Benazir Bhutto

Interview of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto
Karen Yopr

1. What do you think of Lt. Gen. Ashfaque Kiani? He’s a close ally of Musharraf. Does that bother you?
Ans: Lt General Kiani has a reputation as a professional officer which is what the armed forces and Pakistan need.

2. The army controls everything from arms to businesses and there are those who are supporting extremism and terrorism. How would you be able to handle and control the Army?
Ans: Our first step is to separate the offices of army chief and the President. General Musharaf has now given an undertaking to the Supreme Court of Pakistan that he will retire as army chief after the presidential elections this October. Under the present military doctored Constitution, the armed forces come under the President. The political parties would need to unite to bring control of the armed forces back to Parliament for reform to take place. PPP has signed a Charter of Democracy calling upon political parties to make the members of the armed forces answerable to Parliament, as they are in Washington, London and France, for greater transparency and accountability.

3. What would be your ideal amendment to the Constitution, if you return to power?
Ans: To prevent a return to the dysfunctional democracy of the nineties it is important to do away with the powers of the president to dismiss an elected parliament in his discretion. Secondly, there are other issues like lifting the military imposed ban on a twice elected prime minister contesting election for a third time for prime minister, appointment of Governors, members of the Judiciary and Election Commission. The Charter of Democracy spells out the changes needed.

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The Supreme Court is getting ready to hear a number of petitions against the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and has named a bench of judges along with known jurists as amici curiae to match the “seriousness” which the NRO has assumed in the public eye. As the court announced that it would start hearing the case after 21 days, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has clarified that till the pronouncement on corruption cases involved is made, no benefits will accrue to the affected parties.

The reactions to the new development have been interesting. President General Pervez Musharraf has repeated his “request” to Ms Benazir Bhutto to postpone her return to Pakistan to avoid “turmoil” – his chosen word to express a complex problem. He says he has not received Ms Bhutto’s reaction to his request, but the PPP spokespersons have already rejected the request, and preparations are on to welcome her in Karachi amid massive security measures after Al Qaeda, as conveyed through its deputy Baitullah Mehsud, threatened to kill her.

The “turmoil” the president wants to avoid is politically complex. It is not so much Al Qaeda he is currently dreading because that is a longer-term problem; nor can he be expected to ruminate too much on the personal safety of Ms Bhutto. It is the “turmoil” that is brewing inside the party he has been propping up and canvassing for quite blatantly over the past months, the PMLQ and its anti-PPP partners in power. While the attorney general, Malik Muhammad Qayyum, says the NRO will be implemented because it has not been “stayed” by the Supreme Court, the PMLQ leaders most upset by the prospect of facing a PPP led personally by Ms Bhutto consider the NRO as already defunct.

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