It is a tragic truth that, with around 140 of those who went to welcome Benazir Bhutto dead and several hundreds more horrifically maimed, many in Pakistan will remember this day not with joy but with bitterness.
The tragedy is all the greater since Benazir told journalists yesterday that her people had been warned of plans for four separate suicide attacks on her motorcade as she traveled through Karachi from the airport to her residence. This information, she said, had been passed on to the authorities. Unfortunately, the security services were faced with an impossible task in not only protecting the Pakistan People’s Party leader but in patrolling the vast crowds of supporters. Eight thousand police were on duty along the route and the PPP said it also had 3,000 security volunteers on the look out for attackers. In the event, at least 20 policemen guarding Benazir’s armored truck were slain in the suicide blasts.
In the shock of the attack, it must be hoped that the PPP leader is thinking carefully about her wider political program. There are many moderate Pakistanis, who do not share the passionate partisanship that characterizes the country’s politics, who want to be sure that if Benazir becomes premier again, she wants to make a real difference, not merely a return to power. Her two previous periods as prime minister were not overly distinguished. The state machine was distorted by massive patronage that gave jobs to political supporters, large and small. This meant that the best people were not given the best jobs. Pakistan can no longer afford such behavior.
On a wider canvas, there were widespread allegations of corruption both by Benazir and her husband. She was convicted in 1999 of abuse of power and fled to Dubai. The verdict was overturned in 2001 but there remains the outside possibility that she could still be indicted on different malfeasance charges.
What is needed is a clear political agenda, which genuinely embraces all political shades in the country. It must also be a program built on reality, not airy promises and angry accusations of skullduggery against anyone who opposes her. The Bhutto family enjoys almost fanatical loyalty, not least in its Karachi power base. But playing on the emotions of one’s supporters is not the way to create a stable political climate in which real economic and social progress can be undertaken.
No one can doubt Benazir Bhutto’s personal courage. In the past she has survived three assassination attempts. It was probably not her idea that she should ride in an armor-plated truck. But it is now clear that the whole idea of the triumphal motorcade was questionable from the start, certainly over such an extended period and route, when it was obvious that any attack was going to cause, as it did, large numbers of innocent casualties among her supporters.
This was a tragic and challenging start to a process that, it is hoped, will end in elections next January.
