Democracy is the Greatest Revenge

Written by Asif Ali Zardari, this piece appeared in Wall Street Journal on December 27, 2009

Political ownership of the war on terrorism now rests with the people of Pakistan

Two years ago the world stopped for me and for my children. Pakistan was shaken to its core and all but came apart. Women everywhere lost one of their greatest symbols of equality. And Islam, our great religion, lost its modern face.

On Dec. 27, 2007, my wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated. She was the bravest person I have ever known, and the second anniversary of her death is an appropriate occasion to reflect upon what she achieved for our country, and how her legacy must be preserved against those who would return Pakistan to darkness.

Twice elected prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir had an immense impact. She stood up and defeated the forces of military dictatorship. She freed all political prisoners. She ended press censorship. She legalized trade and student unions, built 46,000 primary and secondary schools and appointed the first female judges in our history. And she showed the women of Pakistan and the world that they must accept no limits on their ability and opportunity to learn, to grow and to lead in modern society.

The target of two assassination attempts by Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, Benazir repeatedly warned a skeptical world of the impending danger from extremists and militants. In her last campaign—even on the very day of her death, by the hands of such extremists—she mobilized and rallied the people of Pakistan against the terrorist threat.

View Full Image

Associated Press
Bhutto supporters in Lahore, Pakistan mark the two-year anniversary of her assassination yesterday.
Benazir’s murderers didn’t kill her dreams. On the day we buried her, even as her supporters cried out for revenge, we reminded our party and country that, in her own words, “democracy is the greatest revenge.” And then we led the Pakistan People’s Party to victory in the elections.

Since then, fulfilling the electoral manifesto she wrote, the nation’s economy, which had been left in shambles by the priorities of a decade of dictatorship, has been stabilized and revitalized. Food shortages have ended. Power shortages have diminished. We have adopted a national curriculum for the first time in history to challenge the spread of political madrassas. Constitutional reforms are being finalized which will rid Pakistan of the undemocratic provisions inserted by military dictators that expanded the power of the presidency at the expense of parliament.

Benazir Bhutto died confronting the forces of tyranny and terrorism, and Pakistan remains committed to the struggle that she led. We have reclaimed Swat and Malakand from the militants and rehabilitated the displaced persons back into their homes. We have taken the fight against militants to other areas, including South Waziristan in our Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and to our major cities, and we will win this war against them.

We will not let militants violently impose their political agenda on the people. Political ownership of the war against terrorism rests with the people of Pakistan for the first time. We are in the front trenches of this war while the community of nations stands with us.

Much has been accomplished, but it has not been easy for my nation, for my party or for my family. The forces in Pakistan that have resisted change, modernity and democracy for 30 years still attempt to derail progress.

Some of these forces who were allied with dictatorship in the past now hope that the judicial process can undo the will of a democratic electorate and destabilize the country. A litany of ancient charges of corruption—the modus operandi of past plots against every democratically elected government in Pakistan—now threatens to undermine the legitimacy of our government.

Those that will not stand with us against terrorism stand against us in the media. I have spent almost 12 years in prison on trumped up charges never proven, even by a court system manipulated by dictators and despots. But like Benazir, I refuse to be intimidated.

So let the legal process move forward. Those of us who have fought for democracy against dictatorship for decades do not fear justice; we embrace it.

My ministers, my party, leaders of other parties and thousands of civil servants across our nation will defend themselves in the courts if necessary. Democracy has come a long way in Pakistan, and the People’s Party has always been at the vanguard of the fight. In 1979 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir’s father and the elected prime minister of Pakistan was executed under a smokescreen that history now characterizes as a judicial murder. Two decades later Benazir was indicted on fabricated charges on the orders of her political enemies then in power. When tape recordings of these government officials ordering the courts to fabricate evidence and false witness against Benazir were made public, these trumped-up charges were dismissed.

Those of us who have been victims of dictatorship in the past believe in the rule of law and have faith in the judicial process. We believe, in the words of my wife, that “time, justice and the forces of history are on our side.”

We have not come this far in our democratic struggle to fail. In this struggle, I am inspired by my father-in-law, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who said that he “would rather die at the hands of dictators than be killed by history.”

Mr. Zardari is president of Pakistan.

Save Pir Baba – Another Sufi Saint Likely to Be Attacked

 

Shrine of Hazret Pir Baba

As the news comes in about Taliban’s moving into new Buner areas, one is left wondering about the missing writ of the state, lack of competency and the willingness of security paraphernalia and a flagrant and shameful inability of Pakistan Army to get rid of terrorists. According to the latest news pouring in from the fateful Buner valley lying north east of Peshawar bordering NWFP, Taliban have moved into the new areas. Earlier, they had their presence in the valley but promised on last Thursday, April 9, 2009 to leave the valley. But by the mid day on Friday, April 10, they had crept into the heartland Buner and occupied it without any resistance from the law enforcing agencies.

 

As the word goes, most of the policemen and FC personnel are either scared of Talibaan or are ideologically close to them. In either case, it is glaring defeat of the state to keep its writ unchallenged (which is not very women/people-friendly anyway).

According to the inhabitants, Taliban are roaming around in the valley scot free while police and FC men are keeping themselves confined to their posts. Does it bother now? It is now an old and familiar story. People of Islamabad witnessed it in 2007 when armed men and women from Laal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa tried to takeover the writ by openly challenging it on streets, abducting and beating women who they thought were not following shariah. It was followed by a bloody war between the militants and the law enforcing agencies. The whole gory incidence happened under the nose of Inter Services Intelligence, country’s apex spy agency whose Head Quarter lies within the range of 2 kilometers of Jamia Hafsa/Laal Masjid. No one sacked ISI’s Director General who must have been either in the know of transportation of heavy ammunition in the seminary, or may be a part of it. If neither, then he must be the most incompetent person in Pakistan to head such a sensitive organization. Our army of TV anchor persons (who’re normally quite apt at castigating politicians for their “corruption” and incompetency) could not even utter this strange discrepancy in the role of state’s spy network.

Now in Buner valley, we’re witnessing another dimension of agencies’ role. Whatever the motives of these agencies have been, it is quite clear that their designs have not worked in favor of neither the people nor the country. Last night’s TV reports showed people of Swat talking about Taliban’s “benign” character with a visible and unmissable fear. Most of the people spoke about how wrong the decision of establishing Lashkar has been. This viewpoint coincided with the news item that homes of tribal elders who established Lashkar have been occupied by Taliban. Why the police and the FC is not doing anything was manifest when a police officer (with a fogged face obviously!) was seen on the TV screen telling that higher authorities have ordered not to mess with Taliban. Sounds familiar?????

The tales of agencies’ involvement in such a mess, Taliban’s Islam and its implications on women, all aside, one gets extremely upset to know that the occupying force of Taliban has captured the Shrine of sufi saint Hazret Pir Baba. The shrine has been locked by Talibaan and people have been asked not to visit the shrine.

Hazrat Sayyed Ali Tirmizi, commonly known as Pir Baba, was a 16th century saint. His family migrated from Afghanistan to Delhi when his father joined the army of Emperor Hamayun. He moved from one place to other throughout his life spreading the message of love, humanity and peace. In the last years of his life, when Emperor Akbar consolidated his rule, Pir Baba settled in Buner permanently. Later, his followers made the shrine a rallying point for struggle against British imperialism.The village where his shrine is located came to be known as Pir Baba. Baba’s magnificent mausoleum attracts thousands of people every year in the spring season. One would hardly find a Pathan who does not know Pir Baba and revere him. Those of the southern districts of Kohat and Bannu sincerely believe that a prayer offered at Pir Baba’s shrine for marriage is invariably granted; disappointed lovers go to Pir Baba even to this day.

Earlier, the Taliban terrorists have destroyed shrine of revered Saint sufi poet Rehman Baba. It is absolutely lamentable that these sufi saints who attracted thousands of people to the folds of Islam by their message of kindness, humanity, love and peace are being persecuted posthumously by these primitive killers. And more despicable is the fact that all of us are seeing silently as if nothing is happening. Love is under trial, peace is being persecuted, sufism is being harrassed and people are being coerced to distance themselves from the symbols of these values, why doesn’t it bother?