October 15, 2007. Copyright 2007, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Benazir Bhutto: date with destiny or dread decision?
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, October 15, Graphic News:  For exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a return to Pakistan under a power sharing pact with President Pervez Musharraf means fulfilling a date with destiny. But the impact it will have on her crisis-stricken country is by no means as certain.

ÒThe politics of Pakistan is ingrained in our familyÕs blood -- in my blood. It is a duty and a compulsion. I have to return or forgo politics forever, condemned by my supporters as a cowardÓ, Bhutto said earlier this year. The daughter of executed Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is preparing to stand in parliamentary elections early in 2008.

But if the build-up to the reappearance of one of her countryÕs most divisive figures is anything to go by, those polls will hardly be a shortcut to thriving democracy. Bhutto and former commando Musharraf will have to overcome more than mutual antipathy if they are to steer the country away from rising Islamic extremism and political chaos.

Musharraf has agreed to let her back in return for his seeking a third term as civilian leader -- he has pledged to resign from the military in November.

Her comeback is the latest chapter in a life that has mirrored the turbulence of Pakistan. The beautiful, educated woman in the white veil has plunged from iconic status to ignominy as two terms as prime minister ended with her dismissal on corruption charges.

Once feted by international leaders, Bhutto was largely forgotten in exile until the West began to grow twitchy about its ally Musharraf. But one thing not even her harshest critics would call her is cowardly.

Benazir Bhutto was born on June 21, 1953, in Karachi, and educated at Harvard and Oxford University, where she was a contemporary of Tony Blair. Her father was prime minister of Pakistan in the early 1970s but was jailed by General Zia-ul-Haq in 1977 following a military coup, and executed soon afterwards.

One of her brothers, Murtaza, fled to Afghanistan to fight his campaign against ZiaÕs military government from there. Another brother, Shahnawaz, was found dead at his apartment on the French Riviera, allegedly poisoned by the secret services. Benazir herself spent five years in jail, much of it in solitary confinement. On her release, she campaigned for her fatherÕs Pakistan PeopleÕs Party (PPP) from London.

After Zia died in an air crash, BhuttoÕs PPP swept to power in the National Assembly in 1988, and she became the first woman to lead a Muslim majority government. In 1990 her government was dismissed for alleged corruption, but she remained popular and campaign pledges to improve the rights of women helped propel her to a second term in 1993. In 1996, however, she was again dismissed on corruption charges.

In 1999 Bhutto left Pakistan for a speaking tour of the United States and did not return. In her absence her husband Asif Ali Zadari was jailed on charges of stealing millions of dollars from state coffers. He was eventually released in 2004, when he joined Bhutto and their three children in exile in Dubai. The claims were never proved but the mud stuck.

Under a recent amnesty agreement -- currently being challenged in the Supreme Court -- all corruption charges against Benazir Bhutto have been dropped to facilitate her return, but she is still viewed by many with distrust. Bhutto, who has been convicted of money laundering charges by a Swiss court, says political foes were behind the allegations and she has vowed to clear her name.

Some view her new readiness to do a deal with Musharraf as a betrayal of the democratic ideals long held by the PPP. In 2002 she refused an offer for the party to lead the government after it clinched a majority in national polls.

Others, including many in the West, are hoping that she still has enough influence to act as a check on the worst excesses of a regime far too reliant on the military.
/ENDS