It's hard to open a Pakistani newspaper these days without seeing the name Benazir Bhutto. For most Americans this name means little more than an unpronounceable mouthful of syllables and another excuse to ditch the world news section for the sports page. However, for many Pakistanis she represented the hope for a new government independent of the military. She (yes, a woman - can you believe it?) served as prime minister for a number of years before being exiled to Dubai in 1998 as a result of false allegations of corruption. She was finally allowed back into the country in October of last year after reaching an "understanding" with current president and former chief of army staff, Pervez Musharraf. At the time of her homecoming, Pakistan was under military rule pending the upcoming elections where she was the opposition frontrunner as chairman of the Pakistani People's Party (PPP). Anyone who’s ever opened a history book can see where this is going - an anti-military politician going into the elections against the former head military general who was undemocratically appointed... As you guessed it, she was assassinated by a suicide bomber on December 27th, 2007 just two weeks before elections.
Granted, she was assassinated by Al-Qaeda operatives due to her “crackdown-on terrorists” platform but there are still strong undercurrents of corruption in this story that have nothing to do with Bin Laden and his cronies. Let’s analyze the facts here:
· After multiple public death threats from terrorist leaders AND an assassination attempt at her homecoming rally, she requested body guards from a government agency similar to the US’ Secret Service. None was provided for her.
· Bhutto requested security from Senator John Kerry who then requested security on her behalf from Condi Rice. His request was ignored.
· Even though she was in a bomb-proof and bullet-proof limo at the time of the explosion she still managed to die even though none of her passengers sustained any injuries.
· The initial autopsy report said she was killed from bullet wounds to the head. Upon further inquiry, this was changed to a head wound suffered when her head hit the car door handle in the explosion. No blood was found on the car doors.
· When Scotland Yard was called in to conduct a neutral, third party investigation into the matter, the Pakistani police limited them to only discovering the cause of death (which is what lead to the change in cause of death).
I know what you’re thinking, sounds like a story out of a Tom Clancy book, right? As much as I’d love to stroke my ego and declare my investigatory-scandal-skills supreme, my observation is far from original. Pakistani newspapers know better than to tattle on the government and US newspapers are more interested in proclaiming the atrocities of Al-Qaeda than investigating a conspiracy, but the Pakistani people aren’t stupid. A PPP leader was quoted as saying, "We will go out with a pledge to fight those who snatched away our leader. We will defeat them. We will vote them out." There are also many people pointing fingers at Washington, wondering why they weren’t being very good watch dogs in a country supposedly so important for national security. The easy answer is: Bush’s administration is incompetent. The better answer is: the US didn’t want a leader who wasn’t willing to put border patrol at a higher priority than the needs of her people. God forbid the US ever covertly supported a military dictator over a more representative, albeit, US-critical government. *cough* Saddam *cough*.
The elections are in total disarray at this point as the PPP has yet to appoint anyone besides Bhutto’s 19 year old son and the corrupt business industrialist, his father, as president and acting president respectively. The name “Pakistan” is translated to mean “land of the pure.” Sad to say, the people who reside in the country are at odds with its name. On a high note, at least all of Pakistan’s WMDs are safe!
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