Benazir Bhutto speaks for the people of Pakistan as no one else. Indeed, it will not be an exaggeration to say that no Pakistani leader since the death of Mr. Jinnah has commanded the kind of support she does. Not even her father, Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Her popularity could not have been, and was not, in question during her exile. Even so, the reception she received on her return home in Lahore on Thursday tells a story. The people in and around that historic city have perhaps never before showered their emotions on another Pakistani leader with such abandon. The explanation is obvious enough. Benazir is Bhutto’s daughter and inherits his charisma. Much of the late Mr. Bhutto’s charisma had been dissipated by early 1977 on account of his highly arbitrary, vindictive and cruel rule. But his subsequent execution following a rigged up trial gave him the martyr’s halo, something far more potent than charisma. Benazir shines in that halo.
But the people in Lahore did not merely honour the daughter of a martyred leader on Thursday. They did several other things. They demonstrated that they have not forgiven those (read President Zia-ul-Haq) who were responsible for his execution (or was it plain murder in his prison cell?). The slogan “Bhutto, we are sorry your murderers are alive” which rent the air as Benazir emerged out of the airport speaks for itself. In the process they left no scope for the slightest doubt that despite the democratic trappings General Zia has given his army-controlled regime it remains illegitimate in the eyes of the Pakistani people. Finally, the hundreds of thousands of people who poured out to see and hear Benazir have anointed her as Bhutto’s successor. The implication is clear. Which is that Pakistan cannot have a government its people regard as legitimate unless it is the product of a genuinely fair and free election in the proper democratic sense of the term, that is, an election in which political parties are allowed to participate.
All this is not to suggest that the Zia regime is about to be swept away. It is well entrenched and will so remain so long as it enjoys the support of the army and the United States. There is no room for illusion on either count. But Benazir’s return poses a problem for it. It is difficult to say how it will respond to repeated demonstrations of her enormous popularity. It could either try to sit them out or once again place restrictions on her movement and activities. Neither option is free of risks. If allowed to function freely, Benazir can raise the political temperature to a level which the Generals would find intolerably high. Her arrest or house arrest would, on the other hand, expose its democratic pretensions to be what they are – a sham. Benazir’s strategy too is not clear. We have to wait and see how she goes about the task of reorganizing the PPP if she is allowed to operate.