EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Return to happen in weeks, former Pakistani PM asserts
The Globe and Mail, Monday, July 23, 2007
SONYA FATAH
LONDON — Even at the cost of being jailed, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto says she plans to end her eight-year-long self-imposed exile within weeks to fight for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.
“My return is not tied to any dialogue,” Ms. Bhutto said in an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail. “My return is going to happen.”
Ms. Bhutto had earlier avoided setting a specific date for her return, saying only that it would be before the end of this year. However, after hearing of the supreme court’s reinstatement last week of Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry as Pakistan’s chief justice, Ms. Bhutto says confidence in the independence of the judiciary may mean a return as early as September.
Ms. Bhutto says talks between her party and General Pervez Musharraf are about ensuring that free and fair elections take place this year, and not about power-sharing agreements. Regardless of how those negotiations turn out, she will return to Pakistan, she said.
Back-door diplomacy between Ms. Bhutto’s party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and Gen. Musharraf has been afoot for months now. There has been much speculation about deal-making between the two. Analysts believe Ms. Bhutto could be prime minister with a suited – not uniformed – Pervez Musharraf as president.
Gen. Musharraf recently declared his intention to continue on as army chief: a nec-
essity, he said, as a result of the recent spate of suicide bombings.
That, Ms. Bhutto says, is not acceptable.
“A uniformed president blurs the distinction between democracy and dictatorship and unless the uniform is taken off, then Pakistan will continue to be seen as a military dictatorship.”
Ms. Bhutto had been expected to return to Pakistan before parliamentary elections scheduled for October of 2002.
At the time, analysts said opposition parties had not generated enough momentum to secure Ms. Bhutto’s confidence in a return.
In the past six months, however, opposition parties have been at the forefront of a serious political effort to challenge military rule. Sustained protests and an unprecedented series of suicide bombs over two significant events – the Red Mosque affair that ended in bloodshed in the country’s capital, and the suspension and subsequent reinstatement of the country’s top judge – have weakened Gen. Musharraf at home and abroad.
For Ms. Bhutto, there could be no better time to return. But whether she has the power to control Pakistan’s strong military and intelligence agencies is questionable.
Numerous roadblocks lie in her path. The much-amended Pakistani constitution prevents a twice-elected prime minister from being elected a third time, courtesy of Gen. Musharraf, and Pakistan’s previous military dictator, Gen. Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq, empowered the President to dissolve the National Assembly.
Moreover, a long list of corruption charges in several countries has plagued Ms. Bhutto’s reputation. The charges have never been proven, but they have hung like an albatross around her party.
In addition, Ms. Bhutto will have to win a two-thirds majority in Parliament to have effective control over policy making. And finally, whether Ms. Bhutto and Gen. Musharraf, both of whom are mega-personalities, can share power with such conflicting agendas remains to be seen.
Ms. Bhutto says military intervention lies at the heart of Pakistan’s many problems today: “The military, since the days of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, has used religious parties in an attempt to give Islamic legitimacy to an illegitimate military rule and today we are facing the consequences of repeated military intervention.” Gen. Musharraf has marketed the military as the only solution to the extremist problem.
Ms. Bhutto’s agenda for defeating Pakistan’s growing internal problems stands in striking contrast to that of Gen. Musharraf. He and the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, have had hostile relations during the “war on terror.” Ms. Bhutto plans to work closely with Afghanistan to bring about stability in both countries. Gen. Musharraf believes in signing peace agreements and negotiating with radical groups; Ms. Bhutto says she will have zero tolerance when combatting “political” madrassas (religious schools) where terrorist ideologies are carried out.
“He and I speak from different vantage points,” Ms. Bhutto said. “He needs the extremist issue to legitimize his rule. I don’t. I need the people’s support.”
If anyone has the people’s support, Ms. Bhutto’s party has it. Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, also ruled Pakistan. In 1977, he was ousted by his much-trusted armed forces chief, Gen. Zia, and was subsequently hanged.
Ms. Bhutto was the darling of Pakistan and the international media when she first came to power in 1988, after Gen. Zia’s mysterious death in a plane crash after an 11-year reign. A graduate of Harvard University and Oxford University, Ms. Bhutto, then 35, was the first female prime minister in the Muslim world. But Ms. Bhutto’s governments were plagued by problems: an increase in ethnic violence in Karachi, her brother’s murder, and accusations against her husband, Asif Zardari, of blackmail and corruption.
Moreover, Ms. Bhutto was unable to move legislation because of petty differences with opposition parties and because of her lack of control over Pakistan’s military.
That means her government will focus on its internal strategy of four Es: education, employment, energy and the environment. Ms. Bhutto has yet to detail how exactly that agenda will be carried out.
Ms. Bhutto says the Election Commission needs to do much more to convincingly preside over a free and fair election this year. More than 30 per cent of the electorate is not enrolled, she says. Without free and fair elections, she will have no guarantee of power.
“The last time I could not contain the military and the intelligence because the power over the military and intelligence was not with me – it was with the President. This is why I say to the people of Pakistan, ‘Give me a mandate that I can make a change.’ ”
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