She was not a traditional queen, but still, she is called “Queen of Sindh”, even after her assassination, Sindhi people still call Benazir Bhutto as “Shaheed Rani” or martyred queen in love and respect. They have not forgotten her even after the passage of 12 years and people still remember her with wet eyes.
Another popular slogan famous in Sindh was: “ Zindah hai Bhutto Zindah Hai” (Bhutto is still alive), which started after the execution of former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. This is the main reason that despite high-level pre- and post-election engineering by the notorious “establishment” in every election, Sindhis always give vote for Pakistan People’s Party.
The PPP has been making governments in Sindh province after three consecutive elections since 2008. Even though many major political parties including Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tahrik-e-Insaf (PTI) (the current ruling party) have been contesting from Sindh, Sindhis have always preferred PPP in the love of its past leaders. It is the main reason that Asif Ali Zardari, the spouse of Benazir Bhutto has publicly announced the name change of his only son Bilawal as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
It is also a matter of the fact that there is no alternative political party in Sindh province, which can appeal to Sindhi voters, despite a record corruption and non-spending of budgets on the development of the backward areas of the province. Many PPP leaders are facing corruption charges in NAB and other anti-graft courts.
A Bloody Year
The 2007 year was full of events, which are still very clear in my mind. There was a lot of political upheaval in Pakistan, after a long military dictatorship of General Pervaiz Musharraf since the 12th October 1999 military coup d’état. Military dictatorship was first challenged by then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry when the dictator and his other Generals asked Chaudhry to resign and he refused. The lawyers of the country announced support for Justice Chaudhry and launched the famous lawyers’ movement, which ultimately resulted in the restoration of the judiciary in 2008 and overall democracy in the country.
In the meantime, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto announced to return to the country despite a reported deal under the so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) pact with the dictator General Pervaiz Musharraf, as she had said to be promised not to come back to contest the General Elections announced by the government in early 2008.
On her return to Karachi on 18th October 2007, a deadly bomb blast occurred near Karsaz at her procession caravan heading towards Mazar of Quaid-e- Azam resulted in the deaths of over 170 workers of the Pakistan People’s Party, however, Benazir remained unhurt. After the incident, Benazir Bhutto blamed the government for the attack and named three close aides of General Pervaiz Musharraf including his cabinet minister Brig (Retd.) Aijaz Shah, a former head of the spy agency ISI Major General (Retd.) Hameed Gul and Chaudhry Pervaiz Ellah, a former Chief Minister of Punjab province and central leader of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam).
The following events in 2007 were more tragic and deadly as Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a shooting and bomb blast incident in Rawalpindi just after she was coming back from an election rally at Liaqat Bagh on the 27th of December. Elections were to be held on 8th January 2008 but were postponed till 18th February after her assassination.
The entire country was engulfed in fire as protesting people set ablaze vehicles on roads in the cities and highways and burnt railway bogies at the main tracks. Pakistan railway reportedly suffered a loss of over Rs. 6 billion as 35 locomotives, 139 coaches and 65 stations were burnt, 36 bridges and 27 manned level crossings were damaged, signal and communication systems and tracks besides six tracks machines and cranes in the Karachi and Sukkur divisions of the railways were uprooted, suspending all kinds of rail traffic to and from the Sindh capital for five days. (Reference: daily Dawn, 28 Dec 2008)
Although Benazir Bhutto’s murder case in an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) has been decided in which all five arrested accused belonging to Tahrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have been exonerated by the trial court and only a couple of police officers have been sentenced to jail terms, who are restored to their jobs after getting bail. The main petition against the Military dictator is still pending at Islamabad High Court and there is no hope for any punishment for the main killers.
After the 2008 elections, PPP succeeds to form a coalition government with support from PML-N, MQM and JUI-F. PPP and PML-N led government forced the dictator General (Retd.) Pervaiz Musharraf to resign from the office of President on a threat of impeachment. PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari was elected President.
The PML-N withdrew its support to the PPP government on insistence to restore the judges as the PPP-led government of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani refused to succumb to their demands. PML-N remained in the opposition for the remaining tenure, even though the PPP government had restored the judiciary.
Unfortunately, 5-year government at the PPP was not able to arrest the killers of Benazir Bhutto even though the government got an investigation done by the UN investigators. Even the Sindh government has not succeeded in nabbing the responsible for the October 18, 2007 bomb blast at Karsaz, despite the fact it is in the power since 2008.
Aftermath riots in Karachi
I still recall that saddest eventful evening when I saw a ticker on the TV screen that Benazir Bhutto was seriously injured in a bomb blast in Rawalpindi. I was about to leave my office in the Clifton area at 5.30 pm on 27th December 2007 and within a few minutes, another ticker flashed on the screen which stated Benazir is dead. It was really a great shock for everyone in Pakistan.
At that time I used do a part-time job in Daily Times as a sub-editor at its Business desk in the evening. The newspaper’s office was located at I. I. Chundrigar road near MCB’stallest building and my routine route were to go from Clifton via Mai Kolachithen Keamari flyover and Tower.
But on that day I could not reach the Keamari flyover as the entire traffic from the Tower side was coming back on both tracks of the Molvi Tamizuddin Khan (Queen’s) road and a car driver told me that people from Lyari have come out on the roads and closed down the bridge.
I took a U-turn and tried to take the route via PIDC and Shaheen Complex. The roads were full of traffic and eventually, I reached Dawn’s office, but it was almost impossible to enter into I. I. Chundrigar road as the entire thoroughfare was full of cars coming from the tower area, and even a single lane was not available to enter Chundrigar road.
After a wait the traffic started slowly as one track of the road was opened. It was just for passing a car, but even that was disturbed by the motorcycles that were trying to use that single lane with intervals. That one and half kilometre distance were covered in almost half an hour. But entering the building was a gigantic task. I succeeded in taking a U-turn from New Chali and fortunately found a space for a car inside the building. Earlier, it was almost impossible to find a space for a car inside the building, but I was lucky to find one on that day.
I came home at 1.00 am at night but there were horrible scenes on the road. At least two cars and a bank were burnt in my area in Khadda Market (DHA phase-5 Stadium Commercial). For the next three days, the entire market area was closed down and there was a curfew-like situation. There was a shortage of food items in many areas and at last, Rangers were deployed in the markets and the shopkeepers opened their markets.
