Guest Blog by temporal from Baithak
Reza Rumi in Pak Tea house has printed an Open letter to Fatima Bhutto by fellow writer Nighat Said Khan from the Friday Times. It is for Fatima Bhutto to decide how to respond to Ms. Nighat Khan.
I take exception to the following quote from the open letter:
In the 60 years of Pakistan a Bhutto has only been in power for about 10 and yet this name looms large both for supporters and detractors. Why does the focus always stay on the Bhuttos (as opposed to all other politicians and even military governments?) Why are Benazir’s all too brief terms in office still under the microscope; why are all her wrongs always in the public discourse (urban discourse in the main); why does she elicit such fury? Why does the murder of Murtaza figure more than the suspicion of murder of Shahnawaz? Why is there no “objective” thinking through of Benazir’s involvement (or lack thereof) in the murder of her brother Murtaza?
I will address the highlighted in particular if I may. Why should not the focus stay on Bhuttos? Why all her wrongs should stay in the public discourse?
Let us address Bhutto Sr. first. We should focus attention on him as much as we do on Quaid e Azam. The latter, almost single handedly created Pakistan. The former dismembered that Pakistan.
And if that was not enough he amended the Constitution of 1973 in a way that made the work of Gen. Zina ul Haq easier. In particular the second amendment passed on Sep. 21, 1974, the third passed on Feb. 18, 1975, the fourth passed on Nov. 25, 1975 and the fifth passed on Sep. 15, 1976.
There are more reasons to remember Zulfikar Ali Bhutto but for now these major ones should suffice.
As for his eldest daughter despite her hyperbole and incantations what did she do when in power? Corruption, ethnic divide and cleansing, nepotism, playing along and compromising people’s power in appeasement. And giving a free reign to her uneducated husband. I have written about it elsewhere. Let me quote:
And, she swam against the corruption charges levied at her and her husband Asif Zardari. Check here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. This reduces her incantations in speeches and in the election manifesto of the PPP to levels below a rodent’s under belly.
These are some of the reason Ms. Khan why we should “remember” the Bhuttos. We deserve to learn from our short history, or else we will be condemned to the dustbin of history.
Comments
28 responses to “A Response to Nighat Said Khan’s Open Letter to Fatima Bhutto”
Kuch bhe ho, this time around she was a changed women. You should watch her latest interviews, suddenly she had become more clever and had a clearer vision with the right amount of experince. This is what you call “dakhey kha kha ker seek na”. She was our biggest leader and best option, now we have to settle for Amin Faheem(who again is an excellent option).
To Temporal ….
I can go on and debate with you on each of the constitutional amendements proposed by the PRESIDENT and passed by the parliament (not Bhutto) such as the 2nd amendment which basically says that anyone not believing in the in finality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and/or claiming to be a Prophet is not a a Muslim. But as I said I won’t debate that. I just have a very simple question for you..
When you divulge in these rants why don’t you also point of that it was Shaheed Bhutto who was responsible to create this constitution (1973 constitution) on which everyone agreed. Also, why don’t mention that Bhutto brought 93000 of Pakistani soldiers which were held as POW with India. Why so one sided? 🙂
Temporal
Just a clarification: Nighat Said Khan is the Director of Institute for Womens Studies, Lahore/Applied Socio-economic Research Center, Pakistan – and a well known activist/feminist and one of the founders of Women’s Action Forum.
On this post: Again complete nonsense by an illinformed person poisoned by the propaganda of Army generals/ISI-paid journalists over four decades. Yahya Khan, Pak Army’s commander-in-chief and Chief martial law administrator broke Pakistan by sealing the fate of any reconciliation possiblity through the massacre and rape of thousands of bengalis. Gen. Niazi, a drunkard and womanizer, surrendered to the Indian general and not any politician. Please read history. Her husband may have made some commissions but he is not a paid agent of the CIA and a killer like Musharraf or Zia ul Haq. That is why, the people love Bhutto and the former military dictators have been condemned to the dustbin of history
Z.A. Bhutto had every right to amend the constitution because he had two-third majority in the parliament. Zia and Musharraf had no bloody right to rule, to pass any order let alone amend the constitution. Teeth maestro is advised to focus on the issues and problems we face rather than provide a forum to publish the rants and drivels of congenetial Bhutto-haters. It does not serve any purpose. Why don’t we talk about how much money the generals have made out of $100 million they get every month (for five years… that is a total of about $5 billion) from America and have never accounted for it in any audit or before the parliamant
I am appalled at the obsession of the bloggers with the Bhuttos and their short comings. Why dont we foucs on the Army and the bureacracy who have ruled, directly or indirectly, Pakistan for nearly 48 years out of 60. as I consider most of BB and Nawaz period as indirect rule. Only the first four years and Z.A. Bhuttos five years can be considered as rule by civilian politicians. Unfortunately, the generation below 30 has been deprived of any real sense of our history. the media has grown under the establishment’s eye and is hardly objective or unbiased. Lies and half-truths are peddled as established facts. The most corrupt and cavernous institution in Pakistan is its Army. Why dont we focus on the role of the army, its secret budget, its secret arms purchases worth billions of dollars, the mansions of its generals, its loot, plunder and rape in former East Pakistan, etc. etc. How many people know that Brig. (rtd) Amjad Pervez Kiyani (younger brother of Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani), coming from a very modest family backgroun, has become a multi-millionaire and he and a judge of Sind High Court (Kh. Naveed Ahmed) are splitting money obtained from the litigants in outstanding court cases? This is just one examle. The free media does not have the balls to publish this stuff. Therefore all we read are rants about feudals from the ignorant lot.
I think i have to agree with Laila. I don’t think we should just spur new controversies to make things cripy and henceforth to attract audience attention or for that matter of Miss Fatima Bhutto.
In this country, all we know is to make the people come out in frustration at our acts and speak out something that we will later use against him/her. For God sake why are we all debating Fatima Bhutto who on all platforms are trying to do away with the very fact that she dont want to be favored just because she is Bhutto. And as far as Benazir and ZA Bhutto are concerned, they are now dead and we should try to forget them and learn from our past mistakes.
We Pakistani’s lost Bangladesh some 4 decades back but i think its the right time we should focus on not losing NWFP or Baluchistan because the same enemies are planning to do it again and this time i think Pakistan cant take any more losses.
All i said is in good faith and shouldn’t be taken out of the context.
To understand how prosporus Pakistan was in Bhuttos era and what Musharaf and Zia have done to our Pakistan read the lecture by Kaiser Bengali afew posts below this one.
As someone said “Every country has an army, our army has a country.”
thank you all for your comments
it is for fatima to reply to nighat in full
i replied to two of the queries raised
both the bhuttos could do so much…the Sr. after nailing the last nail in the coffin of east pakistan, became the CMLA and President and given the public sentiment and support he could have sealed the army back in the barracks but he failed to do so…
a politician acts only for today but a statesman also has an eye on the future for his/her actions…too bad zulfikar was just a controversial politician
by the amendments i cited … he paved way for the army occupation of zina ul haq and the subsequent plunder and misuse of islam…further ethnic divide, drug and kalashnikiv culture
***
benazir had matured this time around?
perhaps (we would not know for sure)
but she did defend asif and the corruption charges against her… i have given enough citations in the article…
one last thing….those who read me know this…am no admirer of the occupying army
it was like the late BB knew that she was going to die in her country. Even her fiercest critics believed that she was going to bring about a change.
This post is really poor. TM, can you stop publishing these “guest blogs”? They take down the quality of your fine website.
Completely agree with the the post. Although I am saddened by the manner of her death but our country is better off. Sadly though our uneducated massed will never learn. Bilawal has now become Bhutto. What a laugh. and I definitely support army dictators.
give me your reasons zs:)
thanks kamran
Kamran: Forget eneducated masses. The educated are the most corrupt and selfish lot. You have to really visit the rural areas. The PPP policies have always been more sensitive to the poor. It is just plain nonsense to target them and lose perspective that it was the Army that destroyed democracy since the 1950s, enriched a few and antagnoised bengalis, never went after a punjabi politician or general and demonized bengali, sindhi, pathan, mohajir and baluch leaders as if there never was a corrupt leader in Punjab. The Army and the country owe a lot to Bhutto, who was the only leader who tried to do something despite heavy odds. Our problem NOW is Musharraf and the people who target the PPP are just helping the Army and Musharraf indirectly and are basically urban arm chair illinformed and selfish affluent lot more concerned with making money in property rather than addressing real issues and therefore never attack the real culprit. the bloody, jahail, half-educated, CIA-paid Army generals. If you can not speak against them, you are either a coward or their supporter
Every single political party and politician curently available is tried, tested, and found not only wanting but beyond.
Ignorance is bliss…
So are the generals… only a pimp or a blind would support the military that kills own its people because it is paid to do so by Americans
Who ordered the police to gun down Murtaza Bhutto is still a mystery, even though a three-judge tribunal concluded that it could not have been take place without the approval from some “All in All” authority. Howevr, Fatima, Benazir Bhutto’s niece, alleged that the “not-so-hidden hand” behind her father’s cold-blooded killing was Zardari.
If it is so, then one can easily assume how loyal Zardari is for the Bhuttos and PPP.
Why are people equating Bhutto criticizers as Pro- government/ army?
Most of us have given up on BOTH the political parties and the Generals.
Laila, you need to get some perspective. Criticising Bhutto does NOT mean that we are Musharraf fans.
Well there is point in giving up on both and do nothing. The main point is we need democracy and there is no point in demonising the largest and the only national party which despite its many many mistakes has also fought bravely against dictators like Ayub, Zia, Yahya and Musharraf with death toll of its workers reaching thousands and the only party which can rightly claim to have scrificed its top leadership without surrendering to the generals. For that Z.A. Bhutto and Benazir have my profoundest respects despite their shortcomings. At least, they related to people unlike the generals who have destroyed all the institutions so that the Army can have a free hand. Army is the root cause. I want to focus on that and not get side tracked by demonizing the politicians.Period!
The ISI killed Murtaza Bhutto. That is why the guy shot him, Shahid Hayat, who was ASP Clifton then, was promoted and is now the Director of FIA. Benazir called in Scotland Yard and the Army sent them back immeditely after her government was dismissed… I challenge you to check these facts. You are just a naive victim of the propaganda machine of the ISI which pays many in the media to spread non-sense and lies.
Oh my my! What passionate debate. You know Pakistani politicians and army generals often sound like Mafia bosses who believe that they are genuine businessmen and the cops are just out to get them because of jealousy, they all feel persecuted when out of power. What hogwash baloney. Eh folks No body absolutely no body has the God given right to rule. Even monarchs have been removed and heads chopped when they were found to be incompetent and corrupt. What is this BULL about Bhuttos…what? Because ZAs father kneeled in front of Victoria to receive the knighthood or is it because ZA was a passionate orator. Dont forget, once in power he fell in the same trap of self worship that is the trademark of all dictators. Hey look…just because you were shot at the job does not bring honor…Shaheed!!!!!Burglers could be shot while in act. I am truly fed up of hearing sons, daughters, nephews and nieces of these thugs of gone by days who believe it is their God given right to rule, a 19 year old chief of the biggest political party of 160 million people country, what a shameful spectacle, and mama even taught him a slogan…DEMOCARCY (read nepotism) IS THE BEST REVENGEyeah right! Enough of this crap. I’ll tell you some thing, this MQM in general and their Machiavelli chef Altaf Bhai make me sick most of the time, but if there is one slogan that I will stand by very proudly with them is the END OF FEUDALISM. This is a tragedy of unparalleled magnitude that this medieval system still exists in Pakistan. And so goes for the Sardars and Chaudhrys, as a matter of fact I would enforce a moratorium on these families from participating in politics for a few generations unless they are prepared to give up their stolen wealth. As for the generals, the tax payer funded mafia of Pakistan, my friends, make friends with India, treat them as your older brother, they are the source of culture and civilization of the region and deal with them in a respectable way and you will not need this bunch of low life parasitic pests. Other day I heard a very interesting comment from a general who said that in all of its existence the Pak armed forces have defended the country for about 60 odd days, well then…the rest of their existence they have been screwing the country…haven’t they?
Karim,
I don’t think anyone votes for Bhuttos because ZA’s father was accorded the knighthood. ZA Bhutto was not only a great orator but also a genius and it was our luck to have such a leader. How on earth can you call our elected Prime Minister a dictator? Don’t you know the difference? 🙂
The only ‘solution’ I see in your rant is MQM. My friend MQM are killers, they slaughter people – the Pir of London is holding a British Passport, Ebad is a convicted criminal – did you forget May 12??? I mean how naive can one be? Ofcourse MQM has been stating on ending fuedalism but I see this as lip service and if you ask me Pakistan’s problem currently is NOT fuedalism. Our problems are freedom of judiciary, speedy justice, security and improved economical conditions.
Only democracy can bring this change not dictators. Therefore, yes Democracy is the best revenge 🙂
karim:
yes, passionate indeed
zs disappeared!
desi:
democracy according to chairperson for life, right?
lol Karim you are very narrow minded, MQM is the biggest example of feudalism, urban feudalism!
Temporal,
I wrote to you earlier but you conveniently ignored to rebut that.
Well, yes chairperson for life – unless you are dreaming or living in the world of fantasy .. MQM has also chairperson for life, so does PML – N, so does Mullahs … what solution are you providing? Whats your alternative?
If you wish to think on this premise that a supposed party chairperson cannot have any right to speak for democracy then you should know that:
PPP is a political party which has members who can decide on what to do and who to follow. If the members of this largest party would be upset with this then they can not support it (ppp) – however, something which you dont seem to realise that people and members (in large numbers) still suppport PPP and its leader. 🙂 PPP is for the people, by the people and to the people.
You see BB sacrificed her life, she knew the dangers but she did not shy away from embracing her death. Her father the great Shaheed Zulfi Bhutto was assasinated by Zia and his stooges. He had a chance to leave Pakistan – G M Khar told Bhutto in Multan before Bhutto’s second arrest that “they are after your blood, leave the country” – Bhutto told him “I am not a rootless phenomenon, I am the son of the soil and I won’t run away like a rat, you can leave if you want”.
Well, the reactions..I rest my case. SHAKHSPARASTI, human worshipping, a huge problem, always a recipe for making dictators. If you noticed, I did not defend MQM, I defended an ideology, a concept. Precisely my point, rather than comment on the concept it still came down to people. Indians have a similar problem (Nehru-Gandhi dynasty) and so goes for Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and many other countries that were ex-colonies of RAJ. India might, just might drag itself out of this culture of people worshipping for a variety of reasons, in Pakistan the situation seems hopeless with this Bilawal thing. Chaudhrys are a disgrace, the assortment of Muftis, Sardars and Pirs around the country is bad enough, progressives like ANP are also handing down party reins from generation to generation. This is feudalism of democracy, thats what it is, it has nothing to do with democracy. In an enviornment like this why are we surprized that an institution like the armed forces that is better funded and has the guns would not take the advantage, it is normal. I would like people to discuss the fundamentals of democratic culture, open transparent elections on party levels. It is possible that this western variety of democracy is not for us, it is highly possible and should be debated without any insults and accusations. It is very likely that we need to develop our own system that addresses our culture, values and mentality. What this form of democracy has done for Pakistan is that it has provided the ruling elite a democratic cover for the continuation of their chokehold on Pakistani people. I can not get over the fact that a 19 year old has been elected chief of the single biggest political party in the country, without elections, without debate and people do not have a problem with this, if you don’t see a problem with that, if you call a political party that does this democratic, either I or you need to have our definition of democracy double checked!
I find her official website very interesting, you can also read her views about current party leadership, and dark secrets of history… Try her Website @ http://fatimabhutto.com.pk