Benazir

It was on the 21st June of 1953, a lil’ girl born in an affluent, renowned, political family of Bhuttos in Sindh, Pakistan. Like every child she also toddled to Jennings Nursery School holding her mother’s finger. In no time she took her fist steps to Jesus & Mary Convent School. As the ray of learning streaked through her mind she fancied within her a word-”Power”.

As years passed by, that lil’ girl grew up to be a beautiful lady. Graduated in Political Science from Radcliffe College, Harvard, she earned her MA degree from Oxford University. In these growing years & learning phase she came close with her father, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Within the subconscious state of her being she admiried the political charisma of her father & longed to feel the power. This feeling of her is best expressed as she sacrificed a year to be the President of the Students Union in Oxford college. Thus her chase for the dream begun.

Armed with western education, this tall good looking lady of Pakistan touched her people with the one charismatic smile. However, although she wanted to join Foreign Services yet she had to take the path of Politics to be what she was.

Hanged was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, & her life took a turn for the people of Pakistan. His execution in the year 1979, resulted in Benazir’s denunciation of Zia-ul-haq, & she began organising a political movement against him. It was the silent rage within her, that erupted now & then. She was put into a solitary confinement in year 1981.

In her book “The Daughter of the East ” she writes ”The summer heat turned my cell into an oven. My skin split and peeled, coming off my hands in sheets. Boils erupted on my face. My hair, which had always been thick, began to come out by the handful. Insects crept into the cell like invading armies. Grasshoppers, mosquitoes, stinging flies, bees and bugs came up through the cracks in the floor and through the open bars from the courtyard. Big black ants, cockroaches, seething clumps of little red ants and spiders. I tried pulling the sheet over my head at night to hide from their bites, pushing it back when it got too hot to breathe.”

This was the kind of torture she suffered physically. Mentally too she felt the pain of her idol being hanged. An intolerable suffering, yet she comes back to the people of Pakistan every now & then. Released from her confinement in the year 1981, she went to Britain only to come back in 1986. Her race to Power began & finally in the year 1988 she became the Prime Minister of Pakistan. That lil’ girl chasing her dream unknowingly came to the helm of POWER. However, the subsequent years were not free from events. In 20 months time her government fell off on corruption charges. It again rose to power in 1993. This time a three year tenure where she wanted to reach out to the masses. However in no time again that her democratic elected government fell prey to corruption charges & she left Pakistan.

I believe Power is an addiction. It beckons you now & then. It drives you to see the unseen, to hear the unheard & to make all things possible.

A mother of three children, a wife, Benazir could not restrict her inner self to come to Pakistan once again. Little knowing what the destiny is to unfold. It was her strive to be at the helm, that overshadowed her any other existence. She did not restrict her presence only to her children, because she felt her need in the hearts of the people of Pakistan. Knowing that her life is at risk, she continued to campaign once again & one more time. What would you call this? —-
Is it her passion to work for the people? Is it to avenge the death of her father in a military regime? Is it a feeling of duty ? Is it to be an embodiment of Patriotism OR is it that dream she once nourised within her. To be POWERFUL..to gain POWER.. to rule & reign at the helm.
She fell prey to a Terrorist attack. She was assasinated in 2007. The end of her Life, a struggle, a journey to POWER and the unfulfilled dreams of a great leader.