On Dec. 27, 2007, Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s former prime minister was assassinated. Reports immediately following the assassination indicated that bullets were shot by a sniper, followed by a suicide bombing.
The justified outrage of the Pakistani people, the majority of whom put the blame for Benazir’s assassination squarely on the shoulders of the military, is more an indictment of the U.S.-client military dictatorship than an endorsement of Benazir’s democratic credentials.
Corporate media outlets immediately adopted the imperialist narrative laid out by President Bush and other imperialist leaders that Al Qaeda was responsible for the attack and that Benazir had been an untiring fighter for democracy. Implicit in this narrative is that Pakistani people with their backward Islamists were not quite ready for “Lady Democracy.” Even liberal “left” individuals and forces have been heaping praise on Benazir and brandishing her “democratic” credentials.
Indeed, the Bhutto family in Pakistan is well-known for its struggle for independence and popular reforms. Benazir’s father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founded the Pakistan People’s Party, a party that to this day owes its popularity to leading the struggle of Pakistani masses against Pakistan’s U.S.-client military dictatorship. Bhutto, the father, was president from 1971 to 1973 and prime minister from 1973 to 1977.
Propelled to power by massive protests against the Pakistani regime, Bhutto moved Pakistan toward independence and in the direction of the non-aligned countries. During his tenure, profound reforms were implemented including nationalizations of industries and land reforms, benefiting Pakistan’s working class and poor.
But in July 1977, U.S.-supported Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, staged a coup, arrested Bhutto and halted his political program. With mass protests of the early 70s subsiding, Bhutto’s reforms were more than Pakistan’s ruling class was willing to give as concessions. In April 1979, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq hanged Bhutto.
Benazir’s brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, continued the father’s legacy of struggle for independence and against imperialist domination through military dictatorship. In 1981, the Bhutto brothers hijacked a Pakistani passenger plane, flew it to Afghanistan—under a revolutionary government at the time—and demanded that Pakistan’s political prisoners be released.
Benazir: corrupt, pro-imperialist
In her ascension to political power, the Oxford-educated Benazir exhibited few signs of adhering to the family legacy of struggle. Benazir first was elected prime minister in 1988 but was dismissed in 1990 over corruption charges. She became prime minister again in 1993 until three years later when she was again removed from power over persistent scandals of corruption.
During her five years as prime minister, Benazir Bhutto did not implement any reforms of the type that had made her father popular among Pakistani masses. As for independence, Benazir was a reliable ally of the United States, heavily involved in Pakistan’s support of counterrevolutionary forces in Afghanistan, the Mujahedeen and later the Taliban.
During her tenure, Pakistan’s infamous security force, Inter Services Intelligence, the ISI, assassinated Benazir’s brother, Murtaza. Murtaza had been an outspoken critic of his sister’s conciliatory line and a proponent of the return of the PPP to its root values. Benazir’s reaction to her brother’s assassination was to whitewash the crime and to arrest and silence the witnesses.
The most lasting legacy of Benazir Bhutto’s two periods as prime minister was corruption. Through various scams, Benazir and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, took advantage of their positions to further impoverish Pakistan’s masses and plunder the country’s resources into their foreign bank accounts in Dubai and Britain. Benazir had appointed her husband to the lucrative post of minister of industry.
Benazir was forced to live in exile to flee corruption charges. She was sentenced in a Pakistani court for failure to appear, leading to a 2006 Interpol request for her arrest.
Of course, corruption among Pakistan’s political elite is hardly limited to Benazir Bhutto. Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s other former prime minister who was removed by Pervez Musharraf’s 1999 coup, is also implicated in rampant corruption scandals. Further, Pakistan’s military leaders, Musharraf and his cronies as well as their predecessors, historically have been involved in fleecing Pakistan’s resources for personal gain.
In exile, Benazir signed a pact with Nawaz Sharif, vowing never to collaborate with Musharraf and to settle for nothing less than the dismantling of military dictatorship. She wasted little time in breaking her vow in 2007, when the instability of Musharraf’s regime forced him to reach out to her. In a U.S.-British brokered deal, the path was paved for Benazir’s return to nominal power. Musharraf, having just been elected president in another sham election, signed a presidential order, the National Reconciliation Ordinance, and gave amnesty to Benazir against all pending corruption charges.
But Musharraf was faced with the likelihood of the Supreme Court decertifying his election as president. According to Pakistan’s constitution, the head of the military is ineligible to run for the office of the presidency. Musharraf declared martial law and removed all the Supreme Court justices. The justices illegally appointed by Musharraf validated his presidency.
Following the imposition of the martial law, Benazir wavered in her alliance with Musharraf, responding to a wave of mass protests, as well as pressure from the ranks of her own party, the PPP. During this period, Musharraf temporarily placed her under house arrest and prevented her from addressing political rallies.
But U.S. undersecretary of state, John Negroponte, made a trip to Pakistan. For years, Musharraf has been touting his record as a supporter of the U.S. “war on terror.” Benazir’s competing claim was that civilian rule under her equally compliant governance would be the best way for the United States to confront “terrorism.” Negroponte’s trip solidified the Bhutto-Musharraf collaboration and the stage was set for elections in early January 2008, with the anticipated outcome being Benazir Bhutto becoming prime minister and Musharraf maintaining his presidency. This pro-imperialist block of Pakistan’s ruling class would maintain power under the watchful eye of the military, albeit with a democratic facelift.
Military and the ruling class
The military has been an integral part of Pakistan’s political structure since British colonialism formed the country. When the military has not held direct political power, it has stood ready to intervene and retake direct military rule. As such, the military has scarcely trusted any civilian leaders, Bhutto, Sharif or any others. Musharraf himself has been less than committed to his alliance with Benazir, allowing her back into the country only begrudgingly, under pressure from the United States.
While eager to prove its value and loyalty to its U.S. masters, Pakistan’s military leaders are eager to maintain their rule and suppress Pakistani masses as they see fit. Client states see their interests tied to imperialist powers. But, they also know that imperialists will easily sacrifice even their most loyal servants when it suits their interests. It is clear that Pakistan’s military leaders were not as convinced as their imperialist masters of the virtues of relinquishing direct political rule in the interest of survival and stability.
Musharraf, Bush and others have been quick to implicate Al Qaeda for the assassination of Benazir. However, Mehsud, leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, and Jamaat Islami, another fundamentalist Islamic group, have denied any involvement. Had Al Qaeda carried out this high-profile assassination, one would expect it to eagerly take responsibility, as it has in similar cases in the past. The convenient accusation that Al Qaeda carried out the assassination seems unconvincing. In fact, Bhutto’s husband has flatly rejected the claim that his wife’s assassination was the work of Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
Following the first assassination attempt on Oct. 18, 2007, Bhutto put the responsibility on “certain individuals who abuse their positions.” She even sent Musharraf a letter containing a list of people in the “government and Pakistan security forces” conspiring against her.
Benazir Bhutto did not represent the aspirations of the Pakistani people for independence and social justice. Nor did she represent a movement for democracy, even bourgeois-democracy in a formal sense. Her assassination is an indication of the unwillingness of a deeply entrenched U.S.-client military, unwilling to share political power even with loyal opposition forces representing class interests not contradictory with its own class character.
Through their continued struggle, Pakistanis will push for real democracy, removing the yoke of imperialist domination and empowering the masses against their foreign and domestic exploiters, in or out of uniform. Along this path, the legacy of the Bhutto family—excluding Benazir and her pro-imperialist political record—will serve as an inspiration.
