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1996-11-17
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Foreign Correspondent
Inside Track On World News
By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>
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AS PAKISTAN BURNS; THE BHUTTO SAGA CONTINUES
by
Eric Margolis 11 Nov 1996
This week, Pakistan's president dismissed Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto's crumbling government and placed her under
house arrest. As yet another dramatic chapter opens in the
long, anguished saga of the Bhutto family, Pakistan, a
highly strategic nation of 133 million, reels in turmoil and
confusion.
President Farooq Leghari acted under the constitution to sack
Bhutto for massive corruption, nepotism, illegal
wiretapping, failure to maintain public order and allowing the
economy to collapse. Bhutto and her chief supporters were also
accused of organizing murder squads in Karachi, and with
political murders. This was the second time Bhutto has been fired
as prime minister, and the fourth dismissal of a Pakistani
government in eight years.
The man many Pakistanis consider the caliph of corruption,
Benazir's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was arrested in Lahore by
agents of Pakistan's military intelligence agency, ISI - a
clear sign the powerful armed forces were behind President
Leghari's palace coup.
Benazir Bhutto remains a darling of the western media
As an attractive, charming, liberated, western-educated
woman - and only a token Muslim, - she is exactly the kind
of compliant, non-threatening leader the western world wants
to run Muslim countries. Particularly so in Pakistan, the
second largest Islamic nation, founded in 1947 as a
religious state and refuge for India's persecuted Muslims -
in effect, the Islamic Israel.
Pakistan, however, will not cry for Benazir Bhutto. Her two
past governments, and the erratic dictatorial rule of her
late father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, left Pakistan destabilized
and deeply corrupted. Though one of Pakistan's leading
feudal land barons, the Bhuttos portrayed themselves as
socialist populists - while promoting the interests of big
landowners, who pay almost no taxes, and running Pakistan as
their own personal fief.
Looting the treasury, enriching family and cronies, and
evading taxes, is expected of all politicians on the Indian
subcontinent. Last week, for example, India's recently
deposed Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, went on trial
for accepting bribes and forgery. India and Pakistan are
awash with corruption and chicanery. Pakistan's last
government, under PM Nawaz Sharif, was thoroughly scandal-
ridden, though not in the grand style of the Bhuttos.
But the Bhuttos went too far, even for their jaded
countrymen. In her first government, Benazir appointed her
father-in-law, Ali Zardari, to a cabinet post supervising
all government contracts - literally putting the fox to
watch the hens. The sticky-fingered Zardari was known as
`Mr 10%.'
This column revealed in August, 1990 that Ali Zardari had
opened secret bank accounts worth 400 million pounds under
a false name in London, money skimmed from Pakistan. My
report caused a sensation in Pakistan - until it was
discovered Zardari had many more millions of swag stashed
elsewhere.
In her second government, Bhutto outraged Pakistanis by
having the chutzpah to name husband Asif Zardari as
Minister of Investments and chief watchdog over government
corporations and contracts. Zardari Jr. surpassed his
father in malfeasance, earning the title of Mr 20%.' Finally,
the corruption of the Bhuttos and their cronies became so
egregious and arrogant, it could no longer be tolerated.
The killing Sept 20 of Benazir's estranged brother, Murtaza,
in a mysterious shootout with police, was the last straw for
Pakistanis. Murtaza had been trying to wrest control of
the Bhutto's party from Benazir. Nusrat Bhutto, Benazir's
mother and widow of Ali Bhutto, openly sided with son
Murtaza, leading to open conflict and mudslinging between
Benazir and Nusrat, whom the prime minister kept referring
to in public as `mommy.'
Benazir blames President Leghari for the murder of Murtaza.
But many Pakistanis suspect Asif Zardari or even Benazir were
somehow behind the killing. In Pakistan, where family is all
important, even rumors of fratricide were enough to bring down
Benazir.
Ironically, many people in prudish Pakistan believe that
her father, Ali Bhutto, was hanged in 1979 not so much for
political reasons, as for his incessent preying on wives and
daughters of his colleagues and supporters.
Though deposed, Benazir may be back again. President Leghari
has scheduled elections for February. Whether he and the
army will allow Benazir to run remains uncertain. Leghari, a
former Bhutto ally, says she will be tried for corruption and
other high offenses.
Unfortunatly, Benazir's latest fall deprives Pakistan of the
most capable man in her government, Foreign Minister Sardar
Assef Ali. But at least the interim caretaker government
includes a new Pakistani lady star, the very able Abida
Hussein, whom I have known since she was a columnist in
Islamabad and, more recently ambassador to Washington.
While Pakistan's politicians line their pockets and wage
tribal warfare disguised as politics, this huge, unsteady
nation is in severe financial crisis. Karachi and Sindh
Province remain racked by low-grade civil war and violence
between Shia and Sunni Muslims, egged on by politicians, and
by Indian agents trying to further destabilize already shaky
Pakistan.
Mighty India growls threats of war over Kashmir
and is close to deploying nuclear-capable missiles along the
border. The US punishes old ally Pakistan for its defensive
nuclear program, while Iran intrigues against Pakistan in
Afghanistan.
Pakistan is a frightening mess; Pakistanis are demoralized
and disgusted. Their politicians have failed utterly. They are a
dead end. This leaves only the army, or an Iranian-style Islamic
revolution, to clean house. Pakistan's fierce tribal mullah's
make those of Iran look downright liberal by comparison.
.
Prospects seem awfully grim for the long-suffering Muslim
Promised Land.
copyright eric margolis 1996
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For Syndication Information please contact:
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Eric Margolis
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