few weeks away
* pinky is the “life” chairperson – there will be NO CONSENSUS about the next in line…who do you think will get the top billing? makhdoom, rehman, asif, bilawal (where is he?), aitezaz ahsan?…if she is factored out then i can imagine a tremendous infighting…the usual suspects playing one aspirant against the other would have a field day…resulting in some sympathy vote still coming towards the rudderless party…but power? a big NO
She’s already got the sympathies, hasn’t she? Her speeches demonstrate she’s been eeking out all sorts of favors from this tragic incident. Who knows, she may even had knowledge of it beforehand.
Damn you people, all skeptical, cynical. You will say Benazir had the knowledge beforehand even of the blast in which she died???
yeah. she has the world’s sympathy now. what about all those poor people who died at her rally? i dont think she knew of it before hand. however it all seems planned.
So i guess ….
well are u a staunch ppp supporter?:P
…God forbid if she had been killed in this attack then I suspect it would have made her a hero and catapulted the party into power for a good 5-10 years…
Doc!,I smell something else from your post….
are you hiding it? your post tells us something else. You sound like a covert PPP supporter….Now I have doubts why you were Anti MQM….
Military Mullah Alliance knows that they cannot win any election that is free and fair. So their only choice is keep PPP out of power using all means no matter how immoral or illegal these are. Look at some of the means that ave been repeatedly used to crush PPP.
1. Violence: PPP and Bhutto family faced the worst violence from the hand of MMA establishment. Gallows, lashes and jails are this party’s fate. If this fails then police and agencies are used to crush its street power. If that also fails then the last resort is assassination attempts. Attempts were made on Bhutto’s life during rallies. First wave of bomb blasts was started in Bhutto’s tenure. In one attempt Sherpao was killed. Now a new wave of bombings has started. Just in this year more than 200 PPP workers have been killed and 700 wounded.
2. Use of religion card: this phenomena is as old as PPP . PPP was initially labeled as anti-Islam because of its socialist manifesto during Gen. Yehya regime. His Info Minister General Sher Ali used Jamaat Islami and media to propagate both Awami League and PPP as Anti-Islam on the pattern of Akhwan in Egypt and Hammas in Palestine. To counter Bhutto’s Islamic Socialism a new term ‘Nazria-e-Pakistan’ was coined by Gen Sher and Jamaat and its media boldly used it against Bhutto. “Islam Khatray Main Hay was the main slogan by pro-USA and pro-establishment parties led by JI to counter ‘Musawat-e-Muhammadi’ of Bhutto. During Zia regime religion card was exploited to an extreme not only to discredit PPP but also to foment Jihad in Afghanistan. During a bried 1-1/2 year first stint of BB in power after Zia’s death establishment used religion cared on every possible way to dislodge her fragile administration. They re-introduced ‘Sharia Bill’ in senate through Sami Ul Haq and tried to make BB a symbol of Kufr. This bill was supported by Sharif but later died from his hands during his first government when same bill was used to discredit him as well. Rushdi affair was also used against BB and establishment and Mullas tried to turn anti-Rushdi demos against BB. Last but not least is the use of Fatwas against woman’s rule. As soon as BB’s return looked imminent, this card was out again, this time by Mush’s baby PML-q and its leaders like Choudharys and Arabab.
3. PPP is anti-Pakistan: The slogan that PPP is anti-Pakistan was first used during Zia days. A huge campaign was started to discredit Bhutto. Responsibility of Dhaka fall is squarely being put on Bhutto. He is blamed for rejecting Poland’s resolution in UN, wrongly accused for the slogan ‘Idhar Ham Udhar Tum’. The fact of the matter is Poland resolution was asking for Pakistan’s surrender and the Idhar Ham Udhar Tum’ was not a slogan raised by Bhutto but a distorted headline by Nazir Naji’s newspaper Azad. During SARC summit in Islamabad BB was wrongly accused and widely propagated for removing Kashmir House board. This card is out again. Choudharys are again out with these stories. Now a new twist has been added to the propaganda that BB is here to complete imperialist agenda. Interestingly this blame come from those who worked day and night to complete CIA agenda during Afghan war and later in war on terrorism.
4. Corruption: The most common theme of Anti-PPP propaganda is corruption. Despite the fact no one ever pointed his finger on Bhutto for corruption, Zia indefinitely postponed his elections on the pretext of ‘Pehley Ehtesab Phir Intikhab’. No corruption charges were ever brought against Bhutto but Zia successfully used accountability to break many senior PPP leaders. Establishment used the corruption card very effectively against Bhutto’s daughter. BB ruled for a little more than four years but she and her husband faced corruption charges under special accountability bureaus, special laws and special courts. Nothing has been ever proved in any court of law during 14 years of continuous prosecution. Interestingly every ruler who made cases against BB and Zardari later apologized with them and sought an alliance with BB. GI Khan, Nawaz Sharif and Musharaf were the rulers who try to thrash PPP but anti-Bhutto political parties and journalists demanded withdrawal of all such cases. Recent London APC asked for BB and Sharif’s return and end of all cases against both. Famous anti-PPP news tycoon Majeed Nazamai even gave an honour to Zardari by calling him Mard-e-Hur (the man of freedoms and courage). Choudhary Shujaat is on record that fake cases were made against Zardari. Sharif and his Ehtesab guy Saif-al-Rehman themselves regretted their actions. Judges who gave decision against BB have been proved guilty of wrong doing themselves and lost their jobs. Mush the last Bhutto basher bowed and withdrew cases. Then what is left to prove innocence? Has any politician other than Bhuttos ever gone through this much accountability before?
Unfortunately same age old game is started again. A new IJI is going to be formed either before or after election (if the ever happen) to counter PPP. Looks like we are back in pro-coup 1977.
Ya Thanks God Benazir survived, whatif many people have died! Read an interesting article on the following link:
http://www.chowrangi.com/aah-the-city-karachi.html
allahu ghani…
i had a flash of the movie Nick of Time with Johnny Depp as the arm-twisted assassin. could the punjabi-speaking gujarati’s implication of the exiled prince consort be justified?
benny-zero as martyr!? the only martyrdom she’s achieved was expressed by one dylan thomas in under milkwood:
FOURTH WOMAN: Men are brutes on the quiet
THIRD WOMAN: And how’s Asif bhaiya, Mrs Asif?
FIRST WOMAN: you look dead beat
SECOND WOMAN: it’s organ organ all the time with him
THIRD WOMAN: up every night until midnight playing the “organ”
MRS ASIF: Oh, I’m a martyr to music
She is a mediocre leader and is surrounded by mediocrities.
i believe she and the party faithful are currently working on a theme song for the election campaign. the working title is said to be:
“me and my merry myrmidons
dancing on allama iqbal’s grave”