Benazir
Bhutto Passing Through Testing Times Once Again
Dr
Zafar Altaf
BENAZIR
BHUTTO is yet again passing through testing times of her 26-year
long political life. This is not for the first time that the former
prime minister has been put on trial by the military regimes and
political opponents since a reluctant BB was forced to jump into
politics to lead her party after the hanging of her father.
The
fresh blow of conviction in Swiss Bank accounts case has further
led to erosion of Benazir Bhutto credibility in the eyes of people
of Pakistan who have almost lost interest in their leaders both
political and military for understandable reasons.
She
is unlikely to lose her political base back home because those
rulers who are jubilant over her conviction and are frantically
addressing press conferences over the issue equally lack credibility
and sympathy of the people.
Before
I start on my experiences with the political government it may
be necessary to give the background to linkages with the political
government. I had met all the scions of the Bhutto family when
Ambassador Kharas gave a reception for the unbeaten Pakistan Cricket
team at The Hague in 1974. Benazir was there and so were the others.
Pakistan had achieved the rare distinction of not having been
beaten in England, a feat that was only achieved by the Australians
in 1948 under Sir Donald Bradman.
My
first real encounter with BB came in 1978 when I was posted as
District Magistrate, Sahiwal. BB was speaking at Okara. ZAB was
in detention and elections were only 90 days away. I covered the
meeting personally for I was anxious to see that the law and order
situation was not disturbed. I had had a series of meetings with
the organizers. The crowd there was massive but I noticed that
most of them were women and carrying babies. I realized that there
would be no law and order here unless the authorities [that was
me] were to do something untoward.
Satisfied
I proceeded to select the Pakistan national cricket team [MCC
were visiting Pakistan] as I was one of the selectors. At Manga
Mandi I was stopped by the local police and asked if I was the
DC of Sahiwal. Affirmative reply by me was countered by them as
saying that the Chief Secretary of Punjab wanted me to go back
to Sahiwal. I enquired as to what they would do if they had to
select the national team or obey the orders of the CS. They were
unanimous in their preference, Cricket team was more important.
I did just that but then the CS was a determined person and he
eventually got to me and said I was wanted back at Sahiwal. So
yours obediently obeyed.
At
Okara I was listening to the 8 pm news when I heard that I had
arrested BB and here I was still 30 miles short of Sahiwal. On
reaching Sahiwal I found a shivering ADC with the directions to
arrest her. So I served the orders and made the house where she
was a guest as the Sub-jail temporarily. I had no options but
to follow suit. Pictures emerged in my mind of a similar incident
that took place when ZAB was arrested by late Muzaffar Qadir.
When ZAB came to power he suffered the consequences and was dismissed
from service. I had known MQ rather well as he was our senior
at college and the son of a philosopher professor Abdul Qadir.
Fate
was coming my way and I was asked to do the dirty work of a government
that had panicked. The ten days that followed were full of interactions
with BB and since I had met her father due to his love of cricket,
I could make a comparison. There was no doubt in my mind that
she had the spark that was required. She also understood that
at that level suffering is part of the political game in Pakistan.
So
imagine my surprise when I was posted as Secretary in the Federal
Government bypassing 199 senior colleagues. I was vary of this
and requested that the pecking order of the service should not
be disturbed. Despite the fact that I was not on the posting list;
back came the order that I would be the next secretary. I was
going to replace a Sindhi who had fallen asleep in the very first
meeting and when woken by the man sitting next to him, asked for
a repeat of the question. The repeat never came. I knew that 199
daggers would be out for me and at the appropriate time they would
not only thrust those daggers deep into me, but also turn the
blade once inside.
BB
would have none of it for I was well spoken of by the cabinet
members and by other senior colleagues and in fact two of the
most senior Secretary’s Saeed Qureshi and Rafiq Akhund,
who had always guided me spoke to me on the telephone. Sardar
Farooq Leghari, President of the country, gave me some clearance,
so did Jehangir Badr the chief of PPP for the Punjab. His contention
was that despite all the hate against PPP in Punjab I had not
been anything but fair to all and sundry who came and met me.
My
credentials on work were acceptable but my political linkages
and social linkages were not. I was constantly reminded of this
by her and she would link me up with the Sharif brothers and later
on to Imran Khan. There was considerable abrasiveness in the cabinet
meetings and agriculture would always be at the forefront of all
the conflict. While I was the Agriculture Secretary there were
a number of inquiries that she initiated against me. I was accused
of giving research land to a relative of Nawaz Sharif. It was
as if he had pocketed 25 acres of land and walked away with it.
He was no relative but there were some people who wanted me to
be relieved of the two jobs that I was handling concurrently-Chairman
Pakistan Agriculture Council and Secretary.
One
fine morning on a holiday and without any notice the Minister
turned up at my house and wanted me to accompany him so that he
could personally verify what I had done to deserve such testing
time. To his surprise matters were in excellent shape as I took
him through what was being done to break mental impasse of the
agricultural scientist. In fact some of the members of the kitchen
cabinet never wanted me in these two positions. They had the Intelligence
Bureau [IB] chief write a two page DO letter to the PM indicating
that I was the biggest problem in her support staff. The Prime
Minister’s inspection chief wrote another DO letter to the
PM and then rang me up. The team that had written the letter included
a lady confidant of BB and the IG of Police Islamabad. So life
with her in the cabinet was very difficult.
It
was, at best, an abrasive relationship and on one occasion a senior
colleague came up to me and said: “Dacter yar koi gal nahin
15 minute di jhar hai aur 15 din da sukh”. [Doctor friend,
don’t worry it is a matter of shouting (by the PM) for 15
minutes and the relief thereafter is of 15 days]. She had managed
to do the needful for the members of the kitchen cabinet but that
was still not enough to transfer me. I asked Minister Yousaf Talpur
as to why I was not being transferred as the acrimony was quite
obvious. I wanted out. Talpur came with an astonishing reply:
‘She will not transfer you because agriculture is delivering”.
He was right. Despite all the inquiries, all the verbal assaults
she did not transfer me. She used the hate of the kitchen cabinet
to her and country’s advantage. She kept me alert and would
frequently make comments that I would let her down because NS/SS
and Imran were my friends and on one occasion I had to say that
if and when the time came I would be her only friend.
But
she had the uncanny ability to understand governance factors.
She read fast and she read vertically not horizontally and the
grasp showed a very alert mind. I have no doubt in my mind that
she was the leader not only of her time but of all times. Was
she prudent? And Burke laid down the test of prudence in the eighteenth
century. For Burke prudence is morality enlarged. The tests are
not as easy as one imagines for much complexity has come to the
fore since he was member from Bristol. BB was no novice and she
hurled all kinds of epithets at those who were trying to disrupt
the thought process that she so ardently tried to restore.
She
did not want adulterated political process but realized that the
odds were against her, that she had to bide her time. It is easy
to short shrift and short change the PM of this country. The tragedy
is that at times the crimes committed by the PM’s men are
more problematical then the crimes the PM commits. She was aware
of the fact that history would judge her by her prudent acts and
not by adherence to principles. The problem politically that she
was encountering was that in Pakistan money played a significant
influence. And NS and SS had reportedly a lot of that.
She
was probably the only one who understood because of her education
the sensitivities of the political process. And in the process
did try and take on some mafias. She discarded her own biases.
But it is symbolic of this country that the PM gets a filtered
and biased position all the time. It was my feeling that the majority
brought to her the problems that Zen people call Kaon-issues that
have no solutions.
There
are very few who can understand that in the present. The second
tragedy was that she had in her party miserable bubbles and playthings
who wanted her to overreach politics. It is a fallacy that action
can be taken by governing people through intimate knowledge of
a situation and determines the potentialities of a nation state
on the basis of a micro check.
There
are in all governments people who believe in rights and obligations
but an autocratic government has people who seize everything as
a right. BB was in a far superior position to have an uncommitted
viewpoint. And deliver she could and she did. The conflict with
the President was not her doing. I had gone to the Presidency
on the issue of Agriculture as the President was a keen farmer
and it was good to trade thoughts with him. On one occasion I
came back to find that my entire translation was being compiled
and was being checked for loyalty.
How
then can one explain the current impasse that she finds herself
in? It is a funny situation [funny in a serious tone] because
the ends of justice have not been resolved reasonably in delivering
this judgment. The interpretation that Pakistan will give it will
be based on its own legal culture. It is symptomatic of countries
where the legal system is either fragmented or not existing that
all kinds of legal perversions are attributed to the people who
have no consideration in the matter. All the institutional arrangements
and ordainments are part of man made morals. These have to be
seriously questioned in the light of political philosophy. Pakistan
is for the beneficence of society and not of a few individuals.
Some times it may be correct to forego a right but the same cannot
be said for the obligations that are mandatory. It cannot be that
some people can and should be acting all the time to make this
beneficence for the few. The population is 140 million and worked
correctly can be a source of strength.
For
the present the day belongs to the enemies of BB. To Sh. Rashid
who is probably still smarting from the time he spent in Bahawalpur
jail. And he will continue for he has a snake like tongue, moving
in all directions except straight. When will Pakistan realize
that verbal dysentery does no one any good? If there has to be
man made morals then these have to be based on a continuous deep
study of this society.
One
has to understand the politics of hate in Pakistan and the more
we are given to intolerance and distortions the more the difficulties
that will emerge and finally submerge us. Why is there not more
of intellect and experience working in tandem? Why have there
to be the uneducated and the inexperienced, trying to give capsules
filled prescriptions brought in from outside the country?
The
question begs an answer? It is to be resolved one day so why not
now?
The
writer is a former Federal Secretary, Government of Pakistan
