Basic Information about Pakistan
Pakistan’s current President: Pervez Musharraf. Prime Minister (interim period): Muhammad Mian Soomro
Geographic features of Pakistan:
Confines the Arabian Sea, the Indus river runs in the center of the country, Kashmir region in the North, capital city Islamabad, other major cities Lahore, Karachi, and Hyderabad.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pk.html
(search for Pakistan under country profile)
___________________________________________________________________________________
Basic facts about Benazir Bhutto:
• Came from a politically active family, her father served as Prime Minister in the 1970s but later killed along with two of Benzair's brothers
• Benazir was educated at Oxford and Harvard becoming the first educated elected female leader in an Islam country
• Served as Prime Minister from 1988-90 and again from 1993-96, both terms ending prematurely due to corruption scandals that involved her husband Asif Zardari (he spent several years in jail but was freed in 2004 due to weak evidence)
• She had remained the leader of the PPP (Pakistan People’s Party)
__________________________________________________________________
The story is quite interesting because there are many loose ends. 1st) Starting with Bhutto's return from exile to run in the upcoming elections.
• As the story continues to develop, the only explanation that I have come across to why she re-entered Pakistan was to run in the upcoming elections, to continue a path of democracy in Pakistan, and perhaps also to clear her name in the corruption charges that have never been fully proven. However, reporters have not divulged into her political record yet, and it would be interesting to know her political accomplishments that she made for Pakistan if any.
• 2nd) The relationship between her and President Musharraf is unclear. At first, Musharraf welcomes Bhutto re-entry into Pakistani politics maybe because without her opposition party, his candidacy and rule comes into question. As the stories begin to unfold, reporters are finding that the government did not provide Bhutto with adequate security, especially by being a previous Prime Minister and possible political rival in the upcoming election.
• 3rd) Who did it and why? Reports, primarily coming from an email message that Bhutto wrote, points to Al-Qaida, Taliban, and other Islamic terrorists groups ABC news refers to this topic: Who killed Benazir Bhutto? http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4058489>
• 4th) What are the implications of her death? I am still trying to figure this out myself, but it is obvious that politically Pakistan is an unstable country. If the Taliban did assassinate Bhutto, at the very least, it demonstrates that the Taliban is growing and the group is active (But we don't know this yet). Perhaps, world leaders need to take a look at what is going on in Afghanistan because lately it seems that the situation there has been left behind focusing on Iraq (at least this seems to be the U.S policy).
Some things that we do know is the fact the current President Pervez Musharraf came into power through a military coup (toppled Nawaz Sharif), and also Musharraf had been the Chief of Army staff of the Pakistani army before the coup. After the coup, he declared himself President and Chief of Executive of Pakistan, meaning he combined both roles into one, the presidency and the role of the Prime Minister from 1999-2002, to become sole leader of Pakistan. The following years the PM position came directly from Musharraf party’s, the Pakistan Muslim League. Perhaps understanding a little bit of Pakistan's history, it becomes a little clearer the relevance of Bhutto’s death in terms of democracy. Furthermore, the relationship between the Presidency and National Assembly (who nominates the Prime Minister) has had a record of clashing where the President has dissolved the National Assembly, and Prime Minister on many occasions has called for new elections, this includes the two times that Bhutto was the Prime Minister (remember this is before Musharraf came into power). The instability of the government and the power grip that the Pakistan Mulism League has in the country, put the corruption charges into question. Maybe it explains the short-lived governments that Bhutto led. It also puts the current government into question to whether or not they had any involvement in her death. Also, if her death was caused by Islamic terrorists could her death symbolize another hit towards the western world giving her relationship to the western world? The facts are unknown for now, but there is definitely a cloud of suspicion involving the government and Benazir Bhutto.
As of December 31, news reports have stated the government and Benazir’s camp have conflicting stories about her death. Her son and husband have assumed leadership roles of the PPP. Finally, it is in debate whether or not the January 8 elections should proceed as planned.
Message boards: http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?threadid=509172> gives current opinions about Benazir’s death.
BBC Bhutto Obituary: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2228796.stm
New York Times main story on Bhutto’s assassination
Footage of the death: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ran4LXRskXk>
Bhutto’s murder: Key questions: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7165892.stm>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervez_Musharraf> (Pervez Musharraf)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Pakistani_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat> (Pakistan coup)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Pakistan> (Prime Ministers of Pakistan)
http://www.freshnews.in/tag/mohammed-mian-soomro> features stories about the President and Prime Minister
Richard Sale has a good blog with some interesting information about Bhutto's death
0 comments:
Post a Comment