Power Failure: It is all in black and white

Abida Hussain offers insight into events that precipitated change in Pakistan


Azam Khan January 26, 2015
PHOTO: AGENCIES

ISLAMABAD: In a vivid and deeply personal account of her country’s political odyssey, former lawmaker and diplomat Abida Hussain has revealed several key secrets about ex-premier Benazir Bhutto’s return from exile in October 2007.

Her recently published book, Power Failure, also looks at the role played by former interior minister Rehman Malik in getting Asif Ali Zardari released from jail. Abida’s exposure to the power echelons over a period of three decades has given her a rare insight into the cataclysmic events surrounding mainstream politics. This is why she can raise a key question about Rehman Malik’s indispensability to Asif Ali Zardari – without ruffling too many feathers.

She points out that it was Benazir who earlier gave Rehman the task of springing her spouse out of jail and away from the clutches of the then military ruler Pervez Musahrraf, exploiting his good terms with Tariq Aziz, adviser to Musharraf.

However, there is no mention of Malik’s utter failure to convince the Musharraf regime to provide Benazir with better security. Abida told The Express Tribune that she was at the time busy with the election campaign in her constituency.

Benazir wanted to come back to Pakistan in close coordination of Nawaz Sharif, according to Abida Hussain. The PPP leader wanted to keep Zardari out of politics mainly because of his graft-tainted reputation. Instead, she pointed out, Benazir wanted him to look after Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Asifa in Dubai.

Benazir told her that progress was slow in the effort to convince Musharraf to free Zardari. Musharraf was “a harder nut to crack than we had assumed”, Abida noted down in her book. But Rehman was successful in his mission, and Zardari was finally released from detention within three months.

She wrote that Benazir once said that Rehman was her tool but she cut him down to size whenever she wanted.

Benazir also told her they had agreed that Zardari would not return to Pakistan if she was able to regain power. “He [Zardari] would live in Dubai with the children and keep an eye on their schooling, while her time would be exclusively devoted to Pakistan,” Abida Hussain cited Benazir as saying in her book.

Nawab Akbar Bugti

Abida wrote that Bugti told her by telephone from his cave before his death in August 2006. “He told me on phone that “…your army is going to kill me, which will convert me into the spirit of liberated Balochistan. That would be a befitting end for me with no regrets.”

In addition, Abida Hussain recounted the negotiations on the one-sided F-16 aircraft deal between Pakistan and US; Princess Diana’s Pakistan visit and her wish to meet Imran Khan; Ishaq Dar’s role to bring Benazir and Nawaz closer; as well as Shahid Hamid’s role in the dissolution of Benazir’s government through the then president Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.

COMMENTS (1)

zaman | 9 years ago | Reply

unlike Aung San Suu Kyi Pakistan prefers mostly foreigners to run its governments or people in power with their children having dual nationality

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