Benazir Bhutto
27 December 2007. It will be remembered as a day when an internationally acclaimed leader, the first woman head of state of an Islamic country, fell victim to the death blow of assassins. Who were they? Was it al-Qaeda, the obvious choice; someone from the government intelligence hierarchy or elements from her own party the PPP? Leaving aside the conspiracy theory, the blatant question is-- why did Benazir stood up through the sunroof of the car carrying her out of the just finished public meeting, waving to the people gathered outside the meeting venue at Liaquat Bagh Park.. Her death is an eerie reminder of the assassination of the first prime minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan who was assassinated at the same venue.
A sophisticated and highly intelligent woman, Benazir knew of the risks to her life before she left for Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile. Her fears became a reality when on her arrival in Pakistan in October 2007, a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing 140 people during her trip from the airport. Benazir was unhurt but probably figured out that she was in real danger of losing her life. Was she destined to choose the place where her life would end, Rawalpindi, a place where her father, late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged-- just two miles away from the spot of her own assassination.
People inside the meeting venue were frisked and checked by the security forces. But what about those waiting outside the meeting place? What made Benazir stand up through the sunroof of her car, when the risk of an assassination attempt was the highest, throwing her own safety away?
There are those who wish to die at the height of their glory before it wanes. The Egyptian queen Cleopatra took her own life by letting herself being bitten by a poisonous snake, rather than succumbing to the Romans. Benazir Bhutto was in her mid fifties, unaccustomed to the radical changes that have taken place in Pakistan's politics during her long self-exile. Her rhetoric against religious extremists and the military showed her desperateness. When caution was expected, she preferred head-on collusion.
Much as everybody, respectful of democracy, would have liked to see Benazir Bhutto back at the helm of power, she will probably now be remembered as the first woman head of the state of an Islamic country.
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