Leadership plays a key role in the development and progress of a nation. It is the leadership, which either constructs or destructs a nation in terms of its policies regarding prosperity, welfare, war, and peace. The 20th century has seen several leaders emerging around the world. Similarly, the decolonization and partition of the subcontinent produced so many dynamic leaders including both men and women leaders. In Pakistan, initially, it seemed almost impossible that any woman would come out to participate in politics, become the chairperson of a political party, contest elections and become the prime minister of the country. This was all because of the structure of the Pakistani politics which depicted its societal norms and values based on the religion, Islam. It had been difficult for women to work shoulder to shoulder with men in a patriarchal society. Therefore, this had been a very challenging task and needed high courage, determination and enthusiasm to come out of home and work in the highest office of the state. There comes a resilient woman Benazir Bhutto to take this challenge. Benazir Bhutto became the chairperson of Pakistan Peoples’ Party after the execution of her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and ruled twice as the prime minister of Pakistan. Keeping in view her political career as the chairperson of a political party and the prime minister of Pakistan, there is much more to write about her leadership in terms of her policies. She struggled for democracy during military regimes at the cost of her character assassination. She faced criticism on behalf of the opposition, the Mullahs, and the military for her policies during her two terms of government. But her legacy as a symbol of hope, resistance, and struggle, continues to inspire and motivate women in Pakistan till today.
Benazir Bhutto was born in a rich Sindhi family on June 21, 1953, in Karachi. She got her education from Harvard University as well as the University of Oxford. As she belonged to a political family, she was interested in politics and leadership. Therefore, at the University of Oxford, she became the President of the Oxford Union to practice politics and leadership even during her educational career. In 1977, she turned back to Pakistan to take control of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) as co-chairperson with her mother Nusrat Bhutto after her father was ousted in a military coup. They led the movement for the Restoration of Democracy. She faced hardships under the military regime of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq and was repeatedly imprisoned by the government. In 1984, she went to Britain and returned home after two years in 1986 with certain new ideas to transform the PPP’s ideology from socialism to liberalism. After victory in the 1998 election, she, as the prime minister, attempted to bring reforms in the country; however, her policies were stifled by conservative Islamic parties, the opposition and more importantly, the military and its friendly President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Moreover, she continuously faced character assassination at the hands of the radical Islamist parties, was accused of corruption and nepotism by the military, and ultimately, was dismissed by the President.
After serving as the Leader of the Opposition from 1990 to 1993, she began her second tenure in the prime minister office when she got victory in the 1993 election. Like the first tenure, her second tenure was also confronted with several controversies including the assassination of her brother Murtaza Bhutto, a failed coup d’état in 1995, and corruption scandals involving her and her husband Asif Ali Zardari. Consequently, President Farooq Leghari dissolved the assemblies and dismissed her government. The PPP lost the 1997 election, and thus she went to Dubai for self-exile in 1998.
After negotiation with President Pervez Musharraf, she returned to Pakistan in 2007. On her arrival back to Pakistan, she was enthusiastic to contest in the 2008 election and led a wide campaign around the country for motivating people to vote for her party. Meanwhile, she constantly received life threats from the terrorists who were opposed to her ideas and her participation in politics as a woman. According to the security agencies, she was warned time and again about the threats to her life, but she refused to stop her political campaign. As a result, she was assassinated in Liaqat Park Rawalpindi on December 27, 2008, while she was addressing a rally. She was buried at her family mausoleum at GarhiKhuda Bakhsh in Larkana in Sindh.
Benazir Bhutto’s both tenures as the prime minister added much to her leadership experience and the politics of the country. Her vision of Pakistan as a democratic state, struggle for improving the lives of women in the country, her legacy for the women’s rights in the country, clashes with the military establishment over certain policies and resistance to the criticism depict her dynamic leadership. It seemed nearly impossible for a woman to enter into politics in a country like Pakistan which had recently implemented the Islamization policy. However, certain factors made Benazir Bhutto a well-known politician in Pakistan. These include her dynastic leadership, the charismatic leadership and the controversial execution of her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Also, she was guided by her father on various occasions even when she was a girl. Her father used to take her with him to political gatherings and foreign visits. All these political events and exposures groomed her personality as a young woman politician. Besides, her education at Harvard and Oxford also expanded her political perception, developed her political outlook as well as worldviews. She narrates the level of fondness and inquisitiveness to learn her first lesson regarding democracy.
Benazir Bhutto as a woman in a male-dominated society struggled for democracy in military regimes. Her career as a politician began and ended in the regimes of two different military dictators. It was difficult to raise voice for democracy and liberalism in the era of a dictator who had been advocating the idea of Islamization of the state’s policies. Therefore, she had to face a really tough time from the government during her resistance against the radical Islamist regime of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. She became a symbol of hope for the oppressed people especially women in a repressive and repressive military regime. Even though Gen. Zia had imposed Martial Law, executed a democratically elected prime minister on fake charges, and directed Islamization Policy, Benazir did not step back. She was the only leader of a political party resisting against the authoritarian regime of a military dictator. Habib Jalib, a progressive poet of that time, summed up the patriarchal and military dictator’s regime’s fear of Benazir Bhutto excellently in his poetry. He writes, Dartehaiñband? qoñv? leeknihatt?lark? se, which translates as: “how the people with guns fear an un-armed girl.”
She took the mission of her father and kept on the fight with the military regime of Zia for democracy even after repeated imprisonments and self-exile. As per the Islamization policy of Zia ul Haq, a law was passed, which reduced the status of a woman’s testimony in court to half that of a man. However, she did not pay heed to the so-called Islamization of a dictator and led her political campaign from the front. Facing imprisonments, solitary confinement, exile, assassinations of family members and associates was what she had to live through as a young woman. In 1988, when Zia was about to announced elections, she was pregnant. She writes in her book the Daughter of Destiny that she purposely kept the exact date of her child’s birth secret because she thought that Gen. Zia would announce elections in the month when she is due so that she may stay away from the political activities and campaigns. “To pinpoint the date, it was reported, the regime’s intelligence agents had tried to gain access to my medical records. But I kept them with me. Twenty-four hours after the regime’s agents calculated wrongly that the birth would occur on November 17th, Zia announced the date of elections for November 16,” she narrates.
In 1988, she led a nationwide election campaign, wrote a bestselling book, had her first child and became the youngest and first female prime minister of the country. These misogynist tactics were used covertly and overtly even when she was the prime minister. Despite her achievements, on every occasion, she had to prove that even as a woman, she has the abilities and all right to rule and govern a state.
She was unacceptable because she was a woman. A public campaign with a narrative that Islam did not allow women to rule was launched by the Mullahs to damage her overwhelming popularity and mandate. Fatwas were issued by these Mullahs, which stated, “If anyone voted for her, their marriage would be canceled as per the Shariah and they would have to marry again,” Meanwhile, when she was pregnant with Bakhtawar Bhutto, another controversy got fuel, which challenged her position as prime minister because she was pregnant. Once again, the Mullahs came out demanding with the statement that a pregnant woman had no right to be the prime minister; therefore, she must resign, and a new government should be established through elections. Of course, they were not demanding it because the constitution allowed a woman for maternity leave. Instead, self-interests and misogynist attitude never let them accept a woman as prime minister.
However, she never let the smile on her face be faded away due to these slogans. She gave birth to her baby in secret and came to office the next day. It was clear enough that the Mullahs, pushed by self-interest, were not going to accept a woman as the prime minister no matter whatever she may do. Her son and now the chairperson of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari writes, “When my mother was not married, they would say, ‘Oh, good women are married, so why isn’t she married?’ When she did get married, they would say, ‘Oh, why did she choose to marry him?’ Then they would say, ‘Why is she not having children?’ Then when she did have children, they said, ‘Oh, why is she always pregnant?’ And, this continued…” In short, it was Benazir’s high spirit to stand against all odds in the country in the time when there was hyper-masculinity all around. She got into politics, served as the prime minister and actualized the concept that women are equal to men and they can do politics and lead nations.
Most of the critics have often criticized Benazir Bhutto as being politically inexperienced due to her certain policies. She is often bashed for her immature politics in the 1980s during her first term of government. She is blamed for bad governance where there was corruption, nepotism, and most importantly, clashes with the military establishment. She interfered in the internal affairs of the military time and again despite her agreement with them that she would not do so. Keeping in view her policies, the criticism is right; however, the situation, context, and realities were quite different. In countries, which are faced with military dictators, a newly born democratic government always struggles for civil supremacy. In this struggle, she could not formulate policies for the country except for a few. She had a vision to improve economy, but she could not implement it because of the negative attitude of the military and the Mullahs towards her government, blame game of the political parties in the opposition including the MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM), leaders of opposition parties including Nawaz Sharif, and even the then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan who was constantly looking for an opportunity to dismiss her government.
She was a progressive working with liberal ideas in an environment that did not accept those ideas. Inherited from Zia, the Islamic mindset of the military as well as the bureaucracy and their supporters Mullahs did not let her work in an efficient way. She was confronted with continuous character assassination by the Mullahs who had been creating obstacles in her way by provoking the masses against her. They exploited the idea of Islamic Shariah and stated, it is un-Islamic that a woman is heading the government of the Islamic country.
Moreover, she was moving to establish peaceful relations with the eastern neighbor, India. Her meetings with her Indian counterpart Rajiv Gandhi are well remembered as a means tocarve a new roadmap to peace. However, the military establishment did not like her steps towards building peaceful relations with India. Also, based upon its findings, she chose to control the operation of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI); on more than one occasion, she had stated that the ISI was undermining her government. In May 1989, she removed the Director-General of the ISI, Lieutenant General Hamid Gul from his post, and sent him to Multan as Corps Commander. Later in the year, another case confronted her government which created conflict with both the military and the president. The issue was constitutional: who had the authority, the president or the prime minister, to appoint the chief of the services and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC)?
Finally, in July 1990, the top military brass, in a meeting, decided that they can’t tolerate the policies and interference of a civil government in their institutional matters further. The then Chief of Army Staff sent a letter to the president, in which the core commanders’ concerns were mentioned. The president, who had already been dissatisfied with the Benazir’s government, welcomed the letter from the military and dismissed the government in the next month, August. In short, she was busy fighting against a strong institution for civil supremacy; therefore’ she could not contribute much to formulating and implementing policies. In spite of all these, she managed to rule the country twice and empower democracy, strengthen the economy and improve the living standards of the poor.
Benazir Bhutto was shot dead more than a decade ago, but her legacy as a symbol of hope, resistance and struggle continues to inspire and motivate women till today. Terrorists and extremists have killed her, but she still lives in the hearts and minds of her followers in the country as well as women around the world. Today, her opponents are almost forgotten, or their names are not written with positive adjectives, but she keeps on inspiring people through her ideas. Despite the obstacles put in her way by the bureaucracy and the military, her ideas and certain policies are more beneficial even today. Firstly, the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has proved to be a welfare programme for the poor and needy women in society. BISP was not directly established by her; however, it was her idea and thus was named after her. Ms. Bhutto worked on the vision, concept, and design of the program with a renowned Pakistani economist, Dr. Kaiser Bengali. After her death, the initiative was enacted by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani but named after Ms. Bhutto by her widower, President Asif Ali Zardari, as a tribute to her. Secondly, she established the Lady Health Worker Programme (LHWP), which has contributed a lot to the family healthcare system in the whole country. Thirdly, it was Benazir, who worked on the idea of spreading higher education in Sindh, which after several years resulted in the building of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST). SZABIST has been expanded to several campuses in the province with a diverse area of studies including natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, liberal arts, and law. Fourthly, there are so many hospitals, schools, roads, and many other developmental projects initiated by her, but were not given due political importance. Due to the short tenures of her government, she could not accomplish any of her initiatives. As a result, the forthcoming governments completed her projects and did not give her due credits. Lastly, her struggle for human rights was recognized and acknowledged posthumously in the form of the United Nations Human Rights Prize in 2008.
So, her strong will, firm determination, high courage, and utmost resilience are what define and remember Benazir even today. Her legacy inspires and motivates several women in the country. She is the ideal of young girls such as Nobel Laureate Malala Yousufzai who are running the cause for women’s rights in every sphere. In short, Benazir Bhutto made a name in the history of Pakistan that is never going to be removed or forgotten.
She had been seeing her limited life due to the death threats from terrorists, but she never let her enthusiasm be dampened. It is a fact that she never received respect from her opponents in her life; however, today, she is remembered in good words by the whole nation. She is remembered because of her struggle and sacrifices for the country. She writes in her book, “I have led an unusual life. I have buried a father killed at age 50 and two brothers killed in the prime of their lives. I raised my children as a single mother when my husband was arrested and held for eight years without a conviction-a hostage to my political career.”
The writer is a journalist
