Published by Meenu January 15th, 2008
in Death, benazir bhutto and guest writer.
Very pleased to offer this very insightful ‘obituary’ (if I may call it that) on Benazir Bhutto. Particularly interesting is the perspective on the corruption which formed the Ifs and Buts of most of the commentary on her after her death. From our guest writer Mohammed Hanif.
In the spring of 1995, for about eight months I became Benazir Bhutto’s neighbour. I rented a top floor flat in an apartment building that overlooked Bilawal House, Benazir’s Bhutto’s Karachi residence. It was named after her first-born son. I was newly married, it was my first proper apartment in Karachi, it had a huge terrace and if I really strained my neck I could get a glimpse of plastic shopping bags fluttering over Clifton beach. I was happy. When people asked me where I was moving to, I told them with the flourish of an upstart: “Corniche Apartments, top floor, bang opposite Bilawal House, I can look into Benazir’s living room.†That was a bit of an exaggeration but I could see the bougainvillea that covered its boundary walls and a patch of grass in its lawns.
Published by Angad Chowdhry January 8th, 2008
in benazir bhutto.
I don’t know how many of you have seen this before but, if it is accurate, then it is emblematic of contemporary political logic: we will do whatever the fuck we want, to scare the shit out of you, and look like innocent people trapped within our own rhetoric to the international media.
Oh, in case you still have not seen it - it’s a bunch of people HOSING DOWN THE CRIME SCENE a few hours after she was blown/shot/abducted by aliens!
Published by Somnath Batabyal January 4th, 2008
in News, Pakistan and benazir bhutto.
Policy Briefing
Asia Briefing N°74
Islamabad/Brussels, 2 January 2008
After Bhutto’s Murder: A Way Forward for Pakistan
I.
OVERVIEW
Published by Meenu December 30th, 2007
in Pakistan, benazir bhutto and guest writer.
It is with great pleasure that I introduce Mohammed Hanif and welcome him to SMC. Hanif is the editor of BBC Urdu and the author of the much awaited novel ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes.‘ This article was first published in the New York Times.
WITH half her adult life spent either in exile or in prison, Benazir Bhutto might have lived like a medieval princess, but she died like an ordinary, modern Pakistani. When the assassin struck, Ms. Bhutto, the former prime minister, was doing what so many Pakistanis most love to do: electioneering.
Two months earlier, when she had arrived in Karachi after eight years in exile, there were legitimate questions about her democratic credentials. Even her die-hard supporters were embarrassed by her blatant deal with Pakistan’s military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, the very man who had publicly vowed that she would never return to the country.
Yet when she arrived at the Karachi airport, her reception was spectacular — the biggest street party the city had seen in decades. My friend Moeen Qureshi, a lapsed Bhutto supporter, took his children to the rally “just out of curiosity, to relive my youth.†Fortunately, he left before two suicide bombers struck her convoy, killing more than 130. “This woman,†Mr. Qureshi told his children as they later watched Ms. Bhutto on TV being sped away from the devastation, “is bulletproof Bhutto.â€
Published by Meenu December 29th, 2007
in Death, Pakistan, Uncategorized and benazir bhutto.
An analysis by Prof Naim forwarded by a friend. This is from chapatimystery.com
Almost every report or commentary on Benazir Bhutto’s assassination that I have seen or heard today included in its first or second sentence: ‘it was not unexpected.’
The commentators who began by saying that the assassination was not unexpected offer various suspected assassins: Extremist Muslims, if they are from the West; Extremist Muslims, if they are English language journalists in Pakistan; Pervez Musharraf and his coterie, if the writer is a member of the PPP. I didn’t read any Urdu journal today but I can guess fairly assuredly that their list of suspects would go like this: Pakistani Army and the CIA, if the journalist is writing in Urdu, but has a moderate bent of mind; Israel and the CIA, if the Urdu journalist is not concerned with moderation; and Israel, India, and the CIA, if the journalist really knows his niche audience. I didn’t bother to find out what the White House said, for I know their response too: the Terrorists did it. I couldn’t avoid hearing the Democrat candidates in one report, they kept saying: it was the Alkeda. No matter who the suspect party, the motive in every case was understood to be the same: ‘They’ wished to cause instability in Pakistan. The American pundits were, naturally, more concerned with its effect on the GWOT.
Audience research is a futile exercise. I am convinced of it. The eccentricity, the randomness of every situation renders both quantitative and qualitative exercise to the dustbins and does not allow for any generalisations.
Any kind of audience research with me as a subject would categorise me as a news junkie. I avidly follow world events, with focus particularly on events in South Asia. By all accounts therefore, the death of Benazir Bhutto should have meant that I would have been hooked onto the television, scoured the net and exchanged information with my friends in India and Pakistan. But my situation is otherwise.
I came to know about Benazir’s death through a new mode of delivery. I was logged onto my gmail account when one of my Indian acquanitances working for a newspaper changed his status update to say “Bhutto is dead.” I jumped up, logged onto BBC, got the gist of the news and ran downstairs to inform the family I am staying with in Heidelberg. Reactions ranged from “Who is Benazir” to “Oh, how awful.” No one here is interested, it doesnt concern them and the Christmas cookies are still warm and delectable. Life goes on.
After the intial rush, I settled back in the holiday rhythm and slowly lost interest. No piece of audience research can account for such randomness, and it happens all the time to everyone, the modes of viewing, receiving and “decoding” news can be so variant that any generalisation will border on the foolhardy.
Published by Meenu December 29th, 2007
in Death, Pakistan and benazir bhutto.
As the government changes its official version of the assassination for the third or fourth time, many questions remain unanswered.Yesterday things took a turn to the absurd with the Press briefing of Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema revealing the elaborate plot- There were no bullets that hit Bhutto, she died of a skull fracture as a result of hitting her head on the sunroof of the car. The assassin had fired bullets but missed and then went on to blow himself up. Not that one was desperate for evidence that proved the contrary but today’s report in the CNN has a close associate of Benazir who washed her body before burial saying that there were clear bullet wounds in the head region. Hadn’t the same Interior Ministry said on friday that she died of bullet wounds to the neck but by the evening it was a shrapnel and then finally hitting her head on the roof of the car. By the weekend we might even hear that she just suffered bad health and died of natural causes! In a very swift intelligence operation, a phone call is intercepted in which the mastermind according to the Ministry, Baitullah Mehsud is heard owning up to the assassination. Here is the transcript of the the “alleged” phone call as Dawn rightly puts it.
Published by Meenu December 28th, 2007
in Death, Pakistan and benazir bhutto.
There are just speculations out there right now. But a small paragraph in NYT caught my attention. It sounded more plausible than one man walking up to Benazir, pumping bullets into her and then carrying out a suicide attack by detonating himself.
But witnesses described a sniper firing from a nearby building, raising questions about how well the government had protected her in a usually well-guarded garrison town and fueling speculation that government sympathizers had played a part. … There were differing accounts of the attack. Zamrud Khan, a member of her party, said Ms. Bhutto was shot in the head from gunfire that originated from behind her car in a building nearby. Seconds later a suicide bomber detonated his bomb, damaging one of the cars in her motorcade and killing some 15 people on the ground, Mr. Khan said. … Apparently no autopsy was done, because the police did not request one, Dawn TV reported. Lawyers calling for an international neutral investigation are raising questions about the speed with which Ms. Bhutto’s body was moved. The body arrived in her southern home province, Sindh, before dawn, party officials told Agence-France Presse.
Its quite a long article and you can read the entire thing here.
Published by Meenu December 28th, 2007
in Death, Pakistan and benazir bhutto.
Tariq Ali in the Guardian today.
A tragedy born of military despotism and anarchy
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto heaps despair upon Pakistan. Now her party must be democratically rebuilt
Tariq Ali
Friday December 28, 2007
The Guardian
Even those of us sharply critical of Benazir Bhutto’s behaviour and policies - both while she was in office and more recently - are stunned and angered by her death. Indignation and fear stalk the country once again.
An odd coexistence of military despotism and anarchy created the conditions leading to her assassination in Rawalpindi yesterday. In the past, military rule was designed to preserve order - and did so for a few years. No longer. Today it creates disorder and promotes lawlessness. How else can one explain the sacking of the chief justice and eight other judges of the country’s supreme court for attempting to hold the government’s intelligence agencies and the police accountable to courts of law? Their replacements lack the backbone to do anything, let alone conduct a proper inquest into the misdeeds of the agencies to uncover the truth behind the carefully organised killing of a major political leader.
Published by Meenu December 27th, 2007
in Death, Pakistan and benazir bhutto.
Was reading the news about the suicide attack on a rally held by Benazir Bhutto. It said that she had escaped unhurt when the news came in that Benazir Bhutto is dead. From CNN just minutes ago.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) — Pakistan former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has died after a suicide bombing that killed at least 14 of her supporters, ex-government spokesman Tariq Azim Khan and Pakistan’s primary television networks said. Bhutto suffered bullet wounds in the aftermath of the bomb attack, TV networks report.
Video of the scene just moments before the explosion showed Bhutto stepping into a heavily-guarded vehicle the video report on NDTV.com
*UPDATE* Video obituary on CNN
Aftermath of the attack on CNN
*UPDATE*
OBITUARIES
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