Sara S
01-01-2008, 07:40 AM
From: Umbreen Butt [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 4:27 AM
Subject: Death of a Modern Shahid
Dear all,
Let me set the record straight.
Pakistan has become a social circus...or maybe, a socialist circus.
People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto was shot dead two nights ago,
officially becoming a shahid like her corrupt father: a martyr dying
in the name of freedom. President Bush offered condolences even before
our Permanent President Musharraf officially declared three days of
mourning. The news must have hit the Cowboy quite hard: who could America
choose as Pakistan's next puppet Prime Minister?
For an entire night, news of Benazir's death was the most repeated
feature on CNN, BBC, Sky and Fox News. The western media had blown her
up in death to be larger than life: the future of democracy, the first
woman prime minister in a Muslim country, savior of
Pakistan...nonsense. Her greatest feat when she was in office was
emptying national coffers while maintaining the appearance of (Western
educated) legitimacy.
But then again, these people did not live in Pakistan in the 90's.
They never saw men set themselves on fire in the marketplace out of
frustration. They did not know that 11-year-old Salamat Masih was
thrown in jail for blasphemy. They forgot that the Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Faisalabad shot himself in the head out of protest. The
blood has dried on our memories, not theirs. We did not enjoy the real
good, feel good 90's. Our politics ping-ponged between two corrupt
regimes (Nawaz Sharif's outright Wahabist administration, and
Benazir's supposedly liberal one) while our economy plummeted,
unemployment peaked and the gap between the rich and poor was set in
stone.
The disparity still exists today, hence the frustration that compelled
crowds of young men to burn banks, buses, cars and even hospitals
alongside the party processions that took over the streets of Karachi
the night of Bhutto's death. Cars were stolen at gun point and set
alight, wallets and mobiles were stolen, shops were looted. Two men
burned to death in a KFC employing deaf workers: their extra crispy
bodies were buried the next day. Two more locked themselves in the
cold storage, and froze to death. The violence spilled out of the city
and into small villages: Thatta and Dadu, names we never heard before
boasted of burnt police stations. Meanwhile, the police were no where
to be seen. This was the real face of modern Pakistan.
Even under Benazir's "modern" government of the 90's, the women
newscasters on the state run PTV (the only channel available locally
then) were still required to cover their heads. There was no such
thing as live reporting, and the news was strictly censored before it
aired at six every evening. The cops still demanded to see marriage
certificates if men and women were pulled over late at night: failure
to produce one, or sufficient bribe money, could land both
indefinitely in jail, where Akhter Javed had chili peppers and
kerosene oil put up his ass in 1996 and set on fire. He was buried the
same year as Mir Murtaza Bhutto: Parliamentarian and critic of his
sister's government, who was "accidentally" shot pointblank in a
"random" shootout when over seventy policemen gathered outside his
Karachi residence.
At least Benazir allowed long-haired men to sing rock songs on
national television, as long they did not criticize the government,
like the rock group Junoon did with "Ehtesaab" (Accountability),
eventually leading to them being banned. And with over a billion
dollars stolen from the national treasury, who was keeping count
anyways? Where was the money being invested, when even the main cities
could not boast of free schooling, 24 hours electricity and decent
roads? And I thought modernization meant developing Education and
Infrastructure to encourage the exchange of ideas and thereby create
an informed public.
Asif Ali Zardari, known as Mr. 10% for his blatant acceptance of
bribes, became Mr. 15% by the time BB was dismissed from office for
the second time.and no, these figures did not indicate his annual
income tax. In 2003, both husband and wife were convicted of
laundering $11 million by a Swiss Court, and given jail sentences
along with a heavy-duty fine. With a little help from friends in the
right places, the conviction was overturned four months later by a
higher court.
And now, Benazir was back to spread "democracy" in Pakistan, by
brokering a power sharing deal with a military dictator and the
American government, who would effectively hand pick our next
"democratically elected" Prime minister in the upcoming January
elections. Benazir was the perfect neo-con pinup: modern, liberal,
western educated and eager to access her frozen bank accounts in
Pakistan.never mind the fact that hers was one of three governments in
the world to officially recognize the Taliban as a legitimate
government (Saudi Arabia and UAE were the other two).
It may be these very Islamic hardliner forces that are responsible for
her death. But who is to know for sure, when the night of the blast,
Liaquat Bagh was hosed down clean by firefighters, forensic evidence
and all? And why did the Interior Minister Brigadier Javed Cheema
insist that Benazir was killed by a skull fracture by her head hitting
the lever on the sunroof of her car, when even BB's right hand woman
(and PPP spokesperson) Sherry Rehman publicly announced that Benazir
was shot in the neck and the head?
Even before Permanent President Musharraf declared Emergency, Pakistan
was hit hard by a strong wave of suicide bombings. On November 24th,
over a month after the first attempt on Benazir's procession, both a
bus carrying ISI employees close to GHQ (General Head quarters) and a
military checkpoint in Rawalpindi were hit by suicide bombers, making
us all question who was taking care of our security, when even the
nation's Secret Services and Defense were not immune.
Were the suicide bombings politically motivated to bring on The
Emergency, and further delay elections? Or were they executed by
extremists, in retribution for the army carpet-bombing entire
districts in Wana and Waziristan (men, women, children and all) on
American orders? Or was it an inside job? After all, the army does
have a history of being linked with Islamist movements, and even years
after the war in Afghanistan ended, the ISI foiled plans by defecting
military officers to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic
caliphate (1995). The same questions will remain unanswered for
Benazir Bhutto's death.
The next afternoon she was laid to rest next to her father Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto, one of the largest feudal landowners in Sindh, who rose to
power on the Socialist slogan, "Roti, kapraa, makkan" (food, clothing
and shelter). The promises were never delivered, nor did his land ever
become public property.
My friends' parents who grew up in Karachi loved Daddy Bhutto for his
charismatic speeches and Western ways: he loved booze, jazz and women.
My Ahmedi family from the NWFP hates him: they went into hiding for an
entire year when he declared their Islamic sect illegal, thereby
sanctioning the Wahabist uprising that cost hundreds of Ahmedi's their
lives. Bhutto's legacy remains today: when signing the National
Identity Card form, citizens are required to declare that Ahmedi's and
Qadianee's are non-Muslims and to follow either sect is illegal.
At Ghari Khuda Buksh, Benazir's was not the minimal Islamic funeral,
where the dead are wrapped in white cotton and placed in the earth.
Her body was placed in an ornate mausoleum: as opulent in death as in
life. Her will be read out publicly later today: her son Belawal, 19,
will be named the heir to People's Party, just as she inherited her
father's party by default. Who inherits the money stolen from the
people of Pakistan, well, that remains strictly a family matter.
Love,
Umbreen
PS: If you notice all the pictures of her procession on the main news
websites, two placards surface in the crowd surrounding Benazir (also
attached to the mics that she delivered her speech through)...one says
Modren ("modern" mis-spelled) and one says Shahid (martyr). Ironic,
no?
__._,_.___
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 4:27 AM
Subject: Death of a Modern Shahid
Dear all,
Let me set the record straight.
Pakistan has become a social circus...or maybe, a socialist circus.
People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto was shot dead two nights ago,
officially becoming a shahid like her corrupt father: a martyr dying
in the name of freedom. President Bush offered condolences even before
our Permanent President Musharraf officially declared three days of
mourning. The news must have hit the Cowboy quite hard: who could America
choose as Pakistan's next puppet Prime Minister?
For an entire night, news of Benazir's death was the most repeated
feature on CNN, BBC, Sky and Fox News. The western media had blown her
up in death to be larger than life: the future of democracy, the first
woman prime minister in a Muslim country, savior of
Pakistan...nonsense. Her greatest feat when she was in office was
emptying national coffers while maintaining the appearance of (Western
educated) legitimacy.
But then again, these people did not live in Pakistan in the 90's.
They never saw men set themselves on fire in the marketplace out of
frustration. They did not know that 11-year-old Salamat Masih was
thrown in jail for blasphemy. They forgot that the Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Faisalabad shot himself in the head out of protest. The
blood has dried on our memories, not theirs. We did not enjoy the real
good, feel good 90's. Our politics ping-ponged between two corrupt
regimes (Nawaz Sharif's outright Wahabist administration, and
Benazir's supposedly liberal one) while our economy plummeted,
unemployment peaked and the gap between the rich and poor was set in
stone.
The disparity still exists today, hence the frustration that compelled
crowds of young men to burn banks, buses, cars and even hospitals
alongside the party processions that took over the streets of Karachi
the night of Bhutto's death. Cars were stolen at gun point and set
alight, wallets and mobiles were stolen, shops were looted. Two men
burned to death in a KFC employing deaf workers: their extra crispy
bodies were buried the next day. Two more locked themselves in the
cold storage, and froze to death. The violence spilled out of the city
and into small villages: Thatta and Dadu, names we never heard before
boasted of burnt police stations. Meanwhile, the police were no where
to be seen. This was the real face of modern Pakistan.
Even under Benazir's "modern" government of the 90's, the women
newscasters on the state run PTV (the only channel available locally
then) were still required to cover their heads. There was no such
thing as live reporting, and the news was strictly censored before it
aired at six every evening. The cops still demanded to see marriage
certificates if men and women were pulled over late at night: failure
to produce one, or sufficient bribe money, could land both
indefinitely in jail, where Akhter Javed had chili peppers and
kerosene oil put up his ass in 1996 and set on fire. He was buried the
same year as Mir Murtaza Bhutto: Parliamentarian and critic of his
sister's government, who was "accidentally" shot pointblank in a
"random" shootout when over seventy policemen gathered outside his
Karachi residence.
At least Benazir allowed long-haired men to sing rock songs on
national television, as long they did not criticize the government,
like the rock group Junoon did with "Ehtesaab" (Accountability),
eventually leading to them being banned. And with over a billion
dollars stolen from the national treasury, who was keeping count
anyways? Where was the money being invested, when even the main cities
could not boast of free schooling, 24 hours electricity and decent
roads? And I thought modernization meant developing Education and
Infrastructure to encourage the exchange of ideas and thereby create
an informed public.
Asif Ali Zardari, known as Mr. 10% for his blatant acceptance of
bribes, became Mr. 15% by the time BB was dismissed from office for
the second time.and no, these figures did not indicate his annual
income tax. In 2003, both husband and wife were convicted of
laundering $11 million by a Swiss Court, and given jail sentences
along with a heavy-duty fine. With a little help from friends in the
right places, the conviction was overturned four months later by a
higher court.
And now, Benazir was back to spread "democracy" in Pakistan, by
brokering a power sharing deal with a military dictator and the
American government, who would effectively hand pick our next
"democratically elected" Prime minister in the upcoming January
elections. Benazir was the perfect neo-con pinup: modern, liberal,
western educated and eager to access her frozen bank accounts in
Pakistan.never mind the fact that hers was one of three governments in
the world to officially recognize the Taliban as a legitimate
government (Saudi Arabia and UAE were the other two).
It may be these very Islamic hardliner forces that are responsible for
her death. But who is to know for sure, when the night of the blast,
Liaquat Bagh was hosed down clean by firefighters, forensic evidence
and all? And why did the Interior Minister Brigadier Javed Cheema
insist that Benazir was killed by a skull fracture by her head hitting
the lever on the sunroof of her car, when even BB's right hand woman
(and PPP spokesperson) Sherry Rehman publicly announced that Benazir
was shot in the neck and the head?
Even before Permanent President Musharraf declared Emergency, Pakistan
was hit hard by a strong wave of suicide bombings. On November 24th,
over a month after the first attempt on Benazir's procession, both a
bus carrying ISI employees close to GHQ (General Head quarters) and a
military checkpoint in Rawalpindi were hit by suicide bombers, making
us all question who was taking care of our security, when even the
nation's Secret Services and Defense were not immune.
Were the suicide bombings politically motivated to bring on The
Emergency, and further delay elections? Or were they executed by
extremists, in retribution for the army carpet-bombing entire
districts in Wana and Waziristan (men, women, children and all) on
American orders? Or was it an inside job? After all, the army does
have a history of being linked with Islamist movements, and even years
after the war in Afghanistan ended, the ISI foiled plans by defecting
military officers to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic
caliphate (1995). The same questions will remain unanswered for
Benazir Bhutto's death.
The next afternoon she was laid to rest next to her father Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto, one of the largest feudal landowners in Sindh, who rose to
power on the Socialist slogan, "Roti, kapraa, makkan" (food, clothing
and shelter). The promises were never delivered, nor did his land ever
become public property.
My friends' parents who grew up in Karachi loved Daddy Bhutto for his
charismatic speeches and Western ways: he loved booze, jazz and women.
My Ahmedi family from the NWFP hates him: they went into hiding for an
entire year when he declared their Islamic sect illegal, thereby
sanctioning the Wahabist uprising that cost hundreds of Ahmedi's their
lives. Bhutto's legacy remains today: when signing the National
Identity Card form, citizens are required to declare that Ahmedi's and
Qadianee's are non-Muslims and to follow either sect is illegal.
At Ghari Khuda Buksh, Benazir's was not the minimal Islamic funeral,
where the dead are wrapped in white cotton and placed in the earth.
Her body was placed in an ornate mausoleum: as opulent in death as in
life. Her will be read out publicly later today: her son Belawal, 19,
will be named the heir to People's Party, just as she inherited her
father's party by default. Who inherits the money stolen from the
people of Pakistan, well, that remains strictly a family matter.
Love,
Umbreen
PS: If you notice all the pictures of her procession on the main news
websites, two placards surface in the crowd surrounding Benazir (also
attached to the mics that she delivered her speech through)...one says
Modren ("modern" mis-spelled) and one says Shahid (martyr). Ironic,
no?
__._,_.___