A tale of two friends

Benazir — a woman leader true to her name — the unmatched and unparalleled in history! She could have chosen to dodge her untimely death by putting up some genuine excuses to live longer with all luxuries available to her but she didn’t go that path. Instead, she followed her father on the path to glory through the gallows propped up by acute insanity and barbarity. Although alive in our hearts, Benazir Bhutto cannot be remembered and paid homage to her better than reviving democratic values that she fought and died for.

BB was not killed because she was a woman (myogenic motivation) or that she was Bhutto’s daughter (a perceived threat) or that she was a Sindhi. They wanted her eliminated because she stood for something bigger and more profound than her gender, blood relations, or cultural affinity. It was a lost heritage of democratic Pakistan that she struggled all her life to preserve and a broken country to build again having been wrecked by sectarianism and extremism. She was cognizant of all the dangers, all the traps, and her own limitations but she was still undeterred till her last breath believing that virtue ultimately trumps evil.

Those who killed her with guns and grenades in their hands and suicide jackets around their backs were not the real murderers. They were more like their guns and grenades in the hands of someone else. That someone else was a monster living in the form of two friends — one bent on destroying Islam and the other determined to strangulate democracy. One tarnished the peaceful message of Islam through his bigotry and misogyny whereas the other used all possible means to discredit democracy so as to perpetuate his illegitimate rule. Both developed friendship for a common cause — to silence a strong voice forever.

Now both friends — the religious zealot and the deep state — are stronger than ever and are in high spirits. They are bragging about having jointly defeated a flying and floating superpower. Emboldened by the superpower’s exit with her tail between the legs, they might now be certainly betting on something bigger and more rewarding. May Allah protect us all from their wrath and evil intentions! Ameen. They have accumulated a huge wealth of experience in mobilising public sentiments through slogans, historical myths, and symbols.

Benazir Bhutto was trying to break this nexus for the common good. She believed this country deserved a system of governance that would empower workers, peasants, and other unprivileged classes in society. She had learned a lesson from history that countries, however powerful, cannot survive for long with economic and social injustice and corruption brewing inside every institution. Pakistan had lost half of its body (East Pakistan) in 1971 to terrible suppression of people in the name of unity, continuity, and harmony. BB did not want that sad saga to unfold again and that toxic attitude to permeate into other ‘marginalised’ parts of Pakistan. Others, however, had their own lessons from history!

Paradoxically, leaders who embody a cause and fight for it with souls cannot be taken away from the memory of history by killing them. They keep haunting the evil- doers on earth and they give life to those who believe in human dignity, equality, and justice. BB has left behind a legacy which is not confined to the party she had inherited from her father. She is the rallying cry of those who demand constitutionalism in Pakistan, the manifesto of those who strive for social harmony, and the face of those who confront dark with light. Those who killed her are dead even if physically alive but she lives on through her vision for Pakistan! This is how humanity has survived for centuries amidst racism, extremism, and fascism.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2022.

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