The 17th death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto is being observed today. Benazir Bhutto (b. June 21, 1953, d. December 27, 2007) was a Pakistani politician who is considered a modern Muslim political leader of South Asia as she became the first woman Prime Minister of the Muslim world. She had been in office as the Prime Minister of Pakistan twice (1988–90 and 1993–96). After a long round of discussions between Pervez Musharraf, the then military ruler, and Benazir, regarding the future power-sharing formula, she managed to return back to Pakistan. She landed in Karachi from Dubai in October 2007 after eight years of self-imposed exile.
At the time of her assassination on 27 December 2007 at Rawalpindi, she was making a bid for a third term as the Premier of Pakistan. She was assassinated by a suicide bomber named Bilal, a 15-year-old, who had reportedly been asked to do so by the Pakistani Taliban.
Subsequent years since she was assassinated by extremist groups have revealed more about how the Pakistani state apparatus works and who and why some groups of assassins had actually ordered to kill her. It was her commitment to promoting democratic ideals combined with her unweaving conviction to end militancy in Pakistan that contributed to her unfortunate murder. Her commitment to promoting democracy and reconciliation was neither acceptable to the undemocratic forces of Pakistan nor to militant groups within Pakistan and across the borders.
Today’s Pakistan is divided on ethno-regional biases. It experiences religious extremism, unstoppable terrorism, political polarisation, and a divided society. Such a divided society has given rise to political instability that eventually contributes to economic instability. In these critical times, what seems an appropriate way to commemorate the death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto is to recall her message of cooperation and reconciliation that is necessary for promoting democratic norms and democratic governance in the country.
She was a stanch supporter of adherence to uphold the essence of the Constitution of Pakistan. Evidence to her commitment to the constitutional supremacy is manifested in her words which she delivered while she was giving her speech at Governor’s House Lahore on December 25, 1988. She resolved that “the real foundation of a country is its Constitution. It safeguards the rights of the provinces as well as those of the masses.”
She not only encouraged the notion of cooperation from within the society and politics of Pakistan but also furthered the idea of reconciliation between Islam and Democracy and between the West and Pakistan to bridge the two polities and to clear the misconceptions that had been bone of contention between the West and East
She further denounced coming into power with the support of illegitimate and undemocratic forces. She believed in coming into power with the support of the people of Pakistan as she reinforced that “I believe in coming into power through people’s power and through the vote of the confidence of the people’s representatives. Therefore, the respect for the office of the Prime Minister is not mere respect for a particular office but denotes respect for the masses that have elected her.” In the same speech, she did not support the politics of confrontation, which for her promotes political instability combined with political hatred, and she always promoted reconciliation and cooperation as she reiterated that “we do not want confrontation and, we have never, by ourselves, created a situation of confrontation...we want to create unity in the country, which is divided into linguistic groups.”
Similarly, she not only encouraged the notion of cooperation from within the society and politics of Pakistan but also furthered the idea of reconciliation between Islam and Democracy and between the West and Pakistan to bridge the two polities and to clear the misconceptions that had been bone of contention between the West and East. She rejected the idea revolving around the inevitability of confrontation between Islam and the West that was triggered by Samuel Huntington’s work The Clash of Civilisations, the thesis that people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world. Benazir resolved to reconcile the West and Islam and she suggested Muslims adopt modernity that will, for her, not only end extremism from within Pakistan but also build friendly relations with religious ‘others’.
She has been a proponent of eradicating religious extremism from within Pakistani society in particular and from the Islamic world in general
She contended in her classic work titled Benazir Bhutto: Reconciliation, Islam Democracy and the West, over the issue of divide between the West and Islam that “the clash is not certainly over theology…fundamentally, it is all about whether the Muslim people can survive and prosper in a modern ear or whether linkages with traditional interpretations of the sixteenth century will free them in the past…if the Muslims can adjust to the political, social and economic environment we will not only survive but flourish…if modernity is dogmatically resisted, the existence of Muslims as viable community will become vulnerable,” p., 275.
She also desisted from the military rule in the country and always promoted democracy as a system of governance in Pakistan and beyond. She argued that future of the Muslims across the globe depends on promoting democracy because “it does not only replace the dictatorship but also it weakens the forces of extremism and militancy”. She further opines that “if the extremism and militancy are defeated, our planet can avoid the cataclysmic battle that pessimists predict is inevitable,” p., 284.
She has been a proponent of eradicating religious extremism from within Pakistani society in particular and from the Islamic world in general as she propounded that “much of what I think needs doing to defeat Islamic extremism centers around what I think must be done to strengthen democracy among Islamic societies,” p., 284.
Another important democratic notion that she continuously advanced was women's emancipation and their economic empowerment. She advocated women's socio-political rights as she believed that the economic empowerment of women was essential for building a vibrant middle class that is considered a backbone of any modern polity for promoting prosperity and democratic governance. She always encouraged women to be educated and to be economically independent. She propounded that “a true measure of liberation from traditional roles and traditional subordination by the men is the extent to which the women are economically self-sufficient.” To further augment her argument in favour of women’s economic independence, she maintains that “economic independence brings political independence, and political independence within the family encourages pluralism and democratic expression and organisation outside the family,” p., 289.
Amongst others, she promoted the right to freedom of expression. In her address to a party in the honor of a journalist at Lahore, she maintained that “we lay great emphasis on freedom of expression and freedom of thought…let me inform you of our Government policies that we would like to have as little as possible the State interference.” Similarly, she emphasised the equality of all citizens and their equal rights, as embedded in the Constitution of Pakistan, irrespective of their ethno-religious orientation and gender. In addressing medical students at Karachi, she said “we have no allusions to abstract freedom. There are millions of Pakistanis, whether they are religious minorities or not who are deprived of their necessities of life. We envisage freedom in terms of raising the equality in our people’s life.”
Benazir Bhutto stood resolved to promote democratic ideals and to advocate the politics of cooperation and reconciliation. She always desisted from dictatorship, militancy, and religious extremism, whose alliance took her life because she could prove a catalyst force for change and she had greatly forged a conviction to end religious extremism and rediscovered the agenda for tolerance, reconciliation, pluralism and democratic governance in the country. She was a renaissance woman who offered a way out of extremism. Thus, it is high time for the policy-makers in general and the claimants of Benazir’s political legacy to not only recall her democratic ideals but also to take some practical policy measures to overcome the menace of a divided society and polarised politics in Pakistan.