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TechnoratiPakistan's 10% Solution
Husband -- and teenaged son -- of slain leader hope to gain power in troubled nation
Benazir Bhutto's murder increasingly resembles an Agatha Christie whodunit in which all the potential suspects look guilty as hell.
Pakistan's now civilian dictator, President Pervez Musharraf, pleads innocent. But his henchmen ordered the crime scene hosed down, destroyed evidence, and forced doctors who examined Benazir's body to make the preposterous claim a fall, not bullets, killed her.
On Oct. 23, days after the first attempt to kill Bhutto in Karachi, she told me she "suspected" the chief of a government security agency staged the bombing. She repeated to me accusations that two other high-ranking Punjabi government officials, one a chief minister, were out to kill her.
On Oct. 25, Bhutto told me her phones and e-mail were being tapped by Musharraf's security services. A week later, she e-mailed me, saying she feared imminent arrest. A week before her murder, she repeated by phone that Musharraf's supporters were gunning for her.
On Oct. 30, I sent a long e-mail to Bhutto that outlined a new political strategy for her Peoples Party. In it, I concluded, "for your public appearances, follow India's tight security measures for its prime minister. Consider new, lightweight body armour, Dragonskin." By phone, I warned of snipers.
The government accuses tribal militants belonging to Pakistan's Taliban. But they strongly deny involvement. Al-Qaida's Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri claimed authorship of the assassination. My hunch says it was al-Qaida.
Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, refused an autopsy on his wife's body, ordering it buried with haste, in keeping with Muslim custom. But an autopsy would have determined the true cause of death and exposed government lies.
President Musharraf got national parliamentary elections postponed to Feb. 18, hoping sympathy for the slain Bhutto would diminish. He called in Britain's Scotland Yard to investigate her murder, but only after all evidence was destroyed.
Ironically, when Bhutto became prime minister after the assassination of her family's bitter foe, my old friend Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, she ordered the ongoing investigation of his murder quashed and evidence destroyed.
WASHINGTON'S MAN
Washington still backs Musharraf as the man to wage its war in Afghanistan.
Though few westerners yet understand it, the 2001 U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and spreading resistance, ignited the current explosion in Pakistan.
The Bush White House must keep spending billions in secret payments to Pakistan's army and intelligence services -- dispersed by paymaster Musharraf -- to help fight its war in Afghanistan and growing regional rebellions in two of Pakistan's four provinces.
Meanwhile, Bhutto's bereaved Peoples Party just elected her husband and 19-year-old son, Bilawal, as co-chairman -- using a fake will, charge disgruntled family members. I met Bilawal in London in October. He is a highly intelligent young man who shows lots of the Bhutto fire. But he's far too young to sit in parliament, and 16 years too young to become prime minister.
In the interim, papa Zardari will rule the party as regent. Whether he will run for PM is uncertain.
Known to all as "Mr. 10%" from his time as a government minister in charge of contracts and procurement, Zardari is dogged by grave corruption charges and three ongoing cases in Europe.
A FAMILY BUSINESS
The Bhuttos are believed to have amassed a large fortune stashed away in Europe. This great feudal landowning family of southern Pakistan considers the Peoples Party as their own family business, a legacy to be passed from one generation to the next.
Musharraf's popular support is down to 10%. So to win February elections, he must rig them. The U.S. appears ready to assist.
The best solution for Pakistan is a coalition between the Peoples Party, Nawaz Sharif's Muslim League, the incorruptible Imran Khan's small party, and Muslim parties. If they do not hang together, Musharraf will surely hang them separately.
Eric Margolis writes a regular column for The Toronto Sun.
© 2007 The Toronto Sun
14 Comments so far
Show AllHello. I'm British. The partition of India was indeed a great crime, but not all of us are callous or imperialistic. Just as not all Americans follow Bush (then or now), not all Brits think our government is good (then or now) either.
The fact is that all rich and powerful nations are run by self serving elites, so name calling at whole peoples is unfair and unhelpful. Thanks.
"The country was founded upon ethnic/religious hatred and bloody atrocities. Screw 'em."
True enough. However the pakistani people had no choice in the craetion of their country. It was done at the behest of elite Muslims from the Indian subcontinent who managed to convince the departing and callous british its a good idea. These same elite and their children still control either politics (Bhutto/Shariff clans) or the military.
I agree Margolis with a lot of what Margolis has to say as well. His essays on Islamic Fascism (destroying that myth) and the middle east are worth reading. He clearly has a grip on the region. However his judgement on Pakistan is clouded as he tends to glorify the Pakistani military.
I trust Margolis.
"What I really don't like is the attempt to shout down and therefore shut up a writer with whom you don't agree."
Thats too bad that you dont like it. Get a grip. There is no way I can shut anyone down. All I can do is voice my opinion but in true right-wing fashion you cant handle anything outside your friggin world-view. Dissent apparently is intolerable ! The very fact that your 'Mr.Margolis' had close ties with Zia is reason enough to hold him at arms length and his deifying these same Jihadis in the Reagan era is legendary.
The "best solution for Pakistan" unfortunately doesn't exist. The country was founded upon ethnic/religious hatred and bloody atrocities. Screw 'em.
Bush : Dr. Evil
Musharraf : Mini-Me
If Musharraf wants to rig the election, he could get some Diebold voting machines .....
There is one suspect who has remained unmentioned in all of the coverage I've seen to date: Asif Zardari, her husband. He has been implicated in the murders of Benazir's brothers, and clearly stood to gain a lot from her death in both money and political power. He is also a well-known kleptocrat. His refusal of the autopsy and finger-pointing at Musharraf make me suspicious, as does this mysterious last will and testament which conveniently leaves him in charge of the family business, which happens to be the leading political party. Does anyone else smell a rat?
Amazing. Do people keep search robots running looking for a Margolis column so they can come try to smear him? Is there some belief that every writer must always be perfect and pure? And if he's not he's to be attacked at every turn. Is it not possible that someone who may not have always been right on an area in the past still might not have something useful to say occasionally?
What I really don't like is the attempt to shout down and therefore shut up a writer with whom you don't agree. That's the same nastiness the Repbulicans use, and that traces back through both the fascists on the right and the communists on the left. Go attack any writer who isn't perfect enough for a group. I guess there'll be Margolis book burnings soon.
Since Mr. Margolis openly refers to 'his old friend Gen. Zia' in the article, I can't see where this is adding anything. Yeah, its a one liner. But if you know who Gen. Zia is, then Mr. Margolis just told you he's been a long friend of the leaders of the Pakistani military. As long as people are relatively open about their background and past alliances and fights, then let 'em have a say.
Margolis has always toed the U.S. line/thinking in terms of Pakistan being the shining beacon of hope for American strategic interests. He has always been partial to Pakistan ALL these years in his essays and writings but sadly his partiality extended to the Pakistani Army and not to its people. His positions have invariable echoed conventional Pentagon thinking. This new found love for the Pakistanis is welcome but grates and smacks of opportunism.
"the incorruptible Imran Khan"
Would he consider a run for the White House?
"Ironically, when Bhutto became prime minister after the assassination of her family's bitter foe, my old friend Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, she ordered the ongoing investigation of his murder quashed and evidence destroyed."
Poetic justice.
Look, whatever you think of Margolis, he knows the region like the back of his hand. You/we may not agree with his solutions, but he's an honest correspondent whose intelligence should be trusted.
Nonsense. Margolis fingers the Pakistani Army and intelligence services, but reminds us just who bankrolled their activities in the first place.
"The Bush White House must keep spending billions in secret payments to Pakistan's army and intelligence services — dispersed by paymaster Musharraf — to help fight its war in Afghanistan and growing regional rebellions in two of Pakistan's four provinces."
"Though few westerners yet understand it, the 2001 U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and spreading resistance, ignited the current explosion in Pakistan."
Like rats deserting a sinking ship, Margolis has decided to dump Musharraf !! This old cold war warrior it seems still carries his duplicitous ways about him.
The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan only exacerbated an already existing problem that was festering. Also, it was Pakistan (Musharraf and his Military/ISI apparatus) that created and spread the distasteful Taliban to dominate Afghanistan as a counter to India and also provided 'diplomatic and moral support (!!)' to the ultra-fundamentalist Jihadis that spread terror in Kashmir in India. The Pakistani military and ISI have a lot of blood on their hands despite Margolis whitewashing it.