After a surprise rendezvous with sister Benazir, Murtaza fails to find common ground
THE feuding political legatees of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her estranged brother Mir Murtaza, fin-ally met in Islamabad on July 7.The two had last got together in 1990 in Damascus where Murtaza had been living in exile. Murtaza left Pakistan soon after his father was overthrown by Gen Zia-ul-Haq in 1977 and returned in November 1993 amid much fanfare but was immediately packed off to jail for the cases registered against him during Zia's regime.
Benazir had become Prime Minister for a second term in October and was a little wary of meeting her brother who had been spewing venom against her even before he landed in Pakistan. In the elections that catapulted Benazir to power, he contested against Pakistan People's Party (PPP) candidates, much to his sister's discomfort. Their mother, Nusrat Bhutto, had openly campaigned for her son. When he returned home, at least 70 cases were pending against him, dating back to Zia's days when Murtaza spearheaded an armed struggle against him through his Al-Zulfikar Organisation (AZO). This association with the AZO and its alleged links with India was another reason why Benazir had chosen to keep a distance from Murtaza.
The July 7 meeting took place in this background. Sources close to the Bhutto family said although efforts for a meeting were on for quite some time, this rendezvous was unexpected. Murtaza was in Islamabad for a day en route to Peshawar, and his mother and some friends urged him to see Benazir. Somewhat reluctant, he agreed on one condition—that Benazir invite him. The sister didn't object and penned a quick letter which was promptly delivered to Murtaza—on July 7 itself. By 9.00 pm, they were sitting across the table, recalling the past and exchanging jokes. First, Nusrat Bhutto sat with them, but this was followed by a one-to-one meeting. Later, they were joined by Benazir's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and their three children. The meeting went on well past midnight.
While Benazir Bhutto and her camp chose to stay quiet about the meeting, Murtaza's friends leaked the news to the press, triggering off speculation of an impending political rapprochement. Murtaza, with a penchant for making newspaper headlines, was quite forthcoming. He had his reasons. He announced that the meeting had failed to resolve their political differences: "I was expecting a meaningful dialogue but it turned out to be a meaningless discussion." Since his return, Murtaza has been critical of Benazir's governance and her policy of accommodating those who had served Zia-ul-Haq and worked against the PPP. Besides, one of his favourite targets has been Asif Zardari, who he has repeatedly described as the master of corruption.
His statements after meeting Benazir were not at all surprising. He had to cover up for the U-turn that he was taking. He has lashed out against Benazir and her husband so much in the last few years that to most people this meeting looked like capitulation. Leader of his own faction of the People's Party, called the Shaheed Bhutto Group, Murtaza also left enough window-space open when he said the ice had been broken and that there was a possibility of meetings in future if a proper agenda was suggested by the other side.
He maintained that he did not have any personal or family dispute with Benazir: "Our differences are political and there is no harm in holding a political dialogue." But he was quick to add that that the outcome was disappointing. "We moved in circles. She brought up petty things like she had restored my passport. I said it was no favour as it was my right as a Pakistani citizen. I reminded her that her government had now seized my passport. I also told her that I was carrying a Pakistani passport even during Gen Zia's rule."
As for other impressions of his sister, who is a year older, the 42-year-old Murtaza said it seemed the Prime Minister and her advisers had become complacent and remote. "I found her far removed from reality. She believes everything is all right and there is no political crisis in the country. There seems to be no real effort to tackle the problems confronting the people." He had more to say: "I thought that we would be able to find some common ground. But I have come out of the meeting convinced that there is a wide gap between our perceptions and political goals. I now feel there are only remote chances of reconciliation and unity between our factions of the party."
Benazir did not speak out. She did not contradict anything, but sources close to her said that instead of political issues, the meeting mostly focussed on the family and its considerable property.
This is deliberate. While Murtaza has been projecting it as a political fight, her camp has often chosen to project it as a dispute over their father's wealth. It suits her to keep it that way. While he is not a political threat but just an "embarrassment", as Mushahid Hus-sain, information secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) puts it, she wants to show that the issue of the succession of her father is settled and she is his political heir—hence the talk about a dispute over wealth.
But that is precisely Murtaza's problem—he would like to believe that thequestion of political succession is unresolved. His other problem has been Ben-azir's changed politics. Since returning to power in 1993, she has consciously made peace with the powerful Pakistani army and the bureaucratic establishment. She has embraced those who have been traditionally against the PPP, but are acceptable to the Pakistani establishment. In her first term in 1988-90, she had made the mis-take of taking on the military-bureaucratic establishment in the form of the then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the ambitious army chief, Gen Mirza Aslam Beg. She had also tried to improve relations with India. The result: she was unceremoniously sacked in August, 1990. The situation now is quite different. The President, Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari, is on her side—though he has started showing signs of independence—and she has no apparent problems with the army.
Murtaza feels that as the sole surviving son of Zulfikar Bhutto, he should be his father's political heir. But he articulates his demands differently. He wants Benazir to restore Nusrat Bhutto as PPP chairperson, expel "murderers" of his father and remnants of the Zia regime from the party and the government. "I want families of those who suffered for the PPP to be taken care of. I told her that party workers were living in misery. But she didn't commit herself."
바카라 웹사이트Murtaza has failed to make his mark in national politics. Some analysts feel that he may have started realising that he can't succeed unless he sorts out his differences with Benazir. Where his sister clearly beat him was in her long political struggle in Pakistan while he was in exile—when the AZO was involved in the hijacking of a Pakistan International Airlines' plane and other terrorist acts against Pakistan. He also can't match her charisma. Benazir's marriage to Zardari complicated matters. Murtaza feels that Zardari has been a beneficiary of the Bhutto name, while he himself is in the wilderness.