Benazir wanted military takeover, technocrats to avoid ‘radicalisation’

Former PPP chairwoman Benazir Bhutto had shared her concerns with US diplomatic officials in August 1998 on what she called the increasing radicalisation of Pakistani society under the crumbling regime of Nawaz Sharif, saying army intervention of some sort could be the only way to avert a fundamentalist takeover if the Nawaz government began to crumble.
The cable of August 31, 1998, by John R Schmidt, political counsellor, US embassy, quoted Benazir Bhutto as telling Schmidt the army could play a positive role by setting up a technocratic government that would include representatives from all major political parties, including her own PPP and Nawaz’s PML (without Nawaz, of course). But she was highly sceptical that the army could rule effectively on its own based on its past performance. Benazir said she thought there were plenty of active duty mid-level army officers sympathetic to the Islamic fundamentalist cause. The top army leadership, however, remained solid and moderate, she said.
Benazir made no effort to hide her dislike of Nawaz, whom she regarded as both weak and not very bright. She appeared to harbour an even greater dislike for his brother Shahbaz, who she characterised as more intelligent, but also more brutal, relating a brief anecdote about how he had ordered a hapless bureaucrat thrown into a sewer in a moment of personal pique. She contended that Nawaz’s father had been very close to “Talibanish” (her word) ulema (religious leaders) in Lahore and had inculcated these sorts of values in the young Nawaz. She said Nawaz had done the same to his own son, noting that the younger Sharif had refused to give his age when interviewed recently on television in keeping with a conservative Islamic superstition.