Who will lead PPP after Benazir Bhutto?

Journalist Hamid Mir

Just a few hours before her assassination on Thursday, Benazir Bhutto informed Afghan President Hamid Karzai about threats to her life. Benazir Bhutto was also warned that her meeting with Hamid Karzai just few days before the elections could create more troubles for her. She was advised to avoid meeting Karzai because some extremists would have another opportunity to declare that a Pakistani American agent met an Afghan American agent, but she ignored all the concerns raised by her close associates. Sources present in the last Karzai-Benazir meeting revealed that the Afghan president prayed for the safety of former prime minister of Pakistan and in return she responded, "Life and death is in the hands of Allah and that is why I have the courage to stare at the eyes of death without any fear."
During her last working lunch at her Islamabad residence on Thursday, her Security Adviser Rehman Malik expressed some concerns about her security in Rawalpindi. He was worried why his leader was not provided with jammers by the police on that day. He wrote a letter to the interior ministry on Wednesday and requested more security. He was trying to contact the inspector general of police in Punjab province on Thursday, but he was not able to establish any contact with the IGP. On the other side, the organisers of the public meeting in Liaqat Bagh Rawalpindi informed Zardari House in Islamabad that they were ready to receive Benazir Bhutto with thousands of supporters. Despite all the security concerns Benazir Bhutto once again decided to take risk and proceeded to Liaqat Bagh. When she reached the public meeting, many people noticed the absence of police contingent outside Liaqat Bagh. Asif Ali Zardari was immediately informed in Dubai by a close friend that his wife was without proper security, but he was unable to do anything from Dubai.
After delivering her last speech in front of a big crowd in Rawalpindi she was very happy and that was why she ignored the threat again. She started waving at her followers, popping out through the roof of the vehicle, on her way back to Islamabad. That was the best moment for the assassin to gun her down. She was only 26 years old when her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged in Rawalpindi in 1979. She was only 32 years when her younger brother
Shahnawaz Bhutto was mysteriously killed in France in 1985. She was 43, when her second brother Murtaza Bhutto was killed by the police in 1996. That was a great tragedy for her because she lost her brother when she was the prime minister of the country.
Just a few months after the assassination of the brother, Benazir Bhutto lost her government and then her husband Asif Ali Zardari faced a very long imprisonment. Benazir Bhutto spent more than 9 years in exile without her husband. She raised her children as a single parent. She used to teach them holy Quran regularly with English translation. She tried her level best that her kids should not feel the absence of their father. When her sick husband was released on medical grounds, he was sent to the USA for treatment and once again Benazir was all alone in Dubai with her kids. She did not allow her husband and three kids to come along with her to Pakistan on October 18. The last 30 years of her life were full of struggle and troubles, but she proved to be a lady of iron nerves. She was a caring wife, loving mother and a courageous leader. Just a few days before her assassination, Benazir Bhutto told this scribe at a breakfast meeting that she was aware of the threats to her life, but she believed 'there is a difference between a politician and a leader, politicians always ask for sacrifices and leaders always sacrifice', and that she was ready to sacrifice her life for Pakistan.
Pakistan is facing a grave crisis after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Her party has announced mourning of 40 days. It would be difficult for the PPP candidates to go back in their constituencies and continue the election campaign. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif have already announced a boycott of the elections to be held on January 8 next year. Many political analysts have said the elections should be delayed at least for some weeks. Top government functionaries have contacted some PPP leaders and requested them to help in bringing peace back to the country.
The government have also offered PPP that they may nominate someone of their own choice for the inquiry of the assassination. Asif Ali Zardari is pointing his fingers towards the government for the security lapses, and the government is trying to establish that Al Qaeda is responsible for the assassination, while some people on both sides are trying to bridge the gap between PPP and the government. There is a realisation on both sides that unnecessary confrontation at this time will only help the enemies of Pakistan.
PPP was established in 1967. Benazir Bhutto celebrated the 30th anniversary of her party in November this year. This party faced a crisis of leadership in 1979, when the founder chairman of the party, Zulfiqar Bhutto, was hanged, but Benazir Bhutto filled the leadership vacuum immediately with the help of her mother Begum Nusrat Bhutto. Twenty eight years after the hanging of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, PPP is once again facing a leadership crisis. Senior PPP leaders are confident that the party is intact and there is no crisis. For the time being senior vice-chairman of the party, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, is looking after the day to day affairs. According to some reliable sources in the party, an informal meeting of the central executive committee of PPP will be held today in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, and that meeting will form a future strategy for the party.
According to those sources the future chairperson of PPP will also be elected very soon and there will be no leadership crisis.
Sanam, the younger sister of Benazir Bhutto, is not interested in taking over the party because she is an apolitical person living in London for the last three decades. Nusrat Bhutto, mother of Benazir, is badly sick. Many PPP old guards are of the view that Asif Ali Zardari should be given a chance to lead the party as he himself spent three years in jail between 1990 and 1993 and then again for nine years between 1996 and 2005. Benazir once declared her husband as the Nelson Mandela of Pakistan. No doubt that Zardari have been a controversial personality and faced charges of corruption for years and years, but none of the charges was proven in any court of law.
(The author is executive editor of Pakistani television channel GEO. He will contribute regularly to The Daily Star from now on.)