The Bhutto frame

Published April 22, 2010

The kaleidoscope of politics in Pakistan is of two colors, black and white. Military takeovers are historically followed by an era of democracy (read: kleptocracy). From Ayub Khan to Pervez Musharraf, and from Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s political stage has had its cyclical share of dictators and democrats almost every two decades. Public sentiment has undermined any good that might have come of the last military regime by deeming it unconstitutional and illegal. Meanwhile, any wrongdoing within the Bhutto frame is justified and excused. Nowhere is this swinging Pakistani pendulum between dictatorship and democracy more obvious than in the renewed frenzy surrounding Benazir's death, the responsibility of which has been placed squarely on the shoulders of the Musharraf regime.

The first dictator of Pakistan provided a fillip to the career of the great Bhutto when he was given the charge of the energy ministry and thus became the youngest cabinet minister in the young country’s history. Although Bhutto became one of the closest aides of Ayub Khan, together they came to explicate an old truism: ten dervishes might sleep on a carpet, but an entire kingdom cannot accommodate two kings. With his charisma and unmatched rhetoric, Bhutto went on to found the largest democratic party of Pakistan as well as arguably the most famous and tragic political dynasty the region has seen. Until now, the history of the PPP and the Bhuttos is book ended by Bhutto’s hanging and, years later, the assassination of his daughter, Benazir. The rest and everything in between is history.

In Pakistan’s battle of dictators and democratic leaders, there has been only one loser – the citizenry. Since that fateful December 27 in 2007, when the country lost another one of Z.A. Bhutto’s children, Pakistan has been subsumed by the Bhutto frame. We have seen leaders and politicians poise their rhetoric within the frame of Bhuttoism in a way to gather support and sympathy. This has gone on for so long, so consistently, and, at times, so preposterously, that it no longer raises feelings of sympathy for the departed leaders.

Rather, every evocation of Bhuttoism invokes abhorrence for the current leadership and its propensity for exploiting the memory of its predecessors. The Benazir Income Support Program, Benazir Bhutto Road, the Benazir Bhutto International Airport at Islamabad, the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park in Karachi, and Benazir Bhuttoabad are all examples of attempts to rewrite the history of this country through the lens of one ruling family/party.

The fact is, the PPP has been holding on to the Bhuttos for a tad bit too long. A significant political party (one that, to a large extent, has the eighteenth amendment, NFC award, Balochistan package, and women’s sexual harassment bill to its credit) should rest on the laurels of its achievements, rather than on the charisma of its leaders past. Rather than Bhuttoism, democracy and human rights should remain the rallying cries of the PPP.

No one should forget the fact that people are fickle when it comes to personalities, but loyal to ideas and progress. For instance, before we began talking incessantly of Bhutto’s Pakistan, we used to talk about Jinnah’s Pakistan. People seem to have forgotten that, when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s regime was toppled, it had become unpopular among the masses. People rejoiced when the regime changed, just as they had rejoiced when Ayub Khan resigned, or the way the would rejoice when Nawaz Sharif lost his power to Musharraf, or when, almost a decade later, the same Musharraf was impeached.

The current oblivious state of Pakistan’s most vital political party is best expressed in the words of Kahlil Gibran:

My friends and my road-fellows, pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion. Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own winepress. Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful. Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block. Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.
Are we a nation to pity? Do we not see what goes on in the name of democracy? Price hikes are justified in the name of the sacrifices given by assassinated leaders and corruption is rationalised under the banner of “giving democracy a chance”. No, we must not be a nation to pity.

This country has lost its leaders, and determined to persist in honouring their memory, it risks losing its way. Rather than look to the future and establish the building blocks of a truly democratic society, the country’s major political party continues to propagate a cult of personality and is determined to recast all things Pakistan is proud of through the Bhutto frame. Do they not see that such an action robs a nation of its hard-earned progress and small victories, bestowing credit for them on the shoulders of the few (Bhuttos) rather than the many. How can that be a solid democratic precedent?

It’s a good thing, however, that Pakistanis are not ones to live in the past. We like to let the past remain in the past and focus on the future instead. It is the only way to ensure that Pakistan does not become a nation to pity. The truth is, Pakistan is not a dead nation, and it does not need its deceased leaders to take it out of the current crises. If anything, the Bhuttos themselves would have wanted us to look ahead to what’s to come, rather than dwell on what has gone.

siddique
Siddique Humayun is a public policy student, social reformer, and freelance writer.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

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