“Pakistan is our home – we shall live and die on our land,” so said Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed in a crowded press conference at London’s Heathrow Airport on 13 January, 1984. She had reached there after a long imprisonment in Pakistan for the operation of her ears.
BB Shaheed’s historic words continue to echo in Pakistan even today. Her prophetic statement rang true on the fateful day of 27 December, 2007 when she was brutally martyred at Liaquat Bagh. Today is BB’s third anniversary and her assassins are yet to be brought to justice.
She had told journalist Amir Mir in Lahore on November 13, 2007 that if she were to die he could name Pervaiz Musharraf as her killer. She had identified her murderer. Her last words need to be respected and their sanctity should not be violated.
BB Shaheed had also stated at the 1984 London press conference that her father gave his life for the country and she would continue his mission. Pakistan Peoples’ Party is not a party of an individual but is genuinely a peoples’ party. Our struggle is not for personal power but for an ideology. We want the rule of the people and the end to the social and economic disparities.
BB Shaheed agreed to the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) for such high values and to put an end to Musharraf’s rule. In her two meetings with Musharraf, her position was clear. She never asked that the concocted cases against her be abolished.
In fact, she demanded that the bar on becoming a prime minister for a third time should be lifted. Musharraf had confessed that this condition was not acceptable to his allies, who considered the removal of cases against her a better bargain. It was on a 2006 autumn morning when Begum Abida had joined the PPP in London.
Rehman Malik and Ms Rukhsana Bangash drover BB from the airport to my place as she was concerned about my health. BB wanted me to release the news that she would be a candidate for premiership herself. And in case this was not possible somebody from the family would be a candidate.
Shaheed wrote the will about the PPP herself. Her son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was nominated chairman. I can disclose that BB nominated her husband Asif Zardari co-chairman because she thought that he could keep the party together. She feared that a person other than a family member, if given charge of the PPP, might destroy the party by hijacking it. President Asif Zardari had endured long spells in jail with great courage.
But BB Shaheed is alive in the hearts and mind of the people in the shape of her party. PPP workers are her greatest legacy who represent the federation of Pakistan. “We shall live and die in Pakistan,” BB Shaheed’s declaration on 13 January, 1984 was proved right on 27 December, 2007. This made her alive eternally.
Bashir Riaz was a close confidante of Benazir Bhutto and a veteran PPP elder.
