Benazir Awam

The establishment in this country persecuted the polity ruthlessly for last 30 years. Politicians were painted as corrupt, mean, greedy, devilish – in short mother of all evils. Establishment attempted to turn the word politics into a slur. With all these efforts, it was expected that people of Pakistan will be made indifferent to the political process and this, in turn, will let the establishment run the whole show without any challenge.

When the present regime came under unbearable pressure from its foreign backers to let the democratic forces operate in Pakistan, the regime yielded. But even in this yielding, through its political cronies, it ensured mudslinging on genuine political forces. We all heard the hue and cry over NRO and noise of “corrupt and greedy” Benazir from henchmen of establishment. The junta was sure that with all this politics-bashing of last three decades and the recent assault over NRO, Peoples Party’s public support will be significantly marginalized and peoples’ indifference for politics will soon make Peoples’ Party, politicians in general and their foreign backers realize that country is no more conducive for a genuine political activity and people have rejected democracy and political parties and so the czars must be allowed to run the show. How often did we hear the claims of junta and its political cronies in the last few years that politicians have failed to take people out on street? And this is what they truly believed in.

When the preparations for arrival of Benazir started, the reality of the ever and omni present populism of polity began to dawn on the regime and its cronies. In the panic, first Benazir was asked by the czar himself to delay her return. Then there were stories of a suicide bombing threat from Bait Ullah Mehsud to scare her and make her postpone her return. When she refused to budge, a campaign was launched to scare people from gathering for her welcome and with all these efforts even the most astute of regime’s political observers, Sheikh Rasheed, was convinced that the numbers would not exceed two to three hundred thousand – way below her 1986 welcome.

But then the floodgates opened. A nation formed through the political process and democracy was allowed to rally behind a genuine political leader for the first time in last 9 years and they flocked in just as nothing has happened between July 4, 1977 and October 18, 2007. Millions of people (estimated around 2-3 million) choked the streets of Karachi, chanting the slogans of “Welcome Welcome Benazir Welcome” and “Ub Raj Karae gi Khalq-e-Khuda (now masses will rule)” and dancing with jubilation and fervor. The genie, of politics and peoples’ power, that establishment had tried to bottle for last three decades, was out in full force.

Establishment thought that with their malicious campaign they have turned politics into a slur. It thought that with a campaign to demean the leadership, they have taken the steam out of the movement called PPP. It thought that it has spread the message of hopelessness and doom’s day scenario with such vigor in last three decades, that people will not dare hope anymore. Amidst millions chanting “Welcome Welcome Benazir Welcome” and Benazir aae gi, Rozgar lae gi”, it dawned on them that nation and hope were still alive and this must have hurt them the most.

To me, this is where the plan to bomb Benazir and her procession came into play. Those who did it never wanted to do it in the first place – at least not on her arrival. But unfolding of events made them desperate to divert attention from the renaissance of polity taking place on the street of Karachi. If not for this desperation, why did it take ten hours for the bombers to attack the convoy? Especially if they were suicide bombers - as the government will make you believe. It is hard to get unnoticed with loaded suicide jacket for that long. And why is it that the first response to this carnage from junta was an attempt to restrict the political activity? They could see how political activity can break their claim of a depoliticized Pakistan.

This blast has achieved three things and all three go to the advantage of junta, at least in the short term. It has taken the attention away from the magnum welcome that Benazir received (which in the word of her opponents like Hamid Mir and Mushtaq Minhas surpassed the Lahore welcome of 1986). Instead of talking about peoples’ commitment to political process and democracy, today we are talking about the bombing. Secondly, to the advantage of “ever so popular” PML Q, who spending billions and using all state apparatus could manage a sea of 30,000 people from all across Pakistan on May the 12^th in Islamabad, now there is talk of banning the political rallies and processions. And third, it has served as a direct threat to supporters of PPP in particular and all political activists and democrats in general that if they take the route of democratic process – this is what awaits them.

Establishment and its hardliners are in panic. With courts getting independent each day and with people proving on the streets of Karachi that peoples’ power still matters and for people there is no solution but democracy and representative civilian rule, the power is slipping out of its hands like sand flowing out. This blast and other such acts are the desperate last ditch efforts to cling to its power. They will get nastier and nastier as the end approaches junta. It’s a test of We, the people of Pakistan, and more importantly PPP leadership, not to be budged by these threats and remain resilient. If we budge now – terrorist junta has won. O Benazir Awam of Pakistan, you have given junta yet another blow. Keep marching for we are inching forward.