A WOMAN WITH ENEMIES ON ALL SIDES

When Benazir Bhutto returned to her native Pakistan on October 19 after a decade in exile in Britain and the Middle East, terrorists killed 130 of her supporters in an attempt to assassinate her. The irony, however, is that she has so many enemies even she finds it difficult to name the perpetrators.
The Taliban and Al Qaeda have her name at the top of their assassination lists but so too have many smaller Islamic terror groups. She became Public Enemy No 1 for jihadists after she declared her support for the US war on terrorism and promised that if she negotiated a power sharing deal with Pakistan’s leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, she would work with the US to hunt down Bin Laden and other terrorists on Pakistani soil. That promise represented a radical departure from the present policy that forbids US troops from pursuing terrorists across the Afghan border into Pakistan.
According to Mrs. Bhutto, her enemies include elements within the ISI –Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence – as well as senior figures in the army. She alleges they conspired in the recent attack on her life. She has never flinched from criticizing the ISI, which created the Taliban. She believes ISI agents continue to foment strife in her country and in Afghanistan. In her view, the ISI should be purged of dangerous elements that were forced into retirement after 9/11 but have since drifted back into its ranks. She reckons they see her as a threat because she would return the country to democracy and refuse to appease Islamic militants and terrorists.
While she is a charismatic figure – once described by Time as one of the most powerful women in the world and by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s most popular politician – her political life has rarely been without controversy. She was born in 1953 into a wealthy Muslim family in Karachi, yet was nonetheless educated at several leading Convent schools. Later she studied at Harvard and at Oxford University where she distinguished herself by becoming the first Asian woman to be president of the famed Oxford Union. She was known as highly articulate, politically astute and very western in her social and political views. Her love of politics derived from her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who served as Pakistan’s president (1971-1973) and as its prime minister (1973 – 1977). Prior to 1971, he was a foreign minister and UN representative and in all his political dealings he proved to be a very controversial figure. During the Cold War, he did energy deals with the Soviets, and turned Pakistan away from the West, in particular the US. At the same time, he courted China. He is credited with making Pakistan a nuclear power.
Like his daughter, he made many enemies, and if his writings before his death are to be believed, he angered the US by taking Pakistan down the nuclear road. Before his death, he wrote that in 1976 Henry Kissinger warned him “we will make an example of you.” Whether or not the US had a hand in his downfall, he had a penchant for ruling with an iron fist and alienating friends and foes alike. He angered the army when he appointed a new chief of staff, General Zia ul-Haq, who was not first in line for the job. He also antagonized Muslim leaders, who believed he was rigging elections to guarantee the dominance of his PPP- Pakistan People’s Party. In 1997, Zia al-Huq, the general he appointed to the top job, seized power and had him arrested. Nine months later, Zia, despite pleas from leaders across the globe, had Ali Bhutto hanged on a guilty verdict delivered by the country’s Supreme Court. Bhutto’s supporters continue to argue that the charges against him of murdering a political opponent, corruption and election rigging were falsified.
Benazir was 24 when her father was executed and to this day she blames elements in the ISI and army for plotting against him and manufacturing false charges that resulted in his death. After he died, she was placed under house arrest for several years before being transferred to solitary confinement in a remote prison. She later wrote about the nightmare in solitary during which her hair fell out, skin peeled off her face and hands, and she was constantly bitten by mosquitoes, spiders and ants. After three years, she was released and fled to Britain where she kept her political profile high with rallies demanding an end to military rule in her country. Gen. Zia, who had her father executed, died in a mysterious plane crash in 1988 only months after he had a change of heart about military and promised the return of democracy. Benazir Bhutto was determined to go back, and told friends if she rose to power she would deal harshly with those who hanged her father.
In December 1988 she became the first prime minister of a Muslim state and immediately lifted some of the more draconian laws limiting trade unions and student activism. But her enemies within the ISI and the army were soon plotting her downfall and her hold on power lasted less than two years. Like her father before her, she was removed from office by a president who was also chief of staff of the army. He deemed her corrupt and unfit for office. Her husband, to whom she had given cabinet status, was arrested and held for two years on corruption charges. It was alleged that he had taken kickback from international defense companies and that he and Benazir had moved millions of dollars into secret accounts abroad, including Switzerland. She alleged it was a plot to take her down and she fought back, returning to power as prime minister in 1993.
By then, Islamic radicals throughout the country were opposed to her leftist views and her tendency to look to the West in shaping her foreign policy. By 1996, she was again in a political dog fight with familiar enemies, including shadowy figures in the ISI and the upper echelons of the army. She and her husband were again accused of corruption, a now familiar accusation in the Bhutto family history. Her husband, like her father, was charged with hiding money abroad and authorizing the assassination of political rivals. While he remained in custody, she again went into political exile in London and subsequently Dubai. In her absence
In 2004, she had secret meetings with Pakistan’s leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf and that led to her husband’s release from prison even though Pakistani investigators claimed they had traced secret bank accounts overseas into which Benazir Bhutto’s husband had laundered hundreds of millions of dollars. Her talks with Musharraf were initiated by the US and Britain in the belief that if Musharraf was able to share power with her, he could relinquish his role as commander in chief of the army, but remain as president until a successor was found. Elections would be held in which Bhutto would undoubtedly be elected prime minister. Those talks with Musharraf gained momentum this past year and may well bear fruit in the months ahead. They are part of a US-led strategy to return democracy to Pakistan while putting in place a stable leadership. The US fear is that if militants came to power they would have access to the country’s nuclear trigger. Benazir Bhutto has so far impressed President Bush. He liked what he heard during a White House meeting with her in January this year. But he must know, as do close observers of the turmoil in Pakistan, that her most pressing problem may be staying alive long enough to achieve her goals. With the enemies she has, her life will be in constant danger. And, if she is right, some of the danger may come from those designated to protect her – generals and members of her country’s intelligence services.