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Women Leading Change US Islamic World Forum Feb 18-20, 2006 \u2013 Doha, Qatar <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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Women Leading Change<\/strong><\/span>
US Islamic World Forum<\/span>
Feb 18-20, 2006 \u2013 Doha, Qatar<\/span><\/p>

As the first woman ever elected to head an Islamic nation, I feel a special responsibility regarding issues that relate to women.<\/p>

Women rights must be promoted both by the US and the Islamic countries.<\/p>

The Quran and the Traditions of the Prophet are the sources from which every Muslim derive their rights and duties.<\/p>

Today people say that the women\u2019s liberation movement began in the 20th century.<\/p>

Actually- although it is not reflected in Muslim societies \u2013 the women\u2019s rights movement is as old as Islam.<\/p>

The Quran is insistent on the full participation of women in the society and the equality of men and women.<\/p>

Men and women perform Haj, the Muslim Pilgrimage side by side.<\/p>

In Islam, neither gender can be superior because it would be a contradiction of equality.<\/p>

Women are also encouraged in Islam to contribute their opinions and ideas. Bibi Khadeja, the wife of the Prophet (PBUH) was the first witness to Islam. She was a working woman, a business woman.<\/p>

A Muslim woman chooses her husband and keeps her name after marriage.<\/p>

In terms of human rights, the Quran makes no distinction between men and women.<\/p>

Islam does not forbid a woman from holding important positions in government. Abdur-Rahman Ibn Auf consulted many women before he recommended Hazrat Uthman to be the Caliph.<\/p>

The Prophet of Islam (PBUH) preached equal rights for women; now the task before us all is to restore them in the Islamic World.<\/p>

The fact that four Muslim countries (Pakistan, BanglaDesh, Turkey and Indonesia) have had five female heads of government gives assurance that the problems of women in Islamic societies can be seriously addressed.<\/p>

To me, there is nothing more unIslamic than discrimination.<\/p>

There is nothing more unIslamic than violence against women.<\/p>

And above all, there is nothing more unIslamic than terrorism \u2013 the killing of innocent men, women and children.<\/p>

It is not easy for women in modern society, whether it\u2019s in Dhaka, Doha or Dallas.<\/p>

Even though women\u2019s representation has been steadily increasing in parliaments since 1990, women still only occupy a total of 16 percent of seats worldwide.<\/p>

In the US Senate there are only 13 women Senators, while there are only 3 to 4 women Governors.<\/p>

In the corporate world, there are currently only 8 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Women hold only 12% of seats on Board of Directors of Fortune 500 companies.<\/p>

In the Islamic World, there is the perception that a good leader is inherently masculine. This is because men tend to evaluate men more positively and women more negatively. Only recently, there has been representation given to women in Parliaments of certain Islamic countries. Women will be optimistic if there are more women role models in leadership.<\/p>

Key challenges for women in the next five years.<\/p>

There needs to be more of a shift in investing in programs that help more women get elected to office and appointed to leadership positions in government to build stronger democracies.<\/p>

First Education:<\/p>

Education leads to job opportunities \u2013 opportunities that are critical to the empowerment of women.<\/p>

Second Judicial Representation:<\/p>

Gender equality is essential to the dispensation of justice.<\/p>

Third Law Enforcement:<\/p>

We need women in the police force and also police stations entirely run by women to address the difficulties and social stigma women face when wishing to report crimes against them.<\/p>

Fourth Media:<\/p>

Many women are ignorant of their rights. An advertising campaign can inform women that violence against them by their family members is illegal.
Fifth Hostels for Women:<\/p>

Women\u2019s hostels are important so that women have a place of shelter if abused by members of their family.<\/p>

Sixth: Availability of child care centers to facilitate women who wish to work.<\/p>

Seventh Credit for Women:<\/p>

Women need access to credit to establish business of their own.<\/p>

My Government opened a woman\u2019s bank, run by women for women,\u00a0 \u2014 although men could keep their money in it too if they wanted \u2013 because we believed that economic independence is the key to social equality.<\/p>

This is the model of an Islamic society that must be sustained as one billion Muslims reach a critical path in development.<\/p>

There is a choice.<\/p>

Education or ignorance.<\/p>

The past or the future.<\/p>

And central to this fork in the road is the status of women in Islamic societies.\u00a0 Because where opportunities for women flourish, extremism withers.<\/p>

And at this critical time, this time of crisis, I see signs of change that make me optimistic about the future.<\/p>

The model to expand rights for women has been embraced by several young, progressive, reformist leaders\u00a0 \u2014 KingMohamed VI of Morocco, King Abdullah of Jordan, Sheik Hamad of Qatar and the leaders of the United Arab Emirates.\u00a0 These leaders are engaging in the delicate exercise of pushing women forward to jump start societal change.<\/p>

Step by step, empowerment cannot be denied.<\/p>

Economic empowerment,<\/p>

Legal empowerment,<\/p>

The right to vote.<\/p>

The right to hold office.<\/p>

The right to lead.<\/p>

Do women lead differently.<\/p>

And I do think that women lead differently.<\/p>

Maybe it\u2019s stereotypical, but I think that women leaders are more nurturing and sensitive to the social needs of society.\u00a0 Invariably, women\u2019s rights lead to further modernization of society as educational, housing and health needs are finally met.<\/p>

The US and the Islamic world can accelerate this process by making democracy and pluralism a center piece of bilateral relations.<\/p>

But let us be frank.\u00a0 Democracy\u00a0 \u2014 alone\u00a0 \u2014 is not enough.<\/p>

Empowerment is not only the right to become a Prime Minister.<\/p>

Empowerment is the right to be economically independent.<\/p>

Empowerment is the right to be educated and make choices.<\/p>

Empowerment is the right to have the opportunity to select a career.<\/p>

Empowerment is the right to own property, to start a business, to flourish in the marketplace.<\/p>

Empowerment is the right to rationally plan and balance profession and family.<\/p>

So, ladies and gentlemen, the task of women over the next decade is multidimensional.<\/p>

The next decade cannot be a decade of confrontation and contention.<\/p>

It cannot be east vs. West.<\/p>

It cannot be men vs. women.<\/p>

It cannot be Islam vs. Christianity.<\/p>

That is what the enemies of dialogue want.<\/p>

We can succeed by remaining true to the values of equality, democracy, pluralism and development.<\/p>

I thank the Amir of Qatar and the Brookings Institute for bringing us together here in Doha to exchange views on the future.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Avert Clash of Civilizations through Justice and Human Rights Desert Forum \u2013 Indian Wells \u2013 California USA 24 January 2005 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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Avert Clash of Civilizations through Justice and Human Rights
<\/strong>Desert Forum \u2013 Indian Wells \u2013 California USA<\/span>
24 January 2005<\/span><\/p>
Islamabad, 25 January 2006:\u00a0 \u201cMy country Pakistan is an example of a Nation where the forces of tyranny, terrorism, proliferation and a marginal, yet militant interpretation of Islam mingle to create an extraordinarily dangerous challenge. The democratisation of Pakistan is important to the war against terror, to the interpretation of Islam as a message of freedom and enlightenment as well as to the empowerment of the people of Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>
This was said by the former Prime Minister and Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto while addressing a distinguished gathering at Desert Forum attended by intellectuals, academics, policy strategists and opinion makers in Indian Wells California, USA today.<\/p>
She said that the question before the world is whether the path to catastrophe and the clash of civilizations is reversible. \u201cThe Pakistani military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, has made a choice. And his choice is to stand by and let terrorists operate freely the territory of Pakistan. These terrorists may actually control territory where Bin Laden has sanctuary. And the West too has made a choice\u201d<\/p>
She said that by acquiescing to the Musharaf dictatorship, they have empowered him to defy the world and cooperate with the forces of terror. As in all governing, choices have consequences. The choice to sustain dictatorship in Pakistan has consequences both in the short and long term that threaten the interests of the West as well as the values of democracy in the East. Much of our ability to avert the clash of civilizations lies in learning the lessons of history.<\/p>
She said that Islam is a religion of moderation, tolerance and equal right for all. \u201cCentral to the issue of religion in modern society is the treatment of women. In the post September 11th environment, the true nature of Islam has been so distorted by those who would politicise it, that Islam has become not only something foreign to the rest of the world but also something feared\u201d<\/p>
She said \u201cThere is no religion on earth that, in its writings, is more respectful of the role of women in society than Islam. It is this tradition of Islam that has allowed me to battle for political and human rights, and strengthens me today.<\/p>
Our religion is not only committed to tolerance and equality, but it is committed to the principles of democracy. The Holy Book says that Islamic society is contingent on \u201cmutual advice through mutual discussions on an equal footing.\u201d In Islam dictatorship is never condoned, nor is cruelty. The Q\u2019oran, in its very essence, is an anti-terrorism doctrine, she said.<\/p>
About the nexus between the extremists and the military dictatorship in Pakistan she said, It is well known that there is sympathy for Bin Laden, the Taliban, and the insurrectionists in Iraq among Pakistan\u2019s military and clerical class. These were the two entities used to train the Mujahideen against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. They were armed and supported by the United States, both overtly and covertly. Following the withdrawal of the Soviets, the Mujahideen went on to become in large part the Taliban and Al Qaeda.<\/p>
She said that Pakistan\u2019s military dictatorship has resulted in the domination of the country\u2019s political, financial and social class by the military. It has led to the rise in power and importance of fundamentalist religious parties. These religious parties are public supporters of Bin Laden and Mullah Omar of Afghanistan. They have filled the vacuum caused by the military regime\u2019s determination to sideline the genuine representatives of the people of Pakistan. Extremism has replaced moderation in a despotic Pakistan, she said.<\/p>
Regarding the fast diminishing image of the lone Superpower the United States she said, \u201cSadly, the world\u2019s only superpower may have missed a precious opportunity, may have squandered its unipolar moment to truly lead the world socially, economically, politically and militarily. Those who have cautioned the developing world to be responsible and restrained in our fiscal and budgetary priorities have not practiced what they have preached. And mounting Western debt threatens the stability of the interconnected global economy. A problematic intervention in Iraq has lead to tens upon tens of thousands Iraqi deaths, more than 2300 American and British deaths, and an increase in the U.S. national debt of 300 billion dollars, with no end in sight to the human and financial costs of this tragic miscalculation\u201d.<\/p>
Regarding her achievement during the two tenures in the government and the fear of fundamentalists by change in the society she said, \u201cThe extremist\u2019s greatest fear, wherever they live, is the spread of information, social equality and democracy. These three principles choke off the oxygen of terrorism. Information leads to change. Change is something that many fear and will not tolerate. I am proud that we methodologically implemented change in Pakistani society. We heralded the information age by introducing fax machines, digital papers, fiber optic communications, cellular telephones, satellite dishes, computers, Internet, e-mail and even bringing CNN to Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>
She said that under her government Pakistan integrated into the global economy and it became one of the top ten emerging capital markets of the world, attracting over 20 billion dollars in foreign investments, particularly in power generation. We eradicated polio in our country. We dramatically reduced infant mortality. The World Bank held up our economic program as a model to the entire developing world. Despite institutional and social constraints, when I became prime Minister of Pakistan I used my office to try to reverse centuries of discrimination against women. My tenure was a textbook affirmative action program against gender discrimination. We increased literacy by one-third, even more dramatically among girls. We built over 30,000 primary and secondary schools, targeting rural Pakistan. We brought down the population growth rate by establishing women\u2019s health clinics in thousands of communities across our Nation.<\/p>
She said that her government outlawed domestic violence and established special women\u2019s police forces to protect and defend the women of Pakistan. \u201cWe appointed women judges to our nation\u2019s benches for the first time in our history. We instituted a new program of hiring women police officers to investigate crimes of domestic violence against the women of Pakistan. I systematically appointed women judges to the courts of the land for the first time.\u00a0 I condemned the so-called honor killings by members of their own families against women. I encouraged women\u2019s and girl\u2019s participation in sports, both nationally and internationally by lifting the ban imposed on their participation. We believed that the best way to guarantee literate children is to educate literate mothers, and thus my government targeted adult women for remedial education programs. I refused attempts by reactionary forces within my country to turn Pakistan into a theocracy. We have all prayed for a world of reason, of abundant resources, of equality and above all, of peace\u201d.<\/p>
Regarding terrorists threat and the US policy Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said, \u201cIn the closing days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, during a State visit to America, I cautioned that US policy to defeat the Soviets had empowered and emboldened the most fanatical, extremist elements of the Afghan seven-faction Mujahideen at the expense of the moderates, creating a \u201cFrankenstein\u201d that could come back to haunt us in the future. Yet the early decisions by Western nations with the then-Pakistani regime counterpart to arm, train, supply and legitimise the most extreme fanatics sowed the seeds for the 21s century terrorism that is now swirling around us, she said.<\/p>
She said that just as the Pakistani dictator Zia ul Haq played the West like a fiddle over Afghanistan, the Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharaf plays America like a fiddle over the war on terror. The fundamental mistake that lead ultimately to the creation of Al Qaeda out of the remnants of the Afghan Jihad and thus contributed to a long-term historical calamity, was that we were not consistently committed to the values of freedom, democracy, social equality and self-determination that ultimately undermine and belie the basic tenets of terrorism.<\/p>
Regarding the double standards displayed by the West she said, \u201cUnfortunately, we do not always view the world\u00a0 \u2014 its peoples, its cultures and its religions\u00a0 \u2014 with a single moral standard. The West chooses to apply human rights standards when politically expedient, not as a central and universal principle of policy, she said.<\/p>
She said that only electoral process can not guarantee human liberation and prosperity. She said that liberty and freedom depend on social and economic justice, and above all on the universal, non-selective application of human rights to all citizens of the world. She said that democracy is not just about elections. It is equally about governing.<\/p>
\u201cJustice is economic independence. Justice is social equality. Nations make choices.\u00a0 And choices lead to consequences\u00a0 \u2014 political consequences, economic consequences, social consequences. And these consequences are intertwined. They are difficult to separate. The child who is starving has no human rights. The girl who is illiterate has no
future. The woman who cannot plan her life, plan her family, plan a career, is fundamentally not free\u00a0 \u2014 irrespective of constitutions and elections. Economic development and political development are surely linked, but both are predicated on guaranteed human rights. And the cause of human rights must begin within us, within our individual communities and within our own nations\u201d.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Debunks Regime\u2019s Claims of Moderation: Address to Pakistanis in New York New York \u2013\u00a0January 15, 2006 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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Debunks Regime\u2019s Claims of Moderation: Address to Pakistanis in New York
<\/strong>New York \u2013\u00a0January 15, 2006<\/span><\/p>\n
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>\n
It is a great pleasure for me to have this opportunity of addressing members of the Pakistani Community here in New York, the financial center of the world.<\/p>\n
I thank you for the warmness of your welcome, for your hospitality and your commitment to Quaid-e-Azam and Quaid-e-Awam\u2019s great democratic principles.<\/p>\n
To all of you, Salaam Aleichem, May Peace Be With You.<\/p>\n
We gather together at a difficult time in the South Asian region and in this world.<\/p>\n
The international situation in which the world finds itself is not what we would have expected in those glorious days of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.<\/p>\n
The peace dividend\u00a0 \u2014 when the world hoped that the resources of the Cold War could be diverted to international economic and social development\u00a0 \u2014 never materialized.<\/p>\n
The stability that we hoped would be achieved in a unipolar world has degenerated into a potentially even more dangerous instability and unpredictability.<\/p>\n
Ethnic and religious tensions, long suppressed, have erupted to the surface.<\/p>\n
This is not the way we thought it would be just 15 years ago when it appeared that the forces of democracy, human rights and the free market had triumphed and that these positive values would sweep \u2014 unimpeded \u2014 across the planet.<\/p>\n
Some things may be out of our control.\u00a0 But most that has happened has been caused \u2014 directly or indirectly\u00a0 \u2014 by choices that have been made by leaders, by governments, by nations.<\/p>\n
Governing is about making choices.<\/p>\n
Governing is about setting priorities.<\/p>\n
Governing is about deciding what is most important, what cannot wait, and what must be addressed now.<\/p>\n
Governing is deciding, in the words of the sociologist Harold Lasswell, who gets what, when and how.<\/p>\n
This is why it is so very important to have a government that is elected, representative, accountable and responsive to the needs of the people.<\/p>\n
Governing can be deciding whether the social sector or the military sector is fully funded.<\/p>\n
It can be deciding who is educated, and who is not.<\/p>\n
It can be deciding who is fed, and who is not.<\/p>\n
It is deciding where roads are built, and where they are not.<\/p>\n
It is, most painfully of all, sometimes deciding between life and death.<\/p>\n
It is also about building consensus within nations and between nations.<\/p>\n
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>\n
Political miscalculations are compounded by the power of Nature.<\/p>\n
We mourn the devastating earthquake in the Northwest Frontier and in Kashmir that has killed 100,000 of our fellow countrymen and left millions of poor and defenseless Pakistanis to fend for themselves, with little support from their own government, through a cold and dangerous winter.<\/p>\n
And even as we try to come to terms with an earthquake that shattered so many of our towns and villages, new tensions arise.<\/p>\n
In Baluchistan, separatist sentiment is running high. A military operation has been launched. Every day we hear of guerrilla attacks on Pakistani installations.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Return of Baloach leaders in 1988 by PPP.<\/p>\n
The proposal to build Kalabagh Dam threatens to alienate Frontier and Sindh.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile General Musharraf went back on yet another promise, the promise he made following the London bombing in July last summer to ensure all foreign students left Pakistani Madrassas by December 2005.<\/p>\n
Moreover while political parties have to submit sources of funding to the Election Commission. Schools run by religious leaders do not have to declare sources of funding.<\/p>\n
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>\n
The internal tensions in Pakistan take place at a time when our country is in the grip of a military dictatorship.<\/p>\n
Despite the promise to take off his uniform, General Musharaf did not do so following the elections of 2002. He said everything he has introduced in Pakistan\u2019s interest would have been derailed if he had relinquished his military uniform. One day he will have to take off the uniform. This is why plans based on force do not last, whether they are good or bad. Plans based on political participation last because they give legitimacy.<\/p>\n
After coming to power, General Musharraf held a referendum like Zia\u2019s. The 2002 election were \u201cpre-rigged\u201d to bring a parliamentary majority he wanted. The mainstream parties were also \u201cbroken\u201d to create a majority of one in the National Assembly.<\/p>\n
While negotiating the 17th Amendment with the MMA, President Musharraf promised that he would step down in 2004. When the year passed and he still retained the uniform, there was a protest against this breach of promise, which damaged his still somewhat positive image. What he has said now will improve it even less. In December 2004, he had given us a different excuse. He had said the MMA had promised something regarding the National Security Council outside of the text of the 17th Amendment, which it had not fulfilled. He asked the MMA to go to the Supreme Court on the issue, while some experts opined that the text of the 17th Amendment had been so manipulated that he could actually stay on wearing two caps. True to his pledge of plain speaking, he has now admitted that he had actually reneged on a pledge given in earnest to the opposition.<\/p>\n
The pledges he had made about cleaning up the textbooks, reforming the religious seminaries and bringing the jihadi militias to heel, have not been honoured, damaging his international credibility.<\/p>\n
The dictatorship exploits the war against terrorism to stay in power.<\/p>\n
The war against terrorism begun after the post-September 11th environment has seen the true nature of Islam distorted by those who would politicize it.<\/p>\n
Islam denounces inequality as the greatest form of injustice.\u00a0 Yet Pakistan, the second largest Muslim country of the world, can not provide justice to its people irrespective of whether they are politicians or not.<\/p>\n
It enjoins its followers to combat oppression and tyranny.<\/p>\n
Yet the shadow of one man rule clouds the future of our country.<\/p>\n
Islam enshrines piety as the sole criteria for judging humankind.<\/p>\n
But we see that it is political affiliation, gender or minority views that are the criteria for judging humans in our society.<\/p>\n
We live in a dictatorship whilst our religion is not only committed to tolerance and equality, but it is committed to the principles of democracy.\u00a0 The Holy Quran teaches that Islamic society is contingent on \u201cmutual advice through mutual discussions on an equal footing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beating, torturing and humiliating women is inconsistent with the principles of Islam. But the clothes of a United Nations Rapporteur are torn as a collective warning to women of the humiliation that awaits them if they exercise their constitutional right to protest.<\/p>\n
Islam is an open, pluralistic and tolerant religion that positively shapes the lives of one billion people across this planet, including millions upon millions in the growing Islamic populations of Europe and the United States. Yet Muslims and Muslim societies are judged not by the values of Islam but the values of unelected dictators that rule through force.<\/p>\n
When the human spirit was immersed in the darkness of the Middle Ages in Europe, Islam proclaimed equality between men and women. But I do not see this culture of equality in the crimes committed against women through honour killings.<\/p>\n
The PPP and I believe that it is through freedom, through democracy, through human rights and the rule of law that we can salvage our country and our society from the specter of brutality and barbarism brought about by one man rule.<\/p>\n
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>\n
Information leads to change. Change is something that many fear and will not tolerate.\u00a0 But it was change that the PPP and I devoted myself to in our two terms in government.<\/p>\n
We introduced freedom by bringing in the information age. We put an end to the ban on fax machines, digital papers, fiber optic communications, cellular telephones, satellite dishes, computers, Internet, e-mail and introduced private television in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Under our government, Pakistan was the first country in the Muslim world to break the shackles of tradition by electing a woman Prime Minister. We were the first country to break the bondage of centerlisation by deregulating , privatizing and opening financial markets. South Asia and the Middle East are now following the road we introduced in 1988 and 1993.<\/p>\n
Under the PPP government Pakistan integrated into the global economy became one of the top ten emerging capital markets of the world, attracting over 20 billion dollars in foreign investments, particularly in power generation.<\/p>\n
We eradicated polio in our country.<\/p>\n
We dramatically reduced infant mortality.<\/p>\n
The World Bank held up our economic program as a model to the entire developing world.<\/p>\n
Despite institutional and social constraints, when I became prime Minister of Pakistan, the PPP government reversed centuries of discrimination against women.<\/p>\n
We increased literacy by one-third, even more dramatically among girls.<\/p>\n
We built over 48,000 primary and secondary schools, targeting rural Pakistan.<\/p>\n
We brought down the population growth rate by establishing women\u2019s health clinics in thousands of communities across our Nation.<\/p>\n
We outlawed domestic violence and established special women\u2019s police forces to protect and defend the women of Pakistan.<\/p>\n
We appointed women judges to our nation\u2019s benches for the first time in our history.<\/p>\n
We instituted a new program of hiring women police officers to investigate crimes of domestic violence against the women of Pakistan.<\/p>\n
We encouraged women\u2019s and girl\u2019s participation in sports, both nationally and internationally by lifting the ban imposed on their participation.<\/p>\n
Sharing Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton\u2019s view that the best way to guarantee literate children is to educate literate mothers, the PPP government targeted adult women for remedial education programs.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We refused attempts by reactionary forces within Pakistan to turn into a\u00a0 theocracy. We stopped two such constitutional attempts twice through the Senate.<\/p>\n
The PPP governments made extraordinary progress on the international front as well.<\/p>\n
We facilitated the formation of an interim government of national consensus in Afghanistan where the moderates and hard liners agreed to co-exist.<\/p>\n
We blocked the Taliban\u2019s solo show in Afghanistan. Within days of the PPP dismissal, the Taliban invited in Osama Bin Laden and permitted the establishment of\u00a0 Al \u2013 Qaida training camps. That critical and strategic mistake paved the way for the attack on the Twin Towers and the repercussions that flowed from it culminating in the Afghan and Iraq wars.<\/p>\n
On the India front, we had extraordinary progress with the fist nuclear confidence building treaty, the agreement not to attack each other\u2019s respective nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n
We reopened our borders to travel and tourism, and adopted a south Asian preferential tariff agreement that established a free-trade zone between Pakistan, India and the other nations of the region.<\/p>\n
I called upon all the nations of the region to declare the sub-continent a nuclear free zone.<\/p>\n
The PPP government was making dramatic progress in relations with India and with containing terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.<\/p>\n
But moderation and progress is not what supporters of military dictatorship tolerate.<\/p>\n
A democratic and stable Pakistan, gaining strength economically and moving forward socially under a popular government was their threat. The PPP government was eliminated and every attempt made to eliminate the party and its leadership.<\/p>\n
But ideas and dreams cannot be replaced as easily as a coup against leaders.<\/p>\n
The record the PPP accomplished is one in which I have great pride. Despite the reversals in our country, both to the political institutions of democracy and the role of women in society \u2014 the progress that the PPP made raised the bar of expectations and cannot long be ignored.<\/p>\n
I view the PPP\u2019s commitment to women\u2019s rights as consistent with our commitment to human\u2019s rights and to the inevitability of democracy.\u00a0 In our commitment to political liberty and to democracy, we have never wavered.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that has not always been the case in the conduct by many great nations of international affairs over the last generation.<\/p>\n
Today a military dictatorship in Pakistan is supported by the international community for short term strategic reasons. I believe that is a mistake.<\/p>\n
Afghanistan is a tragic case in point of how retreating from the principles of human rights and democracy can have the most tragic unanticipated consequences. Not planning for a post-war Afghanistan built on democratic and Islamic principles of coalition, consensus and cooperation was a very bad choice.<\/p>\n
The goal of the international community\u2019s foreign policy agenda must also be to simultaneously promote stability and to strengthen democratic values\u00a0 \u2014 not selectively but universally, not just because it is convenient but also because it is right.<\/p>\n
Might doesn\u2019t always or necessarily make right.\u00a0 Indeed it was the great American President Abraham Lincoln who said just the opposite, that it is \u201cright that makes might.\u201d<\/p>\n
This mixture of realism and idealism was best manifest when The United States, under President Bill Clinton, militarily intervened to stop the genocide of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia.\u00a0 Was the US strategically threatened?\u00a0 No. Was it morally threatened by genocide on this planet? Yes.<\/p>\n
The universalization of human rights may be the underpinning of internal stability within nation states, and peaceful relations among nation states.<\/p>\n
I address this issue from a unique double focus.<\/p>\n
I wear the scars \u2014 on my body and my soul \u2014 of the abuse of basic human rights, and thus I view oppression through the eyes of the victim.<\/p>\n
In the rhetoric of the West, democracy, women\u2019s rights, human rights, and press freedom are important, but apparently only sometimes.<\/p>\n
Violations of these principles lead to international sanctions \u2014 but only sometimes.<\/p>\n
The world is not yet a fair or just place, and will not be so until each and every country on our planet is treated equally.<\/p>\n
If democracy is good for Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, then democracy, and not dictatorship, should be supported in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Democracy is the first step toward humanity\u2019s liberation.\u00a0 But it is not an end in itself.<\/p>\n
Liberty and freedom depend on social and economic justice.<\/p>\n
Voting does not guarantee justice. An independent judiciary with members who impartially uphold the law does.<\/p>\n
Equal rights depend on more than electoral choices. They depend on cultural change and education.<\/p>\n
Democracy is not just about elections.\u00a0 It is equally about governing in a manner that is representative, respectful of constitutional provisions, provincial autonomy and the balance of power.<\/p>\n
Nations make choices.\u00a0 And choices lead to consequences \u2014 political consequences, economic consequences, social consequences.<\/p>\n
Today 58% of the people of Pakistan live on less than $2\/= a day.<\/p>\n
But we spend our money building a second General Headquarters next to the one we already have.<\/p>\n
The girl who is illiterate has no future. But we spend $ 1 billion dollars on SAAB aircraft even as we make peace with Indian and make overtures to Israel and therefore face no imminent threat.<\/p>\n
Economic development and political development are surely linked, but both depend on respect to human rights and the right economic policies.<\/p>\n
We cannot claim to believe in moderate enlightenment if we do not fight for it in our own homes, and in our own homelands.<\/p>\n
We can not imprison a speaker of the National Assembly, a Cabinet Minister, the spouse of a Parliamentarian, because we disagree with their choice of political leader and political party.<\/p>\n
Here I will take the opportunity to call for the release of Yousaf Raza Gilani, Bismillah Kakar and Pir Mukkram, who have been imprisoned for their political beliefs by the Musharaf dictatorship. I also call for the return of the exiles and a restoration of democracy through impartial elections held by an interim government through an independent Election Commission and an immediate vote count and announcement. While Yousaf Reza Gillani, Bisimullah Kakar and Pir Mukkaram remain behind bars on political grounds. We cannot say Islamabad respects human rights. While elected Prime Ministers are forced into exile, we cannot say Pakistan has human rights. While NAB finds corruption only in the opposition and not in the ruling party, we cannot say Pakistan has Justice.<\/p>\n
It is through the empowerment of the people of our nation that we can reclaim the heritage of Quaid-e-Azam and Quaid-e-Awam, that we can confront and defeat social evils in the form terrorism, extremism, militancy, honour killings nor give our youth an opportunity to live a life free of poverty, backwardness, disease and unemployment.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Social inequality leads to political instability, not just in the Middle East, Asia, but also all through the developed world including America and Europe.<\/p>\n
This is evident in the large, radicalizing Muslim communities in France and across much of Europe.<\/p>\n
The challenge is to make alienated Muslim immigrants and their children feel like fully integrated members of the nation, and to convince them to accept the full obligations of democratic citizenship.<\/p>\n
The way to accomplish this certainly is not religious or cultural ridicule.<\/p>\n
The way clearly is equality of opportunity, education and respect for cultural and religious pluralism.\u00a0 These are choices that the world community must make.<\/p>\n
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>\n
It is our job to make choices.<\/p>\n
It is our job to find answers.<\/p>\n
It is our job to marginalize the extremes.<\/p>\n
It is our job to act, not just talk.<\/p>\n
Realizing that in the time it took me to deliver this speech, over one thousand children have starved to death on this planet.<\/p>\n
I want you to know that choices have consequences.<\/p>\n
I ask you to make the choices that can help us together build a better Pakistan, a brighter Pakistan,\u00a0 a proud Pakistan, where its people live in peace, progress and prosperity.<\/p>\n
I ask you to support the Pakistan Peoples Party and its allies in reclaiming our constitutional and democratic heritage so we can bequeath to our children a better world than we saw.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto\u2019s Speech Abu Dhabi World Leaders Summit Abu Dhabi, UAE \u2013 November 15, 2005 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto\u2019s Speech<\/strong><\/span>
Abu Dhabi World Leaders Summit<\/strong><\/span>
Abu Dhabi, UAE \u2013\u00a0November 15, 2005<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
It is an honor for me to appear before this unique, truly extraordinary gathering of leaders from all around the world, converging on the United Arab Emirates as an emerging center of economic, political and intellectual innovation.<\/p>
Blessed by resource and unlimited opportunity, it is significant that it is here in the UAE, where I have chosen to live and raise my children.<\/p>
Here I pay tribute to the late President Shaikh Zayed.<\/p>
He was a father to his people, to the larger Arab world and he was also like a father to me.<\/p>
I shall always remember him in my heart for allowing me a home away from home, here in the UAE and for his contributions to Pakistan\u2019s development.<\/p>
And I will never forget the warmness of your welcome, the openness of your hospitality and the humanity of your people.<\/p>
To all of you,\u00a0Salaam Aleichem<\/em>, May Peace Be With You.<\/p>
I am asked to share my life story with you and to speak on leadership.<\/p>
I am a daughter of the desert sands of Sindh in Pakistan. It is an ancient land, a land of saints, Sufis and mystics.<\/p>
I grew up in the shadow of Moen Jo Daro, the 5000 year old civilization which once traded with Baghdad and Bukhara and through them with Europe and the Far East.<\/p>
My father would tell me fascinating historical tales of conquest and victory.<\/p>
I learnt of how the Greek Conqueror Alexander the Great was bitten by a mosquito in Sindh developing a fever that killed him in Babylon.<\/p>
I learnt of how the mighty can be brought down by the weakest. I learnt that in the greatest adventures one must never forget the smallest details.<\/p>
Islam first came to South Asia through Sindh. An Arab conqueror by the name of Mohammad Bin Qasim landed on the shores by sea bringing the message of equality that would spread far and\u00a0 wide in the year 712 A.D.<\/p>
Some of my family claimed to have come with Mohammad Bin Qasim and to have settled in Sindh. Others claimed we were locals who were amongst the first converts to Islam.<\/p>
There was a great emphasis on roots and on the values of courage, integrity loyalty, knowledge, honour, duty, responsibility and pride passed on from generation to generation.<\/p>
Sindh was largely a tribal society when I was child. Identity lay in the family, in the tribe, in the soil and in religion. One\u2019s duty was to uphold the good name of the whole, of which we as individuals were a part of.<\/p>
I heard that I was an heir to the greatness of Islam which proclaimed equality between the rich and the poor, between the male and female, between the strong and the weak.<\/p>
I read and re-read how the powerful conqueror of Sindh Mohammad Bin Qasim was sentenced to death in the cause of justice. He had failed to protect the dignity of a woman and was punished losing his life.<\/p>
It showed me the importance of the rights of women and it underlined the importance of justice in Islam for building a truly civilized society. That example, seared into the memory of a young child, become a part of my life and my struggle.<\/p>
There was much poverty in those days in my country. There were few roads, drinking water was scarce, people were so poor that they were often shirtless and shoeless. Little children ran naked in the dusty, dirty village lanes with open sewerage gutters. Cow dung was used for cooking and as fertilizer. It would be scooped up, shaped into patties and dried on the mud walls of houses.<\/p>
A midst this squalor and deprivation, there were a few large families with enormous land holdings and industrial wealth.<\/p>
My father told me it was wrong that so many should be so poor when so few were so rich. He told me that the Islamic law of inheritance ensured the distribution of wealth rather than its concentration. He imbibed in me the spirit of social reform and the principle of social equality\u2014goals that he fought for and which became mine.<\/p>
I came from a political family. My grandfather formed the first political party in Sindh and brought out its first newspaper. He led the movement to separate Muslim Sindh from Hindu Bombay in the thirties which culminated in the demand for Pakistan in the forties \u2014 A separate homeland for Muslims of South Asia.<\/p>
My father was the youngest Cabinet Minister in South Asia and went on to become its youngest Prime Minister when he was elected.<\/p>
I grew up as a pampered child of privileged family with political and social dominance.<\/p>
From the young age of 5, I was under public scrutiny, the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.<\/p>
Because of that public scrutiny, I was taught to always be on guard, on watch, not to make a slip, to keep my head high, to hide my emotions, to perform my duty, to smile and walk on because \u201cwhen you smile, the world smiles with you\u201d and \u201cwhen you cry, you cry alone\u201d.<\/p>
I was shy and led an insulated life. Except for my cousins and a few close friends, I did not mix much with other children. We feared that fame brings fair weather friends and kept to ourselves. We learnt that the price of fame can be loneliness \u2013 to avoid gossip we kept our distance, always protected, shadowed, chaperoned.<\/p>
Obedience to parents, to teachers, to God were the hallmarks of my young life.<\/p>
Moral duty was drilled into us; \u201cTo whom God gives much, much is expected.\u201d<\/p>
When war between India and Pakistan broke out in 1965, my mother took me with her to the Red Crescent Center to help the relief effort.<\/p>
In 1966, in our ancestral home in Larkana, when I turned 13, my Mother made me wear a Burqa, the all enveloping black cloth covering the body from head to toe. As the veil billowed over my body and covered my eyes, I felt hot, constrained and the world looked grey through the mists of the veil.<\/p>
For centuries women in my family had worn the veil. For centuries women had either married cousins or, if they were unavailable, remained unmarried. This ensured that the property women inherited under Islam did not leave the family.<\/p>
But now my life was to change. My father was an emancipated man, a reformer who broke the bastions of tradition and changed the direction of his family, his country and our region.<\/p>
He took one look at me in the Burqa as I arrived home and said, \u201c I don\u2019t want my daughter wearing the veil.\u201d He told me that Muslims believe that the best veil is the veil in the eyes of a person.<\/p>
It was a man, a very special man, my father, who set me on the road to modernity.<\/p>
When I turned sixteen, my father decided to send me abroad for education.<\/p>
My female relatives opposed my father\u2019s decision. They begged him to change his mind. The destiny of a young woman in those days was to make a good marriage, a good home and raise good children.<\/p>
Before I left for Harvard, my father took me to our lands in Larkana.<\/p>
Here the peasants sweated under the sun taking care of the fields of wheat and cotton.<\/p>
My father said, \u201csee how hard these men work. You must seek knowledge abroad and then return to serve your own people. Do not be so dazzled by the bright lights as to forget your roots and the land that gave you birth.\u201d<\/p>
Then he took me to our family graveyard where for generations our ancestors lay. \u201cWhenever you go in the world\u201d he said \u201cthis is where you will ultimately return. You are part of this dust and this dust is part of you.\u201d<\/p>
As a farewell present, my father gave me the Holy Book of the Muslims inlaid with precious mother of Pearl. He hugged me and kissed me. He often joked that I was too argumentative. His parting words of advice to me were \u201cDon\u2019t argue with Immigration Officers or taxi drivers.\u201d<\/p>
And so at 16 I left with my mother and my Afghan Pashmina coat for Cambridge Massachusetts\u2014to a new world.<\/p>
For the first time I met people who did not know who I was, or where my country was.<\/p>
\u201cPakistan: where\u2019s that?\u201d they\u2019d ask.<\/p>
While I was a student at Harvard, A separatist movement in present day Bangladesh had torn my country apart. I refused to believe Pakistani troops could commit genocide in then East Pakistan. I got into furious arguments with those I found criticizing my country.<\/p>
Patriotism burned deep in my heart.<\/p>
As a Muslim I was seen as the spokesperson of the Arab world when discussions about the Middle East arose.<\/p>
At 17 I addressed the Asia Society and wrote a letter to Life Magazine defending the Egyptian President Nasser\u2019s decision to built the Aswan Dam.<\/p>
As a child of my age, I was influenced by the social ferment around me. It was a time of student power.<\/p>
It was a time of war. American forces were engaged in Vietnam. There was an anti-war movement on campus. As an Asian at Harvard, I felt strongly about the war in Vietnam.<\/p>
I joined other students to protest it.<\/p>
It was a time of white minority rule in parts of Africa. The fight against apartheid shaped my commitment to stand up for the principle of equality between men irrespective of race or colour.<\/p>
The women\u2019s movement had began and with it the debate about women\u2019s role in society.<\/p>
As a Muslim women I felt strongly about gender rights. The Prophet of Islam (PBUH) had married a working woman, a business woman. He had stopped violence against women prohibiting the burial of the girl child. Islam proclaimed that paradise lay beneath the feet of the mother and that on the day of judgment we\u2019d be called by our mother\u2019s names.<\/p>
The movement for women\u2019s rights empowered and emboldened me.<\/p>
It was a time when Martin Luther King defended the rights of the African American and Robert Kennedy spoke for the underprivileged of America. It was an era of civil rights and morality where values, rather than force, shaped the destiny of society and of humanity.<\/p>
These important steps helped shape my outlook on life, helped me focus on fighting injustice, promoting freedom, safeguarding the rights of the discriminated and dispossessed.<\/p>
I was in America during the\u00a0impeachment proceedings that brought down it\u2019s President Nixon.<\/p>
I saw the awesome power of the people to change policies, to change leaders and to change history.<\/p>
I marveled at the power of a people to bring down a government. I lived in a dictatorship. Those criticizing the President ended up in prison or faced assassination attempts.<\/p>
From Harvard I went to Oxford University in London.<\/p>
Brought up with the Muslim belief that all people are equal, irrespective of race, religion, colour, caste or creed, I was shocked to see racism rear its ugly head.<\/p>
The British Politician Enoch Powell was threatening to throw all Asians into the sea.<\/p>
I loved Oxford with its cobbled streets and college spires. I walked the streets my father had once walked. I learnt to punt on the river and attend strawberry and cream picnics.<\/p>
While I was at Oxford the Conservative Party chose a women, Margaret Thatcher, as leader of the opposition. The idea of the first female British Prime Minister became an intense topic of discussion amongst students.<\/p>
There were many who believed that the Conservative Party could never win an election because it was led by a woman.<\/p>
My father, who had become Prime Minister by now, thought otherwise.<\/p>
He invited Mrs. Thatcher to Pakistan as his guest during the summer, to ensure that I would be there. I attended his dinner for Mrs. Thatcher. Later Mrs. Thatcher invited me to the British House of\u00a0Parliament, the House of Commons the seat of the mother of all democracies. I was introduced to the world of politics.<\/p>
My interest in international affairs was growing but I still did not want to enter politics.<\/p>
My father would regale me with stories about Joan of Arc, Mrs. Bandarnaike the world\u2019s first woman Prime Minister and Mrs. Gandhi of India. Moreover, Mrs. Golda Meir had been Prime Minister of Israel during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. All the civilizations of the world had\u00a0 women Prime Ministers except for the Islamic civilization. Yet it was Islam which had given the clarion call for gender equality. My father believed that I was the one who would right the historic balance.<\/p>
Despite my reluctance, he clearly saw a political role for me. He groomed me for politics and motivated me with role models.<\/p>
I joined the Oxford Union Students Debating Society because my father wanted me too. Many British Prime Ministers had started their political careers as Presidents of the Oxford Union. Even though he did not say it, I felt my father wanted me to run for office there too. So I did.<\/p>
At Oxford I was the first female foreigner to be elected as President of the Oxford Union.<\/p>
It is said that the Oxford Union is the training ground for British politics. The entry and exit doors have \u201cPush\u201d and \u201cPull\u201d written on them. We joked that politics was all about pushing and pulling up the greasy ladder of success.<\/p>
It was there that I first learnt to debate.<\/p>
I returned to Pakistan in the summer of 1977 planning to join the foreign service.<\/p>
Within a week of my return to Pakistan, my life changed dramatically.<\/p>
A military coup took place.\u00a0Army tanks had surrounded the Prime Minister\u2019s house. Our\u00a0life and family\u00a0was never to be the same again.<\/p>
My \u00a0father was taken away. I ran to the door as he walked out of the house. I watched the car leave the drive way taking my father to an unknown destination, with the sun glowing off the car\u2019s metal plate with the Prime Minister Seal.<\/p>
As Prime Minister of Pakistan, I declined to return to live in the Prime Minister\u2019s House. It held too many painful memories for me.<\/p>
My father was later released and greeted by hundreds of thousands of people. They swarmed around him pouring out their love and affection.<\/p>
This show of popular strength struck fear into the heart of the military.<\/p>
Shortly there after I was woken in the night with armed men barging into my room waving guns and jumping over the place. They were all over the house. My father was arrested again and taken away.<\/p>
He was released, re-arrested, and finally hanged amidst international outrage at the age of fifty.<\/p>
I was then half his age. His Highness President Shaikh Zayed was one of the leading world figures who tried to save my father\u2019s life and sent my family a condolence message. His support meant a great deal to us and to the people of Pakistan.<\/p>
A few hours before my Father\u2019s murder, my Mother and I went to see him in the squalid death cell where the military tyrants had kept him. We went to bid him farewell. His courage in the face of death remains with me.<\/p>
It was then, in that final meeting that I decided come what may, I would continue his mission and his work for a democratic Pakistan with equal rights for all its citizens.<\/p>
During the long dark night of military dictatorship, lasting eleven years, my mother and I were repeatedly arrested, kept apart, in solitarity confinement amidst harsh conditions. Every attempt was made to break our will but we remained strong bolstered by the love of the people who supported us.<\/p>
Our supporters were whiplashed, tortured, shot and hanged. But they never wavered. Some went to the gallows with my father\u2019s name on their lips, others were buried with their coffins covered in the tricoloured party flag.<\/p>
My mother was baton charged\u00a0and denied proper treatment. Today she suffers from a form of Alzheimer\u2019s her doctors say was brought on by improper treatment of that head wound.<\/strong><\/p>
I spent nearly six years behind bars, often in solitary confinement. During the summers it was unbearably hot and during the winters it was brutally cold. The conditions in the cell were primitive. Mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches, dust storms and dryness were constant companions as was loneliness and a lack of communication with the outside world.<\/strong><\/p>
I spent long hours in prayer. My belief in God sustained me when each moment seemed an hour, each hour a day. Through out this period, I was confident that we would triumph, confident that truth would prevail, confident that those who are patient and persevere are rewarded with victory. I never lost hope. I never gave up.<\/strong><\/p>
I was told that the death cells were being emptied for me as part of the psychological warfare to break my spirit. But I held to the belief that life and death are in God\u2019s hands.<\/strong><\/p>
By the time I was freed into exile through international pressure, I was anorexic. My hearing and eyesight were affected forever. My face muscles hurt when I talked. They had atrophied through the years of silence. Freed from the grey walls of my prison cell, I found it hard to adjust to sunlight, to the noise of peoples voices, to ordinary conversation.<\/strong><\/p>
My family background and long years of imprisonment made me the rallying point for the democratic movement. I returned to Pakistan in 1986 welcomed by millions of Pakistanis who demanded an end to dictatorship.<\/strong><\/p>
And when I got married and expected my first child in 1988, the military dictator called for elections. He thought a pregnant woman could not campaign. I could, and I did, and, with the support of the brave people of Pakistan, I was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.<\/strong><\/p>
It was not an easy campaign. The religious parties that had supported the Afghan Jihad in Afghanistan opposed me. They claimed that the marriage of any man who voted for me would be null and void in the eyes of God. They claimed that the only place for a woman was behind the veil and the four walls of the house\u2014Not in government.<\/strong><\/p>
They said it was a religious duty to kill me because I was challenging the right of men to rule the country and defying the tradition enforced on women. But I did not give up. And won.<\/strong><\/p>
Circumstances propelled me onto the road of leadership.<\/strong><\/p>
I find that leadership is born of a passion and it is a commitment. My commitment to democracy helped me walk the high mountain of success as well as the low valleys of imprisonment and exile.<\/strong><\/p>
Leadership demands a price from an individual and it also demands a price from the family.<\/strong><\/p>
I do not understand the work-life balance.<\/strong><\/p>
For me, success is 99% perspiration and one % inspiration.<\/strong><\/p>
My election broke the myth that a woman could not be elected Prime Minister in a Muslim country. It was a severe set back for the forces of fanaticism that wished to build a theocratic society.<\/strong><\/p>
It stirred a debate in the entire Muslim world. The lead scholar in Saudi Arabia gave a Fatwa, a religious edict, against my election.\u00a0But other religious scholars supported me. I especially remember the religious scholars in Egypt, Syria and Yemen. The religious scholar in Yemen said that Islam permitted a woman to govern a Muslim country. He said the Holy book of the Muslims referred to the rule of Queen Sheba in laudatory terms noting that her reign brought prosperity to her people.<\/strong><\/p>
But the fanatics in Pakistan were deeply upset at my election. They dreamt of spreading the ideological frontiers of Islam through Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia to the borders of Europe.<\/strong><\/p>
Elements of the military that had fought the Afghan Jihad as a religious war against godless communism also opposed me. They refused to salute me and engaged in covert conspiracies to overthrow me.<\/strong><\/p>
My opponents turned to Osma Bin Laden for help. They called him back from Saudi Arabia where he had returned following the decision of the Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989. They asked him for ten million dollars to bring down the Government I led. In return they promised to legislate a religious bill turning Pakistan into a theocratic state.<\/strong><\/p>
Until today the fanatics who believe in a war between the Muslims and the Non-Muslims fear my popularity and the strength of my Party. They see us as a symbol of a modern Muslim state, pluralistic, democratic, tolerant, respecting freedom and human rights. They fear the empowerment of the people which challenges authoritian forms of government.<\/strong><\/p>
Undeterred by the opposition, my party began the restructuring of the state.<\/strong><\/p>
We broke the bureaucratic stranglehold becoming the first in the region to privatise, deregulate and decentralize our economy.<\/strong><\/p>
We opened up our markets transforming our economy from permits and permission to initiative and entrepreneurship.<\/strong><\/p>
As Prime Minister of Pakistan, I successfully built good relations with India through negotiations with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.<\/strong><\/p>
I bargained with Afghan leaders to influence the formation of a moderate government in Kabul.<\/strong><\/p>
My government opened up trade and common links with Central Asia.<\/strong><\/p>
But the elements of the military establishment that had fought communism in Afghanistan and now wanted to take on the west did not give up. They twice destabilized the governments I led.<\/strong><\/p>
During both my stints in opposition, Pakistan was on the brink of being declared a terrorist state, during both times, the World Trade Towers were attacked and so were targets in India, including its Parliament.<\/strong><\/p>
It was during the eclipse of my government in 1996 that the Taliban seized all of Afghanistan. It was after my overthrow that Al Qaeda was established In Afghanistan and set up camps to train, recruit and arm young men from across the Muslim world.<\/strong><\/p>
Two years after my overthrow, in 1988, Osama Bin Laden declared war on the west from the soil of Afghanistan. Three years later, the Trade Centers were attacked.<\/strong><\/p>
The cause of history changed with the change of leadership in Pakistan.<\/strong><\/p>
In 2001, the military\u00a0regime claimed to change course. Following President Bush\u2019s ultimatum to stand up and be counted as friend or foe.\u00a0It said that it had adopted the policy of peace with India and Afghanistan which I had initiated and internally tried to restrain armed militias.<\/strong><\/p>
However, extremists groups continue to pose a challenge in Pakistan and in South Asia as the recent New Delhi bombings demonstrate.<\/strong><\/p>
The vendetta against Bhutto\u2019s daughter, the leader, the military\u00a0Generals hanged, still continues. I am forced into exile where I now live.<\/strong><\/p>
But I have not given up and remain the symbol for a democratic future for my country.<\/strong><\/p>
I faced many challenges since 1996. My husband was arrested the night my government was overthrown. He was held hostage to my political struggle for 8 long years. I am continuously told that the web of legal cases woven around my family and myself can be broken if I announce my abdication from political life. I do not do so.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
I know that my duty to my people comes first, for the sake of my children and all the children of Pakistan. My duty to Pakistan\u2019s democratic struggle is one baptized in blood. During this struggle, I lost both my brothers who were killed in the prime of their lives.<\/strong><\/p>
I have three children. They were very small when our troubles started. My youngest was three. I was their sole caretaker when my husband was in prison for 8 years. I believe women can combine career and motherhood.<\/strong><\/p>
It is critical that women enter the 21^{st<\/sup>\u00a0Century ready to accept the challenges of a modern world.<\/strong><\/p>}
The Islamic values of Ijma and Ijtihad, give us reasoning power to build a consensus for our times.<\/strong><\/p>
Acquiescing to tradition \u2014 a tradition of subjugation of mothers and daughters \u2014 can no longer be accepted.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
These are difficult times.\u00a0 Freedom is under assault.\u00a0 Democracy is under assault.\u00a0 We live in an age of terrorism.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
But\u00a0we shall prevail if we reclaim our lives from the fanatics who wish to subjugate women and keep our people ignorant.<\/strong><\/p>
When the human spirit was immersed in the darkness of the middle ages in Europe, Islam proclaimed equality between men and women.<\/strong><\/p>
Let us remember that Islam introduced divorce, child custody and alimony for the first time in civilization.\u00a0 Islam came as a message of emancipation that put an end to the degradation of women and the burial of the girl child.<\/strong><\/p>
It is this tradition of Islam that allowed me my battle for political and human rights. It strengthens me today in this hour of crisis for my family, my nation and myself.<\/strong><\/p>
As leader of Pakistan, I ensured the protection of our mothers, sisters and daughters.<\/strong><\/p>
The cause of women rights is for me a cause of human rights.<\/strong><\/p>
The new century must, for once and for all, exclude the notion of battered women.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
It must be an era where honor and dignity are protected in peace, and in war, where women have economic freedom and independence, where women are not defined by their fathers or husbands, but by their own achievements, where they are equal partners in peace and development.<\/strong><\/p>
My time in exile has coincided with the era of terrorism and the threat of a clash of cultures, of a miscommunication between the Islamic and Non-Islamic world.<\/strong><\/p>
I tried to act as a bridge between different cultures, countries and continents.<\/strong><\/p>
I explained the peaceful and tolerant message of Islam to international audiences to correct the misperceptions propagated by the extremists who exploit it to promote their politics of hate.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
I visited India to promote a South Asia where there is peace and prosperity through open borders and trade. My political opponents\u00a0 have now accepted the wisdom of the policies for which I was once termed a \u201csecurity risk.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>
When I was at Oxford, I won the Presidency of the Oxford Union debating that \u201cThe Pen is more powerful than the Sword.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>
I believe in the battle of ideas, and that no force can win a victory against an idea, a policy or a vision that is based on truth and justice.<\/strong><\/p>
I still believe the Pen is more Powerful than the Sword although the world has changed since I was a student at Oxford.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
The era of peace for which we prayed has become a time for war.<\/strong><\/p>
Tolerance has been replaced with terrorism.<\/strong><\/p>
There was a time when multi-lateral leadership succeeded in those glorious days when the Berlin Wall fell and freedom swept the Eastern Bloc at the end of the last century.<\/p>
The peace bonus, when we hoped that poverty would be eliminated by diverting resources used to fight the Cold War, did not materialise.<\/p>
The stability we hoped to achieve in a unipolar world has degenerated into dangerous unpredictability.<\/p>
The attack on the World Trade Towers created a new form of unilateral leadership. Now fear replaces hope.<\/p>
Unilateralism in Iraq has lead to hundreds of thousands Iraqi deaths, 2000 American deaths, and a U.S. national debt of 300 billion dollars.<\/p>
Natural disasters in the world are fueling economic and political instability. The Tsunami killed a quarter of a million people in December\u00a0 2004.\u00a0 A devastating earthquake in Northern Pakistan and Kashmir killed 100,000 of my fellow countrymen, rendering millions homeless through a cold and dangerous winter.<\/p>
The hurricane Katrina created the unsettling image of an American city underwater with a superpower unable to quickly save its own people.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
The natural disasters take place against a reconfiguration of the international economy and international wealth.<\/p>
Many of us believe that demography is destiny, that demographic factors shape economic factors, political factors, and the military balance of power.<\/p>
The moving finger of demography writes, and having written, moves on. The demographic hand is writing in this very continent of Asia where many predict that the 21rst century could be the Chinese century.<\/p>
New York has 2000 skyscrapers rising from the rock of Manhattan.\u00a0 Yet Shanghai has an astanding 4000 skyscrapers \u2014 twice as many as New York.<\/p>
The American debt was bought, principally by Japan and China.\u00a0 The financial institutions of the East now underwrite the 200 billion dollars\u00a0 borrowed to rebuild America\u2019s Gulf Coast.<\/p>
The energy situation is another example.<\/p>
In 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter was ridiculed for declaring that the energy crisis was the \u201cmoral equivalent of war.\u201d<\/p>
China and India are emerging as two new powers as thirsty for energy consumption as the west.<\/p>
Increased competition for diminishing energy reserves will force the price of energy in only one direction \u2014 UP.\u00a0 This can further disrupt the economics, politics and social stability of the 21^{st<\/sup>\u00a0century.<\/p>}
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
It is impossible to separate economic justice from political liberty.<\/p>
I can attest to the price to world peace paid when human rights is not integral to the foreign policy goals of the major democratic players in international affairs.<\/p>
We learn that, democracy, women\u2019s rights, human rights, press freedom are important, but apparently\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0sometimes.<\/em><\/p>
Violations of these principles lead to international sanctions\u00a0 \u2014 but\u00a0only sometimes.<\/em><\/p>
Some believe that the imposition of democracy on Iraq would somehow democratize this entire region.\u00a0 But critics claim that an artificial confederation drawn under occupation will remain controversial and short-lived.<\/p>
I recall that Communism was not defeated by capitalism or by the NATO; it was fundamentally defeated by humanism. The Czech President Vaclav Havel so accurately noted that \u201ccommunism was not defeated by military force, but by the human spirit, by conscience, by the resistance of man to manipulation.<\/p>
This is manifest in the large, discontented, and radicalizing Muslim communities in France and across much of Europe.\u00a0 The challenge is to transform alienated Muslim immigrants and their children into integrated members of the nation, convincing them to accept the full obligations of democratic citizenship.<\/p>
This can not be accomplished through economic subjugation and social ostracism.\u00a0 The way forward is not religious and cultural ridicule.\u00a0 The way forward is through equality, opportunity and respect for cultural and religious pluralism. It is through religious tolerance.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
Islam denounces inequality as the greatest form of injustice.<\/p>
It enjoins its followers to combat oppression and tyranny.<\/p>
It enshrines piety as the sole criteria for judging humankind.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
Despite the constraints of a political system that was all too often rigged against democrats, and a social system that was biased against women, when I became prime Minister of Pakistan I used my office to try to reverse centuries of discrimination.<\/p>
My tenure was a textbook affirmative action program against gender discrimination.\u00a0 We increased literacy by one-third, even more dramatically among girls.<\/p>
We brought down the population growth rate by establishing women\u2019s health clinics in thousands of communities across our Nation.<\/p>
We outlawed domestic violence and established special women\u2019s police forces to protect and defend the women of Pakistan.<\/p>
We appointed women judges to our nation\u2019s benches for the first time in our history.<\/p>
We instituted a new program of hiring women police officers to investigate crimes of domestic violence against the women of Pakistan.<\/p>
We encouraged women\u2019s and girl\u2019s participation in sports, both nationally and internationally by lifting the ban imposed on their participation.<\/p>
We held a Muslim Women\u2019s Olympics.<\/p>
We held the first meeting of a Muslim Women\u2019s Parliamentary Conference.<\/p>
The record I accomplished is one in which I have great pride.\u00a0 Despite the reversals in my homeland\u00a0 \u2014 the progress that we made raised the bar of expectations and cannot long be ignored.<\/p>
In my commitment to political liberty and to democracy, I have never wavered.<\/p>
Unfortunately, that has not always been the case in the conduct by many great nations of international affairs over the last generation.<\/p>
Afghanistan is an example of how retreating from the principles of human rights and democracy can have the most tragic consequences.<\/p>
The overall policy of standing against Soviet aggression in Afghanistan was right.\u00a0 Yet\u00a0in our admirable zeal to end the Soviet occupation, we did not plan our work for a post-war Afghanistan built on democratic and Islamic principles of coalition, consensus and cooperation.<\/p>
We were not consistently committed to the values of freedom, democracy, social equality and self-determination that ultimately undermine the basic tenets of terrorism.<\/p>
We must not make that mistake again.<\/p>
There must be a middle ground between the internationalist realism theory of the late Hans Morgenthau, constructing\u00a0 power devoid of moral content, and the interventionist internationalism of the neoconservative movements that ignore cultural diversity.<\/p>
Might doesn\u2019t always or necessarily make right.\u00a0 Indeed it was the\u00a0 American President Abraham Lincoln who said that it is \u201cright that makes might.\u201d<\/p>
This mix of realism and idealism was best manifest when The United States, under President Bill Clinton, militarily intervened to stop the genocide of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia.<\/p>
Was the US strategically threatened?\u00a0 No.<\/p>
Was it morally threatened by genocide on this planet? Yes.<\/p>
It should be a guide for the international community on what can be done, what must be done, to successfully confront clear and unambiguous evil.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
It is clear to me, that the solution to the paradoxes of the early 21^{st<\/sup>\u00a0century can only be achieved by broad consensus.\u00a0 Solutions will not be imposed by political extremes, whether on the left or the right.<\/p>}
The Right would seek to intervene to impose their values and their policies across society.<\/p>
The Left\u00a0can take on the aura of elitism and\u00a0are at times contemptuous of the broad cross section of people in the middle of society who are religious, honest and hardworking, and want nothing more than a secure and decent life for their children.<\/p>
In so many places on this planet the debate rages between the extremes\u00a0 \u2014 those on the margins of society who have contempt for each other, and for anyone else \u2014 who does not endorse their political agenda.<\/p>
This is the tragedy of politics throughout the world.<\/p>
There is a Center, a Sensible Center<\/u>, a Moderate Center<\/u>, which is outside the political decision making process.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
The Sensible Center may be ignored, but in the end it is the Sensible Center that is the answer.<\/p>
When political forces, political parties and political leaders can finally come to realize and fully appreciate that they have a fundamental obligation to society, the world can gallop into the unlimited social, educational, global and scientific promise of the 21^{st<\/sup>\u00a0century.<\/p>}
It is our job to find answers.<\/p>
It is our job to find consensus.<\/p>
It is our job to marginalize the extremes.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
Robert F. Kennedy once said that \u201cthe future does not belong to those who are content with today\u2026\u2026 Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of society.\u201d<\/p>
Vision, Reason and Courage.<\/p>
Those are the true qualities of leadership.<\/p>
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.<\/p>
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Ms Benazir Bhutto\u2019s Speech At Rashid Centre Humanitarian Awards Ceremony \u2013 Dubai June 6, 2005 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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Ms Benazir Bhutto\u2019s Speech<\/span>
At Rashid Centre Humanitarian Awards Ceremony \u2013 Dubai
<\/strong>June 6, 2005<\/span><\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen,
<\/strong><\/em>
It is a special privilege to join you this evening for the Rashid Paediatric Centre\u2019s Humanitarian Award function.<\/p>
We gather tonight on the occasion of the Rashid Centre\u2019s Humanitarian Award to late Prime Minister Rafiq Harriri of Lebanon.<\/p>
In anguish we recall Prime Minister Hariri\u2019s death in a terrible act of terrorism this February, an act of terror that claimed ten other lives.<\/p>
Prime Minister Harriri was a transformational figure in life and in death. He transformed Lebanon with post war reconstruction work. He rebuilt his country and his record will live on in history as a monument to his memory. His tragic death galvanised the world community leading to a new political equation.<\/p>
I recall my meetings with Prime Minister Harriri. He was a leader of courage and compassion who believed in the Islamic values of consensus.<\/p>
Tonight the Rashid Centre pays tribute to Lebanon\u2019s leader who was committed to humanitarian causes.<\/p>
The Rashid Paediatric Therapy Centre itself invites admiration for its selfless devotion to the most vulnerable segment of our society, young disabled children.<\/p>
As I speak to you now, a child will be born.<\/p>
Irrespective of where that child is born, in which continent, in which country or in which home, a loving Mother will love and feed that child praying for its future.<\/p>
The life of a child born in a war torn zone will be so much different to that of one born in peace.<\/p>
The life of a child born in poverty will be different to the one born to an affluent home.<\/p>
In parts of the world, little children born in innocence are made child soldiers, in other parts forced to work in the labour force and yet others forced into prostitution.<\/p>
One of the saddest stories I read was of a Mother forced to sell her eldest daughter to feed her ten remaining children. One can imagine the powerlessness and desperation of a Mother forced to sell a most beloved child.<\/p>
None of us can be in peace with our own selves so long as innocent children continue to suffer, suffer poverty, cruelty, violence.<\/p>
We explore the darkest portions of space and the deepest depths of the ocean. Humanity has made incredible leaps forward. Even as we grow in technological knowledge and information passes through the information highway in the blink of an eye, the sad reality of suffering children is a reminder of challenges yet unmet.<\/p>
Children are victims, both as casualties and as survivors of conflict although they have little choice in either.<\/p>
According to UNICEF\u2019s 1996 report between 1945 and 1992, there were 149 major wars, killing 23 million people. The number of war deaths in this period was double the deaths in 19th century and seven times greater than in 18th century.<\/p>
Children in the aftermath of war or natural disaster, with or without parents, often go through ordeals in refugee camps, while fleeing for shelter, food or protection.<\/p>
International aid agencies like UNICEF and Save the children fund, reach out to the world\u2019s poorest and most deprived children. Yet they can resolve only part of the problem. In many poverty stricken areas of the world, nation states still spend too little on social services and too much of their meagre resources on procurement of weapons and military budgets. So long as they do that, children will continue to suffer in large numbers.<\/p>
It is important to note that some of yesterdays\u2019 children are today\u2019s recruits in suicide bombings. Although there can be no justification of terrorism, the question we need to ask is: What did the last generation do that made some of this generation perpetuate violence?<\/p>
History is continuous, and often cyclical. The mistakes of parents or past generations, reflect into children, thereby marking our present. Children signify our future. The experience of today will shape the decisions our children take tomorrow.<\/p>
No international covenants will change the world, unless there is active discouragement by parents of violence and violent means of change. However the eventual responsibility lies with nation states \u2013 to build peaceful conditions and more than that, to evolve strong legal instruments that prevent child abuse.<\/p>
Often, when talking about children, we adults, treat them as a thing apart \u2013 as if they are another being, or another category, forgetting that once we were children, who now ensure our own continuity through our children.<\/p>
If we could remember what happened to us during our individual childhoods that shaped our individual personalities, we could remember that today is yesterday\u2019s future, shaped by the experiences we went through as children.<\/p>
If we own other people\u2019s children, as if they were ours, we can build a tomorrow where the spectre of sectarian, ethnic and terrorist violence recedes.<\/p>
For all of us who care for children and for the common bond of humanity that links us, we dedicate ourselves to building a world where each little child that is born can hope to live without dying through infant mortality, can hope to gain an education, find a home and a career and build a family and community.<\/p>
As a Mother, I feel strongly about the rights of children. As Prime Minister I was asked to Co Chair the World Summit on children. I was astounded to find that one of nine children born with the crippling disease polio was from Pakistan. I worked hard with the people of my country to eliminate polio, to iodise salt, to prevent child labour and to build schools to give our children opportunity and a better future than the dark yesterdays they had known.<\/p>
Special attention was given to young girls for ensuring that our future Mothers were literate. I believe the first and best teacher is the
Mother.<\/p>
For me, the little child, even when unborn, is our precious wealth and the strength of our coming generations.<\/p>
In a world where weapons and war too often define us, it is important that we leave tonight\u2019s function learning from the Rashid Centre to help children who are the true beneficiaries of the efforts for a better world.<\/p>
As I spoke to you tonight, many Mother\u2019s gave birth to children across the world. I wonder: how many will see their children survive infancy.<\/p>
I do know that the number of those children who survive is the true test of our direction and goals as a world community.<\/p>
Ad while I cannot say how many children died while I spoke to you tonight, I can say that while such basic violation of the children\u2019s
rights continues, none of us can be truly content, no matter how privileged our life styles.<\/p>
I leave you tonight with the words of a poem that held particular meaning for me:<\/p>
If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn. If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.<\/p>
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence.<\/p>
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.<\/p>
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Women Emancipation International Women Business Conference Damascus \u2013 Syria 20 May 2005 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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Women Emancipation<\/strong><\/span>
International Women Business Conference<\/strong><\/span>
Damascus \u2013 Syria<\/strong><\/span>
20 May 2005<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto on 20 May 2005 addressed the International Women Business Conference in Damascus on the invitation of the First Lady of Syria Madam Basharul Asad. It was the first ever conference of its kind in the Middle East organised by the First Lady of the host country. The opening session of the conference was addressed by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto from Pakistan, Suzan Mubarik the First Lady of Egypt and the first lady of Turkey besides the First Lady of Syria.<\/p>
Following is the text of the speech:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>
I believe in life women have nothing to fear but fear itself. Women still have to go a long way, especially Muslim Woman. But we derive support from our religion. The Prophet of Islam (Peace Be Upon Him), condemned the practice of killing the girl child practiced in pagan times. The killing of the girl child was a symbol of violence against women. Violence is wrong. Yet violence against women continues in different ways. It continues through honour killings and genital mutilation as well as domestic violence and sexual assault.<\/p>
I owe success to my father, a special man who insisted that I have a university education even though his sisters said, don\u2019t do that because no man will marry an educated woman. Education is the first step to success and to independence as well as a satisfying life enabling a person to lead a stimulating, interesting and instructive life.<\/p>
My life is not the simple life I dreamt as a student at Harvard and Oxford. I have lost my father when he was fifty years old. I lost two of my brothers. Many thought that as a woman, I would break. I did not because I believe that leadership irrespective of whether it is in politics or professions is born of a passion. It is a commitment and it becomes life\u2019s mission. Women often have to make difficult choices. Sometimes choices that men do not have to make. Yet we make them because we must. While I was at Oxford University, the British Conservative Party nominated Margaret Thatcher as their Prime Ministerial candidate. She became a role model for me, an example of a woman in the world of politics who had the courage to take on the mantle of leadership. Women need role models for moral support, especially women in leadership positions. At Oxford, I was the first female foreigner to win the presidency of the prestigious Oxford Debating Society.<\/p>
This new century of ours must, for once and for all, be a century that values the girl child, that respects the woman, and protects its daughters, mothers and sisters in peace and in war, that honours and dignifies its women with economic freedom and allows us to be judged by our individual achievements.<\/p>
As prime minister of Pakistan, I took several steps to enable womenfolk to compete with men creating Women Bank, guaranteeing small business loans to women entrepreneurs and appointing women as judges in the higher judiciary of the country. It is ironic that most Muslim societies have women who face discrimination in one form or another. We need to stand up to this discrimination and reverse it. It is a gender bias dictated by tradition. As Prime Minister of Pakistan I used my office to try to reverse centuries of discrimination against women.\u00a0 The government I led instituted a new program of hiring women police officers to investigate crimes of domestic violence against the women of Pakistan.\u00a0 We condemned, as state police, of women who had been raped. We lifted the ban on women taking part in sporting events.<\/p>
I see great progress looming as the forces that shape the new century and the new millennium come together around the world. It is a confluence of ideology that must shape a world free from gender exploitation, free from poverty, hunger and disease. In the new global community none of us can be free if some of us are enslaved. We are not free if children cannot read, for a child who cannot read has no future. I wonder how many of you know that in every hour, one thousand children starve to death on this planet. As long as these basic violations of human rights are allowed to continue, none of us \u2014 regardless of where we live, regardless of how elegant or civilized our life-styles, regardless of our own personal circumstances and comforts \u2014 none of us are free. But I do not despair. As I see women attaining rights, moving forward, making a success in business, politics and professions, I have great hope for a better world than the one bequeathed our generation.<\/p>
The solutions may not be quick or simple.\u00a0 But history teaches us that ultimately the forces of justice triumph.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Mohtarma Bhutto says dictatorship has disempowered people Lecturer at the Simmons College in Massachusetts US\u00a0\u2013 April 30, 2005 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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Mohtarma Bhutto says dictatorship has disempowered people<\/strong><\/span>
Lecturer at the Simmons College in Massachusetts<\/strong><\/span>
US\u00a0\u2013 April 30, 2005<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Says Muslim world needs alternatives to theocratic rule<\/strong><\/em><\/p>
Islamabad April 30, 2005: former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the PPP Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has said that elections in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine have been followed by elections in Ukraine and civil elections in Saudi Arabia while the Syrians are phasing out their military presence in Lebanon. \u201cThe nurturing of democracy in the Middle East was opening up a window of opportunity for the people of the area\u201d.<\/p>
She was speaking as a guest lecturer at the Simmons College in Massachusetts today. The lecture was attended by about 2700 business and professional women from throughout the United States. There was a panel discussion with Ms. Judy Woodruff, a leading commentator on CNN on \u201cWhat matters most\u201d.<\/p>
She said that these events, especially the elections in Saudi Arabia, taken together represent the vanguard of a sea change in the Muslim community.<\/p>
She said that democracy was the ultimate enemy of terrorism. Therefore it was important for her country Pakistan to move on to the path of true democracy in place of the controlled democracy which had resulted from the general elections of 2002.<\/p>
She recalled that the international community decided to throw its weight behind Pakistan\u2019s military ruler General Musharaf following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centres and expressed concern that the inability of the international community so far to facilitate Pakistan\u2019s transition to civilian and democratic rule could undermine its objectives in the long run.<\/p>
Pakistan\u2019s military dictatorship has resulted in the disempowerment of the people of Pakistan as well as in the domination of the country\u2019s political, financial and social class by the military. For the first time in Pakistan\u2019s history, the religious parties have grown in strength and formed a government in the Frontier province bordering Afghanistan. Another first has been the nomination of a religious leader as the Leader of Opposition who has the constitutional right to sit on the National Security Council of the country that frames foreign and security policy, she said.<\/p>
There was general feeling that the religious parties, and the ruling PML Q which shares many ideas with them, gained in the October elections due to the decision to ban her and Mr. Nawaz Sharif from leading their parties and contesting in the General elections. The military regime had announced that it would not let the two former Prime Ministers run for
office a third time. However, she said that such a policy, aimed at decapitating the true leadership of the country, could end up benefiting the religious parties even further. They would make large gains in the Punjab province if this were to occur.<\/p>
The former Prime Minister said that the military regime defended vesting the Presidency with enormous constitutional powers in the name of withdrawing the army from politics forever. However, leave alone forever, the enormous powers with the President did not even facilitate the withdrawal of the army from the politics of the country under General Musharaf. This proved the Opposition claim that dictatorial powers for the President were not a deterrent to military intervention. The only deterrent could be a system based on checks and balances, which was accountable and which distributed powers evenly between the centre, the provinces and the districts.<\/p>
Quoting from the respected International Crisis Group\u2019s assessment of the situation in Pakistan she said it hit the nail right on the head when it said; \u201cInstead of empowering liberal, democratic values, the government has co-opted the religious right and continues to rely on it to counter civilian opposition. By depriving democratic forces of an even playing field and continuing to ignore the need for state policies that would encourage and indeed reflect the country religious diversity, the Musharaf government has allowed religious extremist organizations and jihadi groups, and the Madrassas that provide them an endless stream of recruits to flourish.\u201d<\/p>
She said that Muslim youth want power and want a say in their destiny. They do not want to live as slaves following orders of people on top who are unaccountable and unrepresentative. For her, the democratisation of Pakistan is important to the war against terrorism, to the interpretation of Islam as a message of freedom and enlightenment as well as to the empowerment of the people of Pakistan.<\/p>
She recalled the words of President George Bush in his second Inaugural: \u201cThere is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of freedom.\u201d<\/p>
She agreed with the conclusions of the International Crisis Group that, \u201cThe U.S. and other influential actors have realized with regard to their own societies that terrorism can only be eliminated through pluralistic democratic structures.\u00a0 Pakistan should not be an
exception.\u201d<\/p>
The former Prime Minister said that it was a sorry state of affairs that even as political freedoms were denied, economic and social successes remained a distant dream in Pakistan. Unemployment, poverty, malnutrition and injustice destroyed lives. Society was governed by the whim of the rulers rather than by a set of rules. The head of the ruling party openly boasted that people had more or less rights according to the \u201cdheel\u201d or latitude given to them by the rulers than the sanctity and sacred nature of the Constitution of the country or the laws of the land.<\/p>
She said that the mainstream political parties were banned and stopped from freely functioning. The proof of this was the savage break up of the peaceful reception planned for her husband former Federal Minister Asif Ali Zardari on his first visit to Lahore following eight years of imprisonment.<\/p>
She said that the rulers were so intolerant of political opposition that they were pressuring the landlord of her husband\u2019s home in Lahore to cancel the rental agreement. However, she said that such petty actions would not deter the PPP from pressing ahead for freeing the people of Pakistan from the chains of tyranny, backwardness and poverty. She said
that the PPP workers knew that victory came to the brave and the bold and would face the repressive forces of the state with courage and conviction of their principles.<\/p>
She also talked of the Muslim past where the Muslim renaissance saw giant leaps forward in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, literature and science based on education and rational discourse. She said that freedom in Pakistan and across the Muslim world would unleash the creative powers of the Muslim people helping them achieve the heights of greatness once again in the fields of medicine, law, literature and art and culture.<\/p>
The PPP Chairperson was critical of those who presented the theocratic state, disciplined under a single religious figure, as the path to victory. She said that the generation spawned by the Afghan Jihad of the eighties against the Soviets which was heavily influenced by extremist thought, needed to be rescued with an alternative political model to that of the theocratic state.<\/p>
She said the fight for freedom is a fight for giving the Muslim youth an alternative political system that can empower them, give them faith in themselves, dignity, self respect and allow them to hold their heads high with pride in their culture and history free from bigotry and prejudice.<\/p>
She said that Islam believed in a pluralistic society although one could not see many pluralistic societies in the Muslim world today. Se said she read in history books that when the crusaders came they killed everyone in their wake to take Jerusalem. However, as a Muslim child, she read that when the Muslim conqueror Salahuddin retook Jerusalem, he told the victorious Muslim troops not to kill the non Muslims.<\/p>
She said that this decision by Salahuddin centuries ago was proof of the tolerance and pluralism of Muslim leaders, societies and cultures which unfortunately had now been hijacked by the margins.<\/p>
The former Prime Minister said that the Muslims were in search of leaders that can revive the values of Islam by reintroducing the politics of consensus and compromise that lie at the heart of democratic values. She said that such values have nothing to do with terrorism that cannot be justified by any argument.<\/p>
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Pakistan\u2019s political, financial and social sectors dominated by military under dictatorship Ms Bhutto addresses writers, intellectuals in US Florida \u2013 March 08, 2005 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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Pakistan\u2019s political, financial and social sectors dominated by military under dictatorship<\/strong><\/span>
Ms Bhutto addresses writers, intellectuals in US<\/strong><\/span>
Florida \u2013 March 08, 2005<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
It is my privilege to join you in the United States just four months after the Presidential election.<\/p>
This American election heralded a season of elections. So I join you just weeks after the election of a new Palestinian President. I join you after the election of a new Iraqi Assembly.<\/h2>
These three events open up a window of opportunity for stability, the containment of terrorism, and the nurturing of democracy in the Middle East and throughout those parts of the world where dictatorship still thrives.<\/h2>
For me, it is a rare opportunity for seismic change that must be embraced before the window shuts.<\/h2>
Decades, even centuries of tyranny, can be reversed if the world unites behind common principles of democracy, human rights and pluralism.\u00a0 This may sound like idealism, but I believe it is a realistic assessment of an extraordinary moment in history.<\/h2>
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centres has changed the shape of the world. September 11^{th<\/sup>\u00a02001 is always in our minds.\u00a0 The catastrophe that struck America that day continues to echo across the globe.<\/h2>Now, after a long time, the forces of violence seem to be in retreat.\u00a0 Yes, they resort to desperate, acts in Iraq, in Chechnya, in Madrid.<\/h2>
Yet fear and intimidation are being overwhelmed by hope and a new spirit of democratic participation and peaceful change.<\/h2>
Al Qaeda claimed that it would never let democracy take hold. It saw freedom as the ultimate enemy.<\/h2>
Democracy is indeed the ultimate enemy of terrorism, just as hope is the ultimate enemy of despair.\u00a0 Terrorists and dictators are on the wrong side of history, as the millions who voted in Iraq and Palestine proved.<\/h2>
And\u00a0the Israeli Prime Minister\u2019s decision for Israel to withdraw from Gaza offers hope of another breakthrough.\u00a0The Gaza withdrawal could be the first step that brings hope\u00a0of peace and justice to what seemed an insolvable Middle East morass.<\/h2>
And if Israel and Palestine can live in peace and security side by side, I pray for resolution of the equally difficult quagmire of self-determination for Jammu and Kashmir that has brought India and Pakistan to war three times, and threatens a nuclear Armageddon on the subcontinent of Asia.<\/h2>
My optimism does not mean there is no danger. Al Qaeda\u00a0will try to provoke the clash of civilizations.\u00a0 The question before us is whether the path to catastrophe can be avoided and whether the clash of civilizations is reversible.\u00a0 I believe recent developments suggest that there is cause for hope.<\/h2>
Much of our ability to avert the clash of civilizations lies in learning the lessons of history. Patience and Perseverance are\u00a0required to up haul political systems that\u00a0disempower people\u00a0in this the twenty first century.<\/h2>
Short-term solutions could lead to blowback.<\/h2>
My country Pakistan is an example of a Nation where the\u00a0forces of tyranny, terrorism, proliferation\u00a0and\u00a0a militant interpretation of Islam by the margins\u00a0mingle to create a difficult challenge.<\/h2>
The international community decided to throw its weight behind Pakistan\u2019s military dictator following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centers.\u00a0There are worries though that the inability of the international community to facilitate Pakistan\u2019s transition to civilian and democratic rule could undermine its objectives in the long run.<\/h2>\u00a0It is a known that there is\u00a0sympathy for Bin Laden, Taliban and\u00a0Arab fighters amongst Pakistan\u2019s military and clerical class. These were the two organizations used to\u00a0train the Mujahideen against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the eighties. Following the withdrawal of the Soviets, the Mujahideen went on to become in large parts the Taliban and Al Qaeda.<\/p>
Pakistan\u2019s military dictatorship culminated in the domination of the country\u2019s political, financial and social class by the military. Military dictatorship has coincided with the rise of the religious parties. The religious parties claim public friendship with Bin Laden and Mullah Omar. They have filled the vacuum caused by the military regime\u2019s determination to crush democracy, sideline the genuine representatives of the people and control the Parliament, Judiciary and Government.<\/p>
Pakistan\u2019s present military ruler, General Musharaf, vested the Presidency with enormous constitutional powers. These constitutional changes amounted to creating a civilian dictator. It was argued that an all-powerful President would help facilitate the withdrawal of the army to the barracks and prevent the recurrence of Martial Law in the country.\u00a0This has not happened.<\/p>
This December, after receiving signals that General Musharaf wanted to keep his military post of army chief, the Parliament passed a bill enabling him to be both President and Army Chief.\u00a0 This is the first and only Parliament in the world that has allowed such a bill.<\/p>
Musharaf\u00a0 went back on his commitment to the people of Pakistan, and to the governments of the world, by keeping both posts. This action demonstrated the inability of the present regime to withdraw the army from Pakistan\u2019s political landscape\u00a0following the October 2002 elections. Given the controversial nature of those elections, with allegations of massive rigging, it is unsurprising that\u00a0the regime was unable to build a sustainable political and civilian base that could facilitate the withdrawal of the armed forces back to the barracks. Such a withdrawal is allow Pakistan to rejoin the international community as a modern, democratic and enlightened nation state with an empowered people.<\/p>
A military President in Pakistan, Washington\u2019s key ally, sends the wrong message to one billion Muslims regarding the reasons for the war against terror.<\/p>
President Bush called this a war for the values of freedom. Prime Minister Blair said this was not a war between religions but against oppression and tyranny.\u00a0\u00a0 The democratization of Pakistan is important to the war against terrorism, to the interpretation of Islam as a message of freedom and enlightenment as well as to the empowerment of the people of Pakistan.<\/p>
The democratic world was moved by the\u00a0words of President George Bush in his second Inaugural address.\u00a0 He spoke of freedom offering hope to millions of oppressed people around the world. President Bush said, \u201cthere is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of freedom.\u201d<\/p>
People living under tyranny and dictatorship all over the world, but especially in Asia, listened carefully when Mr. Bush said that the United States \u201cwill encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people.\u00a0 America\u2019s belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the government.\u201d<\/p>
Now it is time to act on these words.\u00a0 Now it is time to convert rhetoric into reality, to convert polemics into policy.\u00a0 The elections in Palestine and Iraq are two stirring examples.\u00a0 The principles of the Bush doctrine must be applied across the board against tyranny, not just when it is politically convenient.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
Today I see a Muslim world in flux. Many of the children of middle class families in the Muslim world\u00a0studied in state run schools\u00a0and are children of societies shadowed by dictatorship. Often,\u00a0they grew up under a ruthless dictatorship\u00a0using\u00a0the intelligence services, rather than the parliament or the people, to govern.<\/p>
Even as political freedoms were denied, economic and social\u00a0successes remained a distant dream.\u00a0While the elites thrived, the large masses of people lived in poverty and backwardness eking out a miserable life hindered by disease, malnutrition and infact mortality.<\/strong><\/p>
The mainstream political parties were banned and stopped from freely functioning. The\u00a0safe place for people to gather\u00a0was often only the Mosques.\u00a0It\u00a0became a place of prayer and of political discourse.<\/p>
Unable to take on the regime directly for fear of retaliation, the clerics\u00a0would speak against those who supported the dictator\u2014and often this was the West.<\/p>
Thus a Cold War generation, grew up hearing\u00a0about denial of nationhood to Palestine, lack\u00a0of self-determination to Kashmir, the denial of\u00a0autonomy to the\u00a0Chechens. They learnt\u00a0of past Muslim glory based on conquest and war. They learned little or nothing about the Muslim renaissance that saw giant leaps forward in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, literature and science based on education and rational discourse.<\/p>
They imbibed the lesson that a return to the simple, austere life of the past could once again rekindle the courage and passion that saw Islam sweep across continents and spread its message far and wide.<\/p>
The theocratic state, disciplined under a single religious figure, was presented as the path to victory, \u2014\u2013victory against the injustices perpetuated by bigger powers. This translated into victory against the existing national dictatorship and the social malaise it had spawned.<\/p>
This embittered generation must be rescued with an alternative political model to that of the theocratic state. The fight for freedom is a fight for values that can build a pluralistic world free of discrimination on the basis of race, religion or gender.<\/p>
When the terrorists targeted the World Trade Centers, they tried to destroy a symbol of pluralism.<\/p>
America is a land of modernity, diversity and democracy.<\/p>
Modernity, diversity and democracy are the fanatics\u2019 worst fears. They confuse the message to prevent Muslim people from learning that diversity ensures that cultural and religious identity remains intact.<\/p>
Whatever their alleged goals, there is no defence or justification in Islam for their barbaric conduct.<\/strong><\/p>
Islam is committed to tolerance, equality and\u00a0human dignity. It is committed to\u00a0empowerment of the masses through the principles of\u00a0consensus that lie at the heart of democracy.<\/p>
Tragically, despite this clear\u00a0Islamic\u00a0<\/strong>commitment to democracy, most Muslims are living in dictatorships and are hostages in authoritarian regimes around the world .<\/p>
The message of Islam highlights the importance of spreading education, respecting gender rights and ensuring minority rights. However, this important message of Islam is yet to spread in many of the dictatorships<\/strong>. It is democracy that brings accountability,that allows for social progress and that stems the tide of poverty and backwardness. A comparison of the peoples progress under the democratic government of the PPP and those that came after it clearly shows that ordinary people benefit under a true democracy.<\/p>
It\u00a0worries\u00a0me\u00a0when I see\u00a0Islamabad turn a blind eye to crimes against women. Immediate, stern action is needed by the regime to signal disapproval when a crime against a woman is committed. Yet the regime acts slowly, and only when prodded by public\u00a0outcry.<\/p>
This year An Army Captain took part in the gang rape of a lady doctor. It took weeks of public protest before he was finally arrested. And even after his arrest, the regime sided with the rapist, claiming he was innocent, rather than with the victim. It is this inability to distinguish between the exploiter and the exploited that best highlights the difference between a dictatorship and a democracy.<\/p>
So, too, when a\u00a0lady filed a complaint of domestic violence against\u00a0one of Islamabad\u2019s Ambassadors, the regime sided with him and allowed him to continue in his post. By so doing, it condoned the crime and created an\u00a0atmosphere of violence against women\u00a0that must be replaced with protection for women.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
Muslim countries are in search of leaders that can\u00a0revitalise them with the principles of freedom.<\/p>
Muslim countries, including Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines had long histories of authoritarian rule.\u00a0These are the countries that now face terrorist activity, terrorist threat and a sizeable minority with sympathy for terrorists as demonstrated in public opinion. This is the counter picture that those who defend authoritarianism need to answer. The Asian tigers\u00a0were once cited as examples of societies with growing economies to defend dictatorship. Time demonstrated that such dictatorships benefited a coterie and led to nepotism, cronyism and corruption.\u00a0It \u00a0did not benefit the masses. It also led to a human rights deficit.<\/p>
The alternative argument isthat the rise of\u00a0lawlessness\u00a0and terrorism witnessed in countries with long periods of authoritarianism demonstrates a link between terrorism and the system of\u00a0 government.\u00a0By suspending the majesty of law, by taking over by force, by ruling through repression, military dictators and authoritarian rulers gave birth to the culture of obtaining power\u00a0through violence.<\/p>
To undermine terrorism,\u00a0it is\u00a0necessary to empower citizens and build a society on the edifice of the majesty of law. Unless right prevails over might as a core value of governance it threatens to corrupt the youth with the notion that change comes through use of force alone.<\/p>
We must fight a war on terrorism and simultaneously fight an equally critical war on the political manipulation of religion and against the regressive forces of totalitarianism.<\/p>
The terrorists who attack America\u00a0aim to establish theocracies to manipulate for their own political ends.\u00a0\u00a0They want to see the world divided through a clash of civilisations.<\/p>
By using the name of religion, the terrorist activities have\u00a0hurt\u00a0Muslims across the board.\u00a0Many Muslims\u00a0today face suspicion or profiling by virtue of being Muslims.<\/p>
The war against terror is a war that must be fought for world safety.<\/p>
And it is a war that I believe must be fought with collective action to stop those that would create a clash of cultures and religions.<\/p>
Short-term strategies\u00a0<\/strong>often create far more intractable long-term problems.\u00a0 \u00a0A military dictatorship\u00a0in Islamabad exploits the war against terror to keep itself in power at the cost of the\u00a0constitutional rights of its people.\u00a0\u00a0It is\u00a0nine years since democracy in Pakistan was destabilised with the murder of my brother in 1996. Since then Pakistan has since electoral manipulations that are disheartening the people. Many now refuse to vote believing that irrespective of how they vote, the result will be doctored. This is dangerous for Pakistan\u2019s democratic future. It is also a danger for the world community when people lose hope in influencing policies through peaceful, electoral\u00a0means.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
We must learn the lessons of the past. The fundamental mistake, contributing to a long-term historical calamity, was\u00a0our inability to foster Afghan democracy when the Soviets withdrew from Kabul.\u00a0We must not repeat that mistake again.<\/p>
Democracies do not make war against other\u00a0democracies. They\u00a0also do not sponsor international terrorism.<\/p>
A democratic\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0in the eighties would have marginalized the Taliban and the Osama\u2019s of this world.<\/p>
Now that the US presidential elections are\u00a0over,\u00a0it would be welcome if\u00a0the international community\u00a0led in building an opportunity for Pakistan\u2019s transition to democratic rule.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
Fresh party based elections, open to all parties and personalities, with international monitors, an independent\u00a0Election Commission, electoral modalities that are transparent and a count that is immediate, open and accurately reflects the sentiments of the people could settle issues of legitimacy and governance which now complicate Pakistan\u2019s social and economic challenges. Such an election could put Pakistan back into the community of democratic nations with sustainable political institutions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>
Recently the world learned that scientists in charge of Islamabad\u2019s nuclear weapons program were clandestinely selling nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya.\u00a0 Dr. A.Q.Khan, the chief scientist came on television to confess his guilt. That very evening he was pardoned and allowed to keep the assets obtained through the illicit nuclear sales.<\/p>
In contrast, politically motivated\u00a0corruption allegations are used to malign the true leaders of the people and to hamper\u00a0<\/strong>Pakistan\u2019s tryst with its democratic future. Such double standards must not be allowed.<\/strong><\/p>
Proliferation, Terrorism, Tyranny is a perilous mix. Pakistan\u2019s stability is critical to the world community.\u00a0That stability is contingent to a political process that reflects the sentiments of the people and gives them a government they trust and want working on an agenda of peoples development.<\/p>
The\u00a0controversial October 2002\u00a0elections have failed to combat poverty, reform the judiciary or empower Parliament. Those elections failed to bring in mainstream political parties. A dangerous political vacuum yawns across society. While parties that defend Al Qaeda and the Taliban are permitted full political freedom, democratic leaders are imprisoned, exiled or hamstrung from reaching the public with their message of modernity and progress.<\/p>
When elections in Ukraine were rigged, the international community supported fresh elections.\u00a0\u00a0 The European community and human rights\u00a0observers\u00a0called\u00a0Islamabad\u2019s 2002\u00a0elections flawed. Human Rights Watch declared that the \u201cdecks were stacked against the democratic\u201d forces. When elections can be re-held in Ukraine, they can be re-held in Pakistan. And they must be held as\u00a0urgently and fairly as possible\u00a0to restore the usurped rights of the people back to them.<\/p>
Two assassination attempts on General Musharaf demonstrate the thin thread on which the alliance with Islamabad is built.<\/p>
In the war against terrorism, the greatest protection of freedom from terrorists comes from replacing dictatorships with governments responsible to the people, governments based on the values of democracy and liberty.<\/p>
The stakes are high.\u00a0 The long-term implications are great.<\/p>
As President\u00a0George W. Bush\u00a0said on January 20, 2005:\u00a0 \u201cThe moral choice is between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is always right. \u00a0America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or than any human being aspires to lie at the mercy of bullets.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Fanatics seeking to bring about Clash of Civilization: Bhutto says Path to Leadership Strewn with Thorns <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFanatics seeking to bring about Clash of Civilization: Bhutto says Path to Leadership Strewn with Thorns<\/strong><\/span>
Indiana University \u2013 USA, November 06, 2004<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Former Prime Minister and Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has expressed concern that fanatics and extremists would try to bring about a clash of religions and cultures and expressed the hope that this could be averted.<\/p>
She said this while addressing Indianapolis Colloquium at Indian University in the USA on Friday on \u201cWomen Position in Islamic Societies\u201d.<\/p>
She said that few people realize that Islam is a monotheistic religion and part of the traditions of Hazrat Abraham. Abraham, Moses and Jesus are the prophets of Islam as much as they are revered in Judaism and Christianity, she said.<\/p>
The former Prime Minister said that health, education, literacy, gender equality and freedom of press as well as respect of labour and peasant rights were keys to develop any society. However, such policy promotions needed peaceful borders, which is why PPP government worked for defusing tensions with its neighbours.<\/p>
She said that as a woman leader she was particularly concerned about the plight of her sisters. This led her government to appoint women judges to the judiciary and had she remained in office, today there would have been women judges in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. She recalled that the PPP instituted a new program of hiring women police officers to investigate crimes of domestic violence against the women of Pakistan.<\/p>
\u201cThe development of that police force had been stunted following the undemocratic end of the PPP government.\u201d<\/p>
She said that she and her Party believe in an open and transparent society adopting technology and information to modernize society. She said that fax machines, satellite dishes, student unions, labour unions, women taking part in sports and other informative and technological activities were banned before her government and it was the PPP government which lifted ban on these to modernize Pakistani Society.<\/p>
Democracy in Pakistan was important because an Islamic world at the crossroads, a modern Pakistan would be an inspiration whereas otherwise the danger was that fanaticism and ignorance could grow.<\/p>
She said that had elections in Afghanistan been held in 1990 as they were recently held, perhaps the Taliban and Al Qaeda would never have emerged. She urged the international community to promote stability by strengthening democratic values.<\/p>
She said that she had known both successes and setbacks but that she had never wavered from the commitment she made in the death cell with her Father. This was a commitment to fight for democracy and human rights and that she would continue to do so.<\/p>
\u201cThe path of leadership was strewn with thorns\u201d. She said that often personal happiness had to be sacrificed for national causes. She said that she felt sad that because of her choices, her family had been made to suffer too. However, she had to carry this burden of sadness because of her commitment to a democratic and modern future for her people. She said that she was brought up to fight injustice, promote freedom and safeguard the rights of the weak and dispossessed.<\/p>
She said that both her governments were destabilized by extremist elements who did not believe in democracy or a government led by a woman. She said that the judicial processes were violated to wage a psychological war against her, her family and her Party.<\/p>
She said that she knew that her duty to her country and people came first. \u201cMy duty to Pakistan\u2019s democratic struggle is one baptized in blood. During this struggle, my father and both of my brothers were killed. Their legacy focuses my drive.\u00a0 Their spirit empowers me. I have come too far to turn back now\u201d.<\/p>
Expressing her resolve to fight for the rights of her people, she said that she was taught not to take \u201cNo\u201d for an answer but to answer to the call of conscience. Hence she refused to take No for an answer when people said that as a foreign woman she could not be elected President of the Oxford Union, or that as a woman expecting a baby she could not campaign in an election or that as a woman in a Muslim society she could not run for chief executive.<\/p>
She was grateful to the men and women of Pakistan for supporting her when she challenged traditions to modernize Pakistan and bring it prosperity through modernization. She recalled that as the Prime Minister of Pakistan she appeared before an historic Joint Session of the United States Congress in 1989. She said that in her address, her most important sentence was, YES YOU CAN! She said that this short sentence of three words meant so much to her as she had survived the murder of her Father and brothers, her Mother and husband\u2019s imprisonment and gone from prison to Prime Minister because, \u201cYes, you can if you refuse to take No for an answer\u201d.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Poverty, Iinequality and\u00a0Ddevelopment:\u00a0Is the International Model\u00a0Working? Stressa near Milan (Italy)\u00a0by\u00a0Ms Benazir Bhutto 22 October 2004 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPoverty, Iinequality and\u00a0Ddevelopment:\u00a0Is the International Model\u00a0Working?<\/strong><\/span>
Stressa near Milan (Italy)\u00a0by\u00a0Ms Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
22 October 2004<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
\u00a0<\/h6>I compliment President Gorbachev for focussing on the issue of poverty at this session of the World Political Forum.<\/h6>
We are gathered here today to seek change by challenging a human history that has always known poverty and suffering. Poverty is particularly distressing in that it exists side by side with enormous wealth.<\/h6>
We are familiar with the bad news.\u00a0 By the year 2020, of the world\u2019s population of 8 billion people, six and a half billion will live in the developing world. Three billion will struggle, either below or above subsistence. The majority of the marginalized will live in urban slums with twenty big cities having populations exceeding ten million. These cities will be stuffed to the brim with unemployment, crime, delinquency and disease. My city of\u00a0Karachi\u00a0with\u00a0Lagos,\u00a0New Delhi,\u00a0Dhaka,\u00a0Nairobi\u00a0and others will be typical crucibles of such\u00a0 settlements. Already in military run\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0we suffer from\u00a0 a 40 % poverty index. Another 30 % live on less than two dollars a day.<\/h6>
Meanwhile five Nations account for almost 60% of the World\u2019s GNP. While the income of the world\u2019s 20% rich increases, the income of the world\u2019s fifty percent poor falls. The combined income of 300 individual billionaires equals the income of 2.7 billion persons representing 45 % of the world\u2019s population. One report found that 20 years ago CEOS made an average of 40 times more than factory workers. Last year it was 400 times more and it is now climbing to a multiple of 500. This is not the way the world was supposed to be. The peace divided that was to come with the collapse of the bi-polar world never came.<\/h6>
Today debt repayment far exceeds aid. In 2000 lower-income countries paid creditors more than $100 billion dollars, triple received in aid grants that year. From 1992 to 2000, debt repayments as a share of a poor country\u2019s earnings rose from 14 to 19 % in repayment of principal loan.\u00a0 Interest repayment rose from 8% to 10%.<\/h6>
I believe the incidence of poverty is directly related to issues of governance.<\/h6>
There is a school of thought that believes the alleviation of poverty lies in authoritarianism. They point to the Asian tigers of the twentieth century.<\/h6>
I do not subscribe to this view.\u00a0Indonesia,\u00a0Philippines\u00a0and\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0are three countries that had prolonged periods of authoritarianism. Authoritarianism failed to provide a golden era of economic prosperity. Instead it made the transition to democracy, accountability and transparency all the more difficult. Authoritarianism left a legacy of weak political institutions, inexperienced political leadership, a crony capitalist class, powerful militaries, ruthless intelligence agencies, violent ethnic and sectarian groups, distorted press, disempowered citizens and gross poverty. Significantly, authoritarianism in\u00a0Indonesia,\u00a0Philippines,\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0(as well as other countries) also created a culture predicated on the use of force. It is unsurprising that terrorism emerged in countries where power flowed from force rather than the majesty of law.<\/h6>
In\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0debt servicing and military expenditure consumed all income. We had to borrow to spend on health and education sinking deeper into the debt trap. In 2001\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0joined the war against terror. It\u2019s debts were re-scheduled. Geo-strategic currents bought us a temporary reprieve. But that reprieve is not being used to reverse the fundamental fault-lines of our economy. This brings me to a major point\u2014governance. Countries that spend huge amounts on militaries and have non-democratic systems can not hope to combat poverty. Countries with dictatorship or authoritarian rule tend to run up huge debts.<\/h6>
Often governments and financial institutions loan huge amounts to dictators. This is done for political or strategic reasons. A blind eye is turned towards how this money is spent or mis-spent. However, as soon as the short-term goals are met and democracy is restored, financial institutions come down hard pushing for fiscal responsibility.<\/h6>
As in the case of\u00a0Pakistan, when the dictator falls in the dust, the new democratic government is forced to de-accelerate the economy through harsh macro-management. Reducing budget deficits quickly puts unrelenting pressure on popular governments. It destabilises democracy. It allows for powerful, entrenched establishments to re-emerge in the form of autocracy or outright dictatorship. The system of governance is hit and the malaise of poverty increases.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/h6>
The end result is that dictatorships have fuller treasuries than democrats. But the dictators treasuries are not spent on poverty alleviation.\u00a0<\/h6>
Some times the periods between democracy and authoritarian\u00a0rule is too short for the public to tell the difference in the quality of life. The masses can then become disillusioned with democracy. Dictatorial forces indulge in propaganda against democrats. Disillusioned from democracy and dictatorship, the dangers of the radicalisation of the masses. For example, in\u00a0Pakistan, parties that are sympathetic to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda claim that neither democracy nor military dictatorship works and that theocratic rule should, \u201cbe given a chance\u201d. Thus when people feel alienated from the democratic model of development, they can choose another system that is even worse.<\/h6>
\u00a0<\/h6>
Despite the skewered position, democrats still do better as\u00a0Pakistan\u2019s experience shows. Growth, investment and revenue rates are all better under democrats.<\/h6>
\u00a0<\/h6>
In its Millennium Declaration, the United Nations General Assembly set the goal promised to halve the number of people in the world without access to drinkable water by 2015 as well as other laudable goals. The question is: how to meet these promises?<\/h6>
I would identify three areas that can alleviate poverty:<\/h6>
First democratic political systems of national governance that the international community could support and encourage.<\/h6>
Second, economic support by the international community.<\/h6>
Third equitable international trading practices.<\/h6>
In dealing with the first point, namely, systems of governance, I would stress that democracy and development go hand in hand. Certainly this is the experience of the people of\u00a0Pakistan. Democracy has many facets. It is the holding of fair and impartial elections, the smooth transition of power, an independent judiciary, an impartial investigative process, a well trained and a neutral police force. Democracies need peaceful borders to cut down on military expenditures. Diversion of financial resources to women\u2019s development, literacy, increase in water availability, health, a crime free society is critical to internal stability. In the absence of such factors, there is the danger of failing states, mafias, ethnic strife and violence amidst a sea of poverty.<\/h6>
The second factor is an international commitment to poverty alleviation. The G-8 once discussed committing\u00a00.7\u00a0percent of its GNP to poverty alleviation. Other measures were tabled including a tax on military sales. The sins of the father can not be visited on the children. Some form of international commitment towards debt relief is needed in the battle to fight hunger to reduce poverty to meet the millennium development goals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/h6>
The third factor is balancing free trade with a moral imperative.\u00a0We need to work together to balance free trade with a social safety net. We need to focus on how the market changes and train a work force to meet the markets requirements.<\/h6>
If we are able to tackle these three areas, it is my firm belief that history will no longer have to bear mute testimony\u00a0 to the ravages of poverty.<\/h6>
It is time the international community took heed of these trends so that inequality as a mode of economic, class and gender experience slows its headlong march into local conflict and global fault-lines.<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Musharraf exploiting war on Terror Global Institute for Leadership October 19, 2004 Palm Desert, California <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMusharraf exploiting war on Terror<\/strong><\/span>
Global Institute for Leadership<\/strong><\/span>
October 19, 2004<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Palm Desert, California<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
It is amazing to be in America two weeks before a Presidential election. It is welcome to be in a democracy where there are actually real elections taking place, where people can freely vote.\u00a0 I wish someday we will be able to say the same thing about my homeland, Pakistan.\u00a0 That is the goal on which I focus all my energies.\u00a0 That is the drive that keeps me going every day.\u00a0 That is the commitment that brings me to California today.<\/p>
Throughout the world, these are times of uncertainty, tension, conflict and great danger. The era of peace for which we prayed, and which after the collapse of communism was within our grasp, has now tragically become a time of war.<\/p>
Stability has been replaced by chaos.<\/p>
The world has changed dramatically since the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.<\/p>
America is the oldest and greatest democracy of the world.<\/p>
As a teenager, I learnt about modernity, diversity, and democracy here in your country.<\/p>
I returned to Pakistan with the dream to help my country prosper on these democratic principles, and on the empowering and revolutionary concept of equal rights for women in society.<\/p>
But tragically, I found that the fanatics and the dictators dread modernity, diversity and democracy. They fear the empowerment of the People of Pakistan\u00a0 \u2014 they fear literacy, equality and above all they desperately fear the spread of information in society. They use religion to justify their politics, to justify dictatorship and to manipulate a clash of civilizations under which they thrive.<\/p>
I do not believe that such a clash of civilizations is inevitable.<\/p>
Contrary to what some people believe, Islam is a monotheistic religion very much part of the Judeo Christian heritage. Abraham, Moses and Jesus are the prophets of Islam as much as they are revered in Judaism and Christianity.<\/p>
It is ignorance and fanaticism that seeks to create a clash of civilization amongst East and West, amongst Islam and the rest of the world. Terrorists who use commercial airliners as bombs aim at much more than the death of thousands\u00a0 \u2014 they aim to provoke a global, deadly confrontation between continents, nations, and religions.<\/p>
I know the terrorists of Al Qaeda. I battled with many of them. Across Pakistan, exploiting our religion, they preached a message that teaches hate and hopelessness.<\/p>
As a woman, I was a threat, a clear and present danger to their designs.<\/p>
As a democrat, I was their opposite.\u00a0 But above all, as someone who offered hope to our people\u00a0 \u2014 education, jobs, communication and modernity\u00a0 \u2014 I was a dangerous obstacle to the forces of hate.<\/p>
Under my government Pakistan integrated into the global economy that the fanatics so fear. We became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world, attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment, particularly in power generation.<\/p>
We eradicated polio in our country. We dramatically reduced infant mortality.<\/p>
The WHO awarded me a Gold Medal for our assault on polio.<\/p>
Despite the constraints of a political system rigged against democrats, and a social system biased against women, as Prime Minister of Pakistan I used my office to reverse centuries of discrimination against women.<\/p>
We increased literacy by one-third, most dramatically amongst young girls.<\/p>
We built over 48,000 primary and secondary schools during my two terms in office. It pains me that this education program targeting girls was dismantled by my successors who cut the education budget.<\/p>
We brought down the population growth rate by establishing women\u2019s health clinics across our Nation.<\/p>
We outlawed domestic violence and established special women\u2019s police forces to protect and defend the women of Pakistan.<\/p>
We appointed women judges to our nation\u2019s benches for the first time in our history. That affirmative action program for women in the judiciary has been undermined. A female judge was denied promotion to Pakistan\u2019s High Court in a major reversal for female leadership in the judiciary. She was retired when she should, under the law, have gone on to become the first female judge on the Bench of Pakistan\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>
We instituted a new program of hiring women police officers to investigate crimes of domestic violence against the women of Pakistan. That special police force has been dismantled.<\/p>
My government condemned honor killing, the murder of women who chose to marry without their guardian\u2019s permission. And now my party has moved a bill in Parliament making these honor killings illegal. Sadly but not unsurprisingly, Pakistan\u2019s military junta has tried to jettison the bill with a counter proposal that does not effectively address the issue.<\/p>
The Government I led lifted the ban on women taking part in sports\u2014nationally and internationally. This year a Pakistani woman took part in the Olympics in Greece bringing pride to all the people of Pakistan and to women everywhere. We persuaded the armed forces and security services to hire women in their institutions.<\/p>
A special Women\u2019s Development Bank was created to guarantee small business loans to women entrepreneurs, because I firmly believed that economic justice would build political justice.\u00a0 It was a bank run by women for women- although men were allowed to keep their money in it.<\/p>
There is a moral crisis in Pakistan today.<\/p>
Social and economic inequality is a ticking bomb.<\/p>
The stakes could not be higher. To Islam at the crossroads, a modern Pakistan was one fork in the road, fanaticism and ignorance the other.<\/p>
\u00a0In Islam dictatorship is never condoned, nor is cruelty.\u00a0 Beating, torturing and humiliating women is un-Islamic.\u00a0 Denying education to girls violates the very first word of the Holy Book:\u00a0 \u201cRead.\u201d\u00a0 According to our religion, those who commit cruel acts are condemned to destruction.<\/p>
\u00a0Afghanistan is an example of how abandoning the principles of human rights and democracy can have the most tragic consequences.<\/p>
\u00a0The overall policy of standing against Soviet aggression in Afghanistan was right.\u00a0 Yet the early decisions to arm, train, supply and legitimize the most extreme fanatics gave birth to the 21st century terrorism now swirling around us.<\/p>
Ironically and tragically, these militant elements gave birth to Al Qaeda, and the US Stinger missiles are now pointed at US commercial jetliners.<\/p>
If the elections that were held in Afghanistan last week were held in Afghanistan in 1990, there would have been no Taliban, no Al Qaeda and no 911.<\/p>
Just as democracies do not make war against other democracies, democracies also do not sponsor international terrorism.<\/p>
The goal of the international community\u2019s foreign policy agenda must always be to simultaneously promote stability and to strengthen democratic values.<\/p>
Not selectively but universally.<\/p>
General Musharraf is exploiting the war on terror to solidify his junta.\u00a0 The world must remember that until he found it expedient to align with the US against terrorism, his regime was supporting the Taliban. Even as he bans militant groups to demonstrate good faith to the rest of the world, those same groups spring up under another name. It seems that the writ of the state has failed.<\/p>
The United States and the rest of the world must remember that Pakistan has an extra-constitutional military government with no democratic legitimacy.\u00a0 So-called elections that took place in Pakistan in October 2002 were exercises in fraud; The EU described them as\u00a0 \u201ca deeply flawed exercise\u201d.<\/p>
There were banners and balloons.\u00a0 But like a Potemkin village, it was all an illusion.\u00a0 There was never any intention on allowing the will of the people to be expressed.<\/p>
This is tragic, for two distinct reasons.\u00a0 First, a democratic Pakistan is the best guarantee of the triumph of moderation and modernity among one billion Muslims at the crossroads of our history.\u00a0 And second, the alternative of a long-term nuclear-armed Pakistani dictatorship has consequences that could make September 11th look like a mere prelude to an even more horrific future for the civilized world.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
Mine is not the simple life I dreamed of growing up in Pakistan and going to school at Harvard and Oxford.<\/p>
I am asked how as a Muslim woman in a traditional society, I became Prime Minister of Pakistan.<\/p>
In fact, circumstances propelled me on to the road of leadership.<\/p>
The gauntlet of leadership was thrown down before me and I had no choice but to pick it up. And once I picked it up, I focused my life and energy like a laser-beam on bringing democracy and human rights to my people.<\/p>
\u00a0I found that leadership is demanding.\u00a0 Life often demands difficult decisions.\u00a0 I had to choose between family and duty, and I had no real choice.\u00a0 The stakes were too high to allow any obstacles to success. Often personal happiness was sacrificed in pursuit of national and political goals.\u00a0 Sad, but necessary.<\/p>
Leadership is a commitment to an idea, to principles, to fundamental human values.<\/p>
My commitment to democracy, to fundamental human rights, to modernity, helped me walk the high mountains of success as well as the low valleys of imprisonment and exile.<\/p>
Leadership demands a price from the individual and it also demands a price from the family.<\/p>
I was in America during the Watergate crisis and the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon. Above all, in America during the Watergate crises I saw the awesome power of the people to change policies, change leaders, and change history.<\/p>
I marveled at how a people could bring down a government. I lived in a dictatorship. Those criticizing the President ended up in prison or ended up facing assassination attempts.<\/p>
At Oxford, I became the first female foreigner to be elected as President of the Oxford Union.<\/p>
The Oxford Union reflects the British Parliament.<\/p>
It was there that I learned to debate, slowly gaining confidence before an audience.\u00a0\u00a0 It was there that I learned to further focus my energy into attaining specific and definable goals.\u00a0 It was there that I learned that I could beat the odds.\u00a0 It was there that I learned not to accept \u201cno\u201d for an answer, and in the words of Bobby Kennedy, to ask, why not?<\/p>
I returned to Pakistan in 1977 hoping to join the Foreign Service. I dreamt of becoming the Ambassador to Washington.<\/p>
Within a week, my life changed dramatically. A military coup took place. My Mother awakened me in the early hours. Army tanks had surrounded the Prime Minister\u2019s House.<\/p>
\u00a0My Father was taken away by the military to an unknown destination.<\/p>
He was released and returned to our family home in Karachi. But then the army raided the house again and took him away. He was released again and then rearrested. He was finally hanged amidst international outrage.<\/p>
A few hours before his murder, my Mother and I went to the death cell to see him and bid him farewell. It was then in that final meeting that I decided that come what may, I would fight for democracy and fundamental rights in Pakistan.<\/p>
During the long night of military dictatorship, which lasted eleven years, my Mother and I were imprisoned time and again. My Mother was baton charged and denied proper treatment. Today she suffers from a form of Alzheimer\u2019s her doctors claim was brought on by that head wound.<\/p>
I spent nearly six years behind bars, often in solitary confinement. During the summers it was unbearably hot and during the winters it was brutally cold. The conditions in the cell were primitive. Mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches, dust storms and dryness were constant companions as was loneliness and a lack of communication with the outside world.<\/p>
By the time I was allowed into exile through international pressure, I was anorexic. My hearing and eyesight were affected forever. My face muscles hurt when I talked. They had atrophied through the years of silence.<\/p>
\u00a0Through this dark night of terror, young men were lashed for shouting to restore democracy. Others were imprisoned, tortured or hanged. However, the flame of freedom was never extinguished. It lived on fed by the sacrifices of so many.<\/p>
My family background and long years of imprisonment made me the rallying point for the democratic movement. I returned to Pakistan in 1986 welcomed by millions of Pakistanis who lined the route from the airport and demanded an end to dictatorship.<\/p>
And when I got married and expected my first child in 1988, the military dictator called for elections. He thought a pregnant woman could not campaign.\u00a0\u00a0 He was wrong.\u00a0 I could, and I did, and, with the support of the brave people of Pakistan, I was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.<\/p>
My election broke the myth that a woman could not be elected Prime Minister in a Muslim country. It was a severe set back for the forces of fanaticism that wished to build a theocratic society not only in Pakistan, but also across the Muslim world.<\/p>
It stirred a debate about gender, religion and politics. The lead scholar in Saudi Arabia issued a Fatwa, a religious edict, against my election. Many claimed that I had usurped a man\u2019s place in Islam and must be removed. But other religious scholars supported me.<\/p>
I especially remember the religious scholars in Egypt, Syria and Yemen. The religious scholar in Yemen said that Islam permitted a woman to govern a Muslim country. He said the Holy book of the Muslims referred to the rule of Queen Sheba in laudatory terms noting that her reign brought prosperity to her people.<\/p>
But the fanatics in Pakistan were deeply upset at my election. They dreamt of spreading the ideological frontiers of Islam through Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia to the borders of Europe.<\/p>
They turned to Osma Bin Laden for help. They called him back from Saudi Arabia and asked him for ten million dollars to bring down the Government I led.<\/p>
Until today the fanatics who believe in a war between the West and Islam, fear my popularity and the strength of my Party. They believe that a democratic Pakistan, at peace with its neighbors and with itself internally, is a threat to their war against the West.<\/p>
They destabilized the government I led in 1996.<\/p>
It was during the eclipse of my government that the Taliban seized all of Afghanistan. It was after my overthrow that Al Qaeda was established in Afghanistan and set up camps to train, recruit and arm young men from across the Muslim world. Two years after my overthrow, in 1998, Osama Bin Laden declared war on the west from the soil of Afghanistan. Three years later, the Trade Centers were attacked.<\/p>
And although Pakistan\u2019s military dictator joined the war against terror following the ultimatum by President Bush to stand up and be counted as friend or foe, supporters of extremists groups still hold influential positions in his regime, terrorists operate in our tribal territories, and in parts of our country bordering Afghanistan.<\/p>
The Taliban have regrouped and are mounting fresh attacks on the Karzai government. Despite several operations in our tribal areas, the terrorists largely escaped. The innocent civilian population paid a heavy price. Their homes were bombed and their children killed when the objective should have been good intelligence and targeted action.<\/p>
My Party and I continue to be persecuted. My husband was arrested the night my government was overthrown that night on November 4, 1996, eight years back. He is a hostage to my political struggle. He has served his years in prison, often in solitary confinement, although he has not been convicted of a crime and the courts have ordered him released.\u00a0 They have taken away the best years of his life. Each time he is acquitted of a baseless charge, he is re-indicted under even more absurd accusations. He has been tortured too. He nearly lost his life under physical torture in 1999.\u00a0 He suffers from a crippling spinal disease that remains untreated in Musharraf\u2019s dungeons. I have not seen him for five years. Of our seventeen years marriage, he has spent eleven behind bars without being convicted of any crime.<\/p>
I am told that he will be freed if I announce my retirement from politics. I know that my duty to my people comes first, for the sake of my children and all the children of Pakistan. My duty to Pakistan\u2019s democratic struggle is one baptized in blood. During this struggle, my father and both of my brothers were killed.\u00a0 Their legacy focuses my drive.\u00a0 Their spirit empowers me.\u00a0 I have come too far to turn back now.<\/p>
I have three children. My youngest was three when the government was overthrown. I empathize with single Mothers. It\u2019s tough holding a job and taking care of small children without the presence of a Father. I chose their schools, took them to the hospital when they fell down and needed treatment, sat with them through their fevers, helped them with homework.<\/p>
And through the years, as the older ones became teenagers, I learnt about Harry Potter even as I tried to teach them about Alexander the Great and the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation in whose shadown my family lived for centuries.<\/p>
My own experiences at Harvard and Oxford taught me that if women are to be defined by their own abilities, they need an education that empowers them.\u00a0 I urge women all over the world not to accept the status quo, not to accept \u201cno\u201d for an answer.\u00a0 It is critical that women\u2014whether in California or Kabul or Kirkuk (Keer-cook)\u2014refuse to accept traditional roles and traditional constraints.<\/p>
Acquiescing to a tradition of subjugation of mothers and daughters\u2014can no longer be accepted.<\/p>
We fight against terrorism, and we fight against the bigotry and intolerance that will confine and constrain and victimize in the generations ahead.<\/p>
Victimization of civil society and the concept of long-term peace are mutually exclusive.<\/p>
The denial of human rights is a bomb that ultimately explodes.<\/p>
These are difficult times.\u00a0 Freedom is under assault.\u00a0 Democracy is under assault.\u00a0 Criminal terrorists hijack my religion just as they hijack America\u2019s planes.<\/p>
The solutions will not be quick or simple.\u00a0 But if we maintain our commitment to the principles that define us \u2014 the principles of racial, gender and religious equality, the principles of political pluralism and tolerance, and the principle of peaceful change through democracy\u2014we shall in the end prevail.<\/p>
If we focus our energy, refuse to be distracted from what is important, if we act decisively and bravely and refuse to accept arbitrary constraints, then in the end our single-mindedness can wear down even the strongest enemy, even the highest barrier.<\/p>
Let us remember that the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) married a businesswoman. She was his only wife until she died.\u00a0 Islam introduced divorce, child custody and alimony for the first time in civilization. Islam came as a message of emancipation that put an end to the degradation of women and the burial of the girl child.<\/p>
I say that to the fanatics and the fundamentalists:\u00a0 This is my religion.\u00a0\u00a0 Nothing you do or say can change that reality.<\/p>
\u00a0It is this tradition of Islam that allowed me my battle for political and human rights. It strengthens me today in this hour of crisis for my family, my nation and myself.<\/p>
\u00a0Today in Pakistan, the veil of repression has descended across our people.<\/p>
We have become accustomed to attempts to use the politics of personal destruction to turn back the course of democracy, human rights and women\u2019s rights in our homeland.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t work then and it will not work now.<\/p>
\u00a0The dictator\u2019s attacks on me are really attacks on the policies I espouse, and the issues I advance.\u00a0 And thus in Pakistan the causes of women\u2019s rights, human rights, press freedom and democracy fall backwards into the dark chasms of a past era.<\/p>
The new century must, for once and for all,\u00a0 be an era where honor and dignity are protected in peace, and in war, where women have economic freedom and independence, where women are not defined by their fathers or husbands, but by their own achievements, where they are equal partners in peace and development.<\/p>
Even as we catalogue, organize and hopefully attain our goals, step by step by step, all of those around the world who are committed to the common causes of human rights, women\u2019s rights and peace, must be vigilant for \u201cfreedom has be re-made and re-earned in every generation.\u201d<\/p>
In the time it took for me to speak to you this morning, over one thousand children starved to death on this planet.<\/p>
As long as these basic violations of human rights are allowed to continue, none of us are free.<\/p>
Not in Palm Desert, not in Karachi, not in Baghdad.<\/p>
The question before us is whether we are willing to fight for what we believe, whether we are willing to risk our personal comfort to confront bigotry and intolerance and inequality wherever we find it.<\/p>
There will always be pressures to do what is convenient, the path of least resistance, what is safe and conservative.<\/p>
But leadership is not rooted in safety; it rather is a product of boldness.<\/p>
Modern leaders often take public opinion polls to decide on courses of policy.<\/p>
The forces of dictatorship and extremism murdered my father, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, two decades ago.\u00a0 I recall vividly those dark and tragic days, with my father languishing in a dark prison, living in the most inhumane conditions, with the world helpless to stop his murder.<\/p>
But he remained courageous to the end; even in the hours before his death he was the consummate LEADER.<\/p>
In 1979, from the horror of his death cell, my father wrote:<\/p>
\u201cEvery generation has a central concern, whether to end war, erase racial injustice, or improve the conditions of working people\u201d. And he said that \u201cThe possibilities are too great, the stakes too high, to bequeath to the coming generation only the prophetic lament of Tennyson\u2014\u201dAh, what shall I be at fifty. If I find the world so bitter at twenty.\u201d<\/p>
So even at this time of war, even more me at this time of tyranny in my nation, let us not be bitter.\u00a0 Let us instead do what we can to build a better world.<\/p>
It is that purpose in life, that gives me the strength to continue to face the political obstacles in life.<\/p>
I know that the wheel of fortune turns, just as night changes to day. That the days of dictatorship will surely end. They will end because the fight for freedom is the fight for justice. Ultimately, justice always triumphs.<\/p>
Thank you ladies and Gentleman.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Addresses Pakistani community in Houston: Ms Bhutto says she could deal with terrorism without Uniform Houston \u2013 October 17, 2004 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAddresses Pakistani community in Houston:<\/strong><\/span>
Ms Bhutto says she could deal with terrorism without Uniform<\/strong><\/span>
Houston \u2013 October 17, 2004<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
\u201cAs a former Prime Minister, I can say with confidence that I could deal with the issues of terrorism as President of Pakistan without having to demand being made Chief of Army Staff too\u201d.<\/p>
The former Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said this while addressing an Iftar party held by the Pakistani community in Houston, USA on Saturday.<\/p>
She is currently visiting USA, to address select gatherings and meet Pakistani community.<\/p>
Pleading for free elections she said, \u201cA strong, stable Pakistan is dependent on freedom which means free elections, free judiciary, free press and free political activities.\u201d<\/p>
She said that the issues of poverty were neglected in Pakistan as the country is gripped in a power struggle between the forces of dictatorship and the forces of democracy and added that democracy and development go hand in hand.<\/p>
She said that the dismissal of her government was brought about by the shenanigans of the establishment and since then the country drifted into a nightmare of military dictatorship, terrorism, violence, suicide bombers and economic stagnancy.<\/p>
The former Prime Minister denounced terrorism saying that it was the enemy of all humanity as it terrorised society as a whole.<\/p>
Recalling the days when the terrorists held Karachi hostage she said that the PPP government was able to end the insurgency because of the support of the people of Karachi.<\/p>
\u201cThe forces of sectarianism, violence, ethnicity, terrorism, Klashnikov culture and drug trade proliferated when Pakistan was under a dictatorial system\u201d.<\/p>
She said that the Patriot Act has led to racial profiling and many Pakistanis feel that they are now suspected by virtue of being Pakistani. This can change if the people of Pakistan can take their destiny into their own hands, she said.<\/p>
The former Prime Minister said that the constitution forbids Army Chief from indulging in politics and quoted various article from the constitutions.<\/p>
The President enters into office after an election under Article 41 (3). The electoral process is a political process, which the COAS cannot engage in, she said.<\/p>
The President may summon and prorogue either House of Parliament may address the Houses and may send messages to either House to be taken into consideration (Article 56). The Constitution forbids the COAS from
advising Parliament or the nation.<\/p>
Under the 17th amendment, the President decides who to make Prime Minister in his discretion calling a member whom he thinks has the majority to form the government. The army chief cannot constitutionally do this.<\/p>
The President can dissolve the National Assembly under Article 58 (2) (b) as well as approve the dissolution of Provincial Assembly under Article 112 (2). A COAS doing so would be in breach of his Constitutional oath and of the Constitution itself, she said.<\/p>
Under Article 48 (6) the President can order a referendum overreaching Parliament and going directly to the people but an army chief cannot take such a step. Under Article 101 the President appoints the Governors of Provinces but the army chief cannot do that. Thus the powers of the president if exercised by the army chief amounts to martial law and puts paid to the whole idea that Pakistan is moving towards a democratic dispensation, she said.<\/p>
She said that there is also the issue of a pledge. \u201cA pledge, or a promise, and one made to Parliament, should hold sanctity\u201d. Mr. Musharaf promised the people and the international community that he would take off his uniform. The failure to do so could be misinterpreted by the many different international players that Pakistan has to deal with, she
said.<\/p>
About corruption the former Prime Minister said that corruption is rampant in Pakistan under military rule and the NAB is being used as a political arm by the regime. NAB has spent billions on investigating corruption charges relating to 1993, more than a decade ago\u2013and it hasn\u2019t come up with one conviction against a political leader, she said and added that at the same time the NAB refuses to investigate the corruption of the last eight years.<\/p>
Unfortunately, NAB is a tool of the powerful intelligence agencies to re-engineer Pakistan\u2019s political picture, she said.<\/p>
Commending the Pakistani community in the USA saying that it was due to the efforts of the Pak community that the Pakistan specific Pressler Amendment was removed. Secific laws are unjust laws, she said and added that she faced many Benazir specific laws that failed to harm her standing as the October elections showed.<\/p>
Emphasising the need of good relations with India, she said that both countries need to signal the world community that they are competent to deal with outstanding issues and that South Asia can stop the slide towards becoming one of the most dangerous places in the world.<\/p>
Cognizant of the fact of a bitter dispute over Kashmir, and the huge amount of blood shed\u2013eighty thousand Kashmiris, 3000 Pakistani soldiers during Kargil and unknown number of Indian troops\u2013the PPP believes that confidence building steps with New Delhi are necessary, she said.<\/p>
In particular PPP welcomes the first visit by Pakistani journalists to Kashmir, which took place this October. \u201cSuch steps might appear small but each incremental step forward was a small ray of hope out of the tunnel of darkness in which so many Kashmiris, as well as Pakistanis and Indians, had lost their lives\u201d.<\/p>
The Party Chairperson also recounted the achievements of the PPP government in attracting investments, creating jobs, doubling the revenues and spending on social uplift.<\/p>
PPP tripled the growth rate while growth rate now has stagnated and forty per cent of the people of Pakistan live on less than one dollar a day, she said. \u201cThis is why we are calling for Pakistan to make a plan to return to Democracy. And democracy needs your support\u201d.<\/p>
Pakistan Peoples Party is fighting for a Federal, democratic, egalitarian Pakistan where people could progress and prosper and where the youth were free from unemployment, hunger and malnutrition and worse, hopelessness and frustration. She said that the Quaid e Awam gave people of Pakistan dignity, self-respect and honour, \u201cvalues that no one could steal from the people\u201d.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Address of Ms Benazir Bhutto Women\u2019s Achievements at Dubai Women\u2019s College \u2013 Dubai September 20, 2004 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAddress of Ms Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
Women\u2019s Achievements<\/strong><\/span>
at Dubai Women\u2019s College \u2013 Dubai<\/strong><\/span>
September 20, 2004<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests and Students,<\/p>
It is a privilege to address young women from across the world gathered this morning at Dubai Women\u2019s College.<\/p>
The Dubai Women\u2019s College is a pioneer centre of academics lighting the path for women\u2019s awareness, education and achievement.<\/p>
I pay tribute to His Highness the President of the United Arab Emirates, to His Highness the Ruler of Dubai and to His Highness the Crown Prince of Dubai whose vision makes the Emirates and Dubai, a desert land steeped with significance, into the gateway of a new Muslim era symbolised with High Towers, Big Projects and even bigger dreams.<\/p>
I come here this morning at a time when women across the world reach out for excellence.<\/p>
Today\u2019s woman runs on the fast track. She is up in the skies flying planes. She is in a shuttle exploring outer space or deep down in cyber world developing programs. Today\u2019s woman is everywhere.<\/p>
Women are reaching out for excellence despite difficulties that exist in many places.<\/p>
Women still face the brunt of violence, hunger and poverty. We know women are poorer and work harder to get fewer wages than men.<\/p>
Yet women excel, despite the odds.<\/p>
Women achievers in more traditional societies reach goals through harder struggles and often at the cost of personal tragedy.<\/p>
The strongest women often come from regions of lowest opportunity. Regions which are engulfed in conflict, famine, class and gender discrimination. Women from such areas struggle on several fronts: personal, social, cultural.<\/p>
They survive and they succeed because of persistence in the face of adversity. They never give up.<\/p>
Each woman has her identity rooted in family, geography and in a belief system.<\/p>
My identity begins with the fact that I am a woman, a Pakistani and an Asian. I am also a Muslim woman educated in western universities.<\/p>
I grew up in a modern educated family that believed in education and gender equality, that believed we live in an interdependent world where communication between continents, cultures and communities is necessary.<\/p>
There are incremental changes that come with time. I see many ladies drive cars in Dubai and in Pakistan. There was a time when this was frowned upon. My Mother was one of the first women to drive a car in Pakistan. She came in for much criticism.<\/p>
My Mother\u2019s experience shows that we take many rights for granted. Behind each right that women enjoy today there is a story. Just as women of the past pioneered changes, so you, the women leaders of the future, will develop new frontiers for women.<\/p>
Like most Muslim women, I learnt that Islam came as a religion of emancipation to liberate humanity from the age of darkness. This was a time when female fratricide was practiced. Women were considered little more than the property of men.<\/p>
I learnt that Islam proclaimed the equality of men and women.<\/p>
The biggest example for me was Bibi Khadija, the wife of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH). She was a businesswoman, a career woman in her own right. That the Prophet married a career woman was an eye opener for me. I questioned why so many in my society at the time proclaimed that a woman\u2019s place was behind the four walls of her house.<\/p>
As a Muslim woman I focussed on the strong women in Islamic history. After Bibi Khadija died, the Prophet (PBUH) married Bibi Aisha. She led men into war. She is the source of much important material on the life and practices of the Prophet (PBUH). The Prophet\u2019s daughter, Bibi Fatima, was a mesmerising speaker. She was wife to the fourth Caliph of Islam as well as Mother to two holy leaders or Imams. Moreover, Islam taught that paradise lies at the feet of the Mother.<\/p>
Such Islamic history was important for my own validation. It was important for me to see that modernity and religion were compatible. I felt uncomfortable with much of what I saw around me in the traditional society. I noticed that despite the importance Islam gave to women, often women were treated like second class citizens. The rights of property, of child custody, of alimony, of career opportunities, of equality before the law given by Islam were denied them.<\/p>
I realised that I was one of the lucky ones. Education allowed me to learn about my rights as a Muslim woman, rights that others in my society were denied by tradition and centuries of prejudice.<\/p>
I focussed on the Islamic message of gender equality as the guiding principle in my life. I thought discrimination wrong, my life\u2019s purpose was born in resisting it where-ever I saw it.<\/p>
If women are backward in Muslim countries or subjected to primitive methods of existence, it is not, in my view, due to religion. It is because pre Islamic traditions, or neighbouring non Islamic tradition, slowly crept back into societies following the death of the Prophet (PBUH) and the four Caliphs, or Muslim leaders, that came after him. Such cultural and social traditions now pose the biggest challenge to Muslim women as we seek to regain our lost rights.<\/p>
Forced marriages, for example, are not permitted in Islam. Yet they take place due to traditional values. The circumcision of women in parts of Africa is another hotly debated issue.<\/p>
My country Pakistan was the first Muslim country to elect a woman Prime Minister. This election in 1988 was a catalyst for Muslim women everywhere.<\/p>
As Prime Minister, I invited women parliamentarians from all over the Muslim world. Together we marvelled at how many we were, although we did not know it until we met. We gained strength from each other.<\/p>
My Government had lifted the ban on Pakistani women taking part in sporting events. We decided to hold an All Women\u2019s Olympics. This year a Pakistani woman took part in the Olympics in Greece bringing pride to all our people.<\/p>
We appointed women Judges to sit on judicial benches with their brother judges to dispense justice.<\/p>
Believing that economic independence is key to self sufficiency and reliance for a woman, we opened a woman\u2019s bank, the first of its kind, in 1989 that allowed women to bank with other women and to get good financial advice. Now there are women banks in so many parts of the world.<\/p>
Each journey begins with one small step. Never hesitate to take that small step if, in your conscience, you believe it to be right. It takes courage to do what is right.<\/p>
During my life, I faced prejudice in many forms. I was bitterly opposed by traditional men who felt threatened by the presence of a woman in politics in a Muslim society. However, I was lucky to be considered a sister by the vast majority of the people of Pakistan who stood by me and who made my victory possible. It was a victory for women everywhere, a victory I couldn\u2019t have achieved without Pakistani men.<\/p>
Men and women, together, are important to the direction that society takes. We are two sides of the same coin. Our families, communities and societies can flourish when together we build a consensus on our future directions.<\/p>
My Father was one of the special people who believed in equality of each individual, irrespective or race, religion or gender. It was my Father who inspired me and encouraged me. He gave me the strength and confidence to be a person in my own right.<\/p>
At the tender age of sixteen, he sent me to Harvard University to seek knowledge. He followed the Prophet\u2019s (PBUH) saying that one should go far and wide to seek knowledge.<\/p>
Even though we have come far, women still have a long way to go. There are many more glass ceilings that must be broken. And women everywhere, Muslim and non Muslim, still find that because we are women, the obstacles are often greater<\/p>
The demands are greater.<\/p>
The barriers are greater<\/p>
And the double standards are greater too.<\/p>
As I explained, the obstacles and barriers are not due to religion. The fundamental ethos of Islam is tolerance, dialogue, and consensus.<\/p>
Extremists and extremism refute the central ethos of Islam which is equality, especially the equality between genders.<\/p>
Not long ago, the world witnessed the phenomenon of the Taliban.<\/p>
The Taliban became a symbol of resistance to modernization and of repression towards women.<\/p>
More recently it was distressing to see the name of Islam being used by pro Chechen rebels in Beslan, Russia who slaughtered children. The Prophet (PBUH) of Islam cautioned men in war to spare children, women and old men.<\/p>
Today, the Islamic world stands at the crossroads. The winds of change are blowing. Education during the last fifty years has opened up minds. The information age has opened up knowledge. Our young people ask questions and they deserve answers.<\/p>
At this time of fluidity, there is a debate within the Muslim world. There are a handful of extremists that believe in terror for political ends. There are the traditionalists who fear losing their identity as the social forces unleashed by modernisation sweep the world. And there are the moderates that believe in the Islamic principle of Ijtehaad. Ijtehaad means independent reasoning and empowers moderates to meet the demands of a transparent age.<\/p>
It\u2019s important to recognise that while the Muslim world bows its head before one God, in one direction, believing in the finality of the last Prophet, there are many debates on social and political issues within it.<\/p>
It would be a tragedy if the failure to make a distinction between terrorists who use the name of religion and Muslims that reject terrorism led to a clash of civilisations.<\/p>
I see in your visit here great hope for the future, a future where the children of different continents reject stereotypes to reach out and build bridges of understanding.<\/p>
I am optimistic. I see great progress for women everywhere. One of the most dramatic changes for women is in Afghanistan where women are taking leadership positions in education, health, government and all other fields.<\/p>
In Iran, a woman human rights activist went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>
In war zones, areas of conflict and those of famine, women show us their hidden strength.<\/p>
Women are nurturers, women give birth to life. The emergence of women as key players in leadership positions will transform society as we know it today.<\/p>
My message to you, the young generation to whom the torch of leadership will pass, is to focus on education, on health, on social uplift and on governance.<\/p>
Through this focus, women everywhere can overcome the gender gap that still exists between countries and within countries.<\/p>
We live in an age of change, an age where old taboos are giving way to new standards.<\/p>
From the shadows, women are emerging to play a role that determines the social status and standing of their countries.<\/p>
Through the centuries, the story of woman is the story of courage and of hope.<\/p>
It is this story of courage and hope that my generation\u2019s hands to yours as you dream dreams and reach for an excellence that is richly deserved.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Address of Ms Benazir Bhutto at International Peace and Role of Religion \u2013 London June 25, 2004 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAddress of Ms Benazir Bhutto at<\/strong><\/span>
International Peace and Role of Religion \u2013 London<\/strong><\/span>
June 25, 2004<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen!<\/p>
I thank Mr. Joseph Francis and the organizers of the International Peace and Religion seminar for the invitation to meet with you.<\/p>
Today\u2019s discussion is well timed. The context of 9\/11, the controversial Iraq war, the events of Afghanistan, the suicide bombings in Pakistan, the global multinational terrorist organization of Al Qaida, the use of the human body as a weapon inflicting destruction, make us both potential weapons and potential targets.<\/p>
Complicating the issue is the attempt to give violence a sacred face by articulating it through religious symbols. Although this may be the work of a small group, it has resulted in associating Islam with militancy.<\/p>
Violence dressed in religious symbols masks historical, social and economic issues simplifying ideologies. To unmask the religious face of terror, we need to separate the terrorists from underlying causes of discontent.<\/p>
>From time to time in history, religion was used to obtain political results.<\/p>
The Spanish Inquisition is one example. The Crusades another.<\/p>
Resistance to British colonial rule in the subcontinent was articulated as Muslim subnationalism.<\/p>
Communism in Central Asia was met with religious resistance in the form of Mujahideen during the Afghan Jihad.<\/p>
Madrassahs founded during the Zia dictatorship taught war to Afghanis, and contributed to the warriors fighting in the name of Islam in Afghanistan.<\/p>
In India the recent resurgence of the Hindutva ideology changed the secular nature of that country to redefine nationhood in terms of religion.<\/p>
The Zionist ideology led Israel to justify violence to protect hold of territory.<\/p>
The anti-Zionist ideology unified Islamic militancy. The splinters from the Afghan war reorganized and joined Middle eastern militarism.<\/p>
The challenge in addressing the issues of peace is therefore to separate the terrorists from the issues they adopt to gain a wider audience. Of course violence in all forms must be denounced.<\/p>
Western countries must understand that the anger of the militants is equally directed towards their own governments. No democracy will have militants spilling over, as is now happening in dictatorships.<\/p>
This is especially the case in Pakistan where militarism is equally directed at the state as it is towards the Western world.<\/p>
In the search for peace, I see two pillars of a world at peace. The first pillar is the pillar of inter faith dialogue. The second is of promoting democracy. Both these pillars are inter-twined. Democracy 0promotes safe debate. Dictatorship silences dissent.<\/p>
The attack on the Twin Towers jettisoned us into the age of Terrorism. Our generation is caught in a war triggered by militants driven by religious extremism.<\/p>
Suicide bombings and acts of terror can bring a Clash of Civilisations that destructs the world. I have hope in you, the supporters of inter faith dialogue, who are gathered here today. I believe that you can stop the coming destruction through building tolerance.<\/p>
It is the multi cultural, multi ethnic society where each person is respected regardless of race, religion or gender that can truly lead us on to the path of progress and prosperity.<\/p>
I have hope in democracy with its values of pluralism. Democracy can permit the flowering of a multi ethnic and multi cultural society. A society where races, religions and genders co-exist peacefully, in harmony to the mutual benefit of all.<\/p>
When terrorists strike at women, children and innocent worshippers in masjids and churches they do a disservice to Islam. It grieves me when I hear of people killed in the name of religion. It grieves me when I hear of religion used as a weapon to kill, maim and destroy.<\/p>
I was brought up to believe that Jews, Christians and Muslims are Ahle e Kitaab, that is people who received the message sent from God.<\/p>
I was brought up to believe that God sent tens of thousands of prophets to spread His message amongst humanity.<\/p>
We are all God\u2019s creatures and it is to God that we will all ultimately return.<\/p>
Extremist groups are rising in all the key civilizations. There are extremists in the Muslim world, in India, in America. They spew hatred against Muslims, or Jews or Christians. The extremists are united in hate, in intolerance and in sparking religious wars where they can prosper.<\/p>
I call upon the youth of each of the civilizations to reject the message of hate and embrace the message of peace.<\/p>
The biggest blessing from God is the blessing of peace. Woe to the land caught in war, in fratricide in bloodshed.<\/p>
The end of the Cold war has seen much shedding of blood in the name of religion. We saw it when Yugoslavia broke down and Bosnians were killed by Serbs. And we keep seeing it today like helpless spectators.<\/p>
I do not believe that we are helpless spectators. Each one of us is an agent of change.<\/p>
I have hope in humanity, in our seniors and in our youngsters that they will reject the victim mentality.<\/p>
It is by dictating the agenda of understanding, as you are doing today through this Inter-faith seminar that we can build a better world.<\/p>
Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University predicted a clash of civilizations between the West and the Islamic world.<\/p>
We can prevent this clash from taking place by marginalizing the voices of the extremists.<\/p>
There is much that binds us in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim heritage.<\/p>
These three great religions were born in the cradle of the Middle East. The word \u201cMuslim\u201d actually means those who follow the Prophets Moses, Jesus and Mohammad.<\/p>
This is why the British, during their rule of Muslim countries, referred to the Muslims as Mohammadans.<\/p>
Abraham is our common father. He built the holiest place of the Muslims known as the Kaaba, the House of God, in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>
According to the Muslim Holy Book (verse 62 second sura Al Baqara): \u201cThose who believe (in the Koran), And those who follow the Jewsih (scriptures), And the Christians and the Sabians, Any who believe in Allah, And the Last Day, And work for righteousness, Shall have their reward with their Lord; On them shall be no fear, Nor shall they grieve\u201d.<\/p>
As in Judaism and Christianity, Islam says Do not commit adultery; Do not cheat; Do not kill your children for fear of poverty; Do not lie; Do not spy; Do not speak ill of anyone; Do not drink alcohol; Do not gamble; Do not hate or envy each other.<\/p>
Religon is a moral compass that gives its followers faith, hope and a path for the redemption of the soul on the day of Judgement.<\/p>
Irrespective of our faith, we may distinguish between those who spread hatred and violence in the name of religion and those of us who would live respecting the right to freedom in religious worship.<\/p>
It worries me that Pakistan, the second largest Muslim country, is under a military dictatorship.<\/p>
Each country with a military past, including Indonesia, Phillipines and Pakistan, has a problem with terrorism. Terrorism and extremism go hand in hand with dictatorship.<\/p>
It is through universal freedoms, including the freedom to elect ones own government, to change ones own government, to shape ones own destiny that true stability can come.<\/p>
Today the West supports a military dictator in the name of stability. I have problems with such support particularly as we witness the lack of stability under the military dispensation.<\/p>
There is little stability in Quetta, or Karachi or Lahore or Islamabad or anywhere else. Innocent people are killed, the regime too caught up in power struggle to bother about the elements of stability.<\/p>
We are sitting on a volcano. Unless democracy returns to Pakistan, the fear is that civil war could break out.<\/p>
The involvement of the military in first raising militants under one dictator and subsequently seeking to crush them under another dictator has culminated in attacks on the armed forces themselves.<\/p>
The army chief is helpless to protect himself or his corp commander. Officers in WANA are taken hostage. Six hundred and thirty eight policemen were killed since the terrorists were released from the prisons of Karachi in November 2002. These incidents are a few examples of the coming chaos and anarchy unless order is restored.<\/p>
Order can be restored. For this, the army must go back to the barracks. A professional armed forces under an elected government enjoys prestige, for it is non controversial. It is the political government that absorbs the criticism of policies. And the political government is answerable and accountable to the public through fair elections.<\/p>
India is much admired for its independent judiciary, its independent election commission, its professional armed forces and for its smooth transition from one government to another. It saddens me that in the case of Pakistan, we are labeled a country of coups, of dictatorships and of violence.<\/p>
It need not be so if we unite and with one voice fight for the restoration of the Constitution as it existed in September 1999 and for the holding of fair elections under the Pakistan Human Rights Commission.<\/p>
A democratic and political government respecting human rights is the best guarantee of inter faith understanding, of brotherhood and harmony, the very building blocks of peace, progress and prosperity.<\/p>
It is truly hypocritical that in the very week of June 2004 that the military dictator extols the virtues of enlightenment in the Washington Post, his minister for Religious Affairs calls upon Muslims to become human bombs. It is the duality of policy, with one tune sung for the international community and another for the domestic audience that has brought about the crisis where the writ of the regime has failed.<\/p>
While the dictatorship speaks of democracy to the west, it uses the state resources to undermine the elected parliamentarians. While it speaks of freeing the media, it stops advertisements, beats up and forces into exile independent media.<\/p>
The steps to crush the moderate political parties and silence debate creates a vacuum which the theocratic forces fill.<\/p>
We can counter such forces by maintaining our commitment to the principles that define us\u2013the principles of racial, gender and religious equality, the principles of political pluralism and tolerance, and the principle of peaceful change through democracy. And, in the end, we shall prevail.<\/p>
Just as in Christianity, Judaism and other religions, we must always be on guard for those who will manipulate the message of religion for their own narrow political ends, who will distort the essence of pluralism and tolerance for their own extremist agendas.<\/p>
This is a time of test for the Muslim community. We see ourselves as a largely a peace loving people. The effect of 9\/11 has led to our being viewed as violent, intolerant and capable of frenzied killing of innocents. We now feel that we are at the receiving end of world bias and prejudice.<\/p>
In this context, this inter faith dialogue is an important step in redressing the balance.<\/p>
I thank the sponsors for holding this seminar, for inviting me to attend it. I thank all of you for attending it for it shows your commitment to tolerance and understanding. I am convinced that we will together beat the forces of terrorism and extremism because ultimately truth must prevail.<\/p>
Thank you\u00a0.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Speech at Lady Margaret Hall\u00a0 by Ms Benazir Bhutto May 27, 2004 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSpeech at<\/strong><\/span>
Lady Margaret Hall\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
by Ms Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
May 27, 2004<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
It is a pleasure and an honour for me to return to Lady Margaret Hall. I thank the Principal, Mrs. Frances Lannon, for the invitation and the opportunity to meet with you this evening.<\/p>
I was at Lady Margaret Hall in the seventies at the height of the Miners strike. I return to Lady Margaret Hall in different times. Now London prepares emergency evacuation plans in the event of a terrorist strike in this the twenty first century.<\/p>
The changes in threat perception and preparation are enormous.<\/p>
I visit Oxford at a time when Coalition forces are seemingly bogged down in a political and military quagmire that threatens the achievement of its goals in Iraq.<\/p>
With respect to the war on terrorism-I see three primary victims of the Al Qaeda rampage of September 11th. Above all the victims are the people who were killed that day.<\/p>
The era of peace for which we prayed, became a time of war.<\/p>
Violence continues in Iraq and Afghanistan. Terrorist acts take place from Indonesia to Morocco. Even Madrid is not spared.<\/p>
This violences takes place at a time when tension in the Middle East make the peace process a distant dream. Despite some overtures, India and Pakistan still have a distance to travel to reduce the risk of nuclear confrontation.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,\u00a0 The attack on the Twin Towers was an attack on a country that symbolises\u00a0 freedom.<\/p>
As a former student from Oxford and Harvard, I first learned of freedom in these bastions of democracy.<\/p>
It was at Oxford, with its flourishing political groups and debates at the Oxford Union that I learned of dissent, tolerance, and equal opportunity for all citizens.<\/p>
My commitment to freedom was nurtured here. Britain is the world\u2019s oldest democracy. Its elected, representative and empowered House of Commons as well as its Habeous Corpus Charter is a light of hope for all those denied human dignity across the world.<\/p>
Wedded to the past, the terrorists attacked the symbols of a modern age.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
It grieves me that included in the list of innocent victims of September 11th is the image of Islam across the world.\u00a0 For me, Islam is not what these people preach.<\/p>
I see Islam as committed to tolerance and equality and committed, by Koranic definition, to the principles of democracy.<\/p>
The Muslim people want freedom. I know the people of Pakistan want freedom.<\/p>
They can not understand the support for a military dictator.<\/p>
Islam is committed to universal education and literacy.\u00a0 The very first word of the Holy Book Koran is \u201cRead.\u201d<\/p>
Yet, while militaries are armed, students are often not educated. Professors and teachers are paid very little salaries.<\/p>
Islam is committed to the equality of women in society.\u00a0 The wife of the Holy Prophet of Islam was a working woman.<\/p>
Yet, in many Muslim countries, women are discriminated against in every aspect of life. Most of these crimes go unpunished.<\/p>
The investment in justice, law and order and prosecution is small.<\/p>
Businessmen and women are not allowed to freely compete. Nepotism and cronyism prevail parliamentarians pressured or forced to defect.<\/p>
Human rights activists are jailed.<\/p>
Political parties are decimated.<\/p>
Political leaders are political prisoners or forced into exile. Dissent is not tolerated. Television interviews are regulated by the military.<\/p>
This is the street of decent Muslim people, terrorized by the authoritarian powers of the state.<\/p>
It is the street of Pakistan\u2019s future in the chains of tyranny where law and constitution are treated with contempt.<\/p>
And it is a street that threatens to explode.<\/p>
We must fight a war on terrorism, and on political manipulation of religion and against military dictatorship.<\/p>
Terrorists and dictators are the cause of war, bloodshed, inhumanity, chaos and disintegration.<\/p>
In the end, they will be defeated.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
In the Muslim Holy Book, Abraham is our father, just as Moses and Jesus are our prophets.<\/p>
There are similarities between Islam and the Judeo-Christian traditions.<\/p>
Muslims believe that Jews, Christians and Muslims are one people who are Ahle e Kitaab that is who have religious books containing the message sent by God through his Prophets.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
If Islam and the Muslim world are viewed as threats, we will enter a relentless cycle of action and reaction spiralling out of control. To prevent this, it is important to distinguish between those committing crimes in the name of the Islamic religion and those Muslims who believe in peaceful religious co-existence.<\/p>
It would be a tragedy if suspicion towards Muslims led to a backlash that provoked a clash of civilizations.<\/p>
All Nineteen of the hijackers that hit the world trade center were Arabs. That Arab countries could have produced men who launched such an attack makes them the center of scrutiny in the twenty-first century. There is renewed focus on the Arabs as a whole. Nontheless, the war against terror has put the Middle East issue on the backburner. This should not be so. A Middle East settlement is one of the significant keys to the future Arab mind and the Arab youth just as it is key to the mind of the Israelis who today live under the shadow of the suicide bomber.<\/p>
The Coalition forces in Baghdad, greeted with hope after the fall of the Saddam dictatorship, are now facing the anger of the Iraqi people. The lack of preparedness for the post Saddam era caused the backlash. There is a need to widen the base of international and internal participation in Iraq.<\/p>
Iraq and the Middle East are brimming with violence. They are the flash points that Osama and his cohorts exploit to hide their aim of a religious war through feigned sympathy for nationalism. They exploit a growing siege mentality within the Muslim world.<\/p>
Following September 11, many Muslims found themselves treated with suspicion. This created a siege mentality. That siege mentality was reinforced by the Iraq war, a war that started without cover of the United Nations.<\/p>
Despite Saddam\u2019s history of dictatorship and repression, many in the Islamic world interpret the invasion of Iraq presaging a wider attack against an array of Muslim countries including Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and eventually Pakistan. The recent sanctions against Syria reinforce this view.<\/p>
While most Muslim intellectuals strongly condemn the attacks on the World Trade Center, they believe that unaddressed political problems and neglected social injustice provided a dish allowing the germs of
terrorism and hatred to multiply.<\/p>
The world is threatened but a military response is only part of the solution to the problem of terrorism and the growing divide between the Muslim and non-Muslim world.<\/p>
The instability of the Iraqi occupation, the continuing instability in Afghanistan, the deteriorating situation in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians, and the unresolved tragedy of Kashmir impact upon the people in the Street. No one knows when the masses can become a mob and that mob strike out against anything Western.<\/p>
Some scholars argue that with its overwhelming military might and allies, America must shed its imperial inhibitions and take on the responsibility of reshaping the world. For them, the post Yalta world is now redundant with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The world is to be reshaped to mirror the new realities. Driven by a sense of righteousness, the proponents of this theory find a moral purpose in unilateral action.<\/p>
Such scholars overlook the lessons of twentieth century history. This history teaches us that the go it alone policy fails to build the political support that must follow a military victory.<\/p>
It was for this reason that one of America\u2019s great Presidents, Woodrow Wilson,\u00a0 promoted the concept of collective security and the principle of self-determination.<\/p>
To prevent the acceleration of the clash of cultures, civilizations and religions, collective security is important to ensure world stability in the coming decades.<\/p>
As Prime Minister of Pakistan, I stood up to the forces of dictatorship that breed extremism by weakening democratic forces.<\/p>
During the Afghan-Soviet war in the seventies and eighties, Pakistan became the breeding ground for the political and religious manipulation of the religious extremists. Pakistan\u2019s then military dictator insisted on handling the fighters in Afghanistan, known as the Jihadis, directly through his own intelligence services.<\/p>
He recruited and supported the most extreme elements in his bid to undermine the moderate and democratic political forces of the country. He justified his dictatorship under the guise of implementing an Islamic system. He belonged to the Muslim brotherhood and he brought in their supporters from all over the world to Pakistan.<\/p>
Exploiting the name of religion, he established thousands of doctrinaire schools. These schools produced brainwashed young men that could be sent off to fight the superpowers. First the Soviets-and then the West.<\/p>
But one must never give in;<\/p>
To the fanatics and the extremists democracy and rule by elected representatives.<\/p>
To Islam at the crossroads, a modern, democratic Pakistan was one fork in the road, fanaticism and ignorance the other.<\/p>
With the failure of their attempted military coup in 1995, the extremists worked with their supporters in the security establishment to destabilise the democratic government I led.\u00a0 My brother was murdered. The PPP President was blackmailed into dismissing the PPP government. The elections, according to the SAARC observers, was rigged and a pliant political protege of the military dictator Zia ul Haq was brought in.<\/p>
A psychological war was launched against the PPP to demonise its leadership. Our government had been the obstacle to the triumph of Taliban over all Afghanistan, to the invitation to Al Qaeda in pursuit of the agenda of religious war and to the export of extremism through Afghanistan, into Central Asia then to Chechnya and onto the shores of Europe.<\/p>
I am proud of my record as Prime Minister in containing international terrorism and reducing tensions with India.<\/p>
During my first tenure in office, we facilitated the formation of an interim government of national consensus in Afghanistan where the moderates and hard liners agreed to co-exist.\u00a0 During my second tenure, my government confined the Taliban to Southern Afghanistan prevailing upon them to enter negotiations with the United Nations Special Envoy Mr. Brahmi.<\/p>
With the eclipse of my government in late September 1996, the Taliban seized Kabul imposing their will across Afghanistan. After my overthrow on November 4, 1996, they openly invited in Osama Bin Laden. In 1997, they allowed Bin Laden to establish Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda set up camps without secrecy to recruit and train young men from the Muslim world. As Leader of the Opposition in the Pakistani Parliament, I called upon Islamabad to sever ties with the Taliban in 1998. That call went unheeded.<\/p>
On the India front, we had extraordinary progress with the first nuclear confidence building treaty, the agreement not to attack each other\u2019s respective nuclear facilities.\u00a0 We established a hot line between the Pakistani and Indian leadership modelled after the hot line between Washington and Moscow during the Cold War.\u00a0 We opened up our borders to travel and tourism, and adopted a South Asian preferential tariff agreement that established a free-trade zone between Pakistan, India and the other nations of the region.<\/p>
The PPP government was making dramatic progress in relations with India and with containing terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.\u00a0 But moderation and progress is not what the Army hard-liners and religious extremists could tolerate.\u00a0 I was their threat, and I was eliminated. I am afraid, ladies and gentlemen, that the consequences continue to ripple across Asia.<\/p>
In the closing days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan,\u00a0 I cautioned that the policy to defeat the Soviets had empowered and emboldened the most fanatical, extremist elements of the Afghan Mujahadeen at the expense of the moderates, creating a \u201cFrankenstein\u201d that could come back to haunt us in the future.<\/p>
I fear now that the policy to support the Musharaf military dictatorship to fight the war against terror is strengthening the religious parties and extremists in Pakistan at the expense of the moderates. They could turn into the new Frankenstein\u2019s monster that haunts us in the future.<\/p>
The fundamental mistake, which contributed to a long-term historical calamity, was that we were not consistently committed to the values of freedom, democracy and self-determination that ultimately undermine and belie the basic tenets of terrorism.<\/p>
The international community must not repeat that mistake again.<\/p>
Democracy and human rights must be the centrepiece of policy around the world.<\/p>
The international community need not coddle dictators to promote its own interests.\u00a0 Its interest is democracy, not tyranny.<\/p>
In Pakistan just as in Britain and around the world, those of us who are committed to human rights and democracy abhor terrorism in all of its murderous forms.<\/p>
The goal of British policy must always be to simultaneously promote stability and to strengthen democratic values.<\/p>
Pakistan\u2019s military dictatorship has been ambiguous in its opposition to terrorism. It has given mixed signals at home and around the world.<\/p>
Let me quote from a recent report by the International Crisis Group entitled:<\/p>
\u201cUnfulfilled Promises:\u00a0 Pakistan\u2019s Failure to Tackle Extremism:\u201d<\/p>
\u201cMusharraf\u2019s failure owes less to the difficulty of implementing reforms than to the military government\u2019s own unwillingness. Indeed, he is following the pattern of the country\u2019s previous military rulers in co-opting religious extremists to support his government\u2019s agenda and to neutralize his secular political opposition.\u00a0 Far from
combating extremism, the military government has promoted it through its electoral policies and its failure to implement effective reform. Whatever measures have so far been taken against extremism have been largely cosmetic, to ease international pressure.\u201d<\/p>
Lt. Gen. David Barno, a senior US General, has expressed concern over Islamabad\u2019s commitment to fighting Al Qaeda and the remnants of Taliban in the tribal areas of Pakistan.\u00a0 Earlier the US Ambassador to Afghanistan echoed similar sentiments with regard to the Taliban.<\/p>
In March, during a visit by the US Secretary of State to Pakistan, Islamabad launched a much publicized campaign against Arab-Afghan fighters in the tribal area of Wana. Islamabad\u2019s military dictator hinted to CNN that Al Qaeda\u2019s number two, described as a high value target, was surrounded and on the verge of capture. None of this was true. No Arab Afghan was found. The only people caught were Chechens and Uzbeks. The Pak army suffered high casualties and some officers were taken hostage. Soon after Colin Powell left, an amnesty was announced for those that fought and killed Pak army officials.<\/p>
A similar amnesty was announced for a Pak nuclear scientist who confessed to selling nuclear products internationally. General Musharaf said that, \u201che could keep the money too\u201d, a reference to the two hundred million dollars reportedly milked through the scandal. Those earlier arrested for corruption by Musharaf when he seized power were forgiven and taken into the Cabinet when they defected from their political parties. The sons of the Generals who fought the first Afghan Jihad and reportedly amassed vast riches by siphoning Jihad funds sit as proud members of General Musharaf\u2019s handpicked cabinet.<\/p>
Political\u00a0 opponents who proclaim their innocence and confront a systematic campaign of perversion of justice are shown no mercy by the military dictatorship.<\/p>
As a leading scholar from the Carnegie Peace Institute put it, \u201cNobody around the world\u2019s capitals is even asking why General Musharaf\u2019s iron hand is reserved for his political critics and opponents while he deploys amnesty and negotiated settlements for alleged terrorists and militant tribesmen\u201d.<\/p>
The government and people of the United Kingdom and the rest of the world must remember that Pakistan has a brutal, extra-constitutional military government with no democratic legitimacy.\u00a0 More people in Pakistan than ever before are unemployed and live below the poverty line.<\/p>
Through the long years of super-power rivalry and the emergence of Pakistan as a strategic partner in the fight against Communism, the international community relied on the Pakistani military. I would argue that in the war against terrorism, the international community must reply on the strength of the people and not on the strength of
militaries. The militaries are often the problem and not the solution.<\/p>
In several Muslim countries around the world, direct or indirect dictatorships, relying on the backing of the military and of the international community are causing resentment and anger amongst the people. These dictators are seen as the proxies of the foreign powers and feed the frenzy of xenophobia and anti western sentiment that the
extremists and terrorist exploit. As the moderate forces are squeezed, opposition shifts to the Masjids and to the political sermons delivered by religious leaders following the prayer.<\/p>
A democratic system allows peaceful and political change. It permits pluralism. There is always an alternative available to the people. Tragedy strikes when alternatives are missing. We saw it in Afghanistan where the Taliban dictatorship refused to permit political opposition and war became the only recourse. We saw it in Iraq when the Baathist Party was the sole monopoliser of power and short of war there was no alternative to peaceful, political change.<\/p>
War brings its own dangers. Dangers that lurk in casualties and blood shed. And more dangers that lurk in the threat of a state disintegrating in the event of a withdrawal. The bloody break up of Yugoslavia is a recent example.<\/p>
Autocrats do not become democrats by words; they become democrats by deeds.\u00a0 And so far, the deeds of Musharraf are the deeds of a military dictator.\u00a0 He has forced into exile the popular leadership of the country. He sacked half of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, including its chief justice. Members of the press that write independently are roughed up, imprisoned or forced into exile. One editor was forced into exile for running a story on possible links between the security establishment and the murderers of Wall St Journal reporter Danny Pearl.<\/p>
The Musharaf dictatorship has build up the security establishment as a state-within-a-state. There are two laws in Pakistan\u2013one for the civilians and another for the military. There are also two separate educational opportunities, health opportunities, pension opportunities, investment opportunities, economic benefits, agricultural allotments,
bank loans, permits for commercial plazas, plush low cost housing depending on whether one wears Mufti or Khaki. In fact the agrarian feudal lords and the industrial robber barons have been replaced by the Khaki class.<\/p>
In Iraq members of the coalition forces die doing duty without being given commercial, residential and agricultural holdings as rewards. In Islamabad, the Generals get these rewards without dying doing duty.<\/p>
Perhaps it is naivet\u00e9 by the West, or short-term myopia that has led to disastrous courting of the Shah of Iran, Marcos of the Philippines and Zia of Pakistan.<\/p>
Pakistan, as has been observed by Arnold de Borchgrave, the UPI Editor in Chief, is \u2018 a nuclear power with two of its four provinces governed by six politico-religious parties whose leaders are friends of Taliban\u2019s Mullah Omar and al-Qaeda\u2019s Osama bin Laden.\u201d<\/p>
The so-called October 2002 elections in Pakistan were blatant frauds engineered by Musharraf\u2019s electoral cells.\u00a0 This fraud was exposed by the European community and election monitors from all over the world. General Musharraf, for reasons known only to himself, allowed the religious parties to make significant gains by declaring that religious school diplomas would be treated at par with University degrees. He then decreed that only those with University degrees could contest elections. His strategy is to tell the international community that only he and the
Pakistani army stand in the way of a religious take over in Pakistan. A powerful argument but a total fraud.<\/p>
I was banned by special decree from contesting the October elections. I have challenged that ban. Mullah Omar\u2019s teacher was allowed to contest the elections and is now a member of Parliament.<\/p>
My husband, hostage to my political career, sits in a Musharraf prison as we speak this evening.<\/p>
This is the state of justice in Musharaff\u2019s Pakistan.<\/p>
I ask myself why a man who simultaneously enjoys the powers of Chief of Army Staff and President is afraid to let me lead my party?<\/p>
General Musharraf has nuclear tipped missiles and thousands of tanks, but he does not have the people of Pakistan.<\/p>
General Musharraf exploits the war on terrorism to protect his dictatorship.\u00a0 Like his military predecessor General Zia he uses Pakistan\u2019s critical importance to the international community in Afghanistan as a smokescreen for his own dictatorship.<\/p>
He undermines the popular Pakistan Peoples Party, using every trick in the book to force its members to defect to strengthen the religious parties.<\/p>
The \u201cfox\u201d patrols the \u201chen house,\u201d while the world seems to be asleep.<\/p>
The best and only control for the excesses of extremism, is accountability to the people.\u00a0 It is for this we pray in Afghanistan. It is for this we pray in Pakistan.\u00a0 It is for this we pray all over the world.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Speech on International Women\u2019s Day at Dubai Women\u2019s College March 8, 2004 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSpeech on International Women\u2019s Day at<\/strong><\/span>
Dubai Women\u2019s College<\/strong><\/span>
March 8, 2004<\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
Bismillah Ir Rahman Nir Raheem.<\/p>
Dear sisters, ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
I am delighted to join you this morning on international women\u2019s day.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
This is a day where across continents and countries, women of different races, religions, cultures and histories meet together to demonstrate solidarity.<\/p>
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It is a special day for me as a woman, one I share with all my sisters.<\/p>
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It was in 1910, that a woman from Germany moved a motion at a conference to declare march 8 as international woman\u2019s day.<\/p>
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How many mocked that one woman. How small she seemed against the sea of people who believed woman to be less than a man.<\/p>
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Yet in less than one hundred years that small woman who spoke up with one voice triumphed because she was speaking for a truth and a right:<\/p>

The truth that men and women are born equal and must be treated equally.<\/p>
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This proves the old saying that each long journey begins with one small step.<\/p>
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My message to you is to always have the courage to make that step when you know in your heart that it is the right step to take.<\/p>
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That one woman was not afraid to speak up. She was not afraid that she would be mocked or shamed. She believed in her thoughts and fought for her rights. She began a campaign to collect signatures. Soon there were I million signatures for observing women\u2019s day.<\/p>
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Now nearly every country in the world celebrates woman\u2019s day and celebrates the power of what one woman can do.<\/p>
Remember in life we women have nothing to fear but fear itself.<\/p>
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Reject fear and the fear of failure, you will climb the sweetest heights of success.<\/p>
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For me women\u2019s day is a special day, a day of remembrance, a day of rededication to my sisters to stand with them.<\/p>
Women have come a long way since 1910 and we still have to go a long way.<\/p>
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Our holy prophet, peace be upon him, condemned the practice of killing the girl child practiced in pagan times.<\/p>
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The killing of the girl child symbolised violence against woman when she was but a helpless infant.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Yet violence against women continues in different ways. Violence against women is wrong, it is immoral and we must stand up against this.<\/p>
In observing women\u2019s day, I salute all those men who believe in gender equality. Women\u2019s rights are human rights. Human rights are indivisible. Therefore, men and women have a role to play in advancing the cause of women.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Sometimes it is a man who is an oppressor. Sometimes it is a woman who is an oppressor. An oppressor does not know gender.<\/p>
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In my case, I learnt about women\u2019s rights from a very special man-my father.<\/p>
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He was the one who said one day to my mother, I do not want my daughter to wear the veil although I want her to dress modestly.<\/p>
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It was my father who insisted that I have a university education even though his sisters said, \u201cdon\u2019t do that because no man will marry an educated woman\u201d.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
My success came because my father was a special man.<\/p>
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In my eyes president of UAE, his highness Shaikh Zayed is a special man and the ruler of Dubai, Shaikh Maktoum is a special man. They built these schools and universities so that the daughters of UAE and Dubai could get the best education the world could offer.<\/p>
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Education is the first step to success, to independence and to a satisfying life where the full creative and intellectual powers of a person are used to lead a stimulating, interesting and instructive life.<\/p>
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I am often asked how I became prime minister of a Muslim country. My reply is that I derived inspiration from the historical fact that the holy prophet of Islam, peace be upon him, married a working woman.<\/p>
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Yet through the mists of time, some of us, under colonialism, or tribalism or feudalism, lost touch with the roots of our religion.<\/p>
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Now once again, with the stress on education, on health facilities for women and on work opportunities for women, Muslim countries are beginning to awaken the creative force of their woman power.<\/p>
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My life is not the simple life I dreamt of when I was studying at Harvard university and at oxford.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I have lost my father when he was fifty years old. I lost two of my brothers.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Many thought that as a woman, I would break.<\/p>
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I did not because I believe that leadership is born of a passion. It is a commitment and it becomes life\u2019s mission.<\/p>
Women often have to make difficult choices. Sometimes choices that men do not have to make. Yet we make them because we must.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I grew up at a time of war. War in Vietnam. War between India and Pakistan.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
The more I read about war, the more I wanted to work for peace and the peaceful resolutions of conflicts.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
While I was at Oxford University, a British politician was threatening to throw all Asians into the sea. In hearing him I learnt about racial discrimination. I was determined to work for a world free of discrimination.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
While I was at oxford, the British conservative party nominated Margaret Thatcher as their prime ministerial candidate.<\/p>
I thought: if in England, then surely in Pakistan.<\/p>
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At oxford, I was the first female foreigner to win the presidency of the prestigious oxford debating society.<\/p>
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I had been told that as a foreigner I could not win and should not run.<\/p>
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I had been told that as a woman I could not win and should not run.<\/p>
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But I did run and I did win and in so doing I overcame my fear of losing.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I learnt to take risks.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Later I was told that because I was a woman I could not win the prime ministership of Pakistan.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Putting my faith in Allah and my trust in the love of the people of my country, I refused to take no for an answer.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I won because I refused to take no for an answer and because I believed that one individual, one woman, could make a difference.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
So my message to all of you today is: don\u2019t take no for an answer.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Be ready to take risks for what you believe in, what in your heart you know is right.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
On this international women\u2019s day, I urge women around the world not to accept no for an answer, not to accept restraints and constraints.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Remember Islam came as a message of emancipation putting an end to the humiliation of women.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
This new century of ours must, for once and for all, be a century that values the girl child, that respects the woman, and protects its daughters, mothers and sisters in peace and in war, that honours and dignifies its women with economic freedom and allows us to be judged by our individual achievements.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
My dear sisters and distinguished guests:<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I wonder how many know that every hour one thousand children starve to death in the world.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
As long as such violations of human rights exist, none of us, regardless of where we live, regardless of how comfortable our lifestyles, none of us are free.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I hope that your generation will succeed where mine failed.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I pray that you will succeed in building a better world, a world of peace, a world free of hunger, of pain and of suffering.<\/p>
You are the leaders of tomorrow. Remember leaders do what\u00a0is moral, they do what is right, they do what is necessary to build a better world.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
And they don\u2019t take no for an answer because they know one individual, one woman, can make a difference.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Thank You.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Mohtarma Bhutto address at Woodrow Wilson Centre Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington DC \u2013 February 09, 2004 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMohtarma Bhutto address at<\/strong><\/span>
Woodrow Wilson Centre<\/strong><\/span>
Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington DC \u2013 February 09, 2004<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
As part of the effort to build a safer world, the Pakistan Peoples Party has been calling for normalization of relations with India.<\/p>
In the context of Indo Pak relations, some believe that tension can only be reduced when both countries are truly democracies. I agree with that. Democracies do not go to war against other democracies. Indo Pak history proves this. Since the two countries won Independence in 1947, the three Indo-Pak wars that took place were under military dictatorships.<\/p>
And since the destabilization of the democratic government that I led in 1996, India and Pakistan came close to war three times.<\/p>
As a witness to the historic Simla Agreement, the agreement which prevented full fledged war between our countries since 1971, my Party and I are committed to the Peace process between our countries. It is this commitment which led the PPP and myself to welcome talks between New Delhi and Islamabad despite the military dictatorship in my country.<\/p>
However, we do not believe General Musharaf has a vision for peace. He is a tactical leader who engages in short-term somersaults. His action are to relieve momentary pressures. As soon as the pressure is off, he goes back to his basic nature.<\/p>
This is true of his actions relating to India, Taliban, the banning of militant groups and the regulations of political Madrassas.<\/p>
It is the PPP\u00a0 which has the singular honour of making a breakthrough on Siachin during Indo Pak talks in 1989. It is the architect of the policy of soft borders on the disputed territories enunciated in 1999.<\/p>
This policy flowed from a policy review undertaken after the Indo-Pak nuclear detonations of 1998. PPP in 2001, became first party in Pakistan to call for a ban on militant groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyabba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Musharaf now adopts our policies but on the ground his old policies are in place.<\/p>
I take this opportunity to commend the All Parties Hurriyet Conference. APHC has an important role to play in facilitating peaceful conditions in Srinigar as\u00a0 indeed in Muzzafarabad whose parties are also part of the APHC.<\/p>
As Prime Minister I signed with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi the nuclear confidence building treaty in 1988, a treaty by which we committed not to attack our respective nuclear facilities. It was the most important peace accords between us since the Simla Agreements signed in 1972.<\/p>
We were also able to establish hot lines between the General headquarters of both our countries modelled after the Hotline between Washington and the Kremlin.<\/p>
These confidence building measures were important to moving the cause of peace and facing the challenge of differing perceptions on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/p>
Other countries also have different points of view on issues. China and India have a border dispute but they do not threaten each other with war. In fact, relations between the two countries keep improving.<\/p>
We can learn from such models of conflict management. Progress can help build stronger economic ties.<\/p>
In the early years, 56 percent of Pakistan\u2019s total exports went direct to the Indian market. However, as the political relations deteriorated in the 1950s, trade died down and became practically non existent for fifty years.<\/p>
It was to revive this relationship that the PPP government under my leadership proposed a South Asian Tariff Agreement during the Islamabad Summit of 1988. The PPP government between 1993 and 1996 ratified the SAPTA agreement during my second tenure. Trade between our two countries is a benefit to the common man.<\/p>
The politics of the PPP has always been the politics of the common man.<\/p>
Despite a growing middle class in both countries, the depth of poverty of our underclass defames our image.<\/p>
The French philosopher Rousseau said that we were all born free.\u00a0 Yet our societies, cultures, politics and militaries, keep our people chained to illiteracy, ignorance, intolerance, infant mortality, malnutrition and disease. It is to break those chains of backwardness that the PPP was working from Simla to Islamabad to its vision of SAPTA and free travel for the countries of South Asia.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
In 1988, my government and I worked closely with the world community on the issue of nuclear proliferation. My government convinced other major players in Pakistan\u2019s power structure of the importance of nuclear restraint.<\/p>
Following recent disclosures by Iran, Islamabad detained seven scientists attached to its nuclear facility at Kahuta. An investigation by our intelligence agency is our underway.<\/p>
The recent proliferation accusations cover North Korea, Iran and Libya.<\/p>
Saif Gaddafi allegedly said Pakistan sold \u2018full bomb dossier\u2019 to Tripoli. The New York Times carried a sales brochure of nuclear components from Pakistan\u2019s AQ Khan Laboratories published in 2000 when Musharaf was the Chief Executive.\u00a0 Washington has indicated that it is willing to accept Musharaf\u2019s plea that this was \u201cin the past\u201d.<\/p>
US officials said on January 16th that they are investigating a possible Islamabad connection in the export of trigger devices for nuclear weapons by a South African businessman of Israeli origin. The New York Times reports the paper trail leads to Pakistan.<\/p>
Islamabad faces an explosive situation. Pakistani\u2019s do not believe its nuclear scientists, could have sold nuclear technology on their own. There is a consensus that the scientists are being make scapegoats. Musharaf\u2019s go it alone attitude has left the public ignorant of developments relating to the proliferation inquiry. Most information has come from the American media.<\/p>
It was from the US media that the people learnt that for the past two years, Musharaf suspected Abdul Qadeer Khan was free-lancing nuclear assets, while the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was in the dark. It was from the British paper that people in Pakistan learnt that Colin Powell had asked for the arrest of Qadeer Khan in 2002.<\/p>
Unless there is a transparent public inquiry into the chain of events leading to accusations against the scientists, a public backlash is likely. Few people are ready to believe that the scientists acted on their own.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
I entered politics with the dream to help my country prosper on democratic principles.<\/p>
Tragically, I found that the fanatics and the dictators fear the empowerment of the People of Pakistan\u00a0 \u2014 they fear literacy, equality and above all fear information.<\/p>
They demean political parties and democratically elected leaders to justify direct or indirect military rule.<\/p>
Concentrating power in one Institution has negative consequences. Iraq and Afghanistan are two recent examples. Both once key allies of the west, the Baathists and the Mujahideen had to be removed by force.<\/p>
Weakened political parties and structures make the task of reconstruction more difficult.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
The terrorists of Al Qaeda including Osama Bin Laden and Ramzi Yousaf tried to get rid of the PPP government.\u00a0 Musharaf is also trying to get rid of the PPP. I ask myself why the common denominator between both of these apparently irreconcilable forces is the attempt to crush the PPP.<\/p>
I believe as a democrat, I am their opposite. As someone who offers hope to our people\u00a0 \u2014 education, jobs, communication and modernity instead of guns and disempowerment \u2014 I am an obstacle to the forces of hate.<\/p>
Under the PPP government Pakistan integrated into the global economy. We became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world. We invested in education and health.<\/p>
My government condemned honour killing, the murder of women who chose to marry without their guardian\u2019s permission. My party has moved a bill in Parliament making these honour killings illegal. Sadly, but not unsurprisingly, Pakistan\u2019s military regime refuses to join us.<\/p>
General Musharaf did make the correct decision to stand with America following the attack on the world trade centres. But until he did so, his regime was the most ardent supporter of the Taliban even as it harboured Al-Qaeda. He learned his politics from the\u00a0 father of the Afghan Jihad the religious despot Zia ul Haq.<\/p>
General Zia wanted the people of Pakistan to live under the strict interpretation of Islamic laws by the Muslim brotherhood just like the Taliban. Now Musharaf has promoted the politics of excluding the mainstream party opening the way for the religious parties that, like Zia, wish to implement the Muslim Brotherhood\u2019s interpretation of Islamic school of law.<\/p>
Musharaf is a leader who was best friends with AL-Qaeda harbourers and with the religious parties that recently bailed him out from his constitutional crisis. When pushed by President Bush to stand up and be counted as friend or foe, he dumped the Taliban. The US forgave him accepting that\u00a0 it was \u201cin the past\u201d.<\/p>
India and Pakistan nearly went to war fallowing the Indian Pakistan blast in 2001. Musharaf banned militant groups fallowing this attack and said \u201cit was in the past\u201d.<\/p>
When Washington woke up to possible export of nuclear technology to North Korea, Musharaf assured the US Secretary of State that \u201cit was in the past\u201d.<\/p>
But when it comes to pursuing his political opponents, it\u2019s never in the past. It\u2019s all about accountability.<\/p>
It surprised people in Pakistan that as Washington talks of the importance of freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, it coddles dictatorship in Pakistan.<\/p>
In Pakistan, those of us who are committed to human rights and democracy abhor terrorism in all of its murderous forms.<\/p>
At this time of political crisis in Pakistan, with a military dictatorship strangling our Constitution, America should stand for its values and principles, and reject tyranny.<\/p>
Pakistan\u2019s military dictator has given mixed signals at home and around the world.<\/p>
He denounces Osama, yet allows Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders escaping from the Tora Bora mountain range. They are seen as his insurance policy to get continued support for his dictatorship. He knows that once the problem is resolved, he will no longer be needed. So he has to keep the pot boiling.<\/p>
The Taliban regrouped are now reasserting themselves. It is said that they have a parallel government in every province.<\/p>
Musharaf professes pluralism abroad, while he smashes free expression, free association and free elections at home. The arrest of the French journalists and the trial of the reporter Rizvi are two recent examples.<\/p>
As the noted French author Bernard-Henri Levy recently observed in the Washington Post:<\/p>
\u201cAfter September 11th, the war against terrorism had to be declared, and that it has to be carried on, with all the necessary alliances.\u00a0 But what is the real necessity, in this framework, of the US-Pakistan alliance? Was it necessary, after the most recent visit of Musharaf to Washington, to continue the massive funding of his regime?\u201d People of Pakistan ask the same question.<\/p>
The United States is committing billions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan. It would make sense to tie this generous assistance to genuine political reform and social liberalization.<\/p>
General Musharaf presides over the most massive rise of religious parties that Islamabad has seen in its fifty-four year history.<\/p>
Pakistan, observed Arnold de Borchgrave, the UPI Editor in Chief, recently \u201d is a nuclear power with two of its four provinces governed by six politico-religious parties whose leaders are friends of Taliban\u2019s Mullah Omar and al-Qaeda\u2019s Osama bin Laden.\u201d\u00a0 These six parties are also friends of Musharaf whom they bailed out of the constitutional crisis.<\/p>
The October elections orchestrated in Pakistan in 2002 year were a mockery of justice. The leaders of Pakistan\u2019s major political parties, including myself were banned from contesting.<\/p>
Taliban leader Mullah Omar\u2019s teacher was allowed to contest and did enter Parliament.<\/p>
We were stopped from contesting and campaigning. Yet, after the polls closed, it seemed we won an over whelming majority of parliamentary seats. But results were held off. Turnout, estimated at 20%, doubled, quadrupled, and in some areas exceeded 100%.<\/p>
Despite this rigging, my party won enough seats to form the government of Pakistan.<\/p>
But the session of the Parliament was post phoned indefinitely. My party\u2019s majority was broken with the formation of a splinter group.<\/p>
The splinter group was formed by General Mehdi, Musharaf\u2019s appointee in charge of Para military forces. He happens to be the brother-in-law of former Air Chief Mushaf another Musharaf appointee.<\/p>
That Air Chief, according to a recent American book \u201cWhy America Slept\u201d was a supporter of Al-Qaeda who knew of the September 11th attacks before they took place.<\/p>
I believe those that believed they defeated one super power and could defeat another, who sympathise with Al-Qaeda and support Musharaf, sabotaged and the chances of my party forming the government. This was despite the fact that I was banned from Parliament and would not have led the government. This means that they oppose not just my leadership but they oppose the very ideas and policies of the PPP even as they pretend to adopt those policies. This is the disconnect between stated policy and ground reality.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
The European Union and the Colombo Observers, the Commonwealth found the October elections \u201cflawed\u201d.<\/p>
Human rights watch said \u201d The deck was sacked against the democratic parties\u201d.<\/p>
General Musharaf gave the religious parties control of the states bordering Afghanistan.<\/p>
He wants the people of Pakistan, and people all over the world, to believe the choice in Pakistan is between military dictatorship and religious dictatorship.<\/p>
He is saying that his military dictatorship alone stands in the way of the Talibanization of Pakistan, the creation of a nuclear-armed extremist Republic.<\/p>
A Powerful message. But a total fraud.<\/p>
Dictatorship doesn\u2019t constrain fundamentalism. It provokes it.<\/p>
The rise of religious parties to power in Pakistan under Musharaf proves this.<\/p>
The involvement of the military in the politics of Pakistan is undermining our institutions. Last February a Pakistan military officer fired on an American military officer. The America\u2019s dropped a 500lb bomb in retaliation. This is one of several clashes that have took place at the Pak-Afghan border. The tribal areas are already tense with reports of a US spring offensive in those parts which according to the Chicago Tribune Musharaf has approved. However, Musharaf has denied the same in Pakistan. His policy is the policy of contradictions, duality, deceit\u2013all tactical measures lacking vision or depth.<\/p>
Women\u2019s rights are thrown back a century as honour killings increase.<\/p>
Political leaders are arrested as part of the politics of revenge, sometimes for years.<\/p>
My own husband, hostage to my political career, is in Musharaf\u2019s custody as we speak tonight. He was arrested the night the PPP government was overthrown on November 4, 1996. Two American Presidents have completed their terms while he has been in prison.<\/p>
After he is released by the courts, he is charged again.\u00a0 Released, re-arrested. There is no justice under Musharaf\u2019s watch.<\/p>
Blackmail of women politicians is openly indulged in. The husband of parliamentarian Farzana Raja was arrested and she was asked to switch sides. The electricity and telephone connections were cut and she was intimidated with the presence of intelligence hounds.<\/p>
Two other women did defect. One confided she was promised her brother would be promoted from Brigadier to Maj General. The other presumably was offered both money and a ministry. This we know from those that rejected such offers. This kind of politics corrupts society and breakdowns the professionalism of institutions.<\/p>
I am told that my husband will be freed if I announce my retirement from politics. I know that my duty to my people comes first, for the sake of my children and all the children of Pakistan.<\/p>
General Musharaf first staged an unconstitutional referendum to rubber-stamp his dictatorship. The New York Times called it a \u201cdubious exercise\u201d.<\/p>
There were no other candidates, no voting lists, no fixed polling stations and eight year olds were pictured voting.<\/p>
He passed 29 constitutional amendments in 2 minutes. It took America 250 years to pass 27 amendments.<\/p>
These amendments gave him unprecedented powers. Powers that Mullah Omar invested himself with in Afghanistan.<\/p>
And while he reaches agreement with the religious parties yielding his treasured uniform in the process, he refuses to make substantive concessions for a democratic Pakistan with the PPP which won the largest number of votes. The message is clear: He is willing to give in to the religious parties to promote them in society while simultaneously tasking the intelligence to weaken democratic parties with fissures and desertions through tactics involving blackmail and bribe.<\/p>
Musharaf likes to me corrupt although I have not been convicted by any court of law despite seven years of trying by the military establishment. However, he refuses to investigate Saif Gaddaffi\u2019s claim that Libya paid forty million dollars for a \u201cbomb dossier\u201d. Moreover, he included in his cabinet those of my Party charged with corruption. \u00a0He made them Minister of Interior and Minister of Water and Power to give two examples.<\/p>
He refuses to let me return safely to my country even as he frees those charged and convicted for corruption taking them into his cabinet.<\/p>
A leading weekly recently asked: Why does he hate Benazir Bhutto?<\/p>
The dictator\u2019s attacks on me are really attacks on the policies my Party and I espouse, and the issues we advance.\u00a0 And thus in Pakistan the causes of women\u2019s rights, human rights, press freedom and democracy fall backwards into the dark chasms of a past era.<\/p>
General Musharaf uses Pakistan\u2019s importance to the United States in Afghanistan to further his own dictatorship. This is at the cost of the human and democratic rights of the people of Pakistan. He says he will contain terrorists and militants but they keep regrouping under different names. Now he is making Madrassas flush with money from aid that Washington is giving while government institutes of education are starved for funds and government teachers poorly paid.<\/p>
He and his military dictator predecessors tasked the Intelligence to control the political process in the country. This politicisation is now tarnishing the image of the intelligence known as ISI. It is also tarnishing the image of Parliament. The new Prime Minister was elected after the ISI bussed in the parliamentarians to the ISI headquarters and ordered them to vote for Mr. Jamali who was until then being investigated for corruption charges.<\/p>
How many more September llths, how many more Danny Pearls, how many more wars where so many young people die before we realize that the greatest protection of freedom from terrorists, is replacing dictatorships with governments responsible to the people, governments based on the values of democracy and liberty.<\/p>
Democracies, must provide for the public welfare, must provide social services, and must provide education, health and housing.\u00a0 Dictatorships need not.<\/p>
More than one billion Muslims stand at the crossroads. They must not be left to choose between one dictatorship or another, between military dictatorship and religious dictatorship.<\/p>
History teaches us that when America turns against democracy, it turns against itself.\u00a0 This is what happened when Washington walked away from Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew. Regrettably, Al Qaeda made Afghanistan its base to launch war against the West. Now, in this critical war against terrorism, America must keeps sight of its democratic values.<\/p>
Islamabad rulers believe Washington will continue supporting them. They claim that Washington is tied down in Afghanistan and Iraq, suffering daily casualties and will therefore sacrifice the cause of democracy.<\/p>
If General Musharaf is right in this assessment and his nuclear-armed military dictatorship continues exploiting the war on international terror to legitimize his illegitimate power, the threat from terrorists could build through this century.<\/p>
I empathize with the author Bernard Henry-Levi, who wrote:<\/p>
\u201cI have become part of a growing club of those who cannot return to Pakistan, simply because they don\u2019t want to end up like journalist Daniel Pearl.\u00a0 But I am convinced that a harsher tone, a reformulation of the terms of alliance, is called for, so that our relationship with Musharaf will be more than a gullible, na\u00efve embrace\u00a0 \u2014 and will conform to moral as well as political imperatives.\u00a0 And I would add that waiting for us is the other Pakistan\u00a0 \u2013that which is liberal, democratic, secular, which fights, back against the wall, against mounting Islamicism, and which does not understand why, in this combat, [America] is not at its side.\u201d<\/p>
Thank you ladies and gentlemen<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Fanatics seeking to bring about Clash of Civilization: Bhutto says Path to Leadership Strewn with Thorns <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeace Conference<\/strong><\/span>
Hindustan Times Seminar\u00a0\u2013\u00a0New Delhi<\/strong><\/span>
December 13, 2003<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and\u00a0Gentlemen,<\/p>
I thought long and hard about whether to accept the gracious invitation to speak at this forum today. The politics of a former Prime Minister of Pakistan\u00a0 \u2014 and the leader of Pakistan\u2019s most popular party \u2013 travelling to India to discuss bilateral relations between our two Nations were truly complex.<\/p>
In the end I decided to attend. I did this because the threat of a conflict in South Asia ending up in the first nuclear war since Hiroshima is real. Such a conflict could annihilate hundreds of millions without distinguishing whether they were Pakistanis or Indians or Kashmiris.<\/p>
The determination to make a contribution to avoid this nuclear nightmare far outweighed other arguments that could have crossed my mind.<\/p>
We meet today with the world a different and more dangerous place than we expected when the Berlin Wall fell.<\/p>
The end of the Cold War promised to herald an era of global peace. The principles of Freedom and Free Markets promised to shake up sluggish economies. The prospect of a Peace Dividend was before us.<\/p>
It was not to be.<\/p>
The world is at war, not peace.<\/p>
The U.S. led coalition occupies a major Islamic Nation, suffering daily attacks and many casualties. No one knows whether Iraq will survive the present phase.<\/p>
Both India and Pakistan are under pressure to send troops to Iraq. And both are considering that option separately. How much better it would be if countries in this South Asian region could consult each other on such important measures before taking a final decision.<\/p>
And as I talk to you, the resurgent Taliban are mounting fresh attacks against the Karzai government in Afghanistan. They are mounting attacks against the Coalition forces and the NGOs working there.<\/p>
In Jammu and Kashmir, despite the present welcome ceasefire at the Line of Control, the intensity of violence has yet to decrease.<\/p>
We must ask ourselves: are we to condemn our future generations to a world of violence, of conflict, of bloodshed, of war, blood and destruction.<\/p>
This conference, organized to explore peace initiatives, is an important step in building a different kind of world. A world of peace and harmony that protects the life, liberty and livelihood of every individual irrespective of their race, religion, gender or political affiliation.<\/p>
This is an important responsibility on the shoulders of the leadership of South Asia. This responsibility is all the more grave as the world is involved in the war against terrorism.<\/p>
Few nations or regions have been spared. Christian churches and Muslim masjids were targets of suicide bombers in Pakistan. Your own Parliament became a bloody target. Great Britain is a target. Saudi Arabia is a target. Turkey is a target. Indonesia is a target. Australia is a target. There are seemingly constant acts of terrorism in the Middle East, every day, every week. The world is threatened with carnage in many corners.<\/p>
We owe it to ourselves and to our people, to all of South Asia, to make every effort, to strive, to seek, to pursue peaceful means for the resolution of outstanding disputes, for confidence building and for reduction of tension in our region. This is the part we can play in helping the world community deal with the threat of terrorism.<\/p>
The Pakistan Peoples Party, which I lead, welcomed Islamabad\u2019s announcement of a unilateral ceasefire along the Line of Control inclusive of Siachen. This measure was taken in response to Prime Minister Vajpayee\u2019s recent twelve-point package of confidence building measures.<\/p>
There are many who believe that in the context of Indo Pak relations, tension can only be reduced when both countries are truly democracies. I am one of those who believe that democracies do not go to war against other democracies. I say this on the basis of Indo Pak history. Since Independence the three wars that took place between India and Pakistan took place under military dictatorships.<\/p>
And since the destabilization of the democratic government that I led in 1996, India and Pakistan have come close to war three times.<\/p>
As a witness to the historic Simla Agreement, the agreement that prevented full-fledged war between our countries since 1971, my Party and I are committed to the Peace process between our countries. It is this commitment that led the PPP and myself to welcome talks between New Delhi and Islamabad despite the military dictatorship in my country.<\/p>
We believe that the military rulers overt statements for normalization of relations must be put to the test. If it is false, they will be exposed before the bar of public opinion. If it is true, the benefit will go to the people in the region.<\/p>
It is therefore important to communicate, to enter into dialogue and to test the intentions of each other.<\/p>
It is to the credit of Prime Minister Vajpayee that he did not lose heart despite the undermining of Bus Diplomacy and the failure of the Agra Summit. But then he is a man of many surprises.<\/p>
For the time being, the Indo Pak ceasefire has brought happiness and immediate relief on both sides of the Line of Control. Hundreds of villages with thousands of peaceful inhabitants are worst hit during a military standoff. Mines are laid maiming many. Constant firing denies villagers sustenance.<\/p>
The atmosphere of congeniality has increased with the news that Prime Minister Vajpayee is to attend the forthcoming SAARC Summit in Islamabad in January 2004.<\/p>
A new year begins with new hopes and expectations.<\/p>
The major impact of this ceasefire relates to Siachin area. Both India and Pakistan spend enormous amounts on maintaining their respective holds on this highest and coldest of battlegrounds.<\/p>
As Prime Minister, I have seen the transformation of the glaciers into formidable military camps. Estimates claim that the cost to both countries since 1985 is in the region of roughly twenty billion rupees annually. This huge amount is being spent to sustain and counter each other\u2019s confrontation in the icy peaks.<\/p>
The cost in lives, particularly during the Kargil fighting but also otherwise, and in those falling victims to cold induced injuries is immeasurable.<\/p>
The announcement of the ceasefire serves as a deterrent to militancy. It minimizes the build up of a situation similar to that last year that could have erupted into a three-minute nuclear boom, and doom, massive destruction.<\/p>
The United States, China and others have welcomed the much needed ceasefire in the hope that it will create conditions speeding up the peace process.<\/p>
Significantly, the ceasefire received wide acceptability in India and Pakistan igniting the hope that saner leadership will untie the Kashmir Gordian knot.<\/p>
Prime Minister Vajpayess has indicated that his upcoming visit to Islamabad will include meetings with \u201ceveryone\u201d. This indicates that a meeting between General Musharaf, the man who wields the real power in Pakistan, and the Indian Prime Minister will take place. This is just as well as the Pakistani Premier\u2019s position is presently ceremonial and will remain so until power is transferred to the Parliament.<\/p>
The support for the ceasefire rightly came from the Pakistan Peoples Party, the only Federal and broad based political party outside those created by the establishment. The PPP has the singular honour of making a breakthrough on Siachen during Indo Pak talks in 1989. It is the architect of the policy of soft borders on the disputed territories enunciated in 1999.<\/p>
The PPP hopes that the ceasefire plan will be followed by greater travel links between the two countries as well as talks on how to lessen violence and use of force in the area. The PPP hopes that another ceasefire with militants and the Indian army can be reached as it was in the past. The lessening of violence in the valley can be calibrated to the reduction of Indian troops in the area giving a greater sense of security to the Kashmiri people as well as bolstering Indo Pak relations.<\/p>
While the borders were silent as the signs of a spring in relations dawned, militants tried to mar the spirit within Indian controlled Kashmir. New Delhi did not make these violent incidents an excuse to reject the ceasefire.<\/p>
The frequent military standoffs contribute immensely to the poverty in the region. The nuclear detonations in 1998 were a signal to awaken to new realities that changed the nature of a possible future Indo Pak war.<\/p>
Resultantly, public opinion in both countries was building up. Exchanges and visits by Parliamentarians, intellectuals, business community and women\u2019s groups took place. These visits indicated that public opinion was dissatisfied with the festering confrontation, exchanges of fire and the disruption in the normalization process. Public opinion was concerned about the despair, misery and abject poverty that marked the lives of those living in the shadow of the threat of conflict.<\/p>
The renewed contacts between India and Pakistan are taking place against the backdrop of statements by key officials both in Washington and in London. The senior officials and politicians have raised New Delhi\u2019s concerns with General Musharaf. According to them, General Musharaf has assured them that he will stop cross border militant activity.<\/p>
This is a new strategic reality. It is arising out of the ashes of the Twin Towers that were brought down by the events of September 11th.<\/p>
Even as the world witnesses the emergence of a post September 11 world with zero tolerance for acts of violence, we must be ever vigilant for elements that would do their best to undermine the prospects of a breakthrough.<\/p>
These elements are the militants. They believe that without violence there will be no settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir issue. During their talks in Islamabad in January, the Indo Pak leadership will need to discuss how to have borders that are soft and which are also safe.<\/p>
In war games and scenarios played out by think tanks fictitious volunteers are seen as the Achilles heels of the normalization process. These war games have led security agencies to conclude that the region is \u201cone of the most dangerous places on earth.\u201d<\/p>
The worry is that a militant could spark a war that neither country really wants. For example, a dramatic act, similar to the attack on the Indian Parliament, could create intense public pressure on New Delhi to retaliate against Pakistan triggering war.<\/p>
Perhaps this is why, on the eve of PM Vajpayee\u2019s visit, Islamabad banned some militant groups, froze their accounts and sealed their offices. It is hoped that such groups would not resurface once again when the snows of winter melt.<\/p>
I take this opportunity to commend the All Parties Hurriyet Conference. Despite recent divisions, the APHC has kept the doors of dialogue open and back channels active. APHC has an important role to play in facilitating peaceful conditions in Srinagar as indeed in Muzzafarabad whose parties are also part of the APHC.<\/p>
In the past, New Delhi extended an invitation for unconditional dialogue to the APHC. Such measures, including the past ceasefire between militants and the Indian army, were innovative steps that gave momentum to the search for a solution that could end the threat of conflict from this ancient civilisation, so rich in culture, so full of diversity and populated with a hard working and talented peoples.<\/p>
It is tragic that this subcontinent, so full of history, has remained for so long the most likely site for a nuclear exchange on our planet.<\/p>
South Asia must begin its search for a peace dividend.<\/p>
We can think of the peace dividend as the sum of resources no longer devoted to the military and available for the social sector.<\/p>
The peace dividend can be the traditional guns for butter trade-off. In the longer term, a peace dividend is defined by investment. We must invest in technology. We must invest in infrastructure. Above all we must invest in human capital \u2014 specifically on education and health.<\/p>
The 1990s began with falling defence budgets in the United States. But the United States quickly assumed its role as the world\u2019s only superpower. Now the US spends more on defence than during the Cold War.<\/p>
Another test of the peace dividend soon emerged following the Declaration signed by Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and Palestinian<\/p>
President Arafat on the White House lawn in September 1993.\u00a0 Foreign investment into Israel and Palestine soared.\u00a0 A Palestinian Development Bank was established funded by the IMF, the United States and the EU. All this finished with the Intifida.<\/p>
We know that a South Asian peace dividend could dramatically increase the quality of life of our huge populations.<\/p>
Scholars expect peace to break down poverty.\u00a0 A Harvard Professor, David Landes, writing in \u201cThe Wealth and Poverty of Nations\u201d said, \u201cpoverty is inextricably linked to armed conflict.\u201d<\/p>
Poverty creates an atmosphere that encourages war for the purpose of national identification, national mobilization, and as a distraction from social inequality and hopelessness.<\/p>
Fighting poverty was a challenge in Pakistan with one of the highest population growth rates when I took office in 1988.<\/p>
As Prime Minister I demonstrated with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that men and women of good will, Indians and Pakistanis of good will, could make fundamental progress.<\/p>
The nuclear confidence building treaty that we signed in 1988, a treaty by which we committed not to attack our respective nuclear facilities, was the most important peace accords between us since the Simla Agreements signed by our parents in 1972.<\/p>
I am also proud that we were able to establish, for the fist time, hot lines between the General headquarters of both our countries modelled after the Hotline between Washington and the Kremlin.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
We believed that these confidence building measures were an important prelude to moving along the cause of peace and in facing the challenge of differing perceptions on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/p>
We feel strongly on this issue, on both sides.<\/p>
Let us not be afraid to have two different points of view on the outstanding issues between us today. China and India have a border dispute but they do not threaten each other with war. In fact, relations between the two countries keep improving.<\/p>
Beijing and Washington have a dispute over Taiwan yet they do not brandish nuclear weapons at each other. Instead they have excellent trade relations.<\/p>
There are many countries with disputes and disagreements. Yet they manage their affairs in a way that enables their people to know each other through trade, travel and tourism. They share warm relations without prejudice to their differing positions and perceptions.<\/p>
We can learn from such models of conflict management. We can make a meaningful attempt at resolution and reconciliation in South Asia to truly make progress across the board.<\/p>
And if we do make progress, the dividend before us is compelling.<\/p>
Trade between our nations is ridiculously low, less than one percent of our global trade. This has not always been the case.<\/p>
Immediately after independence, India was Pakistan\u2019s most important trading partner. In the early years, 56 percent of Pakistan\u2019s total exports went direct to the Indian market. 32 percent of its imports came from India. Lahore and Amritsar were important economic hubs when trade flourished with a free flow of good and services.\u00a0 Then, as our political relations deteriorated in the 1950s, trade trickled away for fifty years.<\/p>
As the Prime Minister who proposed a South Asian Tariff Agreement during the Islamabad Summit of 1988, and ratified the SAPTA agreement during her second tenure, I am surprised at how our nations see progress on trade as a favour to the other country. I see it as a benefit to the common man in each of our countries.<\/p>
Some suggest that the economic benefits of Indo Pak trading could be as much as $14 billion annually.<\/p>
The greatest economic benefit of Indo Pak trade could occur in the sphere of energy cooperation. India is a rapidly growing energy market able to absorb new sources of supply as they materialize in the region.<\/p>
Pakistan\u2019s possible role is in fulfilling this need both supplier and as a transit route from Iran and Central Asia. This requires construction of pipelines, a major capital investment that can come only in an environment of bilateral peace.<\/p>
I suggest that expanding trade be a useful adjunct to the political process, instead of being constrained by it.<\/p>
Trade is but one of a great many potential benefits of peace that can change the face of the subcontinent.<\/p>
Despite a growing middle class in both countries, the depth of poverty of our underclass defames our image.<\/p>
People from India and Pakistan go to America in search of the American Dream. They feel they have opportunities to succeed there that are missing in our region.<\/p>
We can offer our people the opportunity for an Asian dream. I dream of a time when our children\u2019s lives will be free of self-imposed limitations.<\/p>
The French philosopher Rousseau said that we were all born free.\u00a0 Yet our societies, cultures, politics and militaries, keep our people chained to illiteracy, ignorance, intolerance, infant mortality, malnutrition and disease.<\/p>
It\u2019s time to break those chains.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
India and Pakistan are nuclear powers. Despite the new cease-fire, we glare at each other across the LOC. Now is the time to move forward as the New Year in this new century approaches.<\/p>
I commend the Hindustan Times for organizing this high powered conference. This is a conference that brings together political leaders, international diplomats, scholars, intellectuals and leading voices from the media.<\/p>
It is a conference that involves the public in a historic debate.<\/p>
It is my hope that a leading Pakistani daily will follow the precedent set by the Hindustan Times in organizing a similar conference in Pakistan.<\/p>
I thank the Hindustan Times for bringing together a galaxy of leaders to speak on one of the most important issues of our times impacting on the future of one fifth of humanity.<\/p>
And when a conference takes place in Pakistan, I hope I will be able to attend as I did here. For now, I am an exile.<\/p>
I am banned from my country. I am banned from contesting for Premiership of my country, banned from contesting even as a backbencher, banned from seeing my\u00a0 husband who is in the eighth year of his imprisonment, banned from entering my ancestral homes, banned from praying at the graves of my Martyred Father and brothers.<\/p>
I do not despair. In life, an individual makes choices.<\/p>
I made mine on the last day of my Father\u2019s life in a prison that our colonial masters built in the city of Rawalpindi. That was the choice to fight for peace and democracy, to fight for human dignity that must come when people can combat hunger, poverty and illiteracy.<\/p>
I know that realities change. That a person can go from Prime Minister to prisoner and from prisoner to Prime Minister. I have seen power from the time that I was a child. I must tell you that the sense of satisfaction and joy that I felt never came from the chandeliered halls or the turbaned staff, or the pomp and power of governing a state.<\/p>
It came from small acts. It came from giving a child polio drops knowing those small drops would change its life forever. It came from inaugurating a school, providing electricity and water to places that had none. It came from seeing the smile on the face of a boy or girl who got a job.<\/p>
The wheel of history turns. There was a time when Prime Minister Gujral could not visit Jhelum, the city he was born in because our two countries were at cross purposes. Now he, though an Indian, can visit Jhelum and I, though a Pakistani, cannot visit my Larkana.<\/p>
The wheel of history turns. For individuals and Nations.<\/p>
And as the wheel of history turns for the children of Partition, I hope we bequeath them a better future than our bitter past.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
I conclude with a quote from Alexander Pope, which I used during my last visit to New Delhi two years back. He said:<\/p>
\u201cWhat war could ravish, Commerce could bestow, And he returned a friend, Who was a foe\u201d<\/p>
Thank you.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Fanatics seeking to bring about Clash of Civilization: Bhutto says Path to Leadership Strewn with Thorns <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMeeting of Professional Women<\/strong><\/span>
San Jose \u2013 USA, 18 November 2003<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
I thought long and hard about whether to accept the gracious invitation to speak at this forum today. The politics of a former Prime Minister of Pakistan\u00a0 \u2014 and the leader of Pakistan\u2019s most popular party \u2013 travelling to India to discuss bilateral relations between our two Nations were truly complex.<\/p>
In the end I decided to attend. I did this because the threat of a conflict in South Asia ending up in the first nuclear war since Hiroshima is real. Such a conflict could annihilate hundreds of millions without distinguishing whether they were Pakistanis or Indians or Kashmiris.<\/p>
The determination to make a contribution to avoid this nuclear nightmare far outweighed other arguments that could have crossed my mind.<\/p>
We meet today with the world a different and more dangerous place than we expected when the Berlin Wall fell.<\/p>
The end of the Cold War promised to herald an era of global peace. The principles of Freedom and Free Markets promised to shake up sluggish economies. The prospect of a Peace Dividend was before us.<\/p>
It was not to be.<\/p>
The world is at war, not peace.<\/p>
The U.S. led coalition occupies a major Islamic Nation, suffering daily attacks and many casualties. No one knows whether Iraq will survive the present phase.<\/p>
Both India and Pakistan are under pressure to send troops to Iraq. And both are considering that option separately. How much better it would be if countries in this South Asian region could consult each other on such important measures before taking a final decision.<\/p>
And as I talk to you, the resurgent Taliban are mounting fresh attacks against the Karzai government in Afghanistan. They are mounting attacks against the Coalition forces and the NGOs working there.<\/p>
In Jammu and Kashmir, despite the present welcome ceasefire at the Line of Control, the intensity of violence has yet to decrease.<\/p>
We must ask ourselves: are we to condemn our future generations to a world of violence, of conflict, of bloodshed, of war, blood and destruction.<\/p>
This conference, organized to explore peace initiatives, is an important step in building a different kind of world. A world of peace and harmony that protects the life, liberty and livelihood of every individual irrespective of their race, religion, gender or political affiliation.<\/p>
This is an important responsibility on the shoulders of the leadership of South Asia. This responsibility is all the more grave as the world is involved in the war against terrorism.<\/p>
Few nations or regions have been spared. Christian churches and Muslim masjids were targets of suicide bombers in Pakistan. Your own Parliament became a bloody target. Great Britain is a target. Saudi Arabia is a target. Turkey is a target. Indonesia is a target. Australia is a target. There are seemingly constant acts of terrorism in the Middle East, every day, every week. The world is threatened with carnage in many corners.<\/p>
We owe it to ourselves and to our people, to all of South Asia, to make every effort, to strive, to seek, to pursue peaceful means for the resolution of outstanding disputes, for confidence building and for reduction of tension in our region. This is the part we can play in helping the world community deal with the threat of terrorism.<\/p>
The Pakistan Peoples Party, which I lead, welcomed Islamabad\u2019s announcement of a unilateral ceasefire along the Line of Control inclusive of Siachen. This measure was taken in response to Prime Minister Vajpayee\u2019s recent twelve-point package of confidence building measures.<\/p>
There are many who believe that in the context of Indo Pak relations, tension can only be reduced when both countries are truly democracies. I am one of those who believe that democracies do not go to war against other democracies. I say this on the basis of Indo Pak history. Since Independence the three wars that took place between India and Pakistan took place under military dictatorships.<\/p>
And since the destabilization of the democratic government that I led in 1996, India and Pakistan have come close to war three times.<\/p>
As a witness to the historic Simla Agreement, the agreement that prevented full-fledged war between our countries since 1971, my Party and I are committed to the Peace process between our countries. It is this commitment that led the PPP and myself to welcome talks between New Delhi and Islamabad despite the military dictatorship in my country.<\/p>
We believe that the military rulers overt statements for normalization of relations must be put to the test. If it is false, they will be exposed before the bar of public opinion. If it is true, the benefit will go to the people in the region.<\/p>
It is therefore important to communicate, to enter into dialogue and to test the intentions of each other.<\/p>
It is to the credit of Prime Minister Vajpayee that he did not lose heart despite the undermining of Bus Diplomacy and the failure of the Agra Summit. But then he is a man of many surprises.<\/p>
For the time being, the Indo Pak ceasefire has brought happiness and immediate relief on both sides of the Line of Control. Hundreds of villages with thousands of peaceful inhabitants are worst hit during a military standoff. Mines are laid maiming many. Constant firing denies villagers sustenance.<\/p>
The atmosphere of congeniality has increased with the news that Prime Minister Vajpayee is to attend the forthcoming SAARC Summit in Islamabad in January 2004.<\/p>
A new year begins with new hopes and expectations.<\/p>
The major impact of this ceasefire relates to Siachin area. Both India and Pakistan spend enormous amounts on maintaining their respective holds on this highest and coldest of battlegrounds.<\/p>
As Prime Minister, I have seen the transformation of the glaciers into formidable military camps. Estimates claim that the cost to both countries since 1985 is in the region of roughly twenty billion rupees annually. This huge amount is being spent to sustain and counter each other\u2019s confrontation in the icy peaks.<\/p>
The cost in lives, particularly during the Kargil fighting but also otherwise, and in those falling victims to cold induced injuries is immeasurable.<\/p>
The announcement of the ceasefire serves as a deterrent to militancy. It minimizes the build up of a situation similar to that last year that could have erupted into a three-minute nuclear boom, and doom, massive destruction.<\/p>
The United States, China and others have welcomed the much needed ceasefire in the hope that it will create conditions speeding up the peace process.<\/p>
Significantly, the ceasefire received wide acceptability in India and Pakistan igniting the hope that saner leadership will untie the Kashmir Gordian knot.<\/p>
Prime Minister Vajpayess has indicated that his upcoming visit to Islamabad will include meetings with \u201ceveryone\u201d. This indicates that a meeting between General Musharaf, the man who wields the real power in Pakistan, and the Indian Prime Minister will take place. This is just as well as the Pakistani Premier\u2019s position is presently ceremonial and will remain so until power is transferred to the Parliament.<\/p>
The support for the ceasefire rightly came from the Pakistan Peoples Party, the only Federal and broad based political party outside those created by the establishment. The PPP has the singular honour of making a breakthrough on Siachen during Indo Pak talks in 1989. It is the architect of the policy of soft borders on the disputed territories enunciated in 1999.<\/p>
The PPP hopes that the ceasefire plan will be followed by greater travel links between the two countries as well as talks on how to lessen violence and use of force in the area. The PPP hopes that another ceasefire with militants and the Indian army can be reached as it was in the past. The lessening of violence in the valley can be calibrated to the reduction of Indian troops in the area giving a greater sense of security to the Kashmiri people as well as bolstering Indo Pak relations.<\/p>
While the borders were silent as the signs of a spring in relations dawned, militants tried to mar the spirit within Indian controlled Kashmir. New Delhi did not make these violent incidents an excuse to reject the ceasefire.<\/p>
The frequent military standoffs contribute immensely to the poverty in the region. The nuclear detonations in 1998 were a signal to awaken to new realities that changed the nature of a possible future Indo Pak war.<\/p>
Resultantly, public opinion in both countries was building up. Exchanges and visits by Parliamentarians, intellectuals, business community and women\u2019s groups took place. These visits indicated that public opinion was dissatisfied with the festering confrontation, exchanges of fire and the disruption in the normalization process. Public opinion was concerned about the despair, misery and abject poverty that marked the lives of those living in the shadow of the threat of conflict.<\/p>
The renewed contacts between India and Pakistan are taking place against the backdrop of statements by key officials both in Washington and in London. The senior officials and politicians have raised New Delhi\u2019s concerns with General Musharaf. According to them, General Musharaf has assured them that he will stop cross border militant activity.<\/p>
This is a new strategic reality. It is arising out of the ashes of the Twin Towers that were brought down by the events of September 11th.<\/p>
Even as the world witnesses the emergence of a post September 11 world with zero tolerance for acts of violence, we must be ever vigilant for elements that would do their best to undermine the prospects of a breakthrough.<\/p>
These elements are the militants. They believe that without violence there will be no settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir issue. During their talks in Islamabad in January, the Indo Pak leadership will need to discuss how to have borders that are soft and which are also safe.<\/p>
In war games and scenarios played out by think tanks fictitious volunteers are seen as the Achilles heels of the normalization process. These war games have led security agencies to conclude that the region is \u201cone of the most dangerous places on earth.\u201d<\/p>
The worry is that a militant could spark a war that neither country really wants. For example, a dramatic act, similar to the attack on the Indian Parliament, could create intense public pressure on New Delhi to retaliate against Pakistan triggering war.<\/p>
Perhaps this is why, on the eve of PM Vajpayee\u2019s visit, Islamabad banned some militant groups, froze their accounts and sealed their offices. It is hoped that such groups would not resurface once again when the snows of winter melt.<\/p>
I take this opportunity to commend the All Parties Hurriyet Conference. Despite recent divisions, the APHC has kept the doors of dialogue open and back channels active. APHC has an important role to play in facilitating peaceful conditions in Srinagar as indeed in Muzzafarabad whose parties are also part of the APHC.<\/p>
In the past, New Delhi extended an invitation for unconditional dialogue to the APHC. Such measures, including the past ceasefire between militants and the Indian army, were innovative steps that gave momentum to the search for a solution that could end the threat of conflict from this ancient civilisation, so rich in culture, so full of diversity and populated with a hard working and talented peoples.<\/p>
It is tragic that this subcontinent, so full of history, has remained for so long the most likely site for a nuclear exchange on our planet.<\/p>
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South Asia must begin its search for a peace dividend.<\/p>
We can think of the peace dividend as the sum of resources no longer devoted to the military and available for the social sector.<\/p>
The peace dividend can be the traditional guns for butter trade-off. In the longer term, a peace dividend is defined by investment. We must invest in technology. We must invest in infrastructure. Above all we must invest in human capital \u2014 specifically on education and health.<\/p>
The 1990s began with falling defence budgets in the United States. But the United States quickly assumed its role as the world\u2019s only superpower. Now the US spends more on defence than during the Cold War.<\/p>
Another test of the peace dividend soon emerged following the Declaration signed by Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and Palestinian<\/p>
President Arafat on the White House lawn in September 1993.\u00a0 Foreign investment into Israel and Palestine soared.\u00a0 A Palestinian Development Bank was established funded by the IMF, the United States and the EU. All this finished with the Intifida.<\/p>
We know that a South Asian peace dividend could dramatically increase the quality of life of our huge populations.<\/p>
Scholars expect peace to break down poverty.\u00a0 A Harvard Professor, David Landes, writing in \u201cThe Wealth and Poverty of Nations\u201d said, \u201cpoverty is inextricably linked to armed conflict.\u201d<\/p>
Poverty creates an atmosphere that encourages war for the purpose of national identification, national mobilization, and as a distraction from social inequality and hopelessness.<\/p>
Fighting poverty was a challenge in Pakistan with one of the highest population growth rates when I took office in 1988.<\/p>
As Prime Minister I demonstrated with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that men and women of good will, Indians and Pakistanis of good will, could make fundamental progress.<\/p>
The nuclear confidence building treaty that we signed in 1988, a treaty by which we committed not to attack our respective nuclear facilities, was the most important peace accords between us since the Simla Agreements signed by our parents in 1972.<\/p>
I am also proud that we were able to establish, for the fist time, hot lines between the General headquarters of both our countries modelled after the Hotline between Washington and the Kremlin.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
We believed that these confidence building measures were an important prelude to moving along the cause of peace and in facing the challenge of differing perceptions on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/p>
We feel strongly on this issue, on both sides.<\/p>
Let us not be afraid to have two different points of view on the outstanding issues between us today. China and India have a border dispute but they do not threaten each other with war. In fact, relations between the two countries keep improving.<\/p>
Beijing and Washington have a dispute over Taiwan yet they do not brandish nuclear weapons at each other. Instead they have excellent trade relations.<\/p>
There are many countries with disputes and disagreements. Yet they manage their affairs in a way that enables their people to know each other through trade, travel and tourism. They share warm relations without prejudice to their differing positions and perceptions.<\/p>
We can learn from such models of conflict management. We can make a meaningful attempt at resolution and reconciliation in South Asia to truly make progress across the board.<\/p>
And if we do make progress, the dividend before us is compelling.<\/p>
Trade between our nations is ridiculously low, less than one percent of our global trade. This has not always been the case.<\/p>
Immediately after independence, India was Pakistan\u2019s most important trading partner. In the early years, 56 percent of Pakistan\u2019s total exports went direct to the Indian market. 32 percent of its imports came from India. Lahore and Amritsar were important economic hubs when trade flourished with a free flow of good and services.\u00a0 Then, as our political relations deteriorated in the 1950s, trade trickled away for fifty years.<\/p>
As the Prime Minister who proposed a South Asian Tariff Agreement during the Islamabad Summit of 1988, and ratified the SAPTA agreement during her second tenure, I am surprised at how our nations see progress on trade as a favour to the other country. I see it as a benefit to the common man in each of our countries.<\/p>
Some suggest that the economic benefits of Indo Pak trading could be as much as $14 billion annually.<\/p>
The greatest economic benefit of Indo Pak trade could occur in the sphere of energy cooperation. India is a rapidly growing energy market able to absorb new sources of supply as they materialize in the region.<\/p>
Pakistan\u2019s possible role is in fulfilling this need both supplier and as a transit route from Iran and Central Asia. This requires construction of pipelines, a major capital investment that can come only in an environment of bilateral peace.<\/p>
I suggest that expanding trade be a useful adjunct to the political process, instead of being constrained by it.<\/p>
Trade is but one of a great many potential benefits of peace that can change the face of the subcontinent.<\/p>
Despite a growing middle class in both countries, the depth of poverty of our underclass defames our image.<\/p>
People from India and Pakistan go to America in search of the American Dream. They feel they have opportunities to succeed there that are missing in our region.<\/p>
We can offer our people the opportunity for an Asian dream. I dream of a time when our children\u2019s lives will be free of self-imposed limitations.<\/p>
The French philosopher Rousseau said that we were all born free.\u00a0 Yet our societies, cultures, politics and militaries, keep our people chained to illiteracy, ignorance, intolerance, infant mortality, malnutrition and disease.<\/p>
It\u2019s time to break those chains.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
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India and Pakistan are nuclear powers. Despite the new cease-fire, we glare at each other across the LOC. Now is the time to move forward as the New Year in this new century approaches.<\/p>
I commend the Hindustan Times for organizing this high powered conference. This is a conference that brings together political leaders, international diplomats, scholars, intellectuals and leading voices from the media.<\/p>
It is a conference that involves the public in a historic debate.<\/p>
It is my hope that a leading Pakistani daily will follow the precedent set by the Hindustan Times in organizing a similar conference in Pakistan.<\/p>
I thank the Hindustan Times for bringing together a galaxy of leaders to speak on one of the most important issues of our times impacting on the future of one fifth of humanity.<\/p>
And when a conference takes place in Pakistan, I hope I will be able to attend as I did here. For now, I am an exile.<\/p>
I am banned from my country. I am banned from contesting for Premiership of my country, banned from contesting even as a backbencher, banned from seeing my\u00a0 husband who is in the eighth year of his imprisonment, banned from entering my ancestral homes, banned from praying at the graves of my Martyred Father and brothers.<\/p>
I do not despair. In life, an individual makes choices.<\/p>
I made mine on the last day of my Father\u2019s life in a prison that our colonial masters built in the city of Rawalpindi. That was the choice to fight for peace and democracy, to fight for human dignity that must come when people can combat hunger, poverty and illiteracy.<\/p>
I know that realities change. That a person can go from Prime Minister to prisoner and from prisoner to Prime Minister. I have seen power from the time that I was a child. I must tell you that the sense of satisfaction and joy that I felt never came from the chandeliered halls or the turbaned staff, or the pomp and power of governing a state.<\/p>
It came from small acts. It came from giving a child polio drops knowing those small drops would change its life forever. It came from inaugurating a school, providing electricity and water to places that had none. It came from seeing the smile on the face of a boy or girl who got a job.<\/p>
The wheel of history turns. There was a time when Prime Minister Gujral could not visit Jhelum, the city he was born in because our two countries were at cross purposes. Now he, though an Indian, can visit Jhelum and I, though a Pakistani, cannot visit my Larkana.<\/p>
The wheel of history turns. For individuals and Nations.<\/p>
And as the wheel of history turns for the children of Partition, I hope we bequeath them a better future than our bitter past.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
I conclude with a quote from Alexander Pope, which I used during my last visit to New Delhi two years back. He said:<\/p>
\u201cWhat war could ravish, Commerce could bestow, And he returned a friend, Who was a foe\u201d<\/p>
Thank you.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Message To Youth London \u2013 23 August 2003 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMessage To Youth<\/strong><\/span>
London \u2013 23 August 2003<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
The world is a very different place from what we dreamed in those wonderful moments when the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold war ended.<\/p>
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The era of peace for which we prayed, became a time of war.<\/p>
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Civility was replaced with brutality.<\/p>
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Tolerance was replaced by terrorism.<\/p>
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Democracy in Pakistan was replaced by dictatorship.<\/p>
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Violent fanaticism replaced religious moderation.<\/p>
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The execution of Wall Street Journal Bureau Chief Daniel Pearl in Pakistan underscored the treacherous nature of this terrorist war. The reality of suicide bombings has struck our homeland\u2014Christian churches, urban hotels; foreign diplomatic missions are all targets. And now the allied presence in Iraq adds a new factor to the politics of the Middle East.<\/p>
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Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
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It grieves me that included in the list of victims of the World Trade Tower Bombings is the image of Islam across the world. Our religion is not what these people preach.\u00a0 Islam is committed to tolerance and equality, and it is committed to the principles of democracy.<\/p>
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Despite the strong commitment to democracy, most Muslims today are living in dictatorships. The Muslim people want freedom just as the people of the Communist world wanted freedom.<\/p>
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Islam was the first religion to emancipate women.<\/p>
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Yet a vast majority of Muslim women are discriminated against in different aspects of their lives.<\/p>
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Islam asked us to read, to seek knowledge and develop rational thought.<\/p>
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Yet I see a vast majority of Muslim students denied knowledge, denied literacy, denied access to centers of excellence.<\/p>
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Islam is a religion born in the heart of the trading world in the sixth century. The Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) worked for and married Bibi Khadija who was a business woman.<\/p>
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Yet Muslim societies often rely on patronage, nepotism and lack of transparency in business, which suffocates the entrepreneurial skills of our people.<\/p>
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Islam is a message of Adl and Insaf. But Adl and Insaf are sacrificed at the alter of lust for power.<\/p>
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Islam is about human dignity.<\/p>
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But we see Muslims suffer indignities because dictatorship divides us and suppresses our own people.<\/p>
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Islam is a religion which declares the equality of all men and women. We see this equality trampled as political leaders are exiled or imprisoned.\u00a0 Muslim societies are facing a challenge.<\/p>
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Those who want to see Muslims suppressed and oppressed support dictatorship and one party rule. They want to see the future in the chains of the powers of ignorance, intolerance and dictatorship.<\/p>
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Today there is anger in the Muslim world. Muslims are dying in Kashmir, in Chechnya, in Palestine and other parts of the world. I want you to turn anger into motivation. I want you to fight for freedom, for democracy, for human rights so that Muslims can hold up their heads with honour and dignity.<\/p>
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The Youth of today know that Islam emphasizes the principles of consultation known as shura, consensus known as ijma and independent judgment known as ijtihaad.<\/p>
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The Holy Koran makes it clear that the workings of the democratic process\u2014consultation between the government and the people through elected representatives and accountability of leaders to the people they serve through fair elections are at the heart of Islam.<\/p>
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Those who preach dictatorship, one party rule, rig elections, blackmail politicians, pressure judges benefit themselves by grabbing commercial, agricultural and residential plots undermine Muslim societies and darken the future of the Muslim youth. They are the enemies of humanity. While enriching themselves they impoverish the working classes the middle classes, the farmers and the labourers.<\/p>
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In the end, they will be defeated.<\/p>
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Whosoever indulges in cruelty gets a befitting response. Ayub Khan was thrown out by his subordinate. Yahya Khan was thrown out by his subordinate. Both President Ishaq and Prime Minister Nawaz had to go due to their subordinate in 1993. Farooq Leghari was also thrown out by the Prime Minister he had brought to power.<\/p>
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When people are unhappy and disgruntled, it acts as a catalyst to bring change. The cruelest of dictators go and this dictatorship will go too.<\/p>
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Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
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September 11 will go down in history as a defining moment in our civilization. The attack on the World Trade Towers was a second Pearl Harbor that ended one period in time and heralded the beginning of another.<\/p>
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On that fateful day, the world tumbled out of a time when Communism was the threat, the fear, the bloc that was to be contained. The world tumbled into a different period when Islam and the Muslim Nations seemingly replaced Communism as the new threat, the new fear and the new world that was to be contained.<\/p>
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Since the world shook with the shock of the attack on the World Trade Centers, much has changed. Civil liberties suffered a set back. Many Muslims in the West live in fear of prejudice suspicion and discrimination. They face hate crimes. It is difficult to get student visas and even tourist visas. Moreover, now people can be arrested and kept with out trial for long periods.<\/p>
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The World Trade Center attacks have shaken the Muslim world. Since that fateful day, both Afghanistan and Iraq have foreign troops on their soil. There is speculation on which Muslim country will be next for regime changes.<\/p>
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The Muslim world is in an inertia. A hyper power invincible. It need not be so.<\/p>
A greater understanding is needed between the Muslim world and the West. Politics does not know a vacuum and the political pendulum swings from side to side.<\/p>
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America, British and Europe are open societies. Muslims need to come out of the inertia and use the open-ness of the democratic systems to build a world of greater understanding.<\/p>
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To do so, we need to be democrats. We need to shun sectarianism, terrorism, ethnic violence and political prejudice.<\/p>
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And we can do it if we follow the path of Quad-e-Azam and Quad-e-Awam. These great leaders of our nation taught us the politics of Federalism, Democracy, Constitutional protection, rule of law, equality and emancipation of the people from backwardness and poverty.<\/p>
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The youth of today, better educated, better equipped with computer technology at its fingertips is best placed to reject dictatorship and fight for democracy to save Pakistan and our coming generations from fratricide, civil war, violence, bomb blasts and suicide bombing.<\/p>
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It is shocking that worshipers in Quetta were killed in a mosque. Young Police officers in training were killed. The foreign Minister says militants are non state actors out of state control.<\/p>
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If militants groups are out of control, it reflects poorly on a military ruler with an army to command.<\/p>
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The writ of the state can be restored.<\/p>
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The PPP Government ended the Army operation in Karachi. It restored law and order across the country. It closed the Islamic University in Peshawar to prevent Al-Qaeda Politics from undering internal security. It cracked down on sectarianism in the Punjab.<\/p>
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I may be a lady but there was security for ordinary citizens when PPP was in government. Now a military leader with full force can not control the situation.<\/p>
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Democracy and Development go hand in hand.<\/p>
The records of the PPP government prove this.<\/p>
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PPP government was overthrown because PPP government is a symbol of a strong, stable secure Pakistan which also happens to be a nuclear power. Tin pot military dictators preside over weak and dependent states because dictatorship kills the soul of a Nation.<\/p>
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When I was Prime Minister, the PPP heralded the information age by introducing fax machines, digital pagers, optic fiber communications, cellular telephones, satellite dishes, computers, Internet, e-mail and even CNN and Fox into Pakistan. Before that Pakistan had to wait 20 years to get a telephone connection.<\/p>
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Under the PPP government Pakistan integrated into the global economy providing jobs for its youth. We became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world, attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment, particularly in power generation.<\/p>
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We eradicated polio in our country. We dramatically reduced infant mortality.\u00a0 We increased literacy by one-third. We built over 48,000 primary and secondary schools in two terms targeting rural Pakistan.<\/p>
Women\u2019s Bank.<\/p>
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The World Bank called our energy program a model to the entire developing world.<\/p>
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WHO gold medal.<\/p>
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It was a remarkable transformation of a society.\u00a0 It was a transformation that our underprivileged wanted.<\/p>
It was a transformation that attacked ignorance and illiteracy and injustice.\u00a0 It was a transformation that was bringing Pakistan into the modern era as a model to more than one billion Muslims around the world of what moderate, enlightened Islam could accomplish for its people.<\/p>
And thus to the fanatics and the extremists, we became the enemy, the threat, and the obstacle.\u00a0 To at the crossroads, a democratic Pakistan was one fork in the road, dictatorship the other.<\/p>
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With the eclipse \u00a0of my government, the Taliban seized Kabul and imposed their will across Afghanistan. They invited in Al-Qaeda declared war on America and the rest is history.<\/p>
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If the PPP government had remained in Power, no-one would have died in World Trade Center attacks, in the retaliatory war against Afghanistan. Nor would the definition of terrorism have changed to the detriment of the Palestinians. People of Iraq could have avoided war as the issue of weapons of mass destructions would be viewed against a different background.<\/p>
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These dramatic changes happened because the PPP government was dismissed bringing tragic repercussions in its wake.<\/p>
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On the India front, PPP signed the only nuclear confidence building treaty between our nations, the agreement not to attack each other\u2019s respective nuclear facilities.\u00a0 We established military contact between the Pakistani and Indian leadership modeled after the hot line between Washington and Moscow during the Cold War.\u00a0 We opened our borders to travel and tourism, and adopted a South Asian preferential tariff agreement that established a free-trade zone between Pakistan, India and the other nations of the region.<\/p>
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With the dismissal of the PPP government, the ill concurred Kargil operation took place. Islamabad was humiliated into unilaterally withdrawing. Soldiers were abandoned to icy deaths. 3000 were secretly buried.<\/p>
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In 2001 an attack took place on the Indian parliament. Again Islamabad was humiliated into banning the militant groups under orders from Washington and New Delhi for better it would have been to have the political wisdom to rein in militants before advise consequences fell on the country.<\/p>
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As if this was not enough, Islamabad was accused of exporting nuclear technology to North Korea in violation of solemn commitments. And while the Palestinian Authority lay under occupation, with homes bulldozed, with Jerusalem unsettled and Golan Heights occupied, the dictator offered to unilaterally recognize Israel. He failed to even tie up the recognition issue with the OIC resolutions or the Saudi Peace Initiative or to ask Israel to remain neutral on Kashmir.<\/p>
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When I traveled to New Delhi in November 2001 to develop better relations between our countries, I was denounced by the military establishment. Two years later they are openly declaring their commitment to the PPP vision of peace. Leadership is about vision. There is a timing in politics. Those who realise the lesson too late fail to reap the harvest for peace or for our people.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
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General Musharraf created a hung Parliament. He marginalised the democratic parties. He wants the people of Pakistan, people all over the world, to choose between military dictatorship or religious rule. There is a third choice: Democratic Governance. But the dictator refused to give them that choice.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Let us remember that building a moderate, stable and democratic political structure in Afghanistan and Iraq could have saved the Afghans and the Iraqis from a devastating war, from death, destruction and devastation.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
General Musharraf first staged an unconstitutional referendum to rubber-stamp his dictatorship. The New York Times called it a dubious exercise. There was a five percent turnout, no voting lists, no fixed polling stations, pictures of eight year olds voting.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
He followed it up with an election that the European Union called \u201ca deeply flawed exercise\u201d. Human Rights Watch said \u201cthe deck was stacked against the democratic parties\u201d.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
He passed 29 constitutional amendments in 2 minutes. It took America 250 years to pass 27 amendments. General Musharraf distrusts democracy. He fears the outcome of a free expression of democracy. He refuses to let me return home in safety.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
He is a soldier who fears a woman.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
He is a General afraid to face a woman leading her Party.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I wonder what the great General is frightened off?<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
He is frightened because he knows this unarmed lady has the moral strength of ideas and the support of the Pakistani people.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
For 7 years my Party, my family and I were tortured to force me to quit politics. By the Grace of God the people stood by me and I stood by them. To fight for truth and justice is a holy duty for us to save our Nation from the clutches of military dictatorship and oppression.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
History has taught us the very hard lesson that when Pakistan turns against democracy, it turns against itself.\u00a0 In 1965, under one military dictatorship we signed the Tashkent Declaration. In 1971 we lost half the country. In 1981 we lost Siachen. In 2001, we lost Strategic depth in Afghanistan. That is why it is critical that Pakistan keeps sight of its democratic values.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Islamabad\u2019s Generals are betting that the White House needs them for the war on terror and the Iraq situation and will backburner the cause of democracy.\u00a0 Maybe they are right.\u00a0 But if Islamabad\u2019s military dictatorship is allowed to exploit America\u2019s strategic interests to legitimize its own illegitimate power, the threat to Pakistan from hostile neighbors, militant groups, suicide bombings can only increase. And we know from the example of Yugoslavia, what happens to countries that internally implode.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Therefore I appeal to the youth of Pakistan to come forward and unite for the restoration of democracy and constitutional rule.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I have great faith in the youth of Pakistan. I know the youth will redeem my faith in them.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
You, the Youth, are our successor generation. To you we pass the torch of leadership, our democratic vision baptized in the sacred blood of our Martyrs.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Dear students, Dear youth, fight what you believe in. Fight for Democracy. Fight for our exploited and impoverished people.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Remember: it is better to live like a lion for one day \u2014 than live like a jackal for a thousand years.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I wish you all success and happiness, my dear daughters and sons of Pakistan.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Jashan-e-Azadi Function Savirya Foundation London\u00a0\u2013\u00a016 August 2003 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJashan-e-Azadi Function<\/strong><\/span>
Savirya Foundation<\/strong><\/span>
London\u00a0\u2013\u00a016 August 2003<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
It is a pleasure for me to be in Dewsbury at the invitation of the Savirya Foundation. I congratulate Savirya Foundation under Syeda Hussain for the excellent work it is doing in supporting women and children in Pakistan and Kashmir.<\/p>
I am asked to share my experiences as a woman elected to a leadership position in a traditional Muslim society.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I want you to know that the gauntlet of leadership was thrown down before me.\u00a0 I had no choice but to pick it up.\u00a0 Leadership is not easy. The road to leadership can be difficult and sad.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Leadership is born of a passion, and it is a commitment. A commitment to an idea, to a people, to a land.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I travel, never knowing when I will see my husband again. He was arrested the night my government was overthrown in November 1996 seven years ago. I miss my children. They are all under fourteen. It is difficult explaining to little children why their mother can\u2019t be with them, why their father is a political prisoner.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I am reconciled to the fact that the needs of my 150 million people come first, and will always come first.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Women have to make difficult choices, often choices that men are not forced to make.\u00a0 But we do it for all the women who came before us who gave us this opportunity.\u00a0 And most of all, we do it for all woman who will come after us\u00a0 \u2014 the baby girls yet unborn!<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I am asked often why I continue on a journey that is difficult and painful. I do so out of the belief that my leadership changed much, and can change more, for my country and for those denied the right of choice.\u00a0 I do it because I must, this is my life, and this is my mission.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I was brought up in a political family. In a way, I was groomed for politics. Yet, a political role was not one that I actively sought. It came to me through an accident of fate.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I had just completed my education and returned to Pakistan in 1977 when the tanks rumbled up the road in Rawalpindi and troops took over the Prime Minister\u2019s House.\u00a0 I was pulled into the political campaign by the arrest of senior party leaders.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
My father was arrested, released, re-arrested, and, finally hanged. Two of my brothers were killed .\u00a0 Together my family has spent 25 years behind prison bars.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
The military coup of 1977 put an end to my career goal to join the Foreign Service in Pakistan and become High Commissioner to England a country I had studied in and knew well.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Fate took over my life and my destiny was no longer in my hands.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
As a child of my age, in the late sixties, I was influenced by the social ferment around me. The worldwide students movement, from Rawalpindi, to Washington, were important factors in my youth.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
The fight against apartheid shaped the ferocity of my commitment to stand up for principle.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
The burgeoning movement for women\u2019s rights empowered and emboldened me.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
As an Asian I protested the Vietnam war, a war that shook the world in the sixties.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
These important steps helped shape my outlook on life, helped me focus on fighting injustice, promoting freedom and safeguarding the rights of the weak and dispossessed.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
But above all, as a student in the west, where there are free elections, I saw the awesome power of the people changing policies, changing leaders, and changing history.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I came to Oxford at a time when the British politician, Enoch Powell, was threatening to throw all Asians into the sea.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
While I was at Oxford, the Conservative party chose a woman, Margaret Thatcher, as the Leader of Opposition. The idea of the first female British Prime Minister became a topic for student discussions.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
It was a thrilling moment for me, as a student, when Mrs. Thatcher, then leader of opposition, invited me to the House of Commons for tea. I entered the oldest Parliament in the world. I walked on flag stones that could tell a thousand tales of Kings, Queens and ordinary Mortals that walked on those same steps for centuries.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
At Oxford, I was the first female foreigner to be elected as President of the Oxford Union.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
The Oxford Union reflects the British Parliament. It was there that I learned to debate, slowly gaining confidence before an audience. And while I took part in debates, I was surrounded by statues of British Prime Minister from Gladstone who has been President of the Oxford Union.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I had been told that as a foreigner, I could not win the Presidency and should not run.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I had been told that as a woman, I could not win, and should not run.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
But I did run and did win and overcame my fear of losing. I learned to overcome fear and to take risks. I learned never to give in when the task seemed formidable or impossible.<\/p>
I had been told that as a woman I could never be elected Prime Minister in a Muslim country.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I had been told that, at 35, I was too young to run for the premiership.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
But I had learnt to overcome my fear of losing.<\/p>
I did run.<\/p>
I did win.<\/p>
I won because I refused to take \u201cNo\u201d for an answer.<\/p>
And that\u2019s my message to young people here tonight.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Don\u2019t take \u201cNo\u201d for an answer.<\/p>
Don\u2019t be disappointed with a setback. Don\u2019t let the obstacles stand in your way.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
As the Prime Minister of Pakistan I appeared before an historic Joint Session of the United States Congress in 1989.\u00a0 In that address, the most meaningful line to me was my simple message to the woman of America, my message to the women of the world.\u00a0 Three simple, powerful words:\u00a0 YES YOU CAN!<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Yes, you can achieve any goal you want to reach, If you don\u2019t accept the status quo.\u00a0 Don\u2019t accept traditional roles and traditional constraints.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Women have made progress since I went to University. We smashed many glass ceilings.\u00a0 But there are thousands left to break, many battles left to fight.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Sadly, the greatest obstacles to progress for women in the third millennium is the bigotry of some men, and no where is that bigotry more difficult than in the Taliban and the fanatics that \u00a0ruled in Afghanistan. Women fight on several fronts.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
We fight against terrorism. We fight against dictatorship and intolerance. We are threatened with a clash of civilizations.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
These are difficult times.\u00a0 Freedom is under assault.\u00a0 Democracy is under assault.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
The solutions will not be quick or simple.\u00a0 But we shall prevail.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
In my father\u2019s last letter to me before he was murdered by one of Pakistan\u2019s earlier military tyrants, he quoted Tennyson:<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cAh, what shall I be at fifty if I find the world so bitter at twenty.\u201d<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
So..be strong but do not be bitter.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I remember the words of a President, George Washington who said:<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
\u201c May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants- while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid\u201d.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
These words spoken centuries ago ring so true now.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Today there is terror, war, death destruction and fear.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I dream of a world where we can live in peace a world with out violence.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
That\u2019s what I dream of \u2013 a world free of fear a world at peace.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I believe women have an important role to play in building a world free from fear.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
To me, women are not just the building blocs of the family; they are the building blocs of society.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
They are responsible for the family\u2019s household budget.<\/p>
They bear most of the responsibility of child raising.<\/p>
They are more sensitive to social issues like education and health.<\/p>
They\u00a0 \u2014 far more than their husbands and brothers\u00a0 \u2014 are cautious about committing the lives of their children to war.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Women are the principal educators, not just of literacy but also of morality.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
And once mobilized, once organized, once unleashed, the power of women to change their societies can never again be contained.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
This is an age around the world where thousands of citizens, especially youth and women, can hold governments accountable to law and public trust.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
This is an age of civic groups and civil society.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Savirya Foundation is a civic group. It has a role to play. I wish it well in playing that role and am delighted to have had this opportunity to share Jashan-e-Azadi with you.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I wish you all success, happiness and Jashan-e-Azadi Mubark.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Socialist International\u00a0Building Democracy in Iraq Working for Peace in the Middle East Civil Society and Women\u2019s Participation in the Political Process Rome, Italy \u2013 July 18, 2003 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSocialist International\u00a0<\/i>Building Democracy in Iraq
<\/i>Working for Peace in the Middle East<\/strong><\/span>
Civil Society and Women\u2019s Participation in the Political Process
Rome, Italy \u2013 July 18, 2003<\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Mr. Secretary General,<\/p>
Distinguish Delegates,<\/p>
The prerequisites for a democratic society is to hold transparent elections installing governments responsive and accountable to the people. For such a society it is necessary to have in place:<\/p>
An independent judiciary ensuring the rule of law.<\/p>
\u00b7\u00a0An uncensored media open to all points of view.
\u00b7\u00a0Participation by all members of society, regulated only by age and citizenship.
\u00b7\u00a0Organized political parties that can contest elections and govern democratically.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>
The final building blocks of liberty are non-governmental organizations \u2014 NGOs \u2014 groups that articulate the interests of the polity and create a civil society.<\/p>
Civil society organizations are vital to promoting democratic development in any country and especially in semi-authoritarian states and pseudo-democracies. Building non-partisan civil society watchdogs in such countries is essential to democratic reform.\u00a0<\/p>
This is particularly true when the population distrusts government in conducting a clean electoral process.\u00a0 It is more apparent in Iraq, where an occupational authority with limited support will supervise elections.<\/p>
The efforts of nonpartisan election monitoring groups in countries around the globe mobilized thousands of citizens, particularly youth and women, to hold governments and political contestants accountable to the law and the public trust.<\/p>
This is important in a country like Iraq where political freedom can result in a surge of support for religious groups seeking to replace one dictatorship with another.<\/p>
Institutions in Iraq, built around a single party dominated by a single family, collapsed creating a political vacuum.<\/p>
It is this space that civil society must fill to prevent the rise of extremist groups and create a pluralistic order.<\/p>
Women suffered tremendously during the years of tyranny and sanctions.<\/p>
Narratives by women in conflict situations contain heart-rending accounts of survival strategies in times of catastrophe and war.<\/p>
As a woman leader from the Muslim world I believe that participation of Iraqi woman in civil society, the interim administration and local government is essential to the emergence of modern, democratic, pluralistic and tolerant Iraq.<\/p>
The nature of Iraqi society that emerges from dictatorship and occupation transiting to democracy is contingent on the encouragement given to and the involvement of women in leadership roles.<\/p>
The basis for civil society can be grounded in international rules expressed in the Beijing process and in the convention for the elimination of discrimination against women.<\/p>
The political interruption in Iraq provides a unique opportunity to negotiate the empowerment of women.<\/p>
With civil society taking on a global character, local and international initiatives can be woven together to provide new opportunities for women\u2019s participation in decision making.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>
To me, women are not just the building blocs of the family;
They are the building blocs of society.
They are responsible for the family\u2019s household budget.
They bear most of the responsibility of child raising.
They are more sensitive to social issues like education and health.<\/p>
They\u00a0\u2014 far more than their husbands and brothers\u00a0\u2014 are cautious about committing the lives of their children to war.<\/p>
Women are the principal educators, not just of literacy but also of morality.\u00a0<\/p>
And once mobilized, once organized, once unleashed, the power of women to change their societies can never again be contained.\u00a0<\/p>
For 35 years the building blocs of civil and political society in Iraq were frozen.\u00a0 Now the international community needs to nurture them because:<\/p>
Before there can be democratic elections, there must be liberty.\u00a0<\/li>
To have liberty, people must enjoy the right to freely associate and organize around common interests and common issues.\u00a0<\/li>
Women can and should be at the vanguard of the creation of a civil society that, in turn, can lead to viable political parties, free and fair democratic elections, and transparent government.\u00a0<\/li>
The move from civil society to democratic society was the pattern around the world.\u00a0 This was true in Europe and the Americas.\u00a0 I pray it will be true in Pakistan and Burma.\u00a0<\/li>
And I suggest today, at this forum, that it could be the model by which Iraq transitions from dictatorship to democracy.<\/li><\/ul>Irrespective of our opposition or support for the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, the rationale for that war can be used to press the case for democracy as the cornerstone of international foreign policy.\u00a0 In defending his policy, President George Bush said,<\/p>
\u00a0\u201cMen and women in every culture need liberty like they\u00a0 need food and water and air.\u00a0 Everywhere that freedom \u00a0arrives, humanity rejoices; and everywhere that freedom\u00a0 stirs, let tyrants fear.\u201d<\/p>
We can use those words to press all nations, and especially the United States, to consistently support democracy as the essence of internationalism in this new millennium.<\/p>
There were other times in history \u2014 when we squandered precious moments.\u00a0 The failure of the international community to reinforce the democratic breakthrough after the end of communism is one of the era\u2019s tragic missed opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>
At a moment of unprecedented political and social opportunity, at the real birth of globalism, many nations turned inward.\u00a0<\/p>
At a moment of extraordinary economic expansion, prosperous nations turned their backs on nations where families live on less than a dollar a day.\u00a0<\/p>
But the most painful failure, for me and my nation Pakistan, is that the political gains on all continents witnessed during the last decade of the second millennium were all too often allowed to shrivel away.\u00a0<\/p>
We cannot let that happen at this extraordinary moment of opportunity in Iraq.\u00a0<\/p>
If freedom and democracy prevail in Iraq, it signals hope, for the Middle East for Pakistan, Burma and other countries of the world where tyranny raises its ugly head.<\/p>
If freedom and democracy are allowed to disintegrate, as unfortunately they did under the military dictatorship of Pakistan, the consequences to the world could be devastating.<\/p>
This is, of course, a difficult time for the people of Iraq.<\/p>
The stakes\u00a0 \u2014 both of success and failure\u00a0 \u2014 are enormous.<\/p>
At this precious time, I recall the words of Goethe: He said:
\u201cFreedom must be reinvented in every generation.\u201d<\/p>
This is the time for the people of Iraq to reinvent freedom.
This is the time for all the people of the world to help Iraqis reinvent freedom.
This is their time. This is our time.\u00a0 Let us, together, embrace it.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Democracy And Internationalism:\u00a0 Post Iraq The World Political Forum \u2013 Turin, Italy Address by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto May 19, 2003 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDemocracy And Internationalism:\u00a0 Post Iraq
The World Political Forum \u2013 Turin, Italy<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
Address by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto
May 19, 2003<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>
With Iraq divided into American, British and Polish controlled zones, we gather together in Turin at an extraordinary and difficult time.\u00a0 Whatever our own views on the path leading to the recent Iraq War, it is time to look forward.<\/span><\/p>
It is time to assess the new world reality.<\/span><\/p>
The post Iraq international situation gives an opportunity to look for ways to promote the cause of democratization, human rights and the global community to which we are all committed.<\/span><\/p>
Many in the international community felt uncomfortable with a war without United Nations sanction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
Demonstrations for peace broke out in the heart of Europe, at times larger than demonstrations within the Muslim\u00a0 world.<\/span><\/p>
No one likes war.<\/span><\/p>
No one likes Repression either.<\/span><\/p>
Western societies absorb dissent.<\/span><\/p>
Non-Western societies are yet to deal with the challenge of those victimized, persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and exiled because of their political views.<\/span><\/p>
This community of the disaffected and the disenfranchised played a pivotal role both in Afghanistan and Iraq.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
In Kabul and Baghdad, popular voices of the people were denied political space.\u00a0 They formed the political front for a war to reclaim their own land.<\/span><\/p>
Countries descend into the darkness of international terrorism\u00a0 and state terrorism when pluralism is disrupted, when diversity is suppressed, when one\u00a0 man directs the destiny of millions be it a Mullah Omar or Saddam Hussain or other dictators.<\/span><\/p>
America\u2019s President George Bush justified war claiming:<\/span><\/p>
\u201cMen and women in every culture need liberty like they need food and water and air.\u00a0 Everywhere that freedom arrives, humanity<\/span>\u00a0rejoices;\u00a0 and everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.\u201d<\/span><\/p>
Post Iraq, tyrants should fear.<\/span><\/p>
It is troubling that some of those tyrants still feel little fear. Sadly, some of them are still close allies of Washington. In the case of Pakistan, a repressive regime exiles the popular opposition, imprisons dissidents and rigs elections.<\/span><\/p>
In the post Iraq world that dawned this April, the words rationalising the Iraq war can be used to press all nations, and especially Washington, to make\u00a0 consistent application of democratic principles the essence of internationalism in this new millennium.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
There were moments in recent history where historic moments were squandered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
When the moving finger of history writes of the end of the 20^{th<\/sup>\u00a0century, it will write of the international community\u2019s failure to reinforce the democratic breakthrough that the end of communism brought as the era\u2019s greatest missed opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>}
I recall speaking to European Parliaments, to the Congress of the United States proclaiming that the era of the dictator was over, that militaries\u00a0 all over the world had finally returned to their barracks, that democracy was blooming on every continent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
In retrospect, I fear it was merely a mirage.\u00a0 The forces of real politic were waiting to collide with the ideology of democracy.<\/span><\/p>
We proclaimed a new moral era, but actually constructed an era of moral relativity.\u00a0 And ladies and gentlemen, selective morality is by its very definition, immoral.<\/span><\/p>
Our standards are inconsistent and our policies selective.\u00a0 Those that decry dictatorship in Burma are silent about tyranny elsewhere.\u00a0 Those decrying dictatorship in Iraq, stay close to dictators in Pakistan.\u00a0 Many in this room rightfully demand self-determination in Palestine, but are less vocal about the rights of the Kashmiri people.<\/span><\/p>
In this age of moral relativism, political standards vary according to political expediency and economic imperatives.\u00a0 Democracy for Iraq, but dictatorship just miles away. Iraqi violations of UN resolutions bring a strong response. Violations of UN resolutions in the Middle East or in South Asia draw a less vocal reaction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
We evaluate national security by hardened borders and tanks and missiles. But true security is linked to the fight for economic justice that will liberate nations; true security is linked to the fight against famine and AIDs; true security means protecting the environment from pollution and desecration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
No matter how great and powerful a nation may be, true leadership is more than military action.\u00a0 It is leading the fight against AIDS, against hunger, against poverty, against racism, and for women, the fight for justice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, the post Iraq world situation allows us to focus once again on the principle of freedom. This time it must be more than rhetoric\u00a0 that is exploited in pursuit of limited, foreign policy objectives.<\/span><\/p>
I remember a time when the world walked from Afghanistan after the defeat of the Soviets in 1989.<\/span><\/p>
The fundamental mistake was that we were not consistently committed to the values of freedom, democracy and self-determination that ultimately undermine terrorism. The result was Taliban dictatorship, Al-Qaeda and terrorism.<\/span><\/p>
Dictatorship doesn\u2019t constrain fundamentalism or terrorism. It provokes it.\u00a0 The goal of rational foreign policy must always be to simultaneously promote stability and to strengthen democratic values.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
The stakes are high.\u00a0 Every war in the South Asian subcontinent from where I come started when my country was under a military dictator or one of its civilian surrogates.<\/span><\/p>
I do not know of a single case when a democratic country has gone to war against another democratic country.<\/span><\/p>
Dictators are not accountable and do not need a popular mandate behind their policies.<\/span><\/p>
The tragedy of Iraq is that Saddam Hussain spurned all offers of a peaceful transition from his regime to a democratic one. None dared tell him that he could not win a military war against American technology.<\/span><\/p>
None dared criticise his flawed strategy of a prolonged guerrilla conflict with house to house fighting in Iraq\u2019s cities to force Washington into a ceasefire while he remained in control.<\/span><\/p>
Dictators are cut off from reality by sycophants too scared to tell them the truth allowing for miscalculations that innocent people pay for in lives.<\/span><\/p>
Democracies are different. Democratic leaders are accountable before the Parliament, the Press and the People. Democratic governments must\u00a0 provide for the public welfare, must provide schools and hospitals, health and housing.\u00a0 Dictatorships need not.\u00a0 They rely on unaccountable secret services and are free to divert resources to schemes that parliamentary scrutiny simply would not permit.<\/span><\/p>
History has taught us the very hard lesson that when democratic states turn against democracy, they turn against themselves.<\/span><\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>
The international press has speculated about Islamabad\u2019s support to North Korea\u2019s nuclear program. Islamabad denies the charges.<\/span><\/p>
Even though Islamabad is a key ally of the US in the war against terrorism, Pakistani citizens are finger printed and photographed when they visit America.<\/span><\/p>
Military dictator General Musharaf promised the world community he would seal the borders with Afghanistan to prevent fleeing Al Qaeda from slipping into Pakistan. Yet scores made their way into the country as the recent arrests by the FBI demonstrate.<\/span><\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/span><\/p>
I believe a democratic Pakistan is the best guarantee of respect and dignity for the people of Pakistan. I believe that a democratic Pakistan living by the rule of law within and without is the best guarantee of the triumph of moderation and modernity amongst one billion Muslims at the crossroads of our history.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>
These are difficult times.\u00a0 We stand at the crossroads of a new world order. We witness the dawn of a uni polar world environment where wars can take place with the coalition of the willing. We witness disunity in the United Nations Security Council, in NATO, in Europe and in the Muslim world.<\/span><\/p>
We can remember that the future is in our hands.\u00a0 As the European philosopher Goethe once wrote, \u201cFreedom must be reinvented in every generation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>
Unipolarism can lead to unilateralism. As power shifts to new paradigms the challenge is to find ways where the voices of the rest of the world community can also be heard effectively.<\/span><\/p>
This is our turn to reinvent freedom.<\/span><\/p>
And we shall prevail.<\/span><\/p>
Thank you ladies and gentlemen.<\/span><\/p>
\u00a0<\/small><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Martyr Shehu\u00a0 Yar\u00a0 Adua\u00a0 Commemoration Day \u2013 Nigeria March 8, 2003 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMartyr Shehu\u00a0 Yar\u00a0 Adua\u00a0 Commemoration Day \u2013 Nigeria<\/strong><\/span>
March 8, 2003<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Mr. President,
Mr. Vice President,
Members of the Foundation
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
I am privileged to join the 5^{th<\/sup>\u00a0National Programme honouring\u00a0 late Shehu Yar\u2019Adua\u2014a great patriot, nationalist and democrat.<\/p>}
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Shehu meant different things to different people.<\/p>
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To the President, he was a trusted friend, a tested colleague.<\/p>
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To his people, a Martyr, sacrificing his life for principles.<\/p>
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For Pakistan, a graduate of its prestigious officer cadre trained at Quetta Staff College.<\/p>
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It was at the Quetta Staff College that Martyr Shehu\u2019s path indirectly crossed mine through my father. Mr. Shehu met Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, whom he held in admiration, at the Staff College in Quetta.<\/p>
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I was the Prime Minister of Pakistan when President Abacha threatened Shehu\u2019s life. I wrote asking for clemency, hoping to save the life of a man who was his peoples hope. I knew that the execution of a political leader breeds political turmoil.<\/p>
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Mr. President and Distinguished Guests,<\/p>
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The clemency appeals fell on deaf ears. The rest is a gory chapter in Nigeria\u2019s history.<\/p>
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As I took pen in hand to write against the execution of Nigeria\u2019s great son, my thoughts turned to Turkey. As Pakistan\u2019s Foreign Minister my father had urged\u00a0 Turkey\u2019s military rulers to spare President Adnan Mendre\u2019s life\u00a0 to save Turkey from a blood stained history. But the General went ahead\u2013 condemning himself forever in the eyes of unborn generations.<\/p>
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So, too, in Pakistan when military dictator General Ziaul Haq executed Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Pakistani society has still to recover from an assassination that divided a nation and plunged it into turmoil.<\/p>
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Humanity condemns killers. Thus victims join the celestial skies like stars burning bright inspiring coming generations to the heights of heroism.<\/p>
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Shehu Yar\u2019Adua was in Pakistan during the tragic days following its disintegration in 1971.<\/p>
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His stay in Pakistan gave him an insight into its history and its politics.<\/p>
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He realized the price paid for a politicized military that undermined the human and political rights of its own downtrodden people.<\/p>
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Pakistan\u2019s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah warned against tribalism, ethnicity, parochialism, sectarianism, religious bigotry and corruption. These are the ills that haunt non democratic countries since the battle against colonialism was won.<\/p>
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Mr Jinnah separated interpretation of religion from the business of the state. His dream was of a modern, democratic Pakistan built on the edifice of a Federalist structure on the pattern of the United States of America. This echoed Nigerian\u2019s dream of becoming Africa\u2019s\u00a0 \u201cShowcase for Democracy\u201d.<\/p>
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Distinguished Guests,<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Pakistan\u2019s Founder died before his dream became reality. Military interventions followed his death opening the floodgates of religious bigotry, sectarianism, ethnicity, tribalism and corruption. Pakistan appeared on a never-ending roller coaster ride between democracy and military dictatorship.<\/p>
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Political leaders were targeted for character assassination. Murder, treason, crime were the lot of popular leaders targeted for elimination.<\/p>
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The aim was to discredit political leaders and the political process so that dictatorship could replace democracy.<\/p>
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My father Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto took politics out of the drawing rooms of the rich and powerful into the huts of the poor. His Pakistan People\u2019s Party empowered the masses, ushering in socio-economic changes with far-reaching consequences.<\/p>
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Reflecting reforms in Africa, Asia and Latin America, he opposed the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of cartels, tribal leaders, the mandarins of bureaucracy and self styled religious leaders who exploited the people.<\/p>
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Distinguished Guests:<\/p>
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I learnt from my father that democracy and development go together, that human dignity and social emancipation go hand in hand.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
The great Nigerian intellectual Chinua Achebe in his book \u201cThe Trouble With Nigeria<\/u>\u201d wrote:<\/em>\u00a0\u201cOn the morning after Murtala Muhammad seized power in July 1975 public servants were found \u201con seat\u201d at seven-thirty in the morning. Even the \u201cgo-slow\u201d traffic that had\u2026 defied every regime vanished overnight from the streets!\u201d<\/em><\/p>
Then he added:<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
\u00a0\u201c\u2026alas, that transformation was short-lived\u2026 in order to effect lasting change it must be followed up with a \u2026 consistent agenda of reform\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>
Distinguished Guests,<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, amongst other great leaders, believed that democracy\u2014with all its faults \u2014is the best system for human management.<\/p>
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Tellingly, the advanced and powerful\u00a0 Nations of today are democracies.<\/p>
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Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,<\/p>
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Pakistan is an example of the tragic consequences of dictatorship. The use of the religious card by military rulers produced sectarian strife. The divide between different schools in Islam created fissures.<\/p>
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Doctrinal differences took on a dangerous character during the military era of the eighties.<\/p>
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Arms flooded into the country following Pakistan\u2019s emergence as a \u2018frontline\u2019 state during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.<\/p>
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Small arms and heroin proliferated in Pakistani society.<\/p>
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Secondly, a number of religious schools were established to recruit and train young man from the Muslim world to fight the Soviet super-power in Afghanistan. No one dreamt then that one day some of them would take on the other super-power. By 1997 there were 2,500 religious schools in the province of Punjab alone (compared to 137 at independence).<\/p>
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A number of the religious schools taught intolerance between sects and between religions. Products of these schools were without skills relevant to the job market.<\/p>
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Trained to fight wars and reject politics and elections, they looked for a messiah to give meaning to their lives.<\/p>
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Osama Bin Laden, preaching war against the Infidels, appealed to them.<\/p>
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They pegged their militant skills to outstanding political disputes in the Muslim community creating a network of militias that changed the world since the bombing of the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001.<\/p>
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Distinguished Guests,<\/p>
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In this the twenty-first century, and the third millennium, pluralism and tolerance are threatened by culture of violence that alters the way we live.<\/p>
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Fear replaces safety and conflict replaces peace as the terrorist assault unfolds the contours of a post bi-polar world.<\/p>
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Discord and violence have become the order of the day.<\/p>
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In this grim scenario, the future looks bleak, unless federalism and freedom are restored. These are the twin pillars that can built a culture of\u00a0 tolerance, accommodation and co-existence. Education with economic and political empowerment is the vital way forward as we witness the rise of religious margins in the Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Hindu civilizations.<\/p>
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Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
The Collapse of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War bringing\u00a0 new dreams, hopes and aspirations of a world peaceful and prosperous.<\/p>
With a heavy heart I say to you that<\/p>
The era of peace for which we prayed, became a\u00a0 time of war.<\/li>
Tolerance was replaced by terrorism.<\/li>
Dictatorship replaced democracy in too many countries.<\/li>
Violent fanaticism replaced religious moderation.<\/li>
As the war against terrorism enters a new phase, I urge Non-Muslims to know those who use violence and terror in the name of Islam.<\/li>
Their actions contradict the teachings of Islam.<\/li>
Islam is committed to tolerance and equality, and it is committed to the principles of democracy.<\/u><\/li>
The image of Muslim people is hurting because too many Muslims are living in dictatorships. Muslims are hurting because in many Muslim countries, contrary to Islam, women are discriminated against in every aspect of life.<\/li>
We spend so much on armies and weapons. We spend too little on our children who lack education.<\/li>
We run economies on cronyism, nepotism, abuse of power and corruption killing the spirit of entrepreneurship in our countries. Our businessmen and women find it hard to freely compete.<\/li>
In many Muslim countries, contrary to Islam, justice is dead. We live in societies where judges are bribed or terrorised.<\/li>
Our human rights activists are ignored.<\/li>
Our political parties are targets of state sponsored terrorism.<\/li>
Popular political leaders are persecuted living as prisoners or exiles.<\/li>
The voice of our people is silenced through rigged elections.<\/li><\/ul>The authoritarian powers of the state are destroying the Muslim people and Muslim society.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Unless we break force of these authoritarian powers, our future is in the chains of\u00a0 ignorance, intolerance and dictatorship.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
The religious parties call for religious dictatorship to replace existing authoritarian governments . They ignore the key concepts in\u00a0 Islam which develop democracy. These include the principles of consultation or\u00a0shura<\/u><\/em>, consensus known or\u00a0ijma<\/u><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0independent judgment or\u00a0ijtihaad<\/u><\/em>.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Ironically Islam brought democracy to the world long before any western country. Yet today democracy is the progative of the West.<\/p>
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Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University predicted a\u00a0clash of civilization<\/u>\u00a0between the West and the Islamic world.<\/p>
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Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
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This clash threatens to eclipse our future unless we avert it.<\/p>
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Islam is part of the Judeo-Christian heritage. We are all ahle Kitaab or People of the Book. The Prophet Abraham is our father. Moses and Jesus are our prophets.\u00a0 We are united in a consensus of monotheism.<\/p>
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The word \u201cMuslim\u201d actually includes the followers of the Prophets Moses, Jesus and Mohammad (Peace be Upon Him).<\/p>
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Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
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Suddenly Muslim countries are caught in the eye of the storm. It seems the world has tumbled out of a time when Communism was the threat, the fear, and the bloc that was to be contained. Now Islam and the Muslim Nations could replace Communism as the new threat, the new fear and the new world that is to be contained.<\/p>
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Much was written of how the World Trade Centre impacted on the West. Little stock was taken of how it shook the Muslim world.<\/p>
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Ordinary Muslims live in fear of another terrorist attack on the West and the repurcussions it could bring for Muslim people and Muslim countries.<\/p>
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After the victims of the World Trade Center and their families, Muslims are the most victimized community. This is why many Muslims find it hard to believe that any Muslim could be so myopic as to cause grievious harm to the Muslim community through the senseless attack on the World Trade Centers.<\/p>
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Muslim political problems are for the time being shelved. The ongoing violence in the Middle East, the killing in Kashmir, the civil war in Chechnya are ignored by a world unable to distinguish between Terrorism and Occupation.<\/p>
In\u00a0 the face of the awesome military and political power of the West, and the helplessness most Muslims feel as bombs threaten to kill fellow Muslims, Osama and his men could re-emerge to haunt the world community.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Defeated and disgraced after the fall of Kabul, Al-Qaeda is now trying to peg their claim to fame on the slogan that Islam and the Muslims face a new crusade. If their call is heeded to, we could witness the dawn of a new asymmetrical battle that stains the world stage with blood, violence, death and destruction.<\/p>
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The course of sanity, the cause of world peaces lies in Democracy and Human Rights. It lies in Justice and the Rule of Law. It lies in the emancipation of the people of the Third World from poverty, exploitation and hunger.<\/p>
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Under the PPP government Pakistan integrated into the global economy bringing prosperity to its people.<\/p>
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\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world, attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment, particularly in power generation.<\/p>
\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We eradicated polio in our country. We reduced infant mortality.\u00a0 We increased literacy by one-third building tens of thousands of primary and secondary schools.<\/p>
\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We established a Women\u2019s Bank, run by women for women giving credit to women.<\/p>
\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We brought down the population growth rate even as we tripled the economic productivity rate.<\/p>
\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We outlawed domestic violence by establishing special women\u2019s police even as we doubled national revenues.<\/p>
It was a remarkable transformation of a society.\u00a0 It was a transformation that our underprivileged wanted.<\/p>
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It was a transformation that demonstrated the strength of a Muslim society based on Democracy and Human Dignity.<\/p>
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It was a transformation that was bringing Pakistan into the modern era as a model to one billion Muslims of what moderate, enlightened Islam could achieve for its people.<\/p>
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And thus to the terrorists and their sympathizers, we became the enemy that was to be destroyed. We threatened the rise of the Taliban state in Afghanistan without which Al Qaeda could not operate. And so democracy in Pakistan was killed.<\/p>
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To kill democracy in Pakistan, the Prime Minister\u2019s brother was shot outside their childhood home.<\/p>
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With the eclipse of the democratic government, the Taliban seized Kabul and invited in Al- Qaeda. Without the check of good advice from neighbourly Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden declared war on America in 1998.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Three years later, the mighty towers of the World Trade Center collapsed as suicide bombers flew Boeing jets into them. The world changed dramatically after what can only be described as a second Pearl Harbour. A Pearl Harbour that bombed the inter cultural, inter religious harmony so essential to prevent the Clash of Civilizations.<\/p>
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Without modernization and moderation, it is challenging for Non-Muslims to distinguish between religion and terrorism which Muslims understand by faith and instinct.<\/p>
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An historical mistake was made following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989. As a world community, we failed to plan for a post-war Afghanistan built on democratic principles of coalition, consensus and human rights.<\/p>
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Once the Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan , tribalism, ethnicity and sectarianism came to the fore. As tribalism, ethnicity and sectarianism rose, the hopes of a democratic order built on a broad based government of consensus collapsed.<\/p>
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Now, in the shadow of Kabul, Islamabad\u2019s military rulers are making the same mistake as the Afghans did. Last October\u2019s elections were a mockery of justice and fair play.\u00a0 The leaders of Pakistan\u2019s major political parties were banned from contesting and campaigning.\u00a0 After the polling closed, the results were stopped for hours and days.\u00a0 Turnout, estimated at 20%, doubled, tripled and in some cases exceeded 100%.<\/p>
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Rigged elections can give the label of democracy but they are unable to give the strength of democracy, a strength that comes from a consensus forged by public opinion.<\/p>
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Now the religious parties control the states bordering Afghanistan. Next they might control more of Pakistan. Islam\u2019s second largest Muslim country, Pakistan, is today threatened with a religious uprising in the absence of democracy.<\/p>
Dictatorship doesn\u2019t modernize Nations. Dictatorship creates extremists. A democratic political structure in Afghanistan could have marginalized the Taliban and Al-Qaeda before they declared war on the West. It is democracy and democracy alone that can create modern, moderate and tolerant Muslim societies that can co-exist in peace and stability.<\/p>
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The greatest protection of freedom from terrorists and conflicts is replacing dictatorships with governments responsible to the people, governments based on the values of tolerance and accommodation.<\/p>
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Shehu Yar Adua gave his life so Nigerians could live in freedom. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave his life so Pakistanis could live in freedom.<\/p>
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Legendary leaders gave their lives, braving prison cells and death by hanging to keep alive for their people, their continents and civilizations the dream of Freedom.<\/p>
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Shehu Yar Adua was one such leader.<\/p>
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He lives in our hearts and minds. His name glows in the golden pages of history as a leader who beckoned his people to a brighter future than the darkness of Tyranny.<\/p>
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With his Martyrdom, the torch has passed to the coming generation.<\/p>
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It is my hope and prayer that\u00a0 we may live up to the glorious traditions of the men who died so that we could live in dignity, democracy and opportunity.<\/p>
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Thank you, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Fanatics seeking to bring about Clash of Civilization: Bhutto says Path to Leadership Strewn with Thorns <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tVictims of Terrorism US Tour<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
December 16,\u00a0 2002<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
I am pleased to come before you at the season of the year when Christmas, Eid and Hanukah coincide.\u00a0 Maybe in this week of holidays that celebrate renewal, hope, faith and peace, we can begin to move away from the precipice of disaster that I fear the world finds itself in December of 2002.<\/p>
I know you are here primarily to learn from my experiences throughout my career that you may be able to apply to your own lives, responsibilities and careers. I intend to address those points.<\/p>
But these are very special times.\u00a0 These are very dangerous times.\u00a0 These are times of misperceptions and confusion.\u00a0 I want to take part of the time to share with you some thoughts about the extraordinary state of the world.<\/p>
First let us address the issue of terrorism, Islam and the West.\u00a0 Terrorism and fanaticism will not succeed unless we fall into the psychopaths\u2019 trap.\u00a0 Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard wrote of an inevitable clash of civilization between the West and the Islamic world.<\/p>
I argue that this clash is far from inevitable, unless we make it so.<\/p>
There is nothing in the precepts of Islam that make it inconsistent with Judeo-Christian values.\u00a0 In the Holy Book, Abraham is our father, just as Moses and Jesus are our prophets.<\/p>
There will only be a clash of civilizations if we allow ignorance and fanaticism to take control, to shape the agenda and to shape the debate.<\/p>
Osama and his men use commercial airliners as bombs against cities and symbols to provoke the clash of cultures under which they will thrive.<\/p>
I am not unfamiliar with the terrorists of Al Qeda.<\/p>
I know them well; I know how they operate, how they think and I know what they want.<\/p>
As Prime Minister of Pakistan, I stood up to them.\u00a0 I battled with many of these same criminals, including Osama Bin Laden himself.\u00a0 I took them on, and often paid a price.<\/p>
During the Afghan-Soviet war, my country became the breeding ground for their psycho-political religious manipulation and exploitation.\u00a0 Hiding under the cloak of religion, they preached a message that would enslave not liberate, teach children not to write but rather to hate, keep people hopeless and desperate, bitter, xenophobic and paranoid.<\/p>
I closed their so-called universities. I disarmed their Madrassas, their sham primary schools that do not teach children literature, science or mathematics but rather turn children into fanatics and criminals. I tried to restore law and order to our cities under incessant assault from terrorist attack.<\/p>
My government tracked down and extradited the terrorists, like Ramzi Youseff, who had exported death and destruction to New York in the 1990s.<\/p>
They struck back at my allies and me. They destroyed the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad.\u00a0 They burned our National Assembly, hijacked school buses, gunned down diplomats and businessmen in the streets of Karachi and Lahore, and organized and financed schemes to topple my government.<\/p>
As a woman, I was their enemy.<\/p>
As a democrat, I was their opposite.\u00a0 But above all, as someone who offered hope to our people\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 education, jobs, communication and modernity\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 I was a dangerous obstacle to the forces of hate.<\/p>
I took them on with my eyes open.\u00a0 I knew they would strike back, just as we expect that these fanatics to try and strike again in America.<\/p>
Despite the personal and political price I paid over the years, my only regret is that we were unable to destroy them completely, before they rained terror on America.<\/p>
Peace is often difficult to achieve, and even more difficult to maintain.\u00a0 The words on the Korean War Memorial on Washington\u2019s great mall never have rung more true\u00a0 \u2014 \u201cFreedom is not free.\u201d .<\/p>
These terrorists greatest fear is the spread of information, social equality and democracy.\u00a0 These three principles suffocate terrorism.<\/p>
These three goals guided my years as prime minister.\u00a0 Maybe this could explain the two assassination attempts against me by Al Queda.<\/p>
My government heralded the information age by introducing fax machines, digital pagers, optic fiber communications, cellular telephones, satellite dishes, computers, Internet, e-mail and even CNN into Pakistan.<\/p>
Under my government Pakistan integrated into the global economy that the fanatics so fear. We became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world, attracting\u00a0 billions of dollars in foreign investment, particularly in power generation. We eradicated polio in our country. We dramatically reduced infant mortality.<\/p>
WHO<\/p>
Despite the constraints of a political system rigged against democrats, and a social system biased against women, as Prime Minister of Pakistan I used my office to reverse centuries of discrimination against women.<\/p>
My tenure was a textbook affirmative action program against gender discrimination.<\/p>
We increased literacy by one-third, even more dramatically among girls.<\/p>
We built over 30,000 primary and secondary schools, targeting rural Pakistan. Our education program targeting girls and\u00a0 rural areas has been dismantled by the military junta.<\/p>
We brought down the population growth rate by establishing women\u2019s health clinics in thousands of communities across our Nation.<\/p>
We outlawed domestic violence and established special women\u2019s police forces to protect and defend the women of Pakistan.<\/p>
We appointed women judges to our nation\u2019s benches for the first time in our history.<\/p>
We instituted a new program of hiring women police officers to investigate crimes of domestic violence against the women of Pakistan.\u00a0 That special police force has been dismantled.<\/p>
I systematically appointed women judges to the courts of the land.\u00a0 That affirmative action program for women in the judiciary has been dismantled.<\/p>
I condemned, as state police, the honor killing, by members of their own families, of women who had been raped.\u00a0 The military junta is now silent to these abominations.<\/p>
I condemned and sought to reverse the unspeakable prosecution of women raped and then tried for the crime of adultery, a perversion of justice that affronts the civilized world.\u00a0 The military junta uses this abomination as a means to solidify support among extremists.<\/p>
I encouraged women\u2019s and girl\u2019s participation in sports, nationally and internationally by lifting the ban on women\u2019s participation in sport. I persuaded the armed forces and security services to hire women in their institutions.<\/p>
PIA Pilot<\/p>
I created a special Women\u2019s Development Bank to guarantee small business loans to women entrepreneurs, because I firmly believed that economic justice would build political justice.\u00a0 It was a bank run by women for women- although men were allowed to keep their money in it.<\/p>
Case by case, issue-by-issue, policy-by-policy, the military junta that rules Pakistan with an iron fist undermines policies aimed at ameliorating the role and rights of women in Pakistani society.<\/p>
The women of Pakistan cannot be expected to struggle alone against the forces of discrimination, exploitation and manipulation.<\/p>
I recall the words of Dante who reminded us that \u201cthe hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.\u201d<\/p>
To the fanatics and the extremists, we became the enemy, the threat, and the obstacle.\u00a0 To Islam at the crossroads, a modern Pakistan was one fork in the road, fanaticism and ignorance the other.<\/p>
Islam is committed to tolerance and equality, and it is committed by Koranic definition to the principles of democracy. The Holy Book says that Islamic society is contingent on\u00a0 \u2014 and I quote \u2014\u00a0 \u201cmutual advise through mutual discussions on an equal footing.\u201d<\/p>
Sadly, most Muslim countries are dictatorships, contrary to what Islam teaches. The denial of democracy shifts opposition from the political class to the mosque. This play into hands of militants and extremists. They can canvass to a captive audience.<\/p>
In Islam dictatorship is never condoned, nor is cruelty.\u00a0 Beating, torturing and humiliating women is unIslamic.\u00a0 Denying education to girls violates the very first word of the Holy Book:\u00a0 \u201cRead.\u201d\u00a0 According to our religion, those who commit cruel acts are condemned to destruction.<\/p>
Sometimes tragedy can lead to resurrection of hope and spirit.\u00a0 As America and the civilized world respond to the most terrible terrorist attack in history, we must remember the lessons of history and not repeat the mistakes of the past.<\/p>
Osama Bin Ladin did not emerge like whole cloth from a nightmare.\u00a0 His depravity was long in the making, and there were errors\u00a0 \u2014 of omission and commission\u00a0 \u2014 that must never be repeated.<\/p>
Afghanistan is a tragic case in point of how retreating from the principles of human rights and democracy can have the most tragic unanticipated consequences.<\/p>
In the closing days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, during a State Visit to America I cautioned that US policy to defeat the Soviets had empowered and emboldened the most fanatical, extremist elements of the Afghan seven-faction Mujahadeen at the expense of the moderates, creating a \u201cFrankenstein\u201d that could come back to haunt us in the future.<\/p>
The overall policy of standing against Soviet aggression in Afghanistan was right.\u00a0 Yet the early decisions to arm, train, supply and legitimize the most extreme fanatics sowed the seeds for the 21^{st<\/sup>\u00a0century terrorism that is now swirling around us.<\/p>}
In America and Pakistan\u2019s combined and admirable zeal to end the Soviet occupation, we failed to plan or work for a post-war Afghanistan built on democratic principles of coalition, consensus and cooperation.<\/p>
The fundamental mistake, which contributed to a long-term historical calamity, was that we were not consistently committed to the values of freedom, democracy, social equality and self-determination that ultimately undermine the basic tenets of terrorism.<\/p>
Short-term battlefield strategy is often myopic, as the anarchy, civil war and Taliban terror in Afghanistan so painfully proves.<\/p>
Just as democracies do not make war against other democracies, democracies also do not sponsor international terrorism.<\/p>
The goal of the international community\u2019s foreign policy agenda must always be to simultaneously promote stability and to strengthen democratic values.<\/p>
Not selectively but universally.<\/p>
Not when it is convenient but rather because it is right.<\/p>
General Musharraf made the correct decision to stand with America at this moment of crisis. But the United States and the rest of the world must remember that Pakistan has an extra-constitutional military government with no democratic legitimacy.<\/p>
Elections that took place were exercises in fraud; a sad charade.<\/p>
This is tragic, for a democratic Pakistan is America\u2019 best guarantee of the triumph of moderation and modernity among one billion Muslims at the crossroads of our history.<\/p>
The alternative of a long-term nuclear-armed Pakistani dictatorship has consequences that could make September 11^{th<\/sup>\u00a0look like a mere prelude to an even more horrific future for the civilized world.<\/p>}
This is not the simple world we dreamed of with the end of the Cold War.\u00a0 And mine is not the simple life I dreamed of growing up in Pakistan and going to school at Harvard and Oxford.<\/p>
The gauntlet of leadership was thrown down before me.\u00a0 I had no choice but to pick it up.\u00a0 But it has often been very difficult, often very sad.<\/p>
Leadership is not easy. It is never meant to be easy. It is born of a passion, and it is a commitment\u00a0 \u2014 a commitment to an idea, to principles, to fundamental human values.<\/p>
It has not always been an easy life for me, or for my family.\u00a0 But this is nothing new, really. Women have always had to make difficult choices, often choices that men are not been forced to make.\u00a0 And we must live with the consequences, for better or worse.<\/p>
Those of us in positions of responsibility understand this special, unique and extraordinary moment in history. We fight for all the women who came before us who gave us this opportunity.\u00a0 And most of all, we do it for all woman who will come after us\u00a0 \u2014 the baby girls yet unborn!<\/p>
As a child of my age, in the late sixties, I was influenced by the social ferment around me. The worldwide students movement, from Rawalpindi, to Washington, were important factors in my youth. The fight against apartheid shaped the ferocity of my commitment to stand up for principle. The burgeoning movement for women\u2019s rights empowered and emboldened me.<\/p>
As an Asian at Harvard, I joined up with American students to protest a war that they thought was unjust and did not want to fight.<\/p>
These important steps helped shape my outlook on life, helped me focus on fighting injustice, promoting freedom and safeguarding the rights of the weak and dispossessed.<\/p>
But above all, in America during the Watergate crises I saw the awesome power of the people to change policies, change leaders, and change history.<\/p>
From Harvard I went to Oxford, where the British Politician Enoch Powell was threatening to throw all Asians into the sea.<\/p>
While I was at Oxford, the Conservative party chose a woman, Margaret Thatcher, as the Leader of Opposition. The idea of the first female British Prime Minister became an intense topic for student discussions.<\/p>
At Oxford, I was the first female foreigner to be elected as President of the Oxford Union.<\/p>
The Oxford Union reflects the British Parliament.<\/p>
It was there that I learned to debate, slowly gaining confidence before an audience.<\/p>
I had been told that as a foreigner, I could not win the Presidency and should not run.<\/p>
I had been told that as a woman, I could not win, and should not run. But I did run and did win and overcame my fear of losing. I learned to overcome fear and to take risks. I learned never to give in when the task seemed formidable or impossible.<\/p>
What has always been clear to me is that the extraordinary educational opportunities I had gave me a range of life and career options denied to most women, and certainly almost all women of the developing world.<\/p>
My own experiences at Harvard and Oxford \u00a0made it clear to me that only educational opportunity promotes empowerment for women.<\/p>
If women are truly to be defined by themselves and their own accomplishments and abilities, they need the level of education that empowers them.\u00a0 Education leads to the kind of financial independence that causes women to break the shackles of being only a man\u2019s daughter or a man\u2019s wife.<\/p>
Toba Tek Singh<\/p>
As the Prime Minister of Pakistan I appeared before an historic Joint Session of the United States Congress in 1989.<\/p>
In that address, the most meaningful line to me was my simple message to the woman of America, my message to the women of the world.\u00a0 Three simple, powerful words:\u00a0 YES YOU CAN!<\/p>
I urge women all over the world not to accept the status quo, not to accept \u201cno\u201d for an answer.\u00a0 It is critical that women\u00a0 \u2014 whether in London or Kabul \u2014 refuse to accept traditional roles and traditional constraints.<\/p>
Acquiescing to a tradition dictated by men\u00a0 \u2014 a tradition of subjugation of mothers and daughters\u00a0 \u2014 can no longer be accepted.<\/p>
In the West and in the East we must stand up and reject the notion that leadership and femininity are contradictory.<\/p>
I recall the words of Lady Margaret Thatcher.\u00a0 \u201cWhen a woman is strong, she is pushy.\u00a0 But when a man is strong\u2026ah\u2026he is a great leader!\u201d<\/p>
We\u2019ve made progress; we\u2019ve smashed many glass ceilings.\u00a0 But there are thousands left to break, many battles left to fight.<\/p>
The greatest obstacles to progress for women in the third millennium is the bigotry of men, and no where is that bigotry more venal than in the Taliban and the fanatics that have declared war on the civilized world.<\/p>
We fight against terrorism, and the bigotry and intolerance that will confine and constrain and victimize in the generations ahead.<\/p>
Victimization of significant elements of society and the concept of long-term peace are mutually exclusive.<\/p>
The denial of human rights is a bomb that ultimately explodes.<\/p>
These are difficult times.\u00a0 Freedom is under assault.\u00a0 Democracy is under assault.\u00a0 Criminal terrorists hijack my religion just as they hijack America\u2019s planes.<\/p>
The solutions will not be quick or simple.\u00a0 But if we maintain our commitment to the principles that define us\u00a0 \u2014 the principles of racial, gender and religious equality, the principles of political pluralism and tolerance, and the principle of peaceful change through democracy\u00a0 \u2014 we shall in the end prevail.<\/p>
In addressing the new exigencies of the new century, we could translate dynamic religion into a living reality.\u00a0 Muslim societies need to learn to live by the true spirit of Islam, not only by its rituals.<\/p>
Those who are ignorant of Islam, could cast aside their preconceptions about the role of women in our religion.<\/p>
Contrary to what many believe, Islam embraces a rich variety of political, social and cultural traditions.\u00a0 The fundamental ethos of Islam is tolerance, dialogue and democracy.<\/p>
Just as in Christianity and Judaism, we must always be on guard for those who use the Muslim Holy Book for their own narrow political ends, who will distort the essence of pluralism and tolerance for their own extremist agendas.<\/p>
These manipulators, distorters and bigots exist all over the world, but nowhere were they more dangerous and destructive than the last years of the Taliban era in Afghanistan.<\/p>
And most central to the Taliban perversion was its concept and treatment of women.<\/p>
For the Taliban, and other extremists throughout the Moslem world, refute the central ethos of Islam which is equality, especially equality between the sexes. I find Islam in its writings, respectful of the role of women in society. It is this tradition of Islam that empowered me, strengthened me, and emboldened me.<\/p>
It is this tradition of Islam that allowed me my battle for political and human rights. It strengthens me today in this hour of crisis for my family, my nation and myself.<\/p>
Today in Pakistan, the veil of repression has descended across our people.<\/p>
The cause of human rights is being set back decades.<\/p>
But the cause of women\u2019s rights, I am sad to say, is being set back a century.<\/p>
My immediate successor\u2019s attempt to turn back the clock on women\u2019s rights, on liberal society, on pluralistic democracy focused on me, on destroying me politically at home and destroying my reputation abroad.<\/p>
We have become accustomed to attempts to use the politics of personal destruction to turn back the course of democracy, human rights and women\u2019s rights in our homeland.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t work then and it will not work now.<\/p>
Despite the Musharraf regime\u2019s support of the international war against terrorism, this military junta, like its Martial law predecessors of the past, is attempting to use the teaching of Islam as an excuse to subjugate women, deny freedom, destroy a free press, dominate NGOs, break up political parties, decimate the Judiciary, and restore the iron hand of dictatorship to the land.<\/p>
For me, it is particularly heartbreaking, as the military regime dismantles the array of special programs that I instituted in my two terms as Prime Minister to raise the quality of life of women in Pakistan.<\/p>
Unfortunately hiding under the aura of international cooperation on terrorism, the current regime in Islamabad continues to terrorize its own women.\u00a0 A world focused on the destruction of the Al Qaeda network has neither the interest nor the knowledge to investigate the human rights abuses in a \u201ccoalition\u201d member.<\/p>
And thus the causes of women\u2019s rights, human rights, press freedom and democracy fall backwards into the dark chasms of a past era.<\/p>
Yet I see great progress looming as the forces that shape the new century and the new millennium come together around the world.<\/p>
It is a confluence of energy committed to universal social, economic and political values\u00a0 \u2014 this triad definition of comprehensive human rights for the future.<\/p>
It is a confluence of ideology that must shape a world free from exploitation and maltreatment of women, a world in which women have opportunities to rise to the highest level in politics, business, diplomacy, and other spheres of life.<\/p>
The new century must, for once and for all, exclude even the notion of battered women.<\/p>
It must be an era where honor and dignity are protected in peace, and in war, where women have economic freedom and independence, where women are not defined by their fathers or husbands, but by their own achievements, where they are equal partners in peace and development.<\/p>
Even as we catalogue, organize and hopefully attain our goals, step by step by step, all of those around the world who are committed to the common causes of human rights, women\u2019s rights and peace, must be vigilant.<\/p>
As in Pakistan today, repressive forces always stand ready to exploit the moment and push us back into the past.<\/p>
It seems that the words of Goethe continue to resonate: \u201cfreedom has be re-made and re-earned in every generation.\u201d<\/p>
Dear Guests,<\/p>
In the time it took for me to speak to you today, over one thousand children starved to death on this planet.<\/p>
As long as these basic violations of human rights are allowed to continue, none of us\u00a0 \u2014 regardless of where we live, regardless of how elegant or civilized our life-styles, regardless of our own personal circumstances and comforts\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 are free.<\/p>
My father, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was toppled and ultimately murdered by the forces of dictatorship and extremism two decades ago.\u00a0 I recall vividly those dark and tragic days, with my father languishing in a dark prison, living in the most inhumane conditions, with the world helpless to stop his murder.<\/p>
But he remained courageous to the end, even in the hours before his death.<\/p>
I want to end this monograph with the words that he ended his last letter to me, quoting Robert F. Kennedy, himself a victim of assassination, commenting on the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson.\u00a0 Despite the crisis we live under today, these words set the tone for a new and brighter future.<\/p>
In 1979, from the horror of his death cell, my father wrote:<\/p>
\u201cEvery generation has a central concern, whether to end war, erase racial injustice, or improve the conditions of working people.\u00a0 The people demand a government that speaks directly and honestly to its citizens.\u00a0 The possibilities are too great, the stakes too high, to bequeath to the coming generation only the prophetic lament of Tennyson\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 \u201cAh, what shall I be at fifty\u2026if I find the world so bitter at twenty.\u201d<\/p>
If there is anything that I can truly share from my life that applies to yours, it is the classic quote Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0Hamlet,<\/em>\u00a0\u201cto thine own self be true.\u201d<\/p>
In politics and business, in art and in the academy, there will always be pressures to do what is convenient, the path of least resistance, what is safe and conservative.<\/p>
But leadership is not rooted in safety; it rather is a product of boldness.<\/p>
Do not be timid.<\/p>
And do not surround yourself with those who are timid.<\/p>
Don\u2019t do what is necessarily popular, do what is right.<\/p>
It is sad that modern leaders often take public opinion polls to decide on courses of policy.<\/p>
Sixty years ago, a truly great leader, American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also took polls.<\/p>
But he didn\u2019t take polls to determine what course to follow.<\/p>
On the contrary, he took polls to find out where the people were so that he would know how to educate them to stand with him to do what was right.<\/p>
Leaders\u00a0lead<\/em>, remember that.<\/p>
Convince, educate, bring people around to do what is moral, to do what is right, to do what is necessary.<\/p>
Whether it is in politics or business, don\u2019t be afraid to stand out and stand up.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, go forth and lead.\u00a0 Good luck and Godspeed.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Terrorism: The Threat to Asia Political Parties Conference Bangkok November\u00a0 22- 24,\u00a0 2002 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTerrorism: The Threat to Asia<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
Political Parties Conference Bangkok<\/strong><\/span>
November\u00a0 22- 24,\u00a0 2002<\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
Dear Delegates:<\/p>
It is a special privilege for me represent the Pakistan Peoples Party on this, the second Asian Political Parties Conference. I thank the Thai Rak Party and its leader the Prime Minister, for giving us this opportunity to share views and shape the future of our continent.<\/p>
I thank Speaker Jose De Venecia for his efforts to promote Asian unity and thought of action by bringing us to gather.<\/p>
We meet in Thailand at a time of tension, turmoil and terrorism. Terrorism has struck repeatedly over the last month across different parts of Asia, from Indonesia to Kuwait.<\/p>
The era of peace for which we prayed, became a time of war.<\/p>
Tolerance was replaced by terrorism.<\/p>
Democracy in Pakistan was replaced by dictatorship.<\/p>
The reality of suicide bombings has struck my homeland\u00a0 \u2014 Christian churches, Muslim mosques urban hotels, diplomatic missions are all targets. Scores were murdered.\u00a0 The fanatics struck innocents in Bali. They struck against the French in Yemen.\u00a0 They killed Americans in Kuwait.<\/p>
A military dictatorship in Pakistan failed to stop Al-Qaeda and its Taliban sympathizers from escaping during the bombing of Tora Bora.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen:<\/p>
The bombing of the World Trade Towers killed people of all races, ethnicities and religions.<\/p>
It killed Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Jews who were working together building worldwide trade communication and cooperation.<\/p>
The biggest challenge before the countries of Asia, indeed the countries of the world is to overcome the forces of terrorism that spread hate, religious intolerance, conflict and bloodshed.<\/p>
At this time of continuing crisis, the Asian people need to understand those who use violence in the name of Islam.<\/p>
They are not clerics. They are criminals.<\/p>
Their actions contradict to the teachings of Islam. Islam is committed to tolerance and equality, and it is committed to the principles of democracy. It is ironic that despite the strong commitment to democracy, most Muslims are living in dictatorships. The Muslim people want freedom, They want modernity diversity and democracy. They want the right to debate, discuss and dissent.<\/p>
Muslim women\u00a0 want to stop their discrimination.<\/p>
The businessmen and women dream of competing freely without the barriers of corruption and cronyism.<\/p>
Our need is for judges who are not bribed or intimidated; of political parties that are not decimated through state sponsored factionalism.<\/p>
Of political leaders who are not political prisoners or exiles.<\/p>
This is the exact opposite of the fanatical and ignorant message spread by the Taliban and their allies in hate.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
The twenty-first century began with hope of a golden era of human dignity and fundamental rights. But September 11 ended one period in time and heralded the birth of another.<\/p>
Asia became the new theatre of war. The war in Afghanistan. The threat of war in Baghdad. The violence in the Middle-East. The tension in the South Asia.<\/p>
Muslims in Asia, and across the world, suffer because of Al-Qaeda and its war against the west.<\/p>
During the Afghan-Soviet war, Pakistan became the breeding ground for their religious manipulation and exploitation.<\/p>
My government restored law and order to our cities under assault from terrorist attack.\u00a0 We restored the writ of government. We stopped Pakistan from being declared as terrorist state. We rescued it from bankruptcy and collapse.<\/p>
So they organized and financed schemes to topple my government. They destabilized democracy in Pakistan.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, these fanatics greatest fear is the democracy, diversity and modernization.<\/p>
It was in the clusters of democracy and equality that I devoted my attention as Prime Minister of Pakistan.<\/p>
My government modernized Pakistan introducing optic fiber communications, cellular telephones, satellite dishes, Internet and computer literacy programmes.<\/p>
Pakistan integrated into the global economy that the fanatics fear. We became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world, attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment, particularly in power generation.<\/p>
It was a transformation that was bringing Pakistan into the modern era as a model of what moderate, enlightened Islam could accomplish for its people.<\/p>
To Islam at the crossroads, a democratic Pakistan was one fork in the road, dictatorship the other.<\/p>
With the eclipse\u00a0 of democracy in Pakistan in 1996 the Taliban seized Kabul. They invited in Al-Qaeda allowing it to raise, recruit and train disaffected Muslim Youth from across Asia. Two years after my overthrow , Bin Laden declared war on the west.<\/p>
I am afraid, ladies and gentlemen, that the consequences of that elimination of democracy in Pakistan continues to ripple across Asia.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
Osama Bin Ladin did not emerge suddenly.\u00a0 His movement was long in the making, and there is responsibility\u00a0 that must never be allowed to happen again.<\/p>
In our zeal to defeat the Soviets, we failed to work for a post-war Afghanistan built on the democratic principles of coalition, consensus and compromise.<\/p>
The fundamental mistake was that we were not consistently committed to the values of freedom, democracy and self-determination that undermine the basis tenets of terrorism. We must not repeat that mistake again. Democracy and
human rights must be the centerpiece of Asian policy at home and abroad.<\/p>
Just as democracies do not make war against other democracies, democracies also do not sponsor terrorism.<\/p>
Those of us who are committed to human rights and democracy abhor terrorism in all of its murderous forms.\u00a0 At this time of political crisis in the world, I urge the Asian political parties to stand for the values and principles of freedom and the rule of law.<\/p>
The October elections in Pakistan were a mockery of justice.\u00a0 The leaders of Pakistan\u2019s major political parties were banned from contesting. Significantly Mullah Omar\u2019s teacher was allowed to contest and enter Parliament.<\/p>
The Pakistan Human Rights Commission confirmed allegations of rigging. The European Union called the elections flawed. The Commonwealth refused to re-admit Pakistan amidst its members.<\/p>
The White House called this period a transition to civilian rule. The transition must give away soon to full democracy. It must give way to a full transfer of power from the military to the political parties to prevent a resurgence of militancy extremism terrorism and suicide bombings.<\/p>
Muslim youth in Asia must be motivated to live, rather than kill and be killed.<\/p>
The rigged elections in Pakistan made the religions parties contenders for power for the first time in Pakistan\u2019s history. Since the elections were rigged, I ask myself: why did the Generals permit the religious parties to sweep the Pakistani areas bordering Afghanistan?<\/p>
Perhaps the Generals wanted to tell the world that the choice in Pakistan is a choice between military dictatorship and religious constraint.<\/p>
But there is a third choice: the choice that the people want, the choice that a transparent election can give them: the choice of democracy and development.<\/p>
Dictatorship doesn\u2019t constrain extremism, it provokes it.\u00a0 Building a moderate, stable and democratic Afghanistan would have marginalized the Taliban and the Osamas of this world before they embroiled parts of Asia in a new struggle shaped by the use of terror.<\/p>
Building a moderate, stable and democratic Pakistan can save South Asia from conflict, bloodshed, extremism, misery and despair.<\/p>
The military regime\u2019s October electoral farce must not be allowed to stand.<\/p>
A democratic Pakistan is the world\u2019s best guarantee of the triumph of moderation and modernity amongst the Muslims of Asia who stand at the crossroads of our history.<\/p>
Events over the last several months in Delhi, Islamabad and Sprinagar underscore the danger.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
Kashmir is long considered by the CIA as the most likely place for a nuclear confrontation.<\/p>
Since the overthrow of my government, India and Pakistan thrice came close to war.<\/p>
A military regime was the cinder block to the expansion\u00a0 of extremism in Afghanistan and to a possible nuclear conflict in South Asia.<\/p>
As I noted before, democracies don\u2019t go to war against other democracies and democracies don\u2019t allow terrorists to operate on their soil.\u00a0 The best and only control for the excesses of extremism, is accountability to the people.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
In the dawn of this young century, we Asians fight against terrorism. We fight against dictatorship and intolerance that will confine and constrain and victimize in the generations ahead.<\/p>
These are difficult times.\u00a0 Freedom is under assault.\u00a0 Democracy is under assault.\u00a0 Poverty, hunger and unemployment increases as terrorism hurts markets. Asian people suffer.<\/p>
The solutions will not be quick or simple.\u00a0 But Asia shall overcome the obstacles to triumph.<\/p>
As an Asian leader in the twenty first century the greatest challenge I see is to overcome terrorism. Asians need peace, freedom and free markets to fight poverty, hunger, unemployment and conflict.<\/p>
A brighter future is anchored in peace, in freedom, in equal opportunity and in breaking the chains of fascism and dictatorship.<\/p>
These were the values our forefathers fought for in confronting colonialism.<\/p>
There are the values that can sustain and strengthen us in this new century.<\/p>
At this historic Asia conference, I urge all Asian political parties to stand by the values of peace, of freedom and of equal opportunity.<\/p>
Thank you ladies and gentlemen.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Three Victims of Terrorism October 4, 2002 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThree Victims of Terrorism<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
October 4, 2002<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
I return to America one year after the terrorist assaults.\u00a0 The catastrophe that struck America on September 11^{th<\/sup>, 2001 continues to reverberate across the globe.\u00a0 Its impact ripples emotionally, morally, politically and economically.<\/h2>I see three primary victims of the Al-Qaeda murders of that day.\u00a0 Of course and above all, the victims are the 3025 innocent people and their families in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, and others like Danny Pearl who have been struck down directly by hate. Added to them are the hapless citizens of Afghanistan caught in a war forced on them by the forces of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Second, I see as a victim the image of Islam around the world, which was distorted by extremists who do not speak for one billion Muslims around the world.<\/p>
And finally, I see as a victim\u2026democracy, which is being sacrificed for expediency in my homeland of Pakistan, and in other areas of this planet.<\/p>
The world is a very different place from what we had dreamed in those wonderful moments when the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended.<\/p>
The era of peace for which we prayed, became a time of war.<\/p>
Civility was replaced with brutality.<\/p>
Tolerance was replaced by terrorism.<\/p>
Democracy in Pakistan is threatened with dictatorship.<\/p>
This is a difficult, extraordinary and very dangerous time.<\/p>
The war against international terrorism, triggered by the catastrophe of September 11^{th<\/sup>, 2000 is in a new, ambiguous and difficult phase.\u00a0 The senseless execution of Wall Street Journal Bureau Chief Daniel Pearl underscored the treacherous lack of ground rules of these terrorist warriors.<\/p>}
The reality of suicide bombings has struck my homeland\u00a0 \u2014 Christian churches, Muslim Mosques, urban hotels, foreign consulates and western journalists are all targets, and scores have been brutally murdered.<\/p>
Simultaneously, the nuclear-armed nations of Pakistan and India stand perilously close to war, once again over the disputed province of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/p>
And in Pakistan, a military dictatorship once again rules with an iron fist, crushing dialogue, debate and democracy.<\/p>
This is not the way we had hoped and expected the new millennium to begin, but life has its own plan.\u00a0 It is our task to address the new realities, and find opportunity in the phase of tragedy.<\/p>
At the outset, I wish once again to express my condolences to the people of this Nation on the savage attacks against you.\u00a0 As it has been made very clear over the last year, the vast majority of the people of Pakistan join with me in expressing our grief and sorrow to you.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, it is difficult to shake the haunting image of the Twin Towers and three thousand innocent victims, collapsing under the weight of hate.\u00a0 It is an image that shapes everything that has come after it\u00a0 \u2014 politically, emotionally and morally.<\/p>
My commitment to freedom was nourished here in this land of hope and opportunity. Your nation \u2014 and its dream\u00a0 \u2014 is a beacon for all men and women denied human dignity across the world.<\/p>
At this time of continuing crisis, the American people and American leaders must understand those who would use violence and terror in the name of Islam.<\/p>
They are men of the bomb, not men of the Book.<\/p>
According to Islamic teaching, \u201cWhenever the Apostle of God sent forth a detachment, he said to it: \u2018Do not cheat or commit treachery, nor should you mutilate or kill children, women or old men.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 And there is a specific prohibition in Islamic law that bans \u201ckilling by stealth and targeting a defenseless victim in a way intended to cause terror in society.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, it thus further grieves me that included in the list of innocent victims of the perfidy of September 11^{th<\/sup>\u00a0is the image of Islam across the world.<\/p>}
Our religion is not only committed to tolerance and equality, but it is committed by Koranic definition, to the principles of democracy. It is ironic that despite the strong commitment to democracy, most Muslims are living in dictatorships. The Muslim people want freedom, they need support in their search for empowerment. Much as the people of the Communist world were, so too the Muslim people are hostages in Authoritarian regimes that flourished during the days of the Cold War.<\/p>
In the west, you often talk about the so-called \u201cMuslim Street.\u201d\u00a0 But there is a Muslim street that western governments don\u2019t seem to see.<\/p>
It is a silent street of women who are discriminated against in every aspect of life.<\/p>
It is a silent street of students who are not educated.<\/p>
It is a silent street of businessmen and women who are not allowed to compete.<\/p>
It is a silent street of human rights activists who are jailed.<\/p>
It is a silent street of political parties who are decimated.<\/p>
It is a silent street of political leaders who are now political prisoners or exiles.<\/p>
It is the street of the people, constrained by the authoritarian powers of the state.<\/p>
It is the street of the future in the chains of the powers of ignorance, intolerance and dictatorship.<\/p>
And it is a street far more likely to explode than the street of the marginal religious extremists.<\/p>
In Islam, dictatorship is never condoned. Nor is cruelty ever condoned.<\/p>
According to Islam, those who commit cruel acts are condemned to destruction.<\/p>
Irrespective of the ignorance often demonstrated to our faith by some, and the political manipulation and distortion often shamefully practiced by fanatics, there are several key concepts that play a substantive role in the development of democracy in Islam. These include three principle of consultation known as\u00a0shura<\/em>, consensus known as\u00a0ijma<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0independent judgment known as\u00a0ijtihaad.<\/em><\/p>
In this the twenty first century, the Muslim people search for freedoms that exist in other parts of the world. They search for a society that is representative and accountable and which they determine for themselves. Too few are the Muslim Nations where people are truly free.<\/p>
While Christians and Jews have the Bible to guide them, the Muslims have the Holy Koran to seek guidance from. The Koran teaches that the principal operations of the democratic process\u00a0 \u2014 consultation between the elected officials and the people through ijma is are fundamental to Islam.<\/p>
Islam teaches that Islamic society is contingent on\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 \u201cmutual advise through mutual discussions on an equal footing.\u201d<\/p>
The terrorists who attack America are not fighting for Islam, they are fighting for themselves.\u00a0 Their goal is to establish linked and intertwined theocracies of ignorance that they can control and manipulate for their own political ends.<\/p>
Terrorism and fanaticism will fail unless we fall into the psychopaths\u2019 trap.\u00a0 Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard wrote of an inevitable clash of civilization between the West and the Islamic world.\u00a0 Ladies and gentlemen, this clash is far from inevitable, unless we make it so.<\/p>
There are many similarities between Islam and the Judeo-Christian traditions. These three great religions were born in the cradle of the Middle East. The word \u201cMuslim\u201d actually means those who follow the Prophets Moses, Jesus and Mohammad.<\/p>
This is why the British, during their rule of Muslim countries, referred to the Muslims as Mohammadans.<\/p>
According to Islamic belief, all humanity is descended from Adam and Eve. Islam agrees that paradise ended when Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit.<\/p>
In the Holy Book, Abraham is our father. He built the holiest place of the Muslims known as the Kaaba, the House of God, in Saudi Arabia, with his son Ismail from whom the Muslims believe they are descended.<\/p>
After building the Kaaba, God asked Abraham what he wanted as a reward. Abraham replied that many Prophets should be born to my family.<\/p>
Muslims believe that Christians and Jews are descended from Isaac while they are descended from the brother of Isaac namely Ismail.\u00a0 But we are all the sons and daughters of Abraham.<\/p>
Muslims accept the Prophets of Judaism and Christianity as their own Prophets. They accept the Holy Books of the Jews and the Christians as their own Holy Books believing that the messages of God were sent through generations through different Prophets to show humanity the path of redemption and that Mohammad was the last Prophet sent by God.<\/p>
The Holy Koran has a chapter on Mary, the Mother of Jesus, whose Arabic name is Maryam.\u00a0 As in Christianity, the Koran speaks of the miraculous birth of Jesus and of his healing powers. It quotes the infant Jesus saying in his cradle, \u201cGod commanded me to pray and to give alms so long as I live, and to cherish my Mother\u201d. Muslims believe that paradise lies at the feet of the Mother.<\/p>
The Christian King of Abyssinia, Negus, gave refuge to the Muslims believing that only a slim line separated them from Christians. When the Prophet Mohammad fled Mecca, he was given refuge by the Jews of Medina.\u00a0 So too did Muslims give refuse to the Jews when they were persecuted in Europe. Muslims believe that Jews, Christians and Muslims are one people who are\u00a0Ahle e Kitaab<\/em>\u00a0that is who have religious books containing the message sent by God through his Prophets.<\/p>
Contrary to what the fanatics preach, Islam preaches the importance of knowledge. The very first word of the Koran is \u201cRead\u201d while the Prophet of Islam exhorted his followers to go far and wide in search of knowledge and education.<\/p>
Many of the teachings of Islam are similar to Judaism and Christianity. Islam says;<\/p>
Do not commit adultery;<\/p>
Do not cheat;<\/p>
Do not kill your children for fear of poverty;<\/p>
Do not lie;<\/p>
Do not spy;<\/p>
Do not speak ill of anyone;<\/p>
Do not drink alcohol;<\/p>
Do not gamble;<\/p>
Do not hate or envy each other.<\/p>
Like other great religions, Islam is a moral compass for its followers that gives faith and hope and offers a path for the redemption of the soul on the day of Judgment.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
September 11 will go down in history as a defining moment in our civilization. The attack on the World Trade Towers was a second Pearl Harbor that ended one period in time and heralded the beginning of another.<\/p>
On that fateful day, the world tumbled out of a time when Communism was the threat, the fear, the bloc that was to be contained. The world tumbled into a different period when Islam and the Muslim Nations seemingly replaced Communism as the new threat, the new fear and the new world that was to be contained.<\/p>
In the one year since the world shook with the shock of America the invincible attacked, much has changed. Civil liberties suffered a set back. Many Muslims in America live in terror of being hauled up on suspicion and taken away. Muslims face hate crimes.\u00a0 Individual choice is now constrained. Many Muslims shaved their beards and changed their attire to avoid hate crimes. Hate breeds hate. And the hate of Osama and his men created hate in many otherwise generous hearts towards Muslims.<\/p>
Now security rather than fundamental rights are the new messages of a new era. Many Americans seem willing to sacrifice\u00a0 constitutional civil rights and civil liberties\u00a0 to live in security.<\/p>
The World Trade Center attacks shook the west and it also shook the Muslim world. Almost every Muslim country joined the war against terror. They sympathized with America and the American people.<\/p>
Many Muslims wonder why, given their solidarity with America, and their condemnation of Osama and his men, they are viewed with suspicion. The reality is that racial profiling points the finger of suspicion at Muslims. Muslims have suffered for the actions of Osama and Al Qeda as a community.<\/p>
This is the time to distinguish between those who commit crimes in the name of religion and those who belong to a community that wishes to live in peace and harmony with other religions. It would be a tragedy if suspicion towards Muslims led to a backlash that created a clash of civilizations.<\/p>
Osama and his cohorts use commercial airliners as bombs against cities creating a new global chessboard.<\/p>
All Nineteen of the hijackers that hit the world trade center were Arabs. That Arab countries could have produced men who could launch such an attack makes them the center of scrutiny in the twenty-first century. Whether one likes it or not, for the coming decades the Muslims in general and the Arab Nations in particular, will be watched and contained as carefully as were the Communist countries in the days of the Cold War.<\/p>
This has triggered a growing siege mentality within the Muslim world and a change is clearly discernable since that fateful day one year back. Then the Muslim world rallied round the United States as it led the War Against Terror. Now many in the Muslim world are moving away from the new objectives set by the United States as part of the War Against Terror.<\/p>
One year ago the Iraqi regime of President Saddam was isolated. Today it has rejoined the Arab World in a Summit held earlier this year in Lebanon.\u00a0 At the summit, embraces have replaced distances.<\/p>
Although President Bush has repeatedly stated that his goal is to pre-empt danger to the world community through regime change in Iraq, most in the Muslim world remain unconvinced. Many see an attack on Iraq presaging a wider attack against an array of Muslim countries including Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and eventually Pakistan.<\/p>
Today the intellectual opinion in the Muslim and Non-Muslim world may be on a collision course. Many intellectuals in the United States see the Arab\/Muslim countries as failed Nations that gave birth to evil men who could plan the cold blooded murder of three thousand innocents in New York, Washington.<\/p>
And although most Muslim intellectuals condemn the attacks on the World Trade Center, they believe that unaddressed political problems provided the atmosphere for evil to be born and that a more peaceful world can thrive only when the unsolved political issues are resolved.<\/p>
America emerged stronger from the day of tragedy when airliners crashed into skyscrapers. \u00a0It united as a Nation and rallied round the flag remembering the dead and sharing the sorrow as well as the determination never to let it happen again. Many Americans asked: \u201cWhey did they do this?\u201d or \u201cWhy do they hate us so much\u201d.<\/p>
President Bush provided the leadership that could give comfort to the American people when they were attacked and fears of fresh attacks proliferated. The huge military response as well as the domestic measures saved the American people from further attacks. Washington is determined to keep up its guard and Muslim countries everywhere pray it succeeds. Muslims know that an attack by fanatics could easily increase their own vulnerability.<\/p>
Yet a military response is only part of the solution.<\/p>
Some American leaders recognize this. President Carter\u2019s National Security Advisor Mr. Brezinsky is quoted to have said, \u201clurking behind every terrorist act is a specific political antecedent\u201d.<\/p>
There is no\u00a0 grievance that could justify the senseless killing of innocent people. No religion permits such senseless killing. Those who planned the September 11 events were evil. The concern is that the evil of some men now threatens to taint otherwise good men and women within the Muslim world unless there is an agreement that terrorism knows no religion, no sect, no people, no culture and no civilization.<\/p>
The United States is a great country that invokes great admiration in much of the Muslim world. At this time of trial, the American people could remember that the Muslim people are with them in condemning the events of September 11. A safer world can come about through greater understanding, greater freedoms, greater attention to resolving conflicts through political means.<\/p>
The bombing of Afghanistan and the continuing violence in the Middle East\u00a0 and Kashmir impacts upon the people in the street. No one knows when the masses can become a mob. So far demonstrations in the Muslim world remained few and far between. Most Muslims recognized that America was wrongly targeted and\u00a0 it had a right to self defense, to pursuing the criminals that planned the bombings and trained and harbored the terrorists. The concern is that with a broader conflict within the Muslim world, mob fury could develop focusing on foreign targets.<\/p>
The attack on the American Embassy in Iran during the time of Ayotullah Khomeni when American hostages were taken is an example. The burning of the American Embassy in Islamabad under General Zia is another. Fanatics would love nothings better than to provoke a clash of civilizations\u00a0 venting itself on western targets.<\/p>
Today America is the world\u2019s sole superpower. Its military power is awesome. Frankly it has little need of any other country in planning an action or taking a measure to defend itself and the security of its people. The rest of the world must acquiesce, in practical terms, whether it agrees.<\/p>
The American President Woodrow Wilson promoted the concept of collective security and the principle of self-determination. The war against terror is a righteous cause. One year later, the need to prevent it turning into a clash of cultures, civilizations and religions is as righteous.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen: During my tenure in office, Pakistan became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world. Billions of dollars in investment flowed in creating trade, business, jobs and fuelling the housing sector as well as the financial markets.<\/p>
It was a remarkable transformation of a society.\u00a0 It was a transformation that our underprivileged wanted.<\/p>
It was a transformation that helped the poverty stricken people of my land giving them hope and opportunity. It was a transformation that helped women and children, government staff and labourers, traders and farmers, youth and intellectuals. It was a transformation that attacked ignorance and illiteracy and injustice.\u00a0 It was a transformation that was bringing Pakistan into the modern era as a model to all one billion Muslims around the world of what moderate, enlightened Islam could accomplish for its people.<\/p>
And thus to the fanatics and the extremists, we became the enemy, the threat, and the obstacle.\u00a0 To Islam at the crossroads, a modern Pakistan was one fork in the road, fanaticism and ignorance the other.<\/p>
My government was making progress in relations with India and with containing terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.\u00a0 But moderation and progress is not what the Army hard-liners and religious extremists could tolerate.\u00a0 I was their threat, and I was eliminated.\u00a0 I am afraid, ladies and gentlemen, that the consequences continue to ripple across Asia.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes tragedy can lead to resurrection of hope and spirit.\u00a0 Sometimes disaster requires us to examine routes, policies and unheeded warnings.<\/p>
In our governments\u2019 combined and admirable zeal to defeat the Soviets, we did not plan or work for a post-war Afghanistan built on democratic and Islamic principles of coalition, consensus and cooperation.<\/p>
The fundamental mistake, which contributed to a long-term historical calamity, was that we were not consistently committed to the values of freedom, democracy and self-determination that ultimately undermine and belie the basic tenets of terrorism.\u00a0 America must not repeat that mistake again.<\/p>
Just as democracies do not make war, democracies also do not sponsor international terrorism.\u00a0 The Party that I am proud to lead supports the decision of the government of Pakistan to join the US led alliance against the forces of terror. Each Muslim country joined the war against terror.<\/p>
America need not coddle dictators to promote its own interests.\u00a0 America\u2019s interest is democracy, not tyranny.\u00a0 In Pakistan those of us who are committed to human rights and democracy abhor terrorism in all of its murderous forms.\u00a0 At this time of political crisis in Pakistan, with a military dictatorship strangling our Constitution, the United States could be standing with the people of Pakistan in their search for empowerment.<\/p>
Let us remember that building a moderate, stable and democratic political structure in Afghanistan would have marginalized the Taliban and the Osamas of this world well before they had unleashed their war against the people of Afghanistan and the people of the United States.<\/p>
The goal of US policy must always be to simultaneously promote stability and to strengthen democratic values.<\/p>
The military dictatorship of Pakistan was unable to prevent Al Qaeda regrouping in Pakistan. Al Qaeda poses a threat to the Pakistani people and the larger world community. The military regime has a vested interest in the continuation of the Al Qaeda threat. It believes it can continue with its dictatorship so long as the world community is searching for Osama, for Mullah Omar and for other leaders of that organization.<\/p>
Osma Bin Laden\u2019s right hand man, Abu Zubayda, was arrested by the FBI from a house in Punjab. Al Jazeera television interviewed two most wanted Al Qaeda terrorists Khalid Shaikh and Bin Shibli in Karachi this August.<\/p>
Moreover, a farce is being expensively conducted in Pakistan in the name of elections. Forty percent of the real representatives of the people are prevented from contesting the elections. The stage is set for a dummy parliament again at the expense of the poverty stricken people of Pakistan.<\/p>
Huge funds, including $100 million dollars from a pension fund, disappeared with the regime covering up the tracks. The state offers deals and does deals with the corrupt with a view to frame the innocent. In one case of corruption filed by my government against the corrupt, the persons were given safe passage in exchange for committing perjury against the PPP leadership. Such offers were made to many others.<\/p>
Judicial orders are written by the regime and announced by the court. In my husband\u2019s case, a court was kept waiting until nine p.m. at night as the order was re-written against my husband.<\/p>
One Judge resigned publicly saying he was not prepared to lie which is what the regime asked him to do. Other judges lack this courage. One lawyer was wrongly sentenced for six months for criticizing a judgment in my election tribunal matter. In the rest of the world, justice is guarded by the watchdog of public opinions.<\/p>
In Islamabad there are no watch dogs. Only the hungry hounds that wail for the blood of the people of the country impoverishing them with their tyrannical rule.<\/p>
The military regime staged an unconstitutional referendum to rubber-stamp its dictatorship for five years that opened Pakistan to ridicule throughout the world.\u00a0 Five percent turnout, no voting lists, no fixed polling stations, pictures of eight year olds voting.<\/p>
It unilaterally and brazenly amended the constitution itself unlimited dictatorial power for the next five years. Powers that only Ayotullah Khomeni and Mullah Omar previously invested themselves with in Iran and Afghanistan.<\/p>
He ruled by dictat that only college graduates can sit in the National Assembly, thereby disenfranchising 99% of the people of our great country.\u00a0 By such edicts, Harry S. Truman could not have become President of the United States because he did not attend college.<\/p>
Retroactive decrees were issued to prohibit me from contesting the October parliamentary elections that observers and analysts universally predicted I would handily win.<\/p>
Why does this military dictatorship so fear this woman?<\/p>
I recall the words of Stalin when he mocked the power of ideas by asking, \u201chow many divisions does the Pope have?\u201d<\/p>
Years later it would be a Polish priest and human rights organizations and democrats all over this planet that brought down the Soviet Union not by the strength of their arms, but by the strength of their ideals.<\/p>
The Generals have a huge army.<\/p>
They have nuclear tipped missiles.<\/p>
They have thousands of tanks.<\/p>
But ladies and gentlemen, they know that I have something far more powerful than their legions.<\/p>
I have the people of Pakistan.\u00a0 The men and women of our rural villages.\u00a0The middle-class businessmen and businesswomen in our cities.\u00a0 The students and faculty in our universities.\u00a0 The workers of organized labor. The poor farmer in the field. The honest soldier on the front line guarding his country.<\/p>
The democratic forces of Pakistan which I lead are like Robert Kennedy described when he confronted the power of apartheid in South Africa in 1966\u00a0 \u2014 \u201ctiny ripples of hope\u201d coalescing together in a huge tidal wave that will bring down oppression and tyranny.<\/p>
The Generals exploit the war on terrorism to protect their dictatorship.\u00a0 Like their military predecessor, they use Pakistan\u2019s critical importance to the United States in Afghanistan as a smokescreen for dictatorship.<\/p>
Human Rights Watch this September called upon President Bush to\u00a0\u201cmake it clear that US support for Pakistan because of its role in the anti-terrorism effort does not give the military leadership a blank check to abuse human rights and undermine democratic processes\u201d. It also said that \u201cBy undermining democratic institutions and restricting channels for political activity, Musharraf only helps the extremists in Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>
How many more September llths, how many more Danny Pearls, before we all come to realize\u00a0\u00a0 that the greatest protection of freedom from terrorists, is replacing dictatorships with governments responsible to the people, governments based on the values of democracy and liberty.<\/p>
The stakes are high.\u00a0 The long-term implications are great.\u00a0 Democracies don\u2019t start wars, just as they don\u2019t promote and protect international terrorism.\u00a0 Dictators start wars and coddle terrorists, because they are not accountable, they do not need a popular mandate behind their policies.<\/p>
Democracies, which operate under pluralistic and public constraints, must provide for the public welfare, must provide social services, and must provide education, health and housing.\u00a0 Dictatorships need not.\u00a0 They are free to divert their resources to military schemes and international destabilization.<\/p>
Parliamentary elections in Pakistan are scheduled next month.\u00a0 The US and its allies must insure that these elections not only take place, but that they are free, fair and open to all parties and candidates.<\/p>
I should not be here today, I should be free to campaign in the villages and towns of my country. But I am stopped from doing so by special laws passed by decree without sanction of the constitution of my country. The military regime\u2019s October farce must not be allowed to stand.<\/p>
The Generals are putting hopes on a different course.\u00a0 They are betting that the White House is so distracted by the war on terror and the violence in the Middle East and South Asia that it will backburner the cause of democracy.\u00a0 Maybe they are right.\u00a0 But if Pakistan\u2019s nuclear-armed military dictatorship is allowed to exploit the war on international terror to legitimize its own domestic reign of terror and illegitimate power, the consequences of 911 will build like a tidal wave through the young century.<\/p>
Let us recall John Kennedy\u2019s warning in his Inaugural Address over forty years ago:\u00a0 \u201cHe who rides the back of the tiger, usually winds up inside.\u201d<\/p>
A democratic Pakistan is the world\u2019s best guarantee of the triumph of moderation and modernity among one billion Muslims at the crossroads of our history.<\/p>
The best and only control for the excesses of extremism, is accountability to the people.\u00a0 It is for this we pray in Afghanistan.\u00a0 It is for this we pray in Pakistan.\u00a0 It is for this we pray all over the world.<\/p>
In my father\u2019s last letter to me before he was murdered by one of Pakistan\u2019s many military tyrants, he quoted Tennyson:<\/p>
\u201cAh, what shall I be at fifty if I find the world so bitter at 25.\u201d<\/p>
Looking at the victims of the terrorist attack\u00a0 \u2014 those thousands murdered, the image of the Islamic people hurt, the forces of democracy set back a generation, it is tempting to be bitter.\u00a0 We must all resist this temptation.<\/p>
We must be strong but never bitter.<\/p>
Life is at times difficult.\u00a0 But history teaches us that ultimately we shall prevail, because victory belongs to the forces of truth and justice.<\/p>
Thank you ladies and gentlemen.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Saving South Asia From War and Terrorism Address of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto at the first meeting of the Advisory Group of the Eminent Persons Group London \u2013 16 August\u00a02002 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSaving South Asia From War and Terrorism<\/strong><\/span>
Address of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
at the first meeting of the Advisory Group of the Eminent Persons Group<\/strong><\/span>
London \u2013 16 August\u00a02002<\/span><\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
Ladies and Gentleman,<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>I am grateful to Count Albi for inviting me to speak before this distinguished audience of the Eminent Persons Advisory Group.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>I come to speak here at an extraordinary and dangerous time for South Asia and the larger world community.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>My country Pakistan is critical to the direction that South Asia takes in the twenty first century. It is an ally of international forces in the war against terror. It is also a country that has dangerous tensions with its nuclear neighbour and rival India. It\u2019s a country where a military dictator threatens to rig elections and create greater internal instability.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>A series of suicide bomber attacks since this year began indicate the fragility of Pakistan\u2019s internal situation. The brutal kidnapping and execution of Danny Pearl the Wall Street Journalist, underscores the treacherous lack of ground rules in the war against terror.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Danny Pearl\u2019s murder was followed with a series of devastating attacks on hospitals, churches and diplomatic missions. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the remnants of Al Qaeda managed attacks on international forces as well as pro Karzai supporters.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>It\u2019s difficult for terrorists to operate without a base, without logistics and without re-supply.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Clearly, someone somewhere is supporting them. According to the bazaar talk in Pakistan, the aim of the terrorists is to kill one hundred members of the international forces to drive them out of Afghanistan. Then, they claim, they will deal with those who supported the war against terror.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>International forces do come in and are needed for short term support in areas where security is threatened. In the long run, the war against terror needs sustained commitment. It needs allies that can meet the terrorist threat locally. Long term stability depends on a world community sustained by countries and systems with the strengths to police their own countries and to work together to police their regions.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Clearly Pakistan\u2019s military regime, while claiming to be a strong man regime, failed to deliver a single prize during the war against terror.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The fall of Kabul came because of the Northern Alliance even as Pakistan\u2019s military dictator pleaded with President Bush to stop their advance. Islamabad continued to recognise the Taliban despite the fall of Taliban for some time.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The much talked about security cordon established to stop fleeing Al Qaeda after the bombing of Tora Bora failed to capture Bin Laden, Mullah Omar or any of the key leadership which waged war against the international community.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>A key Al Qaeda leader, Abu Zubaydah, found himself a home in the Pakistani heartland of Punjab. His arrest came because the FBI intercepted telephonic communications from the remote areas of Afghanistan to that particular house.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The investigation of the Danny Pearl case succeeded because the FBI found the internet caf\u00e9 from where the video of the Danny Pearl capture was sent.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Islamabad has done little to contribute to ground realities except for two exceptions. Firstly, joining the war against terror and second allowing military bases. It could be argued that Islamabad joined the war because it had little choice after President Bush asked Nations to be counted as friend or foe.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>As for the military bases, they serve a dual purpose. While mollifying the world community, they act as a warning to neighbour India that taking on Islamabad means taking on the world community.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The country\u2019s military leader makes comments that border on the bizarre. For example, he claimed that Danny Pearl was kidnapped because he got involved in intelligence games. This almost amounted to blaming Danny for his own kidnapping.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>This month in the New Yorker, General Musharaf almost exonerated Bin Laden from the attack on the World Trade Center. He said he found it hard to believe that a man in the mountain could have planned such a sophisticated attack.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Clearly the man in the mountain had the support of powerful elements to plan that attack. Clearly the escape of the top leadership needed support.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Al Qaeda and other militant groups were formed during the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The West gave the money and the Pakistan military did the recruiting and the training.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>There are many linkages between individual officers and the men they trained. It was thus less than surprising to find that Islamabad\u2019s strong man and the terrorists have common friends. One such friend is the home secretary of Pakistan\u2019s largest province of Punjab.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Omar Shaikh, the self confessed conspirator in the Pearl kidnapping, turned himself over to his friend the home secretary who also happens to be a friend and appointee of Musharaf.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>And while Omar Shaikh was in the custody of Musharaf\u2019s friend, the General was claiming that India did the Pearl kidnapping.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Many of General Musharaf\u2019s friends have close intelligence ties. Musharaf himself was chosen by pro Mujahideen leader General Zia as his military secretary. Last October, as the war against terror unfolded, Musharaf sacked two hard-line Generals that brought him to power. However, the entire apparatus they put into place continued.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>For example, two Governors worked for the powerful ISI which oversaw the Afghan Jihad. Two diplomats worked for the same organisation. They are presently posted to the critical countries of Saudi Arabia and Morrocco. Other officials from the organisation that recruited and trained the pro Mujahideen forces today are members of the Federal and provincial cabinets and administrations.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>And so I would like to ask: will the real Musharaf stand up? For years the Musharaf regime coddled the Taliban. When the war against terror started, the Musharaf regime claimed it was born again. Yet it has done everything in its power to block and marginalise the moderate forces. That it failed has more to do with the wisdom of the Pakistani people and their political awareness.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>There are only two powers: the power of the ballot and the power of the bullet. When the power of the ballot is marginalised, the power of the bullet gains in strength. This is why I believe that dictatorship fuels militancy. When political parties are prevented from participating in politics, the Mosque becomes the only safe meeting place.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Yesterday General Musharaf personally met with the head of the religious party Jamaat e Islami. He sought their support to stop the Pakistan Peoples Party from winning the forthcoming General Elections.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The Pakistan Peoples Party is the only civilian and political structure in Pakistan with the popular support and the organisation to form a government outside the influence of the intelligence agencies and the military. The attempts to stop it and crush it are dangerous for the people of Pakistan as well as for the region and the wide world community in which we live.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>There always ought to be alternatives that are peaceful available to the people of a country as well as to the larger world we live in. When the alternatives wither away and power is concentrated in a clique, the balance that makes for civilised society and peaceful change is lost.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>I caution the world community from putting all its eggs in one basket and that too the basket of a military dictator.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The Pakistan Peoples Party is opposed by military hardliners. Its two elected and democratic governments were destabilised in the past because the military hard liners found that their hawkish policies were undermined by the presence of a political force with an independent base.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The military hardliners are today looking for a dummy parliament and a dummy prime minister so that their policies can continue unabated.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>I may add that I am proud of the Pakistan Peoples Party record in office in combating terrorism and in building peace in the region including with India.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Each major act of international terror was organised when my Party and I were in Opposition. During my first stint in Opposition, Islamabad was on the threat of being declared a terrorist state. When I took over, it became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world. When the PPP was decreed out of office, the economy collapsed and militancy forced President Clinton to curtail his time in Islamabad to a few hours in contrast to India which he visited for five days.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0During my second stint in Opposition, the forces of terror launched their attack on America on September 11nth.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The two attacks on the World Trade Center, the attacks on the two U S embassies in Africa, the attack on the Cole ship in Yemen, the Bombay blasts of the nineties; the Indian Parliament attack all took place when the Pakistan Peoples Party was in Opposition.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The Taliban did not take control of all Afghanistan until my government was eclipsed. Bin Laden\u2019s failed to show up in Afghanistan when I was Prime Minister of Pakistan. His finances were exhausted in 1996. It was only after the overthrow of the government I led that Al Qaeda were invited into Afghanistan by the Taliban and allowed to train militants for terror attacks across the world.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The military hardliners oppose the PPP under my leadership. They oppose my policies of building peace within and building peace without. They did everything to destroy my reputation and standing amongst the people of Pakistan and the larger world community. Once they recruited a twice convicted British slum lord to claim that my husband tied a bomb on his leg and held him for ransom. The outrageous stories were made to destroy my leadership and my Party. More dangerously they were made to destroy democracy in Pakistan and the empowerment of its people.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Mullah Omar could seize Afghanistan only after the people lost there were denied all chance of self expression. It\u2019s when people are denied the right to representation and to determine their own future that their destiny can be controlled through fanatics and bigots.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The military hardliners believe they beat the Soviet Union and they can beat the West. They are determined to stop democracy in Pakistan seeing in it a danger to their world view to export revolution through the central Asian republics. Their politics threaten to destabilise South Asia as well as create greater misunderstanding between the great religions of the world.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Since the tragedies of September 11^{th<\/sup>, the international community rightly focused on eradicating the Taliban regime, destroying Al Qaeda, building a stable government in Afghanistan and reducing tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>But nuclear tensions still remain between India and Pakistan. Pakistan\u2019s military dictator chose Independence Day on August 14 to make an important declaration. He stated that Islamabad could defend each inch of its territory as well as \u201ctake the war across the border\u201d.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>It is this belief that Pakistan can win a war with India and militarily dictate its terms that worries me. Perhaps military men are trained to think of wars. Perhaps that\u2019s why it\u2019s said that war is too serious a business to be left to Generals. Its politicians that calculate the different political, diplomatic, financial, legal and other aspects of a situation. Military men look at it through one dimension.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Since my government was overthrown in 1996, India and Pakistan nearly went to war three times. My concern is that unless my Party returns to power, the pattern could be repeated again.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>For 15 years, the unanimous consensus amongst the leading security experts of the world community has been that the place most likely to trigger a nuclear confrontation is South Asia. The issue is Kashmir.<\/span><\/h6>Nuclear deterrence \u2013 the centrepiece of military strategy for both of south Asia\u2019s nuclear powers \u2013 was designed to prevent conflict. Yet since India detonated nuclear devices in 1998, and Pakistan responded in kind, south Asia has thrice come to the brink of war. Intelligence estimates, backed by published reports, suggest that a nuclear exchange between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, even if limited to five or six primary targets on each side, would cause millions of immediate deaths, and millions more after long and dreadful suffering from ensuing cancer on both sides of the border for decades to come.<\/p>
With the military in Pakistan and Hindu nationalist hardliners in Delhi firmly in control, the options for dialogue and confidence-building appear remote.<\/p>
When two sides believe they can both gain from a military conflict, it makes the world a much more dangerous place. The danger to the region increases with a military dictatorship in Pakistan unaccountable to the people. History teaches us that democracies don\u2019t start wars.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Each war that took place between India and Pakistan took place when Islamabad was under a military dictatorship.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The concern is that with a military junta in Islamabad, and the world distracted by the US-led war against terrorism, the \u201cpublic check\u201d on political decision-making in the country has ceased to exist.<\/b><\/span><\/h6>The Pakistan Peoples Party believes the people of south Asia deserve a future that is better than the recent past. If India and Pakistan disagree on the territorial nature of Kashmir, we can still move ahead without prejudice to our long-held beliefs. The nuclear war threat can recede if the leadership on both sides of the divide has the courage to promote safe and open borders to socially unite the Kashmiri people.<\/p>
The Kashmiri people are central to the dispute and it is the responsibility of the leadership on both sides of the divide to put these people first. If China and India can have a border dispute and still trade, India and Pakistan can do the same. In the absence of an elected civilian leadership in Pakistan that is accountable to the people, however, the possibility of such a dialogue is remote.<\/p>
The worry is that the pattern of militant acts provoking a near-nuclear confrontation will continue at regular intervals until it erupts into a full-fledged nuclear war. In the post-nuclear-detonation region that south Asia has been since 1998, those who live there can ill afford a military conflict. In the post-September 11 world, the Kashmiri people can ill afford a world community where terrorism and armed conflict by an occupied people is still to be distinguished.<\/p>
Catastrophe could also be triggered by accident: with artillery shells whizzing over the line of control when tension rises, hundreds of thousands of troops poised to strike, and elements on both sides willing to throw a match on to the fire, the situation is precarious.<\/p>
Press reports indicate that nuclear weapons could be given to individual commanders with independent launch control. It is not clear whether these reports are accurate, but if so, the probability of an accidental launch jumps sharply. And with tension so high, an accident could never possibly be explained away and controlled. The genie would be out of the jar for the first time in 57 years.<\/p>
With the doomsday scenarios in front of us, what can be done to prevent the insanity?<\/p>
I believe democracies don\u2019t start wars; democracies don\u2019t provoke wars and democracies don\u2019t promote terrorism. Each of the three wars between India and Pakistan was fought under military dictators in Pakistan. The last three major incidents that brought the world to the precipice of nuclear war surfaced after my democratic government was overthrown and the military established ascendancy in the political arena. The best prospect for peace in south Asia is to support the democratisation process in Pakistan.<\/p>
Political power must be transferred legally, peacefully and subject to the will of the people. Commentators believe that my party and I would be re-elected if transparent elections were held in Pakistan in October. The military regime has decreed several new laws in an attempt to prevent that from happening. Those matters are now before Pakistan\u2019s judiciary.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The people of Pakistan and my Party want me to lead them again. They want me to contest the coming October elections. I want to contest those elections. I am trying to cross each hurdle that is put in my path. General Musharaf has vowed to stop my return through edicts. His attempts to do so are making a mockery of the electoral process and threatening the legitimacy of the new Parliament.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>In the higher national interest, my Party kept the doors of dialogue open with the military regime to facilitate the process of democratisation in Pakistan. That dialogue remains inconclusive due to the inability of the regime to address our core issues. These concern the respect for fundamental human rights and the restoration of the democratic process guaranteed by a mutually agreed third party.<\/span><\/h6>Security in South Asia \u2014 and as September 11^{th\u00a0<\/sup>showed, security for the world \u2014 is in grave jeopardy. Only a democratic Pakistan can eradicate the forces of extremism, militancy and terrorism.<\/p>}
\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The Pakistani people, when given the opportunity in brief interludes of democratic rule, consistently opposed policies that promoted extremism in Afghanistan and tension with neighbouring India.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>With militants regrouping in Pakistan the need to crack extremism in society is necessary. It is necessary to domestic peace and global stability.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0Political parties can play an important role in preparing Pakistani society for such a clampdown. The parties representing broader public (beyond the army) support are needed to mobilise the man in the street against the forces of extremism.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Democracy and elections are important for more than democracy\u2019s sake.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/h6>
As the Presidential referendum held last April demonstrated, public discontent in Pakistan is high. A representative parliament provides the right forum for involving the people in the national debate. The danger is that a rigged electoral process plays into the hands of the militants. They depend on the bullet, rather than the ballot.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Significantly, under Musharaf\u2019s writ, the militants manage to calibrate events on the troubled Afghan and Kashmir borders. When the bombing on Tora Bora gets heavy, or when the noose on Al Qaeda tightens in Pakistan\u2019s tribal areas, a militant strike complicates relations with India.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The Indian diversion plays to the advantage of the militants who manage to escape as international energies are consumed in averting a conflict between two nuclear armed nations.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The Musharraf regime held unrestrained power for nearly three years. Their inability to raise revenues domestically despite heavy new taxes reduced living standards. Pakistanis today are further impoverished with a lower per capita income than when their democratic government was in power in 1996. As friendly as General Musharraf may have been to the War on Terrorism, he has failed to offer hope to the legions of disenfranchised in Pakistan.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Specifically, the world community could:<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Ask Musharaf to withdraw controversial constitutional amendments taking power from the legislature and concentrating it in an individual. The checks and balances of a pluralistic society are a prerequisite for consensus and tolerance. Giving Pakistan\u2019s Presidency dictatorial powers including the unilateral dismissal of the Prime Minister, cabinet and parliament without elections is a prescription for extremism.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>1.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Establish an international election monitoring force ensuring that the October 10^{th<\/sup>\u00a0Pakistani elections are transparent and open to all parties and candidates. During the recent Referendum to elect the President, the military regime allowed eight year olds to vote while commandeering Busloads of coerced \u2018citizens\u2019 to different polling stations for voting numerous times in numerous places.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/h6>
2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Pressure Musharaf to free political prisoners and allow the return of political exiles, including myself, \u00a0who are victims of a discredited and politically motivated process. Its time for closure on the past to allow the Nation to focus on the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The world community could make it clear that it predicates future aid, international loans and debt relief to the holding of transparent and internationally verified elections that respect the fundamental and democratic rights of the Pakistani people.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>The world walked away from Afghanistan when the Soviets withdrew in 1989 without promoting the politics of consensus. That neglect contributed to the rise of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The world must avoid walking away from democracy in Pakistan. The nightmare of the Taliban and the terrorists who on September 11^{th<\/sup>\u00a0rained such unspeakable destruction on the world must never be allowed to happen again.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>For the security of South Asia and for the security of our global village, it\u2019s important that the people of Pakistan freely determine their own destiny on October 10th.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Pakistan\u2019s elections are important for the empowerment of the Pakistani people as well as their hopes of fighting terrorism, poverty and unemployment.<\/span><\/h6>\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>Pakistan\u2019s elections are also important for the world community with the disappearing Al Qaeda on one side of the border and one million men mobilised on the other border with India.<\/span><\/h6>
The ball is in the international community\u2019s court. The stakes are nothing less than making the world safe from nuclear war and terrorism.<\/span><\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Address to Council of the Socialist International Casablanca 31 May \u2013 1 June 2002 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAddress to<\/strong><\/span>
Council of the Socialist International<\/strong><\/span>
Casablanca 31 May \u2013 1 June 2002<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Mr Prime Minister, Mr President of the `Socialist International, Mr Secretary General, Dear Brothers, Sisters and Comrades<\/p>
We meet in Casablanca at an extraordinary and dangerous time. The war against international terrorism enters a new phase. Simultaneously the nuclear armed nations of India and Pakistan stand at the brink of war over the disputed area of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/p>
This is not the way we expected the new millennium to begin but life has its own plan. I address the new realities in this phase of tragedy.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentleman<\/p>
Terrorism will not succeed unless we fall into the psychopaths trap. Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University has written of a clash between civilisations.<\/p>
This clash is not inevitable unless we make it so.<\/p>
The precepts of Islam are part of the Judeo Christian heritage. In the Muslim Holy Book, Abraham is our Father just as Moses and Jesus are our Prophets,<\/p>
There will only be a clash of civilisation if we allow ignorance and fanaticism to take control, to shape the agenda, to shape the debate.<\/p>
Osama and his men use commercial airliners as bombs against cities and symbols to provoke the clash of cultures under which they will thrive.<\/p>
They want the people all over the world to actually believe that this is a war between Islam and the West.<\/p>
I am not unfamiliar with these people.<\/p>
As Prime Minister of Pakistan I stood up to many of them. I battled with many of the same extremists, including Osama Bin Laden himself.<\/p>
During the Afghan Soviet war, my country Pakistan became the breeding ground for their political and religious manipulation. Hiding under the cloak of religion, they preached a lesson that enslaves, not liberates, that teaches children to hate, that keeps people hopeless and desperate, bitter and paranoid.<\/p>
The Pakistan Peoples Party government had them on the run.<\/p>
We disarmed their schools. We stopped them from entering the Kashmir struggle. We stopped their friends the Taliban from seizing all Afghanistan. Osama Bin Laden never gave an interview from Afghanistan declaring war against the world during our tenure in office,<\/p>
Moreover, they were unable to plan a single act of international terror. Each act of international terror took place when my Party was in the Opposition. These included the two attacks on the World Trade Center, the CIA headquarters, the two US embassies in Africa, the Cole ship in Yemen, the Bombay Blasts, the Indian Parliament attack as well as the May 14 attack on women and children in Kashmir.<\/p>
Distinguished delegates,<\/p>
The extremists greatest fear is the spread of information, social equality and democracy that are the principle of the International.<\/p>
And it was in the clusters of information, social equality and democracy that my government gave attention,<\/p>
We introduced deregulation and decentralisation. We introduced privitisation, We opened up markets, We opened up minds and we opened up opportunity,<\/p>
Pakistan integrated into the global economy which the fanatics so fear, becoming one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world, attracting billions of dollars of investment.<\/p>
We brought down the population growth rate. We reduced infant mortality. We recruited an army of women, fifty thousand strong, to deliver health services to the rural poor. We fought domestic violence, established women\u2019s police stations to defend the women of Pakistan, appointed women judges to the superior courts.<\/p>
It was a transformation that was bringing Pakistan into the modern era as a model to one billion Muslims of what moderate, enlightened Islam could accomplish for its people.<\/p>
And thus to the fanatics and to the extremists, we became the enemy, the threat and the obstacle. To Islam at the crossroads, a modern Pakistan was one fork in the road, fanaticism and ignorance the other.<\/p>
Dear delegates,<\/p>
It was with the eclipse of the PPP government, that the Taliban seized Kabul, imposed their will over Afghanistan, invited Bin Laden in and allowed the recruitment and training in terror.<\/p>
And since the overthrow of my government, India and Pakistan have thrice come to the brink of a nuclear war.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
Kashmir has long been considered by the CIA as the place most likely on earth to trigger a nuclear conflagration.<\/p>
When Britain granted independence to the Sub Continent, two states were created on religious lines. The princely states were allowed to accede to either India or Pakistan. All but one affiliated with its religious homeland. In the Muslim state of Kashmir, the Hindu ruler acceded to India inciting the first of the three wars between the two countries.<\/p>
In 1947 a UN ceasefire left Kashmir divided between India and Pakistan. The UN resolution on the dispute was blocked triggering the largest military occupation since the end of world war 11.<\/p>
Now the smell of war is in the air again. Like helpless actors, the two countries of India and Pakistan are moving inexorably in the direction of a deadly conflict.<\/p>
Pakistan is now a key ally of the international community. The last situation the international community would like to see develop is the war against terror deflected by the war between India and Pakistan.<\/p>
But if the militants wanted to deflect attention from the heat of allied forces against Al Qaeda in the tribal areas bordering Pakistan, they succeeded. The fight that began last September triggered by militants flying planes into the Twin Towers, has every possibility of turning into a fight for Srinagar triggered by militants determined to provoke an Indo Pak clash.<\/p>
A critical error by the international community was the conclusion that a military dictator could defuse tension between India and Pakistan or prevent the tidal wave of extremism now engulfing the region.<\/p>
The Pakistan Peoples Party welcomes the effort by Britain, the United States and Russia to defuse the crisis through dialogue.<\/p>
Perhaps the mission will succeed. A similar attempt last December did defuse war in 2001.<\/p>
Defusing war through dialogue is necessary. More necessary is breaking the recurrent cycle of tension and talk that marks the rise of the Generals in Islamabad.<\/p>
There are concerns that the cycle of three near nuclear confrontations in three years under General Musharaf could continue unless there is regime change in Islamabad.<\/p>
Regime change in Islamabad offers the possibility of a fresh start at political negotiation between India and Pakistan. A Musharaf departure can allow a new government to begin confidence-building measures with a clean slate.<\/p>
It happened once before. In 1971, military rules General Yayha resigned paving the way for a new elected and representative government. That government signed the Simla Agreement that held peace in place until the nuclear detonations of 1998.<\/p>
Since 1998 the two countries have thrice come to conflict. Clearly a new treaty is needed to prevent the recurrent tensions and the threat of nuclear annihilation.<\/p>
Last November, I travelled to New Delhi to meet with the Indian leadership. I discussed with the models of conflict management that could give the one billion people of South Asia a safer region.<\/p>
My Party is committed to dialogue and to a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in keeping with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.<\/p>
Earlier my Party successfully concluded the first and only nuclear confidence building treaty between New Delhi and Islamabad. This was the treaty not to attack each other\u2019s nuclear facilities.<\/p>
We signed an agreement to establish a hot line between army headquarters patterned on the hotline between Moscow and Washington during the Cold War.<\/p>
More nuclear confidence building measures are now needed between Islamabad and New Delhi to reduce the chances of nuclear catastrophe.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
Let us remember that building moderate, stable and democratic political structures can marginalize the Osamas, the Talibans and extremists of this world before they unleash their war against the people of the world community.<\/p>
The goal of the Socialist International must always be to simultaneously promote stability and strengthen democratic values.<\/p>
These democratic values are critical to the future direction of my country.<\/p>
The democratic future of Pakistan is dear to me. It is also critical to regional peace and global security.<\/p>
For whether out of coincidence or otherwise, a nexus is emerging between events relating to Al Qaeda and the rise of tension with India.<\/p>
Last December, as the bombing of the Tora Bora mountains was driving Al Qaeda militants to despair, the Indian Parliament attack took place diverting international attention to Kashmir.<\/p>
And this May, as the international troops moved in the mountainous region bordering Pakistan, forcing al Qaeda into a corner, a suicide attack in Kashmir once again diverted international attention to an Indo Pak war.<\/p>
Let us remember that when Pakistan\u2019s military dictator joined the war against terror last September, he said and I quote that he was joining \u201cthe lesser evil meaning the West to fight the larger evil meaning India\u201d.<\/p>
The West has gambled for decades that dictators can impose stability. But the dictators have come back to haunt the world.<\/p>
The Shah of Iran created a backlash that resulted in the Iranian Revolution.<\/p>
Pakistan\u2019s General Zia nurtured the fanatics in the Afghan Mujahideen who became a Frankenstein\u2019s monster.<\/p>
How many more September 11nths, how many more near nuclear conflicts before we all come to realise that the greatest protection of freedom from terrorism is replacing dictatorships with democracies. With governments responsible to the people.<\/p>
The stakes are high. The long term implications great. Democracies don\u2019t start wars and they don\u2019t promote international terrorism.<\/p>
Elections in Pakistan are scheduled for October of this year. The Socialist International could ensure that they take place, that they are fair free and impartial and open to all parties and candidates.<\/p>
History has taught us the very hard lesson that when the world turns against democracy, it turns against itself. That is why it is critical that in the war against terrorism and in promoting peace in South Asia we keep sight of democratic values.<\/p>
Thank you Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Social Development and Women\u2019s Empowerment Ms Benazir Bhutto Address to\u00a0\u2018Council of Indian Industry\u2019 New Delhi\u00a0\u2013 November 26, 2001 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSocial Development and Women\u2019s Empowerment<\/strong><\/span>
Ms Benazir Bhutto Address to\u00a0\u2018Council of Indian Industry\u2019<\/strong><\/span>
New Delhi\u00a0\u2013 November 26, 2001<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
By your focus on the essential rights of woman in society, you support the voice of the powerless, the exploited, and the abused. For women, despite the strides taken in the last century, are still the most powerless and exploited group in the world community.\u00a0\u00a0For me, the cause of women, is God\u2019s most noble cause, the cause of justice, equality, and life. So I thank the Indian Chamber of Industry for inviting me to New Delhi.<\/p>
We meet today in challenging times. I feel myself privileged to speak to the captains of trade and industry of one of the biggest growing markets of the world community. Those major markets promise to make your country a major decision maker in the world.\u00a0\u00a0India\u2019s emergence in the post Cold War period shows the importance of the force of free markets in the political landscape of the global community.<\/p>
That force of market politics, when applied to my country in 1993, made it one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentleman,<\/p>
This is my second visit to New Delhi. I came here first to take part in the funeral ceremonies for Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. I came to pay respects to a leader with whom I had worked to build a safer South Asia.<\/p>
Prime Minister Gandhi and I signed the most important bilateral agreements in 1988 since the signing of the Simla Agreements by our parents in 1972.<\/p>
We signed the first nuclear confidence building treaty, the non attack on each others nuclear facilities agreement.<\/p>
We established, for the first time, hot lines between the General Headquarters of both our countries.<\/p>
We opened our borders for better trade.<\/p>
At SAARC, we determined to work for a common SAARC travel card and a common SAARC pre posted mailing card.<\/p>
We understood that Europe triumphed over hate and war and that we could do so too.<\/p>
We reached draft agreements on redeployment of troops to Kargil without prejudice to our view points on the icy area.<\/p>
We reached a draft agreement for the mutual reduction and redeployment of troops between our two countries.<\/p>
But both our governments went and with it the brief spring when two young leaders stood at the brink of historical change.<\/p>
The hope born then was rekindled under the leadership of Prime Minister Vajpayee. He visited Lahore 1n 1999 and invited the country\u2019s military ruler to Agra in 2001.<\/p>
His Home Minister Advani agreed to talk unconditionally with the All Parties Hurriyet Conference.<\/p>
The Indian Government announced a unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir and met with the militant groups.<\/p>
These were important steps taken.<\/p>
They required vision and strength.<\/p>
The vision to build a South Asia free of tension, where the people of South Asia have the strength and the courage to reject tension and embrace peace to build a better world for the coming generations.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentleman,<\/p>
I was planning to visit India for some time. I planned to come here in 1999 but the fighting in Kargil broke out.<\/p>
I planned visiting India this October, but fighting in Kabul broke out.<\/p>
It was with some trepidation that I accepted the invitation by the Confederation of Indian Trade and Industry.<\/p>
This time the stars were right, I am here with you and it is a special privilege for me to speak before you today.<\/p>
Too few political leaders from India and Pakistan, particular from the political field, visit each other.<\/p>
I am here to break that precedent and set a new precedent.<\/p>
I hope that can be the start of new precedents that our two Nations are able to achieve as we enter the twenty first century.<\/p>
The Pakistan Peoples Party, which I lead, trusts in relationships of a political nature. We invited the Opposition leaders of the SAARC to Karachi in 1992 to build closer political links between the elected representatives of our region.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentleman,<\/p>
It is impossible to separate women\u2019s rights from human rights, just as it is impossible to separate economic justice from political liberty. In the modern era, these issues are the essential operationalizations of morality, of civility, of a just society.<\/p>
I come before you with a unique double focus. On one level, as the victim of human rights violations today and in the past, and on another level as someone who has had the extraordinary opportunity to address women\u2019s rights in my own country.<\/p>
I am no stranger to the issues of women\u2019s empowerment.\u00a0\u00a0I wear the scars, on my body and my soul, of the abuse of basic human rights, and thus I view oppression through the eyes of the victim.<\/p>
We do not live in a perfect world, and even amongst the rapidly expanding democratic community there often seems coldness, indifference, hypocrisy and lingering prejudice.<\/p>
Many thought heaven would appear on earth with the crumbling of the Berlin Wall.<\/p>
A decade later we find that Europe may be united, but the cause of justice of the discriminated people in many countries is far from complete.<\/p>
Let us be truthful, the world will be a fair place when each and every human being on our planet is treated equally.<\/p>
And there is no human right more fundamental, and more universal, than equal rights for woman in the new century.<\/p>
Democracy is the first step toward humanity\u2019s liberation.<\/p>
But it is not an end in itself.<\/p>
Liberty depends on social and economic justice, and above all on the universal, non-selective application of human rights to all citizens of the world.<\/p>
Economic development and political development are surely linked, but both are predicated on guaranteed human rights.<\/p>
As the first woman ever elected to head an Islamic nation, I feel a special responsibility about issues that relate to women.<\/p>
I am often asked about the place of women in the message of Islam. For me, the discrimination against women has little to do with Islam and more to do with custom and tradition.<\/p>
Here in South Asia, many of the women in the ethnically and religiously diverse countries suffer similar fates.<\/p>
Too many are denied the right to live fully.<\/p>
Too often, women are seen as extensions of the male rather than as individuals in their own right.<\/p>
One of the difficulties I encounter is the prejudice born of centuries that a woman is the property of the man.<\/p>
Here I am an independent woman, educated in modern universities, the daughter of an emancipated leader and I find myself the center of controversy in the minds of the traditionalists.<\/p>
For them, my husband is to blame for letting me work.<\/p>
Traditionally respected men did not allow their wives to work. By that definition, in their eyes, my husband must be something other than a respectable person.<\/p>
They punish him, to punish me, and in seeking to punish us, they seek to punish women, and men who see women as separate legal entities, everywhere.<\/p>
The battle with the traditionalists is a battle that has dogged my political career. During the general elections in 1988, the opposition claimed that those voters who cast their vote for me would have their marriage vows dissolved in the eyes of God.<\/p>
Such hysterical denunciation of a woman seeking the highest electoral office highlights some of the prejudices that women in South Asia face as they seek political and economic empowerment.<\/p>
South Asia is home to some of the deepest prejudices that exist against women. Honour Killings and gas stove murders of women are the extreme manifestations of the prejudices against women.<\/p>
Yet South Asia is home to the largest number of women elected in any place and at any time in the world community.<\/p>
Sri Lanka\u2019s Mrs. Bandernaike led the way with her election as Prime Minister. This was followed by the election of India\u2019s Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Pakistan and Bangladesh came next.<\/p>
Bangladesh went one step forward in having a leader of the house and leader of the Opposition from the same gender.<\/p>
The rise of women leaders in South Asia often reinforces the traditionalist view that women are extensions of their menfolk. We are often told that we got where we did because of who we were related to, rather than inherent qualities.<\/p>
The leading men in our father\u2019s lives called Mrs. Gandhi \u201cGuryha\u201d (doll) and I was called \u201cthat girl\u201d.<\/p>
Certainly, who we were was important to why we entered the\u00a0\u00a0political minefield. Our political backgrounds enabled us to network better whilst our family names gave us the charisma that comes with the legend that the men in our lives were.<\/p>
Yet it would be half the story to write of us as extensions of the male members of the family. There were other men in our families, some of whom did come forward to contest and compete.<\/p>
Its important to recognise that each woman leader in South Asia had something within her which enabled her to succeed.<\/p>
Family name is important and character is important too.<\/p>
In South Asia, the rights of women have more to do with the social class they belong to.<\/p>
Women from privileged classes live life according to different standards than those of other classes.<\/p>
For me, the empowerment of women lies less in laws and more in economic independence.<\/p>
And it lies also in men. Our Fathers\u2019 who encourage us. Our male colleagues who stand by us. Our male followers who support us and the male citizens who vote for us.<\/p>
Dependent women, like dependent nations, are not free to take the decisions they may like to take. For them survival becomes the code with which to address their situation.<\/p>
I was reminded about this starkly when Pakistan\u2019s military regime justified joining the international coalition against terror on grounds of survival.<\/p>
The military regime said it feared that its nuclear assets and other strategic concerns could be endangered if it failed to join up.<\/p>
That is not the way I would have put it. Yet it illustrates two points. First that, women often make pragmatic choices because they are yet to become free.<\/p>
Second, that even men put survival before other issues which shows that the strength of the social background matters where freedom is concerned.<\/p>
We are all born free, as Rouseau said, yet too many of us are in chains. These chains come from the state or they come from the mind.<\/p>
These chains can be broken if we will it. Its important for South Asia to break the chains that hold its women back.<\/p>
Women bear children, feed and look after infants. Women, by nature, learn to nurture.<\/p>
This is a time when women\u2019s leadership, at all levels of society, is all the more important.<\/p>
Its when we learn to nurture that we can free our societies from warlike thoughts, aggression and other characteristics that forced us onto dangerous paths.<\/p>
For women to succeed, job opportunities and avenues are needed.<\/p>
Respect for the fundamental rights for women will flow when women have the economic means to stand up for themselves.<\/p>
The government I led did its best for women. We recruited Lady Health Workers, an army of them, to reduce population growth rate and infant mortality rate.<\/p>
We hired new teachers for our primary schools and seventy per cent of them were women.<\/p>
We set up a women\u2019s bank run only by women for women although men were allowed to put their money in the accounts.<\/p>
We ran advertisements asking women to report husbands who beat them to the police stations.<\/p>
We appointed women judges to the superior judiciary for the first time in our history.<\/p>
We established women\u2019s police stations which women could visit with confidence.<\/p>
We lifted the ban on women taking part in sports.<\/p>
We hosted a Women\u2019s Olympics and held the first meeting of the Parliamentarian for Muslim women.<\/p>
And because I was a woman, every woman felt protected.<\/p>
Not a single case of honour killings was reported during my tenure after we arrested a man who burnt his wife with electric wires in 1994.<\/p>
My Government signed the Convention Against Discrimination Against Women as I led the delegation to the Beijing Conference of Women in 1995.<\/p>
It was a remarkable time in the lives of Pakistani women.<\/p>
In tens of thousands they joined the work force.<\/p>
I remember a meeting with the women in the rural background of a place called Toba Tek Singh in central Punjab.<\/p>
\u201cWhat\u2019s the news?\u201d I asked the women as we met to chat about the changes taking place.<\/p>
\u201cThe rate of divorce has gone up\u201d, I was told.<\/p>
For a person of my generation, this was a shock. Divorce was frowned upon when I was growing up.<\/p>
\u201cThat\u2019s terrible\u201d, I said. In return, they were shocked. They wanted to know why it was terrible.<\/p>
I spoke of broken families and the suffering that divorce would cause, to which they replied.<\/p>
\u201cWe have too much self respect to now accept what we were prepared to accept in the past\u201d.<\/p>
Having jobs had liberated them. The opportunity to earn enabled them to make free choices.<\/p>
For me, independent means is the most powerful weapon in the empowerment of women.<\/p>
Today in Pakistan, the veil of repression has descended across our people. The cause of human rights is being set back decades. But the cause of women\u2019s rights, I am sad to say, is being set back a century.<\/p>
The attempt to turn back the clock on women\u2019s rights, on liberal society, on pluralistic democracy focused on me, on destroying me politically at home and destroying my reputation abroad.<\/p>
Only recently did the world\u00a0\u00a0learn, first from the Sunday Times of London and then Zee Television that the charges brought against me were concocted and contrived and the judges that tried me and my husband were ordered to do so, were\u00a0\u00a0threatened to do so.<\/p>
The tape recordings of these orders from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office to the courts may have shocked the world, but they certainly did not shock me and the forces of democracy in Pakistan.<\/p>
We have become accustomed to all and every attempt to use the politics of personal destruction to turn back the course of democracy, human rights and women\u2019s rights in our homeland.<\/p>
It didn\u2019t work then. It will not work now.<\/p>
It saddens me to see the price the women of Pakistan paid for the dismissal of the democratic government I led. It is particularly heartbreaking to see the dismantlement of the array of special programs that I instituted in my two terms as Prime Minister to raise the quality of life of women in Pakistan.<\/p>
My departure led to the collapse of national revenues, investment and growth.<\/p>
And the money for people welfare programs was simply not there.<\/p>
Of those programs, the programs for women, the weakest of the social classes, were hit first.<\/p>
The women of South Asia cannot be expected to struggle alone against the forces of discrimination, exploitation and manipulation. I recall the words of Dante who reminded us that<\/p>
\u201cThe hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.\u201d<\/p>
Today in this world, in the fight for the liberation of women, there can be no neutrality.<\/p>
Our outrage at violence and discrimination directed at women cannot be selective.<\/p>
Hate, bigotry and violence have no international borders. Every shamed, abused girl, wherever she lives, is a mute witness for all women, everywhere in the world.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
I speak at a time when new forces shape the new century, the new millennium.<\/p>
We shape a world committed to universal social, economic and political values \u2013 this triangular definition of comprehensive human rights for the future.<\/p>
We must shape a world free from exploitation and maltreatment of women.<\/p>
A world in which women have opportunities to rise to the highest level in business, diplomacy, and other spheres of life.<\/p>
Where there are no battered women. Where honour and dignity are protected in peace, and in war.<\/p>
Where women have economic freedom and independence.<\/p>
Where women are equal partners in peace and development.<\/p>
Repressive forces always will stand ready to exploit the moment and push us back into the past.<\/p>
Let us remember the words of the German writer, Goethe [pronounced Ger-ta]:<\/p>
\u201cFreedom has be re-made and re-earned in every generation.\u201d<\/p>
The women of South Asia will not be free, until we determine to empower them.<\/p>
Empower them with words, with laws, with awareness, with economic opportunities and with role models.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, we are not free if girls cannot read.<\/p>
For a girl who cannot read has no future; and a girl with no future has no human rights.<\/p>
In this elegant city, we must remember that in the time it took for me to address you today, over one thousand children have starved to death on this planet.<\/p>
As long as these basic violations of human rights are allowed to continue, none of us \u2014 regardless of where we live, regardless of how\u00a0\u00a0civilized our life-styles, regardless of our own personal circumstances and comforts \u2014 none of us are free.<\/p>
A growing number of women enter the world force even as I speak with you today. They change the social complexion of the market force.<\/p>
Women change consumer patterns of the past.<\/p>
This is a world where gender and markets determine the power of a backward or forward nation.<\/p>
This is a world where economic interests drive nation states into new political alignments.<\/p>
I am told there are 51 multi-national corporations that comprise the world\u2019s 100 largest economies. The remaining 49 are countries.<\/p>
The sales of General Motors and Ford are greater than the GDP of sub-Sahara Africa. The American superstore \u2014Wal-Mart\u2014 has a higher turnover than the revenues of many Asian countries.<\/p>
Corporations are fast assuming the responsibilities that states failed to meet. Health, housing, education are some of the sectors where corporations are stepping in for their employees.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen<\/p>
We live in a new era. An era which witnessed the break up of many countries, including the all powerful superpower the Soviet Union.<\/p>
An era where the earth has shrunk into a global village.<\/p>
An era where the social consciences of the world is still to develop as ruthless market forces push their way across the capital centers of the world.<\/p>
Global Capitalism promises much in terms of changing lifestyles.<\/p>
Yet, unless its forces are matched by organised and articulate regional responses, the repurcussions could be dangerous for those of us still living with high rates of poverty.<\/p>
And our rates of poverty are high.<\/p>
South Asia has one quarter of the world\u2019s population.<\/p>
But it lives in 4% of the world\u2019s land area.<\/p>
One Quarter of humanity \u2013 and its income is less then 2% of the total income of the world.<\/p>
One quarter of humanity \u2013 and its per capita is only 10% of the world average.<\/p>
These figures do not make me proud.<\/p>
They cannot make you proud.<\/p>
This is a time for countries of South Asia to reduce tension, acknowledging there are disputes, to focus on meeting parallel challenges.<\/p>
My Party and I are committed to conflict management over the Indo Pak dispute of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/p>
We witnessed the fall of Yugoslavia into a multitude of ethnic and warring states.<\/p>
Nations that fail the test of economic viability can collapse into bloodshed and civil war.<\/p>
Globalisation changes cultures, geographies, social organizations and the way we live, think and conduct ourselves.<\/p>
Globalisation is freeing individuals from state control, making travel easier and business transnational.<\/p>
The over-regulated state suffocates businesses forcing decentralisation to achieve growth.<\/p>
Capital flees at the first tremor.<\/p>
As states de-regulate, they abandon their authority.<\/p>
The weakening state authority enables individuals to open up to new ideas and new values.<\/p>
The sweeping changes that are occurring can occur rampantly.<\/p>
Or they can be fashioned by states that have the wisdom to put their priorities right.<\/p>
The old trade association are giving way to new ones.<\/p>
The World Trade Organisation is emerging as the key structure.<\/p>
We, the countries of South Asia, are yet to hold meaningful discussions on how South Asia should approach the different issues raised at this important forum.<\/p>
The WTO will fashion the economic of the next half century. I hope it is a better half century than the one which we saw with GATT and UNCTAD.<\/p>
I was concerned to see the United Nations report that more than 30 percent of the real per capita incomes have fallen over the last 35 years.<\/p>
I am concerned that the disparity in per capita income between the poorest and the richest countries is over 300 hundred per cent today. Half a century ago, it was much less.<\/p>
The countries that prospered were the countries that lived in peace.<\/p>
Countries that suffered were countries caught in conflict.<\/p>
The gap between the rich and the poor grows as long as we fail to signal the social climate of a success story. A Harvard Professor (David Landes) wrote in THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS:<\/p>
\u201cPoverty is inextricably linked to armed conflict\u201d.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen:<\/p>
Globalisation is restructuring our planet\u2019s economic and political arrangements directly affecting humanity on a scale unwitnessed since the Industrial Revolution.<\/p>
Tremendous changes thunder past with little joint attention by the countries of South Asia.<\/p>
Our populations are the largest.<\/p>
The impact on us the greatest.<\/p>
Yet our voices most feeble.<\/p>
That could be otherwise were we, the great countries of South Asia, to realise our potential and wrest the control of our destinies into our hands for a better future.<\/p>
The debate, for our future, yours and mine, and those of our neighbours is raging right now.<\/p>
This new world, this new century, this new millennium is a strange one. On one side life beckons with the brightest prospects since the dawn of time.<\/p>
On the other hand, young men fall prey and inflict hell in the hope of going to heaven.<\/p>
Life is a precious gift, to be lived.<\/p>
For too long South Asians instead embraced death.<\/p>
When death becomes beautiful, one can understood how living life has become impossible.<\/p>
It is for the leaders, the captains of the ships of state as well as of trade, to chart a new course for a new destination.<\/p>
A destination that gives premium to life which is the most precious gift bestowed by God.<\/p>
So precious we are told that to kill is the worst of crimes.<\/p>
Our part of the world too has been teetering on the verge of doom and disaster too often.<\/p>
We have been at each other\u2019s throat.<\/p>
We have fought four wars.<\/p>
Troops on both sides continue to fire at each other and we have nuclear bombs too.<\/p>
A push on the button can end life before we realise what was done in desperation.<\/p>
We owe it to our children to build a world free of the threat of nuclear annihilation.<\/p>
**********************************<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen:<\/p>
My commitment to the rights of women was inspired by the categorical position taken by Pakistan\u2019s founder, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.<\/p>
In his address to the university students in 1944, he said, \u201cNo nation can rise to the heights of glory with half its population shackled. It is a crime against humanity that our women are confined within the four walls of their homes like prisoners; they should be side by side with men as their companions in all spheres of life.\u201d<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>
I will end with a quote from Alexander Pope who said:<\/p>
\u201cWhat war could ravish,\u00a0Commerce could bestow, And he returned a friend, Who was a foe\u201d<\/p>
Thank you.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Bhutto Compares Fight for Pakistani Democracy to Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa by\u00a0Benazir Bhutto Johannesburg \u2013 August 7, 2001 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBhutto Compares Fight for Pakistani Democracy to Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa<\/strong><\/span>
by\u00a0Benazir Bhutto<\/small>
Johannesburg \u2013 August 7, 2001<\/small><\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
Speaking before the top one hundred women business and political leaders of the Republic of South Africa, Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto compared Pakistan\u2019s fight for democracy to South Africa\u2019s Fight against Apartheid.<\/p>
Bhutto, who flew into Johannesburg yesterday received wide coverage in the South African print and electronic press.<\/p>
She received a warm welcome from the professional women at the Women\u2019s Conference to commemorate Women\u2019s Week in South Africa. The title of the Conference was Women and Leadership: Against the Odds. She was the key note speaker.<\/p>
Extracts of the Speech follow:<\/b><\/i><\/p>
It is a particular honor for me to be with you this morning at this gathering of women as part of your Nation\u2019s historic celebration of Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>
What makes this more special is that we meet in South Africa. All during the time I was growing up in Pakistan, and going to school in America and England, the words \u201cSouth Africa\u201d were a metaphor for injustice, and terror and inhumanity.<\/p>
And then, miraculously, the words \u201cSouth Africa\u201d were transformed into a metaphor for people all over the world who are oppressed. South Africa became a metaphor for hope, for the triumph of justice, and a demonstration that determination and courage can create miracles.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, if apartheid can crumble in South Africa, racism, sexism and bigotry can crumble in every corner of this planet.<\/p>
I stand here with you truly in the epicenter of world freedom. Yet the world still is complex; a world that defies simple explanations and simple solutions; a world that is still very much in transition from one set of political realities to another.<\/p>
The world is less the simple place than we had dreamed it would be in the late eighties, with communism disintegrating and democracy taking root all over Eastern Europe, Southeast and Southwest Asia, and Africa.<\/p>
In those days, the World talked about how to spend the anticipated on domestic needs and international responsibilities. And in Pakistan, we were finally coming to grips with restoring democracy and economic reform after a decade of bitter, brutal Martial law.<\/p>
But, the forces of dictatorship did not relinquish their iron grip of my country so easily. Today, I travel to South Africa to speak with you at a difficult time for me, and my country. And in light of your bitter history of political repression, I would hope that you would open your hearts to the suffering of my people.<\/p>
This is a time of crisis and tragedy in Pakistan.<\/p>
History has sadly come full circle on the subcontinent.<\/p>
A military regime once again rules my homeland with an iron fist. The last vestiges of democratic institutions are being assaulted and dismantled.<\/p>
No Parliament. No state assemblies. No independent judiciary. No human rights. No free press. No independent labor organizations. Heavily controlled and regulated NGOs.<\/p>
Women are being thrown back into another era, into another century of repression and exploitation.<\/p>
We witness a tragic rise in exploitation of religion for political purposes.<\/p>
A stalemate between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.<\/p>
An unsuccessful summit between the two nuclear-armed nations of South Asia only last month collapsing in shambles.<\/p>
It is not a pretty picture. It is a dangerous picture.<\/p>
This is Pakistan in the year 2001.<\/p>
The disintegration of democracy in Pakistan did not come overnight, and it did not come in one military coup. Since my government was overthrown four years back Pakistan has drifted rudderless in a sea of conflict and violence \u2014 an agenda of vengeance and a hijacking of democracy.<\/p>
The heirs to the dictator General Zia ul Haq who terrorized Pakistan with an iron fist for a decade, were resurrected with new names and new methods.<\/p>
My successor elected in a military backed fraudulent election imposed a one party dictatorship on Pakistan.<\/p>
I was the first victim. And then my party. And then the constituencies across the breadth of my country that supported the agenda of democratic and economic reform.<\/p>
And then the Prime Minister attempted to topple the one institution that brought him to power and that could defend itself.<\/p>
His attempt to topple the Army failed. But now we all pay the price.<\/p>
The military stepped in to restore order and democracy in our Nation. It succeeded in neither. And the last pretenses of democracy and democratic institutions have evaporated.<\/p>
To tighten their grip on political opposition, the President of our country was toppled. The power of the courts was usurped. Judges were sacked. Journalists were assaulted. Censorship was imposed. The rights of women were thrown back a generation.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
Just as in South Africa during the terror of apartheid, supporters of democracy and human rights were forced into exile once again.<\/p>
I know it has become the fashion both in the developed and developing world over the last decade, to destroy leaders\u2019 reputations by innuendo, allegation and rumour. This strategy now even has a name \u2014 the politics of personal destruction.<\/p>
This is true not just in Pakistan, but even in the most developed democracies.<\/p>
But the scale to which this was orchestrated in Pakistan against my party defied anything seen in the world. It was a relentless, devastating and overt assault on justice in an attempt to eliminate my leadership and to destroy me personally.<\/p>
Bureaucrats, businessmen and cabinet members were arrested and tortured to perjure themselves to fabricate false charges. I was truly blessed that they remained strong and would not be tortured and threatened into betraying me. But their failure to coerce witnesses didn\u2019t stop my successors from proceeding.<\/p>
I was pressured and humiliated in increasingly desperate attempts to force me to quit politics.<\/p>
My own husband was accused of even more ridiculous and scurrilous charges, including, the unspeakable slanders of murdering my own brother and trafficking in drugs. And his father was arrested to pressure him.<\/p>
My husband and father-in-law are still behind bars, hostages to my political career.<\/p>
The full extent of the plot against me was revealed through the extraordinary release of bugged conversations, proving beyond doubt that the charges against me were contrived.<\/p>
I used to think, naively, that an election alone could change things for the better. Now I realize that a country needs more than democratic elections, it needs the rule of law.<\/p>
An election can bring in a new Parliament and a new government.<\/p>
It cannot, however, bring in a new bureaucracy or intelligence system.<\/p>
It cannot, without an independent judiciary, lift the veil on the Machiavellian intrigues that take place that are both brutal and barbaric and undermine civil society.<\/p>
It cannot give acknowledgment, without fair hearing, to the victims of tyranny \u2014 those who lost their lives, then livelihoods, their families, their peace of mind, who were tortured, imprisoned or forced to flee to foreign lands for refusing to commit perjury and destroy the path of justice.<\/p>
Does it sound familiar, ladies and gentlemen? South Africa of the seventies. Pakistan today.<\/p>
The suffering is not of one person, not of one family, not of one political party, but of an entire nation.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, an edifice built without law collapses, just as a skyscraper built without a foundation will ultimately crumble.<\/p>
Pakistan is in turmoil and with it the stability in the region is threatened.<\/p>
Issues of poverty, gender equality and minority rights are calling for attention, as are the issues of unemployment and inflation.<\/p>
As the military junta rules, religious fundamentalists take up more political space at the cost of political forces. Pakistan could be threatened with an Islamic revolution. But this revolution would be nuclear armed. The \u201cTalibanization\u201d of Pakistan can literally threaten world peace.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, the story of Pakistan did not have to turn out this way, and I am convinced that ultimately things will be very different.<\/p>
The democratic government I led did its best to create a new, modern Pakistan. With the mandate and support of the people we marketed the country as a crossroads to the Gulf, Central and South Asia.<\/p>
We advanced our country as a model of Islamic moderation.<\/p>
We committed ourselves to education, with special programs targeted to female illiteracy.<\/p>
We committed ourselves to immunization and children\u2019s health. We committed ourselves to family planning and population control.<\/p>
We transformed the country into a center for financial and commercial investment, creating jobs and wealth. We created the physical infrastructure, the roads, the electricity, and the power plants, to sustain a modern, developed economy.<\/p>
After my overthrow and charges of corruption, the international community stepped back and foreign investment in Pakistan dried up. . Businessmen clearly prefer stable economies and stable markets, in countries governed by the rule of law, where contracts are honored and commitments fulfilled.<\/p>
The absence of law also intimidated domestic investment as well. Martial law and economic development are mutually exclusive, they cannot exist together.<\/p>
The dignity of our financial system is correlated with the destruction of legitimate political institutions, proving once again, just like the international divestiture movement against South Africa under apartheid, democracy and economic development must proceed simultaneously.<\/p>
It is such times that test the mettle of real leadership. Ironically, but repeatedly, history tells us that the best of leadership is constructed in the worst of times.<\/p>
I welcome the Commonwealth\u2019s and the international support for democracy in Pakistan.<\/p>
Under that pressure, the Generals recently permitted local elections. My party supporters emerged as the single largest winners even though they fought without me on the ground and without the party symbol on the ballot. We proved against all odds that democracy is irrepressible, that ultimately the people will prevail.<\/p>
The question before my nation is how many will suffer imprisonment, deprivation, discrimination, poverty and even death before justice and the forces of history restore the democratic order.<\/p>
And although I know not the answer to that question, I know it is my obligation to lead this battle once again, no matter what the personal price, to restore a democratic Pakistan.<\/p>
It is not necessarily the life I would have chosen for myself. But it seems to be the life that chose me. And in the words of President John Kennedy, \u201cI do not shrink from this responsibility, I welcome it.\u201d<\/p>
For leadership is born of a passion, and it is a commitment. A commitment to an idea, to a people, to a land. I travel, never knowing when I will be able to see my husband. He has been in prison for the fifth year running, a hostage of my political career.<\/p>
I travel and miss my children. They are all under thirteen. It is difficult explaining to little children why their mother can\u2019t be with them, why their father is a political prisoner.<\/p>
I am reconciled to the fact that the needs of my 140 million people come first, and will always come first.<\/p>
For those in the feminist movement who say that woman can have it all simultaneously, I urge they look at my life. Women can have it all but Women have to make difficult choices, often choices that men are not forced to make. And we must live with the consequences, for better or worse.<\/p>
It is not always easy. But we do it for all the woman who came before us who gave us this opportunity. And most of all, we do it for all woman who will come after us \u2014 the baby girls yet unborn!<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, to succeed as a political leader, one must be on call all the time, like an Emergency Room doctor, but unlike a doctor, without a moment\u2019s break. On call for good news and bad. On call to respond quickly, to think quickly to move quickly.<\/p>
I was brought up in a political family. In a way, I was groomed for politics. Yet, a political role was not one that I actively sought. It came to me through an accident of fate.<\/p>
I had just completed my education and returned to Pakistan in 1977 when the tanks rumbled up the road in Rawalpindi and troops took over the Prime Minister\u2019s House. My younger siblings had to go back to their studies.<\/p>
I stayed behind and was pulled into the political campaign by the arrest of senior party leaders. That put an end to my career goal to join the Foreign Service in Pakistan and become High Commissioner to England or Ambassador to the US, the two countries I had studied in and knew well.<\/p>
Fate took over my life and my destiny was no longer in my hands.<\/p>
Thus, some are born to leadership, whilst others have leadership thrust upon them. Many women leaders, particularly in South Asia, have been thrown into political waters. The assassin\u2019s bullet, the sound of boots or tragedy has thrust them into a role they might otherwise not have chosen. Yet they are more than extensions of the male members of their families.<\/p>
Each woman leader has had to win her badge of courage and recognition.<\/p>
As a child of my age, in the late sixties, I was influenced by the social ferment around me. The worldwide students movement, from Rawalpindi, to France, to Washington, were important factors in my youth. The fight against apartheid shaped the ferocity of my commitment to stand up for principle. Kate Millet and the burgeoning movement for women\u2019s race empowered me and emboldened me.<\/p>
As an Asian at Harvard, I bitterly resented the war in Vietnam and joined up with American students to protest a war that they thought was unjust and did not want to fight.<\/p>
It was also the time of the impeachment against President Nixon. A time of moral reawakening, as Martin Luther King spoke passionately about justice and injustice in America and in South Africa.<\/p>
These important steps helped shape my outlook on life, helped me focus on fighting injustice, promoting freedom and safeguarding the rights of the weak and dispossessed.<\/p>
But above all, in America during the Vietnam War I saw the awesome power of the people changing policies, changing leaders, and changing history.<\/p>
From Harvard I went to Oxford.<\/p>
While I was at Oxford, the Conservative party chose a woman, Margaret Thatcher, as the Leader of Opposition.<\/p>
At Oxford, I was the first female foreigner to be elected as President of the Oxford Union. It was there that I learned to debate, slowly gaining confidence before an audience.<\/p>
As the Prime Minister of Pakistan I appeared before an historic Joint Session of the United States Congress in 1989. In that address, the most meaningful line to me was my simple message to the woman of America, my message to the women of the world. Three simple, powerful words: YES YOU CAN!<\/p>
Don\u2019t accept the status quo. Don\u2019t accept no for an answer. Don\u2019t accept traditional roles and traditional constraints. And don\u2019t think that leadership and being female are contradictory.<\/p>
My victory was a victory for women everywhere. It broke the mind cast of the past.<\/p>
I was the first woman ever elected head of government in the Muslim world. Now four others, two in Bangladesh, one in Turkey and in Indonesia, have followed in my path. One more glass ceiling is shattered. But thousands are left to break.<\/p>
The day is not far off when women will join even the Armed Forces of Pakistan, an idea that I discussed with my service chiefs in my last tenure. They already began the journey of joining the judiciary in my last term. The appointment of women judges is something I am very proud of, as well as the creation of a Women\u2019s Development Bank to make small loans to women entrepreneurs.<\/p>
And as women enter the work force, it becomes more sensitive too, to the needs of women and the difficulties in their lives.<\/p>
Your record on human, political and economic rights for woman in South Africa should inspire women all around the world to keep on pressing, keep on fighting, keep on working for the rights of equality that cannot forever be denied.<\/p>
I have attempted, throughout my career, to combine the best of different experiences.<\/p>
To build for my people a modern world.<\/p>
By heralding in the information revolution, introducing fax machines, digital pagers, optic fiber, cellular telephones, satellite dishes, Internet, the e-mail and even CNN into Pakistan.<\/p>
Under my leadership of de-regulation Pakistan integrated into the global economy becoming one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world.<\/p>
The International Labor Organization\u2019s data showed that the largest job generation in Pakistani history took place in the PPP government.<\/p>
The World Bank called our energy program a model to the entire developing world.<\/p>
The President of the World Health Organization gave me a gold medal in recognition of our efforts to improve the health of our children by eliminating polio and reducing infant mortality.<\/p>
We increased literacy rates by one third and secured women\u2019s rights by signing the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in Beijing.<\/p>
We brought down the population growth rate whilst we took up the economic growth rate.<\/p>
It was a remarkable transformation of a society for our downtrodden and under privliged people.<\/p>
That is my legacy to the people of Pakistan.<\/p>
We believed in education, and we believed in markets.<\/p>
We believed in opportunity and we believed in foreign investment.<\/p>
We believed in giving our people hope in a better future.<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>
Despite the travails of the last four years, I am not bitter.<\/p>
In my father\u2019s last letter to me before he was murdered by one of Pakistan\u2019s many military tyrants, he quoted Tennyson: \u201cAh, what shall I be at fifty if I find the world so bitter at 25.\u201d<\/p>
He had then turned fifty and I twenty five.<\/p>
He asked me never to be bitter. I have honored my father\u2019s dying wish.<\/p>
I look at South Africa today and tears come to my eyes. My faith in humanity and my faith in God are strengthened by the miracle that has happened here. You \u2014 the people of South Africa \u2013 inspire and empower all of the oppressed, all over the world. My nation and I remain optimistic about the future, knowing in our hearts that time, justice and the forces of history are on our side.<\/p>
Thank you ladies and gentlemen.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Social Development and Women\u2019s Empowerment Ms Benazir Bhutto Address to\u00a0\u2018Council of Indian Industry\u2019 New Delhi\u00a0\u2013 November 26, 2001 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDefends PPP\u2019s Power Policy<\/strong><\/span>
Speech of Ms Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
Karachi \u2013 July 28, 1997<\/strong><\/span>

<\/b><\/p>
Leader of the Opposition and former prime minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has denounced the Ehtesab Cell\u2019s assertion Saturday claiming to have uncovered fraud worth billions of rupees in the PPP government\u2019s power policy involving the former prime minister and her husband Asif Ali Zardari and directed her counsel Babar Awan to initiate legal proceedings against the Ehtesab Cell and its chief Senator Saifur Rahman for defaming opposition leader through the charade of media trial.<\/p>
Benazir Bhutto signed the wakalatname Sunday morning and Counsel Babar Awan is preparing the legal notice to be served on the Ehtesab Cell. In a statement issued in Karachi the former prime minister said that allegations of the Ehtesab Cell with regard to the PPP government\u2019s power policy were no more than a drama, political stunt at aimed at victimisation of political opponents and defaming the opposition leader and her husband. She said she was being victimised by a coterie of bank loan defaulters, tax evader and drug pushers because her government had exposed them and decided to tighten the noose around them.<\/p>
She said the energy policy of the previous PPP government was approved by the cabinet after due deliberations and was described by the World Bank as a role model for the developing countries of the third world. Leading international investors and leaders in the field of energy including U.S energy Secretary Hazel O\u2019Leary had hailed Pakistan\u2019s energy policy.<\/p>
Benazir Bhutto said she was ready for a public debate on the energy policy of the PPP government which she said was her government\u2019s singular achievement in the field of infrastructure development and ranked next only to the restoration of peace in Karachi during her second term in office. She said that before endorsing the policy the cabinet and the experts had thoroughly examined and debated the two broad areas of concern and criticism. These she said were i) the relative increase in power tariffs ii) and creation of excess power capacity in the country.<\/p>
The power tariffs she said are bound to go up whenever new plants are set up because of the higher capital costs required to finance new capacity. The question to be addressed was which of the two systems namely the public sector or the private sector would be economically more efficient. A World Bank study and our own experts reports suggested that the private sector was more efficient. According to these studies, she said the average annual tariff increase required by the private sector programme was 14.3 percent compared to 18.3 percent required by WAPDA. She said that under the energy policy of her government the tariff increases were so distributed that except for the first two years 1997 and 1998, when the bulk of the private power was to come on stream, tariff increases significantly declined to eventually become negative in subsequent years. This was in sharp contrast with the way tariff increases took place in the Wapda system, where tariff increases are necessary to meet the investment requirements well in advance of the projects coming on stream.<\/p>
Pakistan\u2019s private power programme is competitive relative to other countries as was borne by an IFC study and that was why there was a talk in India of buying electric power from Pakistan, she said.<\/p>
Benazir Bhutto said that the fear of a glut in power production was also addressed and it was concluded that it was unfounded keeping in view the very low level of electric power consumption in Pakistan vis a vis other countries in the region. She said Pakistan had an average per capita consumption of 435 kwh as against 1150 kwh in Turkey, 1100 in Iran and 850 in Egypt. The glut fear, she said, was unfounded when viewed in the backdrop of the fact that against an estimated demand for 3000 MW during the Eighth plan, applications for more than 24000 MW were received. Still, the government restricted the issuance of letters of support (LoS) for only about 6000 MW, with margin for drop outs.<\/p>
Benazir Bhutto said that she can not recall off hand technical figures but does remember the base scenario prepared by the World Bank at the time of the appraisal of the Ghazi Barotha project in November 1995. According to this report she said, that taking into account the ongoing power projects and the Ghazi Barotha, an additional 5000-6000 Mw capacity still needed to be implemented by the private sector.<\/p>
Talking about the specific allegation relating to the sale of Kot Addu power plant Benazir Bhutto ridiculed the Redco Cell\u2019s allegation. She asked Nawaz Sharif to go through the relevant files more carefully and he will discover that the transparency in the sale was welcomed and appreciated even by the party which had lost the bid. This she said was unprecedented and people like Mian Nawaz Sharif and Senator Saifur Rahman who have known only loot and plunder through underhand deals can not even understand much less appreciate such above board transparency. She said that if her government was to patronise any private party then the WAK power project of Senator Waqar would not have complained of an \u2018unfair deal\u2019 meted out to them and their power project would have been the first to come on line.<\/p>
Regarding the transmission line (Lahore-Jamshoro) Benazir Bhutto said that her government was proceeding so cautiously in the matter that even the then British Prime Minister Mr.John.Major wrote her a letter. The contents of the letter is a sufficient proof to rebut allegation of Nawaz regime that her government was in a hurry to imprudently award the contract. Benazir Bhutto demanded that the letter of John Major should also be shown on the T.V. by the Nawaz regime for putting the record straight.<\/p>
Benazir Bhutto said she was not surprised with the latest tirade of Ehtesab Cell. Whenever she goes abroad the cell comes out with such fictitious stories to tarnish her image and harass her. She said that on her first trip abroad her political secretary was off loaded from the plane, on the second trip her aid Munawar Suhrawardy was detained and now a 76 year old ex POW was threatened to produce his son, a U.S. citizen, failing which he and his entire family members will be arrested.<\/p>
Benazir Bhutto said she was not afraid of these tactics and would fight back the looters, the tyrants and the brigands comprising of Nawaz Sharif and his coterie.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t A Sweet and Sour Budget Federal Council Seminar by Ms Benazir Bhutto June 20, 1997 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA Sweet and Sour Budget<\/strong><\/span>
Federal Council Seminar<\/strong><\/span>
by Ms Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
June 20, 1997<\/strong><\/span>

<\/b><\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/small><\/p>
1997-98 Budget is a sweet and sour Budget. Sweet from the perspective of business and industry. Spectators and carpet beggars.<\/small><\/p>
Sour from peoples perspective: there is no quid progeno for the massive mandate the rulers claim the poor people gave them.<\/small><\/p>
It is business friendly because tax rates have been reduced. Whatever fragile instruments and\u00a0 were available for catching tax \u2013 evaders. Black marketers and carpet beggars have been destroyed. Revenue collection has been left to the mercy of hardened tax evaders.<\/small><\/p>
It is unfriendly to people because further holes have been created in the revenue system through new exemptions.<\/small><\/p>
It is unfriendly because peoples right of spending out of growing nominal GNP on their welfare, their social development and their poverty alleviation has been curtailed.<\/small><\/p>
It is not Qarz Utaro Mulk Bachao Budget because the overall deficit will be Rs. 144 billion. Adding the repayment of foreign debt of Rs. 62 billion which is netted out for working our overall deficit, the gross borrowings will amount to Rs. 206 billion. That would add up at least Rs. 30 to 40 billion in interest costs to the Budget of the following year. This is just the beginning. This is based on very optimistic estimates of revenue collection. The total borrowing for the budget in 1997-98 may exceed Rs. 230 billion.<\/small><\/p>
We have seen Sartaj promising overall fiscal deficit of 5 per cent of SDP thrice, in 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, every time ending up with 8 to 9 percent.<\/small><\/p>
It is a \u201cQarz Brhao Mulk Bigaro Budget.<\/small><\/p>
Sartaj Budgets have always increased national debt.<\/small><\/p>
We can put the economy and macro stability above self and above our popularity.<\/small><\/p>
It has been alleged that four years ago WAPDA, PIA, OGDC, Gas companies were viable institutions and now they are crisis ridden. Who is responsible for this? These organisations development spendings used to be subject to scrutiny of the Ministry of Finance. The Nawaz 1st regime excluded WAPDA, OGDC, PTC and NHA from the Budget. They dismantled all disciplines and allowed a free hand in financial commitments. By 1993, these corporations were in such severe cash flow crisis, that when we took over, WAPDA found it impossible to renew its bonds even at 22% interest rate.<\/small><\/p>
They have boasted of raising the Foreign Exchange Reserves by $500 million to $1 billion. They have not told the Nation that this is through additional short term liability of $1.5 billion. Where has the remaining $ 1 billion gone?<\/small><\/p>
Sartaj Aziz has said that the growth in 1996-97 was 3.1%, lowest ever in eighties and nineties. Let us remind them that in 1992-93 they had the distinction of a GDP growth of 2.3%. The growth rate of 1996-97 for which our government is not \u201cresponsible\u201d; has been deliberately depressed to show an improvement in 1997-98. How can these De 9% growth in manufactured exports in dollar terms with a decline of 1.4% in large scale manufacturers when the bulk of our exports are textile goods.<\/small><\/p>
Even this exaggerated growth of 6% in 1997-98 does not promise the supply side miracle dreamt by Nawaz Sharif regime.
5% growth in agriculture would only mean that there will be no damage through floods and drought and the targets of 1996-97 will be achieved in 1997-98.<\/small><\/p>
Much of the promised growth of 7% in the manufacturing section will be correction of under estimation of growth in 1996-97.<\/small><\/p>
The budget speech concedes our success in energy generation. But for our bold initiative, our industrial sector would have continued to suffocate under the dark shadows of chronic power shortage. WAPDA was unable to mobilise resources even for its on-going projects.<\/small><\/p>
This tax-free, effort free-Budget has throttled the development process. The total PSDP of Rs. 90 billion which Rs. 80 billion in terms of 1996-97 value is far below the Rs. 106 billion announced by in for 1996-97.<\/small><\/p>
This Budget is unable to achieve any one of the many sweet dream of the dreamer, the proponents of the supply side miracles and author of Voodoo economics. It will halt the pace of progress in social sectors and agriculture infrastructures, the two areas thoroughly neglected during 1977-88. The largest irrigation system boasted by Sartaj Aziz is in shambles. Forty percent of irrigation water is wasted\u00a0 and 35% of arable land has lost its fertility.<\/small><\/p>
The Peoples government had raised the allocation for water \u2013 sector from Rs. 8 billion to Rs. 13 billion realising that water is a lifeline of our country. The water development and water management is key to the prosperity of the rural poor and for that matter Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
The Budget for 1997-98 provide a mere Rs. 10 billion if we met out the short fall which is an euphemism for reduced releases.<\/small><\/p>
When the peoples government was formed in November 1993, the Federal Development Budget for Education was only 0.4 billion. In three years we raised the allocation to Rs. 1.6 billion in 1996-97. The Caretakers and Nawaz Sharif Government drastically curtailed the development Budget for Education to half of the budgeted amount.<\/small><\/p>
We had doubled the spending on Social Action Programme in two years from Rs. 26 billion in 1992-93 to Rs. 54 billion in 1995-96.<\/small><\/p>
This budget allocates only Rs 0.0 billion for Education and Training in the PSDP compared to Rs 1.6 billion allocated in 1997-98 Budget.\u00a0 It is less than half in real terms.\u00a0 It is because of our commitment to Education that 35,000 new primary schools were built in three years and the adult literacy moved up from 35% in 1992-93 to 40% in 1996-97.\u00a0 With this lukewarm attitude towards Education Nawaz Sharif\u00a0 Government cannot achieve any of its lofty targets.<\/small><\/p>
We raised the expenditure on Education from 2.15% of GDP to 2.52 % of GDP.\u00a0 It is because of drastic cuts made by our successors that the spending has come down to 2.40% of GDP in 1996-97.<\/small><\/p>
It would have been much better if Nawaz Sharif has mustered some courage, and used its mandate to enhance Development spending.\u00a0 Reduction of PSDP to about 3 %\u00a0 of GDP and within that higher attractions to Motorway and highways would accentuate the acute deficiency in infrastructure which has held down the growth rate.\u00a0 The World Bank estimates an investment requirement of $ 100 billion in physical infrastructure to support a growth of 6%\u00a0 in GDP in the next 5 \u2013 7 years.<\/small><\/p>
How we can achieve any of laudable objectives stated in the Budget speech with a deceleration in budgeted development spending.<\/small><\/p>
This tax-free Budget will retard the process of socio-economic development of the People of Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
Even the paltry resource mobilisation of Rs 10 billion is based on airy fairy assumptions.\u00a0 Sartaj should have used the peoples mandate to enforce documentation in the economy and extend GST to retail in one go.\u00a0 We did away with all exemptions at manufacturing and import stage in our very first budget.\u00a0 This budget has made fiscal viability vague and distant.\u00a0 This Budget has shorn the government of its ability to collect adequate resources from the rich and spend on the poor. The Budget has further enmeshed the debt trap.<\/small><\/p>
This\u00a0 Budget has made Atta, Vegetable Ghee and Sugar more expensive but on the other hand it has mobile phone cheaper, it has made Pepsi, Coca Cola, all beverages and concentrates cheaper.\u00a0 This Budget enhances the profitability of owners of beverage industry (PML statements).\u00a0 This Budget gives a gift of 7.5% of ex-factory price to cement producers who had acquired the cement plants at throw away prices and made huge escalation in prices within six months (Mansha).\u00a0 Now that they have a business friendly Government they must have their pound of flesh.<\/small><\/p>
Can we afford to give more tax holidays.\u00a0 Direct taxes are payable only if there are net profits.<\/small><\/p>
Can we afford to encourage consumption of beverages based on imported concentrates when we can encourage domestic juices and drinks industry.\u00a0 Should Government borrow more on short term to boost beverage industry.<\/small><\/p>
Should Government loosen its grip on tax-evaders.<\/small><\/p>
Should\u00a0 it whiten the ill-gotten wealth for a paltry contribution.<\/small><\/p>
Should it decelerate the public spending on projects in Social and Agriculture infrastructure sectors.<\/small><\/p>
Should the massive mandate not be used for the service of the people.<\/small><\/p>
Should the government must courage to tax the rich for the benefit of the poor.<\/small><\/p>
I leave these questions to the people for their answer.<\/small><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t National Security by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Former Prime Minister of Pakistan and Leader of the Opposition At All Pakistan Representatives Meeting of the Pak Lahore \u2013 June 29, 1997 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNational Security<\/strong><\/span>
by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan and Leader of the Opposition<\/strong><\/span>
At All Pakistan Representatives Meeting of the Pak<\/strong><\/span>
Lahore \u2013 June 29, 1997<\/strong><\/span>

<\/b><\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/small><\/p>
In the old days national security depended as much as it does today on the economic well being of a state. Civilizations sprung up on river beds. However, when the river turned direction, the old settlements often collapsed.<\/small><\/p>
The economic security of a state is defended by its sons and daughters through adequate military strength to defend it from aggression.<\/small><\/p>
The Cold War with its emphasis on ideology and the defence of the ideological frontiers of the Capitalist versus Communist World blinded many to the intricacies of the economic factors so important in shaping the destiny of Nations.<\/small><\/p>
With the collapse of the Cold War, we have returned to the era that prevailed prior to it. What was the era which confronted the world before the strategic compulsions of the Cold War became a factor?<\/small><\/p>
When industrialized Europe began needing raw materials, it set off for the shores of the America, Africa and Asia. They came first as traders, for mutual benefit. But then as their investment increased, they began to worry about the composition of the ruling monarchies and whether they were suitable or not for their trading interests.\u00a0 If they found themselves at a perceived disadvantage, they began to think of changing the rulers. Then, like Caesar\u2019s Praetorian Guard they began to wonder why they could not become rulers themselves. If they could pick the rulers, they might as well become the rulers.<\/small><\/p>
Thus dawned the age of colonialism.<\/small><\/p>
Now that the Cold War is over, the world of the Trade Wars has begun. While most of the countries of East Europe, Asia, Latin America were delighted with the return of freedom and the end of tyranny, new ground rules were being laid for a trade world weighted against the developing Nations.<\/small><\/p>
Most countries were only too happy to sign the World Trade Organization which pledged to reduce tariffs or taxes to make trade competitive. Most of the developing countries thought that this meant that the West was opening its markets to the developing countries. That revenues lost through tariff reduction would be made up through Sales Tax. This has proved to be incorrect. Developing countries do not have the educational threshold or the documentation necessary or the technology available to make this possible.<\/small><\/p>
What tariff reduction actually does is make\u00a0 foreign goods cheaper and our own goods less attractive.<\/small><\/p>
It is no secret that a sleeping Asia is about to emerge from its slumber to take its place in the twenty first century. The large markets of Asia, the large population of Asia is a great temptation for the West.<\/small><\/p>
The markets of the West are saturated. Their economies are largely facing recession. Their factories produce goods which do not sell in their markets. Hence they need our markets. Hence the demand to lower tariffs. But once tariffs are reduced we find ourselves in double trouble.<\/small><\/p>
Firstly, we suffer huge losses in revenue which forces us to borrow. Borrowing means we have to pay more in interest repayments. And whom do we borrow from? Naturally largely from the West which has available capital to lend. Next, western goods become attractive. A writer once wrote that the age of globalisation has spawned a global culture. To attain a status or respect in this global culture it is necessary to acquire the status symbols of the global culture. The status symbol of the upper middle classes is the same: Designer clothes, Rolex watches, Ray Ban\u00a0 eye glasses, Gucci bags, Versace jeans, Walls Ice cream, coca cola and Mac Donald\u2019s alongwith Kentucky fried chicken. Thus the more foreign goods our people demand the more of the global currency, namely the dollar is needed by us. Either we need dollars to buy Western imported goods or else Westerners invest here and repatriate in dollars the profits that they make. This adds to a squeeze on our dollar reserves. After all a country can only have as many dollars as its exports permit. From the export earnings we have to make our debt repayments, our essential imports such as wheat, edible oil and POL, buy our defence equipment and still have enough for the industrialized elite to import their favourite brand of perfume, cigarette or pen. The result is that massive tariff reductions mean we need more dollars than we earn and to boost our dollar reserves we end up devaluating to make our exports more attractive. The devaluation immediately adds enormous amounts to our debt repayment bill, our import bill and our defence bill. Imagine a dollar borrowed at twenty rupees has to be repaid at Rs. 40\/. How can we doubly tax our people to repay a dollar that we borrowed at half the price and still make progress?<\/small><\/p>
When Samuel Huntington spoke at Davos in 1994 about the clash of cultures between the Christian and the Muslim world, he was not really talking about a cultural clash but about a market clash. He was boldly stating that the Christian Judaic Hindu civilization had to make a pact to dominate the Asian markets which were made up of the Muslim and Confucian people and races. Thus the Muslim-Confucian arc is seen as the formidable and fertile market for which the West and the East will be competing. But the West cannot maintain its standards of living unless it captures the markets of Asia.<\/small><\/p>
Thus while we may speak of a world of free trade, a world of competition, a world of lowered tariffs we are already discovering that invisible tariffs are being set up. Sometimes in the name of human rights, sometimes in the name of child labour, sometimes in the name of the environment. In one form or another an invisible tariff barrier is set up to ensure that there is no even playing field.<\/small><\/p>
Pakistan has a pivotal role to play in the game of Trade Wars. Pakistan is the only Muslim country with an ability to defend its markets with nuclear or missile deterrence should the situation arise. More worrisome for those who see a clash of civilizations is the alliance that could build between China, Pakistan, East Asia and Japan. This bloc would be a formidable one in bargaining with the developed countries in relation to equal access to markets and thereby equal opportunity for prosperity.<\/small><\/p>
We have seen that Nations were carved up at the Yalta Conference by the Big Three: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. These states we know of today came about as they ran their pens through maps. Some today wonder whether it would not be more convenient to deal with small compact states? If there was a world with one big power and lots of small ethnic states it would be so much easier to govern from some peoples perspectives.<\/small><\/p>
And if, God forbid, Pakistan were to collapse through internal economic collapse as the Soviet Union did, would that not be a convenient solution to its persistent and insistent proliferation efforts. Imagine if Kahuta was in one state, the stocks of fissile material in another, the missiles in a third, the testing ground in a fourth there would be no need to have a roll back at all.<\/small><\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe Pakistan today faces a grave crisis.<\/small><\/p>
The Sartaj strangulation Budget has placed Pakistan in greater debt. Revenue shortfalls are going to be greater because tax evasion has been made easier. Corruption has been legalized with money whitening incentives. The deficit is going to be wider. Sartaj is bringing this Nation to its knees, just as he did in 1993 when Moeen Quereshi declared the country bankrupt.<\/small><\/p>
That our vulnerability has grown is evident from several factors namely:<\/small><\/p>
Our Prime Minister says of his Indian counterpart coincidentally brought to power at the same time as him, \u201cI really like that man\u201d. And what does that man do? He gets our airspace violated and places\u00a0 Indian short-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads a stones throw from us in Jullunder.<\/small><\/p>
The manner in which Aimal Kansi was reportedly kidnapped is again a matter of concern.<\/small><\/p>
We hear talk that our own politicians are \u201ccorrupt\u201d and that we need good Pakistani expatriates to come and save us. This reminds me of the beginning of colonialism. Our rulers should be replaced by the new Brown Sahibs, those with dual nationalities, dual loyalties, dual homes and dual jobs. I do not believe they would come to save us. I believe they would come to hasten our demise.<\/small><\/p>
The Islamic parties have no positive economic programme either. They are bent upon making the system unworkable so that they can seize power. Armies do not march on empty stomachs nor do nations survive on starvation diets.\u00a0 We need an economic programme of revival. We need to stop borrowing but we cannot. Our macho sense gets the better of us and we borrow at commercial rates to increase our debt rather than pay back our debt first. Witness the huge amount we are borrowing at the commercial rates to build the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway. We need to attract investment. Instead we drive away investors. Witness the Keti Bandar Power Project.<\/small><\/p>
I believe that the Pakistan Peoples Party has the vision, the experience and the knowledge to come up with innovative plans for economic revival. During our term in office we tripled the growth rate, narrowed the trade gap, brought down the budget deficit by 3 points, repaid one billion dollars of debt, made Pakistan self sufficient in energy, reduced the population growth rate, increased exports, tax revenues and expenditure on education. We won a gold medal from the World Health Organization for our anti polio campaign and lady health workers programme. We did this while saving Pakistan from the threat of being declared a terrorist State, preventing a unilateral roll back of our a peaceful nuclear programme, getting the Brown amendment passed, which resulted in receiving one billion dollars in cash aside from sophisticated military equipment and brought peace to Karachi. However, we were unable to save the country from palace intrigues and therefore Pakistan suffered yet another set back in political stability. The nation had to pay a heavy economic price for the President\u2019s decision to sack the government.<\/small><\/p>
The President made such an economic mess of the country that we are sinking in the abyss. The supply side economics practiced by the regime has worsened the situation. The country needs to immediately reduce debt and enhance agricultural production while making the transition to a software state. We are a textile state but no longer competitive in the international market with countries like Bangladesh having cheaper labour costs. Therefore incentives for the textile spinning sector is simply putting a sand bag in front of raging flood waters.<\/small><\/p>
Therefore we need a national plan of survival. But no single political party can do it on its own. We, the political parties, the armed forces, the bureaucracy the judiciary and the intelligence services must together pool our experiences and our ideas to take Pakistan\u00a0 out of the coming catastrophe. No one can do it on their own. The PML cannot do it with supply side economics. Qazi Hussain Ahmad cannot do it by hanging 2000 people. The military cannot do it advised by\u00a0 \u201ctechnocrats\u201d(witness the latest foolish Farooq adventure when Shahid Javed Burki came, wrecked and went away).<\/small><\/p>
We need, in this Golden Jubilee Year of ours, to unite under one banner, one platform and one agenda to save Pakistan by saving it from economic collapse.<\/small><\/p>
And that is why we need a National Government of Survival.<\/small><\/p>
The people of Pakistan deserve a better tomorrow. Let us admit, for one reason or another all of us have failed in giving this to our people. We should do something about it before it is too late.<\/small>\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t International Women\u2019s Leadership Forum Message from Ms Benazir Bhutto San Francisco, California September 25, 1997 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInternational Women\u2019s Leadership Forum<\/strong><\/span>
Message from Ms Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
San Francisco, California September 25, 1997<\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/small><\/p>
It is an honour for me to be able to communicate with you today, on tape.<\/small><\/p>
I had very much wanted to be with you in person in San Francisco, but due to the continuing physical and legal harassment of my family, myself and my political party by the Islamabad regime, it was impossible for me to leave the country at this critical moment.<\/small><\/p>
Distinguished friends,<\/small><\/p>
I have great empathy for that amazing leader of democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, who of course could not be with you today, because she would not be allowed to return to her country if she left. Suu Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Burma is in constant danger, under constant threat, a vulnerable yet brave inspiration to us all.<\/small><\/p>
I had wished to be with the International Leadership Forum because it would have given me the opportunity to talk, exchange information and network with a truly extraordinary group of women who have overcome all obstacles and succeeded in politics, government, business, the academy and the arts.<\/small><\/p>
Women like Kim Campbell, the former Prime Minister of the great western country of Canada, who overcame barriers and obstacles and bigots to lead her Party and her nation through a most difficult period of Canadian history.\u00a0 Knowing all odds were against her did not stop her from assuming leadership.\u00a0 She is a model of determination and grace.<\/small><\/p>
I wanted to be with the extraordinary group of renaissance women assembled in San Francisco today, who have broken ceilings and broken ground\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 often at considerable personal cost, so that my daughters Baktawar and Asifa, and billions like them across the planet, will someday have limitless opportunities for growth, development and productivity.<\/small><\/p>
All of us gathered together today have a dream. We who sacrificed much, suffered much but struggled on to achieve success dream that our daughters and grand daughters will not have to face, the discriminatory barriers that have been put in our paths\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 yours and mine\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 by those entrenched forces who even today cling to the shreds of the status quo, immobilized by fear of social, economic, cultural and political change.<\/small><\/p>
As we cross into a new century and new millennium, we should take stock of where we were, where we are, and where we are going.<\/small><\/p>
The twentieth century was a century which witnessed two world wars the rise of Communism, the holocaust, the dominance of dictatorial regimes of oppression and tyranny. A century where states often sought to crush the dignity of men and women. But in the twilight of this century the indomitable spirit of humankind rose to arrest itself. From the ashes of the cold war arose an era marked by universal demands for freedom, for democracy, for dignity for men and yes, more important, for woman. A world dawned which witnessed the emergence of a global value system based on human rights. All of us gathered here today believe that any denial of human rights\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 the right to life, to liberty, to self-determination, liberty, to gender equality\u2026 the right to equal opportunity to education, to jobs, to health care, to housing\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 any abridgment of these fundamental human rights is unconscionably and inexcusably inhumane.<\/small><\/p>
Those who are gathered believe and justice and modernity.<\/small><\/p>
These were the principles that guided me in my two terms as Prime Minister of Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
The team I led propelled Pakistan into the modern era, where our children would be trained in the technologies of the 21st century for the jobs of the third millennium. Where our country would become a heaven for investment, a crossroads between the ancient silk routes and the west.<\/small><\/p>
Our restoration of macroeconomic stability was the centerpiece to our modernization program.\u00a0 It was the impetus for insuring the confidence of businessmen and businesswomen throughout the world in the economic potential of Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
As a measure of our success, foreign investment in Pakistan during my second term as Prime Minster was 5 times larger than the foreign investment in Pakistan in the previous 25 years combined!<\/small><\/p>
Our priority was nation building. Our goal was to rebuild the infrastructure of our nation to make Pakistan an economic leader in our region and in the world of the new century.\u00a0 And in large measure, we succeeded:<\/small><\/p>
We tackled the problem of power shut downs which had crippled our economy by providing incentives to the energy sector. The World Bank called our energy program a role model to the entire developing world.<\/small><\/p>
We brought our energy revolution directly to the people of Pakistan. In 3 years we successfully electrified over 21,000 villages in our rural areas with the aim of electrifying every village in Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
We built 30,000 primary schools to bring the light of knowledge to our children. We recruited 53,000 teachers, 70 per cent of them women for these new schools.<\/small><\/p>
When I became Prime Minister one in five children born with polio in the world was a Pakistani. As a mother, that was not a statistic I was prepared to live with. So we launched an anti-polio campaign which international bodies called the most successful in the world.<\/small><\/p>
As one of the nine most populated countries in the world, population control remained a priority for us. I traveled to Cairo to attend the UN sponsored conference on Population Welfare. Our government introduced programs to reduce Pakistan\u2019s population growth rate from 3.1% to 2.6%. And for this we recruited 50,000 Lady Health Workers who went from home to home educating women on how to take charge of their lives, their families and their destiny.<\/small><\/p>
As a modern woman, I sought to make Pakistan a modern state. Our government introduced the information revolution, bringing fax machines into every office, cellular telephones into every business and CNN into every home with a television. We opened up our society by opening up minds.<\/small><\/p>
It was, my friends, a miraculous transformation of a society, a transformation that cannot be negated by personal attacks upon me. What we accomplished \u2014 concretely and specifically \u2014 is my legacy to the 130 million people of Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
Distinguished friends,<\/small><\/p>
Soon we shall be entering a new millennium.<\/small><\/p>
It is more than a millennium that we are crossing. It is a fundamental charge in the way people live, in how nations conduct themselves.<\/small><\/p>
With the explosion of information and technology that has taken place over the last two decades, the world has changed dramatically.\u00a0 It is nothing short of a revolution brought about not by guns and bullets, but by Pentium chips and megabytes of information.<\/small><\/p>
Because of open communication, people all over the world were exposed in a very real sense to freedom\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 freedom to chose political leaders, freedom to pursue education and careers, freedom for consumers, freedom of the press and religion.<\/small><\/p>
Access to information, the real key to social, political and economic change, is now within reach of almost everyone on earth, in huts as well as cities, in villages as well as villas, to the daughters of\u00a0 beggars as well as the sons of barons.<\/small><\/p>
The internet is the great equalizer.\u00a0 The technology which emanated from the Silicon Valley of California, has more potential to ameliorate social inequality than any development in the history of the world, including the industrial revolution.<\/small><\/p>
With the globalization of information and technology, has come a remarkable globalization of relations between states.<\/small><\/p>
The most recent political and economic manifestation of this trend is the creation of the World Trade Organization, which is the first institutional step, to the demise of the closed nation-state as we have known it for a thousand years.<\/small><\/p>
Open trade, open communications, open borders and a universal international culture are creating an emerging class of new citizens of a new world, a global citizen with a global outlook for a world of global values.<\/small><\/p>
A global culture is emerging with global values. A culture and a value system which recognizes no territorial boundaries.<\/small><\/p>
The way we dress, speak, eat is becoming increasingly similar. What we see, what we hear from news on CNN, to computers from IBM is also becoming similar. Our demands are also similar \u2014 democracy, freedom, equality.<\/small><\/p>
The successor generation of young people have the greatest opportunity for insuring a pluralistic and tolerant and global 21st century. Today\u2019s young, your children and mine, are the children of the future, of the new century, the new world, the new information state.<\/small><\/p>
They are the ones who will move from the trees of the past to the forests of the future.<\/small><\/p>
They are the ones who will leave behind a past, a past of their mothers, where mothers had to prove we could and would succeed. They will enter a future where a woman\u2019s right to work, to achieve, to succeed will be taken for granted.<\/small><\/p>
I pray that my daughters, and your, will enter a future where women are not mocked at, scoffed at or scandalized simply because we are women.<\/small><\/p>
I pray for a future for our daughters and grand daughters where women are respected for their talent, education, their work, and their intelligence.<\/small><\/p>
In that future lies are vindication.<\/small><\/p>
\u00a0God bless you, and Godspeed.<\/small><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Unique Lives and Experiences Lecture Series Ms Benazir Bhutto Leader of the Opposition Speech delivered at Minneapolis \u2013 USA 29 April 1998 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUnique Lives and Experiences Lecture Series<\/strong><\/span>
Ms Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
Leader of the Opposition<\/strong><\/span>
Speech delivered at Minneapolis \u2013 USA<\/strong><\/span>
29 April 1998<\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen,<\/small><\/p>
I am no stranger to North America. As many of you may know, I spent four of the happiest years of my life as a student at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Those days now seem like a distant dream.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
For the last eighteen months, since the democratically elected government in Pakistan was toppled, my party, my family and myself have been persecuted, victimized, harassed and in some cases tortured.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
My husband has remained in jail since the first day my government was seized, and has remained incarcerated, despite his desperate need for medical treatment, despite the fact that he is an elected member of the Senate of Pakistan, despite the fact that he has been convicted of no crime.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
He languishes in prison, a hostage to my political career.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, I know it has become the fashion both in the developed and developing world over the last decade, to destroy leaders_ reputations by innuendo, allegation and rumour.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Governments rise and fall not on performance but on personality, not by accountability but allegation, not on facts but on slurs.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
I have seen it in country after country, and we now see it targeted against the President of the United States.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
But I am afraid what has been done to me and to my party is beyond anything attempted anywhere in the world.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
For what has happened to me, what is happening in Pakistan, may not in fact be unique, but part of a growing and disturbing trend as the world approaches the new millennium.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The attacks against me are a more extreme version of what seems to be a universal deterioration of civil dialogue in politics, not just in Pakistan, but all over our world.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The search for political consensus, the main characteristic of a democratic society, has degenerated into partisan hysteria, a rule or ruin philosophy.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The breakdown of cooperation threatens the legitimacy of democratic values and norms in the modern, post Cold War international society.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Let me read you some thoughts that capture what I am trying to say to you today.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
\u201cPartisan politics is polluting our most important legal and ethical processes\u2026and is damaging our political system. Proceedings, while billed as impartial, have become little more than witch hunts designed to humiliate the opposing political party\u2026The scandal machine that has developed bankrupts individuals, who are little more than pawns in larger political agendas. It threatens the ability of the political system to attract the bright, dedicated people that our nation deserves.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
It undermines public confidence in government and its leaders.\u201d\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
These are not my words, but they could be.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
This is not written about Pakistan, but it might as well be.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
What I have quoted to you are the words of Robert Bennett, a distinguished American lawyer, from an essay attacking the subjugation of the legal and ethical process to a blatantly partisan political agenda.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels once said that \u201cif you repeat a lie five times, it becomes the truth.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
With the Clinton episode, the Goebbels adage has shifted to \u201cif you make ten allegations, it suddenly becomes a fact.\u201d\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The fascist government of Pakistan has attempted to divert Pakistani public attention from their total incompetence and failure to manage the economy and the social infrastructure of the country, in a flagrant ruse to assassinate my reputation as a political leader.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
I have been accused of every crime under the sun. My husband has actually been accused of the murder of my own brother. Outrageous claims of graft and corruption have been leveled in the press to sully my name.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
$12 million of public money has been spent on hiring detectives, stealing documents and launching a media campaign.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
A new law, the Accountability law, has been passed with retrospective effect. It has been thrice amended to suit the convenience of the regime.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
A member of the ruling parliamentary group has been given vast police powers to launch a one-sided, partisan inquiry with the sole purpose of framing, by hook or by crook, the former Prime Minister and leader of the Opposition.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The regime seeks to disqualify my family and myself for it fears that if I am not disqualified it will lose the next general elections to me and to my Party.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The regime seeks to disqualify me so that it can dismantle the democratic system and impose a one party dictatorship.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Yet, in all of this attempt to destroy me before the jury of public opinion, slurs have never been substantiated, allegations never proven, witnesses never deposed, a case of financial impropriety never made.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Over the last eighteen months of witch hunts and special courts, not a single notice of corruption has been lodged against me. Despite the efforts at extortion and manipulation, the fascist junta has failed in their attempt to destroy me with the people.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Day after day, our strength on the street grows, the number of political parties in our coalition expands, the time of the collaborators of dictators grow short. As in the past, truth, justice and the forces of history cannot be denied.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The last 18 months have been but one more difficult period in my 44 years, which has seemingly been filled with enough experiences, triumphs and tragedies to fill ten lifetimes. It is painful for me in Pakistan, but I have endured worse, much worse.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Current Issues: Fall Tour of the United States Dowmel Foundation Salem State College Pitney, Hardin, Kipp & Szuch November 11, 1997 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCurrent Issues:<\/span><\/strong>
Fall Tour of the United States<\/span><\/strong>
Dowmel Foundation Salem State College Pitney, Hardin, Kipp & Szuch<\/span><\/strong>
November 11, 1997<\/span><\/strong>

<\/p>
Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen.<\/small><\/p>
I am no stranger to\u00a0 America.\u00a0 As many of you may know,\u00a0 I spent four of the happiest years of my life as a student at Harvard College.\u00a0 Those days now seem like a dream.<\/small><\/p>
The last year has been an extraordinarily difficult period of time for me, for my family, for my party and for my country.<\/p>
I am well aware that you have been exposed to information \u2014 or should I say disinformation.<\/small><\/p>
I know that you have heard a negative barrage attacking me and the record of\u00a0 my two administrations as the Chief Executive of my country.<\/small><\/p>
That is why I am here. I still have strength, I still have fight, especially when it comes to the truth.\u00a0 I fully intend to defend myself and my record from this outrageous and sexist character assassination that is being conducted against me.<\/small><\/p>
For what has happened to me, what is happening in Pakistan, may not in fact be unique, but part of a growing and disturbing trend as the world approaches the new millennium.<\/small><\/p>
The attacks against me are painful and they are outright lies. But it is only a more extreme version of what seems to be a universal deterioration of civil dialogue in politics, not just in Pakistan, but all over our world.<\/small><\/p>
\u00a0The search for\u00a0 political consensus, the main characteristic of a democratic society, has degenerated into partisan hysteria, a rule or ruin philosophy.\u00a0 The breakdown of cooperation threatens the legitimacy\u00a0 of democratic values and norms in the modern, post Cold War international society.<\/small><\/p>
This is a new phenomenon that blemishes the body politic. Consensus, civility and comity have been replaced with pain, slander, prejudice and partisanship.<\/p>
\u00a0Let me read you some thoughts that capture what I am trying to say to you today.<\/small><\/p>
\u201cPartisan politics is polluting our most important legal and ethical processes\u2026and is damaging our political system. Proceedings, while billed as impartial, have become little more than \u2018witch hunts\u2019 designed to humiliate the opposing political party\u2026The scandal machine that has developed bankrupts individuals, who are little more than pawns in larger political agendas.\u00a0 It threatens the ability of the political system to attract\u00a0 the bright, dedicated people that our nation deserves.<\/small><\/p>
It undermines public confidence in government and its leaders.\u201d<\/small><\/p>
These are not my words, but they could be.<\/small><\/p>
This is not written about Pakistan, but it might as well be.<\/p>
What I have quoted to you are the words of Robert Bennett, President Clinton\u2019s lawyer, from an essay attacking the subjugation of the legal and ethical process to a blatantly partisan political agenda.<\/small><\/p>
Right now, across the oceans in Asia, the Pakistan Peoples Party, which I lead, is being subjected to a political witch hunt clouded in a so called legal process.<\/small><\/p>
The people of Pakistan honoured me, electing me as their Prime Minister in the only two fair, free and impartial elections held in the last ten years.<\/small><\/p>
But my political opponents saw to it that both governments were removed by presidential edict and not permitted to complete their full terms.<\/small><\/p>
Not a single member of my family has been spared. My father-in-law, husband and brother-in-law have all been arrested. My mother and sister-in-law are facing legal proceedings. Another sister-in-law had her house raided at midnight without a search warrant.<\/small><\/p>
Another relative fled the country when he was grabbed by the shirt at the Prime Minister\u2019s house and threatened, \u201cyou either do what we want, or end up in a death cell.\u201d<\/small><\/p>
And one of our defense counselors was kidnapped by the regime for over two months, without a word of his whereabouts.<\/small><\/p>
Members of the Pakistan Peoples Party and my political staff, including women, have faced similar treatment. I therefore wrote to the U.N. Secretary General highlighting the human rights abuses.<\/small><\/p>
That was when the regime decided to raid my sister-in-law\u2019s house at midnight, to harass her and me.<\/small><\/p>
That was when they decided to arrest a second defense counsel charging him with the kidnapping of the first.\u00a0 That was when they filed yet another murder case against my husband.<\/p>
That was when they falsely claimed that eight companies belonging to me were frozen by the Swiss\u00a0 authorities. I had nothing to do with those companies. But to humiliate and degrade me internationally, the regime claimed they were mine.<\/small><\/p>
The amount of mud that has been thrown has been painful and hurtful. That my name is well known, makes the hurtful allegations front-line news all across the world.<\/small><\/p>
I know that truth and justice will eventually triumph.\u00a0 I know that\u00a0 I have the will to prove, not only for myself, but for women all over, that we have the strength to stand up and defend our convictions.<\/small><\/p>
But in the meantime our family life has been affected. My young children miss their father. Not only my family, but those of my relatives, political colleagues and supporters, are being bankrupted defending charges in a court of law.<\/small><\/p>
Our time and energy is being depleted in reaction rather than action to fulfill the vindictive lust of a vindictive regime.<\/small><\/p>
However, this politics of confrontation is not limited to Pakistan alone. \u00a0All over the world, their is a greater interest in the human side of political personalities. Human fragility enthralls us.<\/small><\/p>
Human fragility and the interest in the person, rather than the politician, also makes it easier to hurl charges, which will transfix friend and foe together, and leave the truth to another day in a small corner of some paper as one scandal replaces another to transfix public opinion.<\/small><\/p>
This new politics of distortion and destabilization has paralyzed constructive dialogue. It has confused the public. It has led to cynicism about public leaders.<\/small><\/p>
It has frozen the search for consensus solutions to the still enormous problems faced by governments all over the world.\u00a0 In time, in talent, and in tenor, democracy has paid a terrible price.<\/p>
The new dissensus has choked creativity, experimentation and innovation. It has been a polarizing, divisive force especially dangerous in vast regions of the world where democracy is still new and fragile.<\/small><\/p>
And it is a trend that is intensifying, not diminishing.<\/small><\/p>
In the United States, even a discussion of the ratification of a ban on chemical weapons takes on the character of a street gang rumble.<\/p>
Congress \u2013 both the House and the Senate \u2014 are spending enormous amounts of\u00a0 finite resources, both time and money, on investigations of the Executive, while the President and Congress seem to be making little progress on a national consensus on the fundamental campaign law loopholes which triggered the crisis.<\/small><\/p>
And while both the House and Senate spend millions upon millions of dollars in repetitive and redundant hearings whose aim would seem to be more political than programmatic, no progress at all seems to be made on the entitlement crisis that\u00a0 threatens America\u2019s fiscal standing in the world in the new century.<\/small><\/p>
A ruling political party that once thrived on the prerogatives of the special prosecutor during the Reagan era, now denounces exactly the same application to the Clinton era.<\/p>
Another party,\u00a0 which decried the powers of the special prosecutor in the eighties, demands more and more of such appointments to investigate the opposition\u00a0 in the nineties.<\/small><\/p>
Rule or ruin.<\/small><\/p>
The situation has degenerated so badly in Washington, that it was thought necessary for a \u201ccivility retreat\u201d to be recently convened, basically to remind members of the Congress of the United States of America the rules of common courtesy and civil dialogue. This my friends, is in the greatest and oldest democracy on earth!<\/small><\/p>
On the campaign money scandal,\u00a0 those who control congress accuse the President of skirting the law, while legislation that would close the loophole and ban soft money is delayed through filibustering.<\/small><\/p>
The Democrats are denounced by the Republicans for having used soft money issue advocacy ads\u00a0 to skirt the law in 1996, while the Republican Congressional Committee is doing exactly the same thing in a congressional race in Staten Island, New York in 1997.<\/small><\/p>
Political expediency has replaced political idealism. And political expediency has no bounds, no limits and no taste.<\/p>
This trend is consistent across the continents.<\/p>
Four Indian Prime Ministers within one calendar year have changed, governments disintegrating not over policy, but over politics, not over program but over power.<\/small><\/p>
Just last month in India\u2019s largest state, a riot erupted on the floor in of the assembly\u00a0 \u2014 legislators hitting each other over the heads with furniture, inkwells propelled across the chamber, 14 parliamentarians injured.\u00a0 This in what is often called the largest democracy on Earth!<\/small><\/p>
A peace process in the Middle East is allowed to be frozen and come precipitously close to unraveling, with\u00a0 substance often overshadowed by whispered innuendo. A decade\u2019s progress hanging in the balance.<\/small><\/p>
In Bangladesh, the ruling party and the opposition interchanges almost identical strategies of parliamentary boycotts and street disruptions, as power shifts from one party to another.<\/small><\/p>
In Bosnia, leaders pledged to a multiethnic state are defeated by ethno-nationalists, threatening the very existence of the Dayton accords.<\/p>
In Pakistan, the new government almost collapses as it assaults judicial independence and starts undermining the judiciary itself simply because the judiciary has admitted corruption charges against the Prime Minister filed by my Party.<\/small><\/p>
In Turkey, governments fall.\u00a0 In Italy, governments fall.\u00a0 In the Republics of the former Soviet Union, governments fall.\u00a0 In Africa, three military take-overs this calendar year alone.<\/small><\/p>
All over the world, recriminations, finger-pointing and partisan condemnations are the modus operandi of the new political order.\u00a0 Hardly the quiet pax-Americana that many had predicted.<\/small><\/p>
It is in this context\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 the emerging politics of partisan confrontation, nihilism and character assassination\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 that I assess events in Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
I want to tell you what has been happening in Pakistan over the last decade, what we have accomplished in my two terms as Prime Minister, and my thoughts on the broader trends that will shape the third millennium we are about to enter.<\/small><\/p>
In 1977, a freely and fairly elected democratic government, headed by my father Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was toppled in a military coup and a brutal martial law was instituted.\u00a0 Less than two years later my father was murdered.\u00a0 For a decade martial law ruled Pakistan like an iron fist. My party was targeted.\u00a0 Our leaders were murdered, tortured, imprisoned.\u00a0 The lucky ones went into exile.<\/small><\/p>
I myself spent nearly six years in prison or solitary confinement,\u00a0 on the edges of illness and despair.\u00a0 Finally, released by the power of world opinion, I\u00a0 devoted my life to mobilizing the cause of Pakistani democracy around the world, and keeping the flame of hope burning within my battered homeland.<\/small><\/p>
In November of 1988 my party was swept into office and I was sworn in as the first Muslim woman to head a government anywhere in the world.\u00a0 I was 35 years old.<\/small><\/p>
We immediately embarked on an ambitious program of political liberalization, an end to press censorship, legalization of trade unions, a commitment to the long neglected social sector with emphasis on education, health delivery and women\u2019s rights, and macroeconomic reform.<\/small><\/p>
We were not vindictive to those who drained our country of our blood, of our character, of our values.<\/small><\/p>
As I said at the time, \u201cdemocracy is the best revenge.\u201d<\/small><\/p>
But after just 20 months, the entrenched Establishment that had supported the dictatorship, that had refused to bow to the people\u2019s will, toppled my government, acting under the cover and distraction of Saddam\u2019s invasion of Kuwait.<\/p>
The allegation, as they always are in Pakistan and in South Asia, was governmental corruption.<\/small><\/p>
Six cases were brought against me, even more against my husband.<\/small><\/p>
But even under a judicial system dominated by the entrenched autocratic Establishment, we were exonerated of all charges.<\/small><\/p>
The allegations against us were a mere illusion, a transparent smoke screen to undermine the movement toward democracy.<\/small><\/p>
For three years we sat in Opposition in the National Assembly, trying to reach consensus with the Pakistan Muslim League on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues confronting our Nation.<\/small><\/p>
As the economy and social structure of Pakistan deteriorated,\u00a0 and human and civil rights were cast aside by a repressive regime, Pakistan edged close to anarchy.<\/small><\/p>
In elections held in October 1993, my Pakistan People\u2019s Party was soundly reelected to a second term.<\/small><\/p>
When we began our second term, we were pitted against a precarious economic scenario.\u00a0 The country was on the verge of bankruptcy.<\/small><\/p>
We moved urgently, made difficult decisions, sometimes unpopular decisions, to restore solvency and create a macroeconomic framework that would allow Pakistan to compete in the world and attract foreign investment to help jump-start our moribund economy.<\/p>
Increasing tax collection, imposing new taxes on critical segments of our economy, including the politically potent agricultural feudal landowners, was good policy.\u00a0 But it was not very good politics.<\/small><\/p>
As in Eastern and Central Europe, the bitter pills necessary to put the economy on sound footing called for by the World Bank and IMF caused real pain to the people of my country.<\/small><\/p>
Despite the political costs incurred, our restoration of macroeconomic stability was an outstanding achievement by any yardstick.\u00a0 It was the impetus for insuring the confidence of businessmen and women throughout the world in the economic potential of Pakistan.<\/p>
As a measure of the success of our program, foreign investment in Pakistan during my second tenure as Prime Minister was more than $25 billion in three years, over $10 billion from the United States alone.<\/small><\/p>
This represents, ladies and gentlemen, over five times the aggregate foreign investment in Pakistan in the previous 25 years of our Nation\u2019s history.\u00a0 That is a record for which I am extremely proud.<\/small><\/p>
During my visit to Washington, the President of the EXIM Bank expressed his pleasure at our policies.<\/small><\/p>
The losing firm in a privatization project wrote praising the transparency of our privatization process. We paid off $1 billion of our debt and reduced it to 40% of GDP.<\/small><\/p>
We determined as one of our highest priorities that we had to rebuild the infrastructure of our nation if we were to become an economic leader of our region and of the world in the new century.<\/small><\/p>
In providing a big-push to infrastructure development, our primary target was the energy sector.
The World Bank called our energy infrastructure program a model to the entire developing world.<\/small><\/p>
We were so successful in our power program that after two years in government, we shifted our resources from power generation to power delivery\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 building pipelines, powerlines, transportation and communications infrastructure, ports and support facilities.<\/small><\/p>
And we brought our energy revolution directly to the people of Pakistan by electrifying over 21,000 villages in our rural areas.<\/small><\/p>
By the end of this decade, if our program is fully implemented, every village in Pakistan will be electrified, an outstanding achievement for a vast developing country.<\/small><\/p>
Our government built ten thousand kilometers of roads over the past three years.<\/small><\/p>
We built 100,000 houses per year for the needy and deserving. Additionally, our government distributed more than 500,000 plots of land in rural areas, and 1.22 million plots in urban areas.<\/small><\/p>
We provided proper sewage facilities to 95% of our urban population and seventy percent of our rural population.<\/small><\/p>
And it is the social sector that our accomplishments have the most special meaning to me.<\/small><\/p>
I wanted a new education system for Pakistan, an education system for the new technology and the new century.<\/small><\/p>
We constructed over 30,400 new primary and secondary schools, and renovated an additional 9,800 existing ones.<\/small><\/p>
Approximately seventy percent of the schools we built were for girls.<\/small><\/p>
We recruited approximately 53,000 teachers, of whom 35,000 were women.<\/small><\/p>
We started a computer literacy programme to bring our people into the computer age.<\/small><\/p>
We introduced the internet and e-mail to Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
As a woman and mother, I was particularly concerned about the conditions of health for the children of Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
Approximately 50 million child deaths are predicted in South Asia over the next decade.<\/small><\/p>
Of that astounding number, 30 million are avoidable if the countries of the region embark on serious health education and health delivery programs. \u00a0In order to promote mother and child health care, primary health care and nutrition, 50,000 village health and family planning workers were trained to provide services specifically geared to the needs of women and children.<\/small><\/p>
Included in their responsibilities was providing family planning information and material to deal with Pakistan\u2019s population growth.\u00a0 Our work in family planning alone was responsible for a dramatic drop in Pakistani fertility rates during my tenure as Prime Minister.\u00a0 The Vice President of the United States said my speech to the U.N. Conference in Cairo was the catalyst for the world community finally coming together on family planning issues.<\/small><\/p>
Further in the child health area, my government embarked an ambitious and comprehensive effort to immunize the children of Pakistan from a host of child hood diseases that have been brought under control in other parts of the world.<\/small><\/p>
I wondered, \u201chow many potential Nobel prize winners will be among the 30 million avoidable deaths?<\/small><\/p>
How many great authors will never live to write their novels and poetry?\u00a0 How many prospective great scientists, women and men who might go on to cure AIDS, to conquer cancer, to prevent strokes, will be among the thirty million children who could very well die if we do not act now?\u201d<\/small><\/p>
My government increased health expenditures by 60%. The World Health Organization gave me a gold medal (the only Pakistani leader to receive one) in recognition of my government\u2019s services in health.<\/small><\/p>
In order to reduce population growth and infant mortality growth rates, 43,000 health workers were recruited and trained.\u00a0 As a result, population growth rate came down from 3.1% to 2.9% and was targeted to go down to 2.6%.<\/small><\/p>
When I became Prime Minister in 1993, one in five children born with polio in the world was in Pakistan.\u00a0 We were determined to end this dreadful statistic and launched our anti-polio campaign.<\/small><\/p>
My own one year old daughter was at the heart of the campaign as I fed her and other children polio drops twice yearly to launch the campaign. The campaign was assisted yearly by 100,000 volunteers, and by the year 1998, we will have eliminated polio from Pakistan forever.<\/small><\/p>
Intensely concerned about the problem of child labour in certain areas of our economy, most notably in the production of carpets and soccer balls, we cracked down on child labour.<\/small><\/p>
Despite the fact that children in the work force is a deeply personal family issue in Pakistan\u00a0 \u2014 sometimes compared to the practice of\u00a0 children working on farms during harvest in the fall is in the American midwest\u00a0 \u2014
we did not hesitate to act and my government cracked down on child labor.<\/small><\/p>
We made education compulsory, knowing that if children are in schools, they cannot be in factories.<\/small><\/p>
We ordered local authorities to raid businesses employing children.<\/small><\/p>
Over 7000 such raids we conducted between January 1995 and March 1996 alone.<\/small><\/p>
Over 2,500 employers were prosecuted and many convicted, fined and imprisoned for violating child labor laws.<\/small><\/p>
To protect women in society, we established special women\u2019s police forces and women\u2019s courts, to hear with understanding and sympathy cases of domestic violence and domestic abuse.\u00a0 Courts and police forces for women, staffed by women.<\/p>
Our television ran a government sponsored program against domestic violence, and we took the step of signing the CEDAW, the Convention for the elimination of discrimination against women.<\/small><\/p>
We established women\u2019s banks designed to help women start small businesses.
<\/small><\/p>
All through this intense\u00a0 period of macroeconomic reform, privatisation, infrastructure renewal, and an enormous commitment to the education, health and labour social sectors of Pakistan, I was guided by the philosophy and the words of an American President\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 Abraham Lincoln\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 who said 100 years before I was born:<\/small><\/p>
\u201cThe legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all or cannot do so well, for themselves\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 in their separate and individual capacities.
In all that the people can do for themselves, government ought not to interfere.\u201d<\/small><\/p>
Through creative government and the involvement of the international business community, we were able to establish in Pakistan a modern infrastructure with high technology communications and information systems.<\/p>
Our government instituted Pakistan\u2019s first system of fax transmission.\u00a0 We brought CNN to our people\u2019s homes. We initiated fiber optic telephones and cell phones.\u00a0 And when you went on-line, we went on-line with you, making the remarkable information revolution in reach of every Pakistani schoolchild and businessman and woman.<\/p>
It was a miraculous transformation of a society, a transformation that cannot be negated by disinformation and personal attacks on me. What we accomplished\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 concretely and specifically\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 is my legacy to the people of Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
We opened up education, and we opened up markets<\/small><\/p>
We opened up opportunity and we opened up foreign investment.\u00a0 We opened economic development and opened up our rural villages.\u00a0 Above all, we opened minds.\u00a0 We opened up individual choice.<\/small><\/p>
Although the forces of the past once again conspired to bring down our elected government two years before our term was complete, history will be the final judge.<\/small><\/p>
Already, the camouflage of corruption used against my government on November 5th, 1996, while the world was once again distracted\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 this time by the American presidential election\u00a0 \u2014 has been exposed.<\/small><\/p>
Not one case of corruption has been filed against my family or myself in the year since the President ordered the military to surround the Prime Minister\u2019s House and ordered them to arrest and my family and associates.<\/small><\/p>
Not a single case to substantiate their unilateral assault on democracy.<\/small><\/p>
My husband is held prisoner, a hostage to my political career.<\/small><\/p>
People clearly involved in a conspiracy to kill my brother Murtaza have the audacity to accuse my husband of this heinous crime.<\/small><\/p>
If my brother\u2019s death is not horrible enough, I have to endure his murderers trying to frame my husband.<\/small><\/p>
The current regime in Pakistan blatantly violates the law, openly attacks the Supreme Court, refuses to allow dissidents to speak openly and freely, and beats, tortures, and imprisons its opponents.<\/small><\/p>
The goal of the regime is quite obvious\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 to establish a one-party dictatorship in Pakistan.\u00a0 They stand perilously close.\u00a0 Only I and others in the opposition stand in their way.\u00a0If the goals of those in power, those who supported military dictatorship in the past, is to keep my party out of politics, to keep us from speaking out on issues that we care strongly about, no amount of intimidation or coercion can shake our commitment to democracy and to our country.\u00a0 My husband shares my decision.<\/small><\/p>
The new fascist regime has already banned popular music on television in Pakistan, calling it decadent. It has made it compulsory for all girl students in the Punjab to wear the veil. And there is more.<\/small><\/p>
Under the new fascist regime in Pakistan, two judges have already been murdered; two parliamentary candidates,<\/small><\/p>
former members of the National Assembly, have been brutally killed in the streets.<\/small><\/p>
In the past we had land grabbing. Now, we have commercial and industrial grabbing. The regime targets industries, concocts cases, and then blackmails the owners into selling the businesses to its cronies. The case of Shon Bank is but one example \u2013 the pressure on the Ansari Sugar Mills another.<\/small><\/p>
And while the regime concentrates on political vendetta, the country heads toward economic collapse.<\/small><\/p>
Since I left office, the growth rate has halved, the deficit has risen by 40%, debt has increased by 16.6%, inflation has risen to 13%, and the rupee has been shrinking in value.<\/small><\/p>
Nearly 70,000 people have lost their jobs. In just six months, in just one province, 86 people committed suicide because of hunger and lack of employment. Tragically, one mother killed herself and two of her children because she could not feed them.<\/small><\/p>
The situation is worsening every minute.<\/small><\/p>
I have not lived through what I have lived through\u00a0 \u2014 my father\u2019s murder, my two brothers\u2019 murders, the years in prison, the sacking of our two democratic governments\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 to be intimidated into silence.\u00a0 We did not come this far to be silent.\u00a0 We did not come to this far to fail.<\/small><\/p>
And that is why, despite the persecution, I am determined not to let down those who believe in a democratic, modern, moderate, Muslim State.<\/small><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, our generation stands at the door way of history. Not only the door way of a new century, but the doorway of a new millennium.<\/small><\/p>
And as we prepare ourselves to meet this century, this new millennium, \u00a0I believe we need to clearly understand the challenges that still await us and await the century.<\/small><\/p>
I believe there are four simultaneous challenges the world faces today.<\/small><\/p>
First, the rise of ethnic and religious hatred, prejudice and intolerance.<\/small><\/p>
Second, the gulf of wealth and health emerging between the developed and developing world.<\/small><\/p>
Third, the growing sense of ennui and alienation by the people, in a complex and fast moving world, in the ability of governments to resolve the multi-faceted problems the new technological era faces.<\/small><\/p>
And fourth, the continuing gender inequity in all societies, west as well as east, that creates social division in the society as we move into the new century and third millennium.<\/small><\/p>
The only good thing I can say for the forty years of the Cold War is that its bipolar competition managed to suppress the ethnic and religious antagonisms that dominated the first half of this century.<\/small><\/p>
The simplistic dichotomy between the West and East blocs compartmentalized and clarified the world order.<\/small><\/p>
But this also had negative consequences.<\/small><\/p>
During the superpower confrontation, containing communism was paramount \u2013 even at the cost of democracy. Countries like Pakistan saw long periods of dictatorship. Decades when freedom was suppressed, the press censored and billions of dollars in military and economic assistance siphoned.<\/small><\/p>
Similar patterns existed in South and Central America, in Portugal and Spain, in Greece, in South Korea, and in large parts of the African continent.<\/small><\/p>
The dawn of the new Information Age helped change the destiny of nations caught in the grip of dictatorship, in the grip of authoritarianism.<\/small><\/p>
CNN, the first jewel in the crown of the Information Age, had a significant role to play in bringing about the end of communism.\u00a0 People in Eastern and Central Europe saw the beauty of freedom, the consumer choices that were available all over the world, and they asked a simple question:\u00a0 \u201cwhy not here?\u201d<\/small><\/p>
People in South Asia and South America\u00a0 saw free people making free choices not only in elections, but in professional and career choices, and they asked a simple question:\u00a0 \u201cwhy not here?\u201d With the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, many in the world believed that our forty five year thermonuclear nightmare was over, and a peace dividend could spread across the world. But as T.S. Eliot once observed, \u201cbetween the idea and the reality, falls the shadow.\u201d<\/small><\/p>
The twilight of the century has become Eliot\u2019s shadow.\u00a0 The idea, that Platonic cave of peace that we prayed for, has eluded us.<\/small><\/p>
Its elusion has left people impatient, frustrated, angry.<\/small><\/p>
Those who believed democracy meant automatic financial progress, a better standard of living, have lost faith in governmental systems. Ladies and gentlemen,\u00a0 the frustration of newly empowered electorates combined with the regeneration of long suppressed ethnic and religious tensions, creates a dangerous situation for the world as we approach the new millennium.<\/small><\/p>
The United States, in it\u2019s extraordinary moment of international predominance, has an obligation to act as a catalyst to promote democratic values, to insure self-determination, to enforce United Nations Resolutions, and to defuse potential international conflicts before they might engulf the world.<\/small><\/p>
One of these long simmering tensions is related to the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir. The valley of Kashmir has been occupied by India and denied the basic right of self-determination.\u00a0 Tens of thousands of men, women and children have lost their lives in the quest for freedom.<\/small><\/p>
It is time now, consistent with President Clinton\u2019s stated policy of preemptive crisis management, to facilitate an agreement between India and Pakistan so that the people of Kashmir and Jammu are finally allowed to determine their own political futures.<\/small><\/p>
\u00a0And, ladies and gentlemen, this is an era with increasing focus on Islam and the West. The entire world community, and specifically the United States, has a fundamental strategic interest in events in the Muslim World. All across the world, in the Middle East, in Southwest Asia, in Southeast Asia, in Africa, one billion Muslims are at the cross-roads.<\/small><\/p>
They must choose between progressivism and extremism.<\/small><\/p>
They must choose between education and ignorance.<\/small><\/p>
They must choose between the force of the new technologies and the forces of the old repression.<\/small><\/p>
Thus, one billion Muslims must choose between past and future.<\/small><\/p>
The United States must do everything within its power to insure that progressive, pluralistic Muslim countries like Pakistan are in a position to serve as models to the entire Islamic world.<\/small><\/p>
And Pakistan is also an important Asian country, at the crossroads to the strategic oil reserves of the Gulf and Central Asia, and to the markets of South and East Asia.<\/small><\/p>
In terms of demographics, in terms of production, in terms of consumption, in terms of markets, in terms of an expanding capitol intensive middle class, the Asian continent will set the tone, set the pace, and dominate the economic and geopolitical exigencies of the coming era.<\/small><\/p>
It is up to us\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 all of us\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 to determine the moral parameters of that new era\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 the coming decade, the coming century, the coming millennium.<\/small><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/small><\/p>
In less than 700 days, we will witness only for the third time in recorded history the momentous turning of the millennium.<\/small><\/p>
Where and what will we be, at that extraordinary moment, when the huge ball drops and the year 2000 lights up the winter sky?<\/small><\/p>
Will we be prisoners of the mind-set of the past, or will we be liberated to the endless possibilities of an historic future?<\/small><\/p>
Our generation, the first in recorded history, is fundamentally empowered with the control of its own destiny.<\/small><\/p>
The chains of the past \u2014 colonialism, ignorance, dictatorship and sexism\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 are broken.<\/small><\/p>
The world has finally accepted, in the words of Robert Browning, that \u201cignorance is not innocence, but sin.\u201d<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium where the gap between rich and poor states evaporates, where illiteracy and hunger and malnutrition are conquered.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium where human rights are universal, and self-determination unabridged anywhere on the planet. \u00a0I see a Third Millennium where civil dialogue is restored, where consensus and comity once again guide the national and international debate.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium where people\u2019s trust in government is restored, and government gets on with the business of addressing the pressing needs of the people.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium where every child is planned, wanted, nurture and supported.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium of tolerance and pluralism, where religions respect other religions.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium where the birth a girl child is welcomed with the same joy as the birth of a boy.<\/small><\/p>
This is the Third Millennium I see for my country\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 and for yours.\u00a0 For my children, and for yours.<\/small><\/p>
If we fail, we will have only ourselves to blame.<\/small><\/p>
For the crutches of history are gone.\u00a0 We walk on our own.<\/small><\/p>
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.<\/small><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Cover-up or Accountability Speech By former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at Seminar, Lahore, May 30, 1997 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCover-up or Accountability<\/strong><\/span>
Speech By former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
at Seminar, Lahore, May 30, 1997<\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen.<\/small><\/p>
Pakistan is facing economic hardship. This is due to the following factors:<\/small><\/p>
1. Drying up of foreign aid amounting to more than $4.2 billion.<\/small><\/li>
Supply side economics practised by three P.M.L regimes since 1985.<\/small><\/li>
Dollarisation of the economy introduced by the first Nawaz Sharif regime with the passage of the Finance Act 1992.<\/small><\/li>
Commercial loans taken for the motorway and other such luxurious projects by the Nawaz Sharif regime between 1990-1993.<\/small><\/li>
Increase of debt in ratio to G.D.P due to dollarisation and commercial debt.<\/small><\/li>
High population growth rate.<\/small><\/li>
Lack of investment in the social sectors.<\/small><\/li>
Failure to transfer from textile state to a software state keeping in mind the global trends;<\/small><\/li>
Targeting agriculture which has been the main stay of the economy.<\/small><\/li>
In times of hardship and adversity, the public at large resents ostentatious living\u00a0 by the rich and the privileged.<\/small><\/li><\/ol>Since much of the wealth acquired by the rich and privileged is through corrupt means, the public at large has risen around the banner of anti-corruption.<\/small><\/p>
Most of the corrupt money is due to bank defaulters, tax evaders, drug smugglers, arms smugglers, land allotment and demarcation and contracts for purchases or building purposes.<\/small><\/p>
The question before us today is whether the Nawaz Sharif regime has responded to the public demands or not.<\/small><\/p>
I would say\u00a0 NOT.<\/small><\/p>
Instead the Nawaz regime has used the brutal majority in the Parliament to give cover to the most corrupt elements while using the slogan of corruption to victimise its political opponents and impose a one party dictatorship in Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
\u00a0Let us address specific cases of massive criminal cover-up by the Nawaz regime:<\/small><\/p>
a) . Nawaz Sharif was accused by his relatives of plundering the family wealth. The prosecution colluded with Nawaz defence to protect the plunders of the family wealth.<\/small><\/p>
b) . According to the State Bank Report, the Prime Minister\u2019s family stood as the Nation\u2019s highest defaulters covering more than Rs. 5 Billion to the Pakistani Banks.<\/small><\/p>
The State Bank Report was presented to the National Assembly in September 1996 (it also showed family members of President Leghari as defaulters but not one family member of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto).<\/small><\/p>
Since assuming Office, the PML-N regime has threatened bank officials, ironically with the sword of \u201caccountability\u201d\u00a0 to \u201cwhiten\u201d the 5 Billion Rupees it owes to the Banks.<\/small><\/p>
According to newspaper reports, the Nawaz Sharif family has sued the banks for billions.<\/small><\/p>
As the prosecutor and the defendant are one and the same (Nawaz Sharif) it appears that the Nawaz Sharif family hopes to get away with the billions of rupees in tax payers money unless there is a re-trial.<\/small><\/p>
The income tax authorities that detected massive tax evasion by Nawaz Sharif family have been suspended, ironically on the grounds of being corrupt.<\/small><\/p>
When the prosecution and the defaulters are one and the same, the honest can be declared corrupt, the corrupt honest, and corruption can thrive to the detriment of Pakistan\u2019s name, honour, prestige, economy and people.<\/small><\/p>
On May 27, 1997 the High Court of Lahore headed by Justice Ejaz Nisar who, co-incidentally was promoted to the Supreme Court, a day later, acquitted Nawaz Sharif in the Houdaibia Engineering Works scandal. The Pakistan Peoples Party has demanded the re-trial of Mr. Nawaz Sharif in the scandal.<\/small><\/p>
It is one more demonstration of how the prosecution and the defence colluded to get the Nawaz Sharif family off the hook.<\/small><\/p>
Of course no action has been taken against the relatives of President Farooq Legahri who were shown as bank defaulters by the independent and autonomous State Bank of Pakistan .<\/small><\/p>
Despite massive new taxes, the Caretaker regime of President Leghari and the one party state of Nawaz Sharif has gathered less monthly revenues for Pakistan\u00a0 than the democratically elected government of Benazir Bhutto.<\/small><\/p>
The Pakistan Peoples Party has demanded that the Chief Justice of Pakistan\u00a0 constitute a high level judicial inquiry for Ehtisaab of missing billions, some say missing hundreds of billions between Rs. 124 -160 billions which are the expected revenue short falls.<\/small><\/p>
It is a very serious matter if the Benazir government recovered more per month for Pakistan with less taxes and the Leghari \u2013 Nawaz regime acquired less per month with more taxes. That means over a hundred billion is embezzled.<\/small><\/p>
No wonder the debt to GDP ratio which had fallen under the Benazir government has again risen.<\/small><\/p>
This is the most serious corruption.<\/small><\/p>
But it is getting the least attention .<\/small><\/p>
The heart of matter is that the problem of corruption can never be solved unless the following steps are taken.<\/small><\/p>
a) . All those with dollar accounts are asked to account for the source of their income.
b) . All those with Bearer Bonds are asked to account for their income.<\/small><\/p>
When Pakistan boosts money laundering schemes, when stinking corrupt, black money is given sanctity and protection under the dollars accounts and bearer certificates, we will never be able to tackle the problem of corruption.<\/small><\/p>
It will remain a hollow slogan and a convenient sword for a political agenda of victimisation, persecution and politics of distortion and dis-information.<\/small><\/p>
There is one more need.<\/small><\/p>
That is to separate the prosecution from the defence.<\/small><\/p>
When the Defence and the Investigation and Prosecution are all answerable to the government, then collusion will take place. The corrupt will go scot free and the honest will be punished as part of the political agenda.<\/small><\/p>
As Prime Minister I had proposed in the National Assembly that a special parliamentary committee should be formed by the leader of the House and the leader of the Opposition with equal representation.<\/p>
The Investigative and Prosecution teams should be chosen by this committee so that there is a check and balance.<\/small><\/p>
The then opposition declined my offer. I made it because I had nothing to hide.<\/small><\/p>
I again propose:-\u00a0 let the present Prime Minister and the former Prime Minister form a committee with equal representation.<\/small><\/p>
Let each of us pick teams of investigators and prosecutors and let us bring the charges against each other in an even handed and just manner.<\/small><\/p>
And let these teams have security of tenure and guaranteed protection so that undue pressure can not be applied on them.<\/small><\/p>
And let the dollar accounts and FEBCs have no protection.<\/small><\/p>
Then and then only will we be able to differentiate between clear money and dirty money.<\/small><\/p>
With the collusion of investigative prosecution and defence, the judicial system cannot convict the ruling classes.<\/small><\/p>
With the collusion of dependent investigation, prosecution and Judges whose tenure lies in one hand, false cases can be fabricated.<\/small><\/p>
The promotion of judges should also depend not on partisan consideration but on bi-partisan consideration based on an independent and defined criteria.<\/small><\/p>
After all judges are only human. Even if not consciously, unconsciously they are affected when handling matters about prospects of promotions and post retirement jobs.<\/small><\/p>
As we have seen, judges today can also become Senators.<\/small><\/p>
Surely this must be a good development but when a judge who exonerated the Nawaz Sharif regime of the co-operatives scandal is made a Senator, eye-brows will be raised.<\/small><\/p>
Therefore the appointment and promotion of judges should also be made by a committee with equal representation by:<\/small><\/p>
i). The leader of the House
ii). The leader of the Opposition
iii). The Chief Justice of Supreme Court accompanied by the senior Judges of Supreme Court or the senior Judges of the concerned High Court as the case may be.
iv). The President of the Pakistan\u00a0 Bar Council or Provincial Bar Councils as the case may be.<\/small><\/p>
This committee should consider names only according to an established criteria. Without necessary reforms the public disenchantment will grow with the executive, with the judiciary and with the intelligence agencies, which have been involved in a partisan political agenda.<\/small><\/p>
This will lead to a collapse of institutions. The revolutions in Iran and Afghanistan have had an impact on the region.<\/small><\/p>
Unless we deal with the corruption issue squarely and justly and unless we reform our systems and structure, the public at large will become cynical, alienated, dis-enchanted and turn away from moderate, democratic leaders who have failed in their duties.<\/small><\/p>
Now I would like to turn to the anti corruption drive we have witnessed in the last hundred days.<\/p>
First there has been the massive cover up which I have already talked about.<\/small><\/p>
Next comes the programme of political agenda of persecution in the pursuit of a one party state.<\/small><\/p>
Action has been claimed through a media trial, torture by intelligence agencies of sleep deprivation and disorientation, and repeated arrests against some of the following:<\/small><\/p>
i). Asif Ali Zardari, twice elected MNA, twice a cabinet minister, Senator elect, spouse\u00a0 of the former Prime Minister. Called the king of corruption he has not been charged with one corruption crime. Twice freed by the courts, he has been kept behind the bars for seven months.<\/small><\/p>
The Investigating Agencies are investigating:<\/small><\/p>
a). Whether he killed his brother-in-law. Four investigating officers; two SDMs and four judges have been changed for refusing to frame him;<\/small><\/p>
b). For sending abroad personal affects which did not belong to him and which any way is not a criminal offence.<\/small><\/p>
The Investigation has been stuck up for seven months because the FIA do not know whether the MD at the time was Farooq Umar or Mr. Tiwana<\/small><\/p>
Are we expected to believe this? Or are investigating agencies deliberately delaying the case in the hope of \u201cbreaking\u201d of few people into fabricating evidence in exchange for release.<\/small><\/p>
ii). Mr. Hakim Ali Zardari, father-in-law, thrice elected member of Parliament since 1970, former Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and the Finance Committee, head of the Zardari tribe. Arrested, thrown behind bars. Released by court. Case being investigated? The one for which he was acquitted three years ago when Nawaz Sharif regime No. 1 was in Office.<\/small><\/p>
iii). Munawar Talpur, brother-in-law, Member of Parliament five times, son of an elected member of Parliament. Belongs to one of the oldest family of Sindh. Locked up in police custody sent to Hyderabad jail. Hand cuffed even though the Ehtesaab Commission has not ordered his arrest.<\/p>
iv). Ms Naheed Khan\u00a0 Political Secretary and close aide of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Arrested twice. Sleep deprivation, torture. Involved in third case of giving jobs in PIA. Considering that all jobs have been given according to a laid down procedure, one presumes that the precedent is being set to haul up the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff formerly Chairman of PIA and the present Prime Minister. Not charged with corruption.<\/small><\/p>
v). Ahmad Sadiq, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Arrested and bailed out thrice, harassed, hounded persecuted, this 65 years old official has been victimised repeatedly to make him give false statements . Not charged with corruption.<\/small><\/p>
vi). Jamote & Najam, government official charged with not making money but fixing jobs.<\/small><\/p>
vii). Najamuddin Sheikh, Foreign Secretary under Benazir Bhutto. Out of job because he was appointed by Benazir Bhutto. Penalised as part of political agenda.<\/small><\/p>
viii). Zafar A. Hilaly, Addll. Secretary Foreign Affairs, appointed by Benazir Bhutto. Out of job and penalised as a part of political persecution.<\/small><\/p>
ix). Masood Sharif, head of Intelligence Bureau under Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Sleep deprivation torture, imprisoned to get him to frame Asif Zardari. Arrested not on corruption but murder investigation. Political persecution.<\/small><\/p>
x). DIG Shoaib Siddle, SSP Wajid Durani and others who brought peace to Karachi and saved Pakistan , suspended or arrested because they happened to be posted in routine to the wrong place at a wrong time.<\/small><\/p>
Charge \u2013 not corruption but investigation for murder of Mir Murtaza Bhutto. Persecuted in the hope that they might help the regime, fabricate a case to protect the killers of Murtaza Bhutto.<\/p>
Suspended or imprisoned for seven long months as part of the political vendetta.<\/small><\/p>
xi). Mrs. Raana Sheikh, MD, PTV sacked from Pakistan\u00a0 Television as a sop to extremist elements. Being threatened with false cases for liberal television coverage. Political persecution.<\/p>
xii).Wajid Shamsul Hassan, former High Commissioner to Her Majesty\u2019s Court. Twice freed by the courts but not the authorities. He, who got the Labour Party in Britain to make solution of Kashmir dispute part of its agenda, punished and penalised for being a Benazir appointee. Suffering from diabetes, kidney and heart problems. Denied medical treatment. Political persecution.<\/small><\/p>
xiii). Ghulam Asghar, head of FIA, suspended on non specified corruption charges, as a sop to extremist elements because he extradited Ramzi Yousaf of the New York Trade Centre Bombing.<\/small><\/p>
vix). Rehman Malik, Addl. Director General FIA, arrested to satisfy extremist, for extradited Ramzi Yousaf. In prison for seven months for allegedly stealing one car. Man who\u00a0 led anti-corruption drive of PPP against Nawaz Sharif and PML. Political persecution.<\/p>
xv). Zafar Leghari, former Minister,\u00a0 from Chief Minister Sindh\u2019s home district. So called accountability to settle district politics scores.<\/small><\/p>
xvi). Nisar Khuhro, leader of opposition in Sindh Assembly, charge with murder of a man who died of a heart attack. Corruption or political persecution.<\/small><\/p>
These are some examples \u2013 but they are at the heart of the so called anti-corruption drive.<\/small><\/p>
It is obvious that each one of them is related to or worked for the former Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.<\/small><\/p>
The public have right to say cover up and vendetta in the name of accountability.<\/small><\/p>
The public have a right to be dismayed.<\/small><\/p>
There are three other cases worth mentioning.<\/p>
Senator Saifur Rehman\u2019s investigation into a so called sex scandal. This raises moral questions and valid political questions.<\/small><\/p>
Is the purpose of Saifur Rehman Accountability Cell to inquire into bank defaulters, tax invaders and corrupt elements or is the purpose to inquire into private lives of different individuals?<\/small><\/p>
If so should not Qazi Hussain Ahmad be made incharge of the Sex Scandal Cell in the Prime Minister\u2019s Secretariat so that the colourful character in the Prime Minister\u2019s team can also be investigated.<\/small><\/p>
Or is the purpose of Senator Saifur Rehman and the intelligence agencies (whom\u00a0 he is using and abusing) to fulfil a political agenda of persecution, a campaign of dis information and distortion, and a massive criminal cover\u00a0 up of real corruption.<\/small><\/p>
The two cases of corruption that seven months have thrown up are the Nayyer Bari case and the Schon Group case.<\/small><\/p>
If the FIA has indeed found Rs. 1 billion in Bari\u2019s account, as reported in the media, why has the case not been prosecuted with.<\/small><\/p>
As far as the Schon Group is concerned,\u00a0 it was lavishly favoured by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Nawaz-1 Privatisation.<\/small><\/p>
The regime should disclose what the Schon Group got from Nawaz-1 and Benazir-2. This will clearly show who favoured who.<\/small><\/p>
The Schon Group was not the only group to whom Nawaz gave public sector units. List of all those that Nawaz-1 gave public sector units should be published to show real picture. Many of them did not pay their instalments. In the case of Suraj Ghee Mills, they shut the Factory, abandoned the workers and fled with the money.<\/small><\/p>
The Schon Group is a respected business group of Pakistan. If any thing it should have a grudge against the PPP. The Schon Group got EXIM Bank approval, such is its international standing, for the financing of an oil refinery. It was unable to build the oil refinery despite EXIM Bank backing because the banks in Pakistan did not help and the Benazir government did not interfere in the workings of banks.<\/small><\/p>
To sum up the hundred days of the Nawaz Sharif regime, one would conclude that there is no attempt to eliminate corruption.<\/small><\/p>
In fact corrupt practices are being whitened.<\/small><\/p>
And political opponents persecuted
To end corruption we need<\/small><\/p>
1.\u00a0 Reform of judiciary.
2.\u00a0 Bipartisan leadership of prosecution and investigation to prevent collusion.
3.\u00a0 End of money laundering schemes.<\/small><\/p>
\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Clash of Civilizations: The Centre for World Dialogue by Benazir Bhutto CYPRUS \u00a0\u2013 30th October 1997 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tClash of Civilizations:<\/strong><\/span>
The Centre for World Dialogue<\/strong><\/span>
by Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
CYPRUS \u00a0\u2013 30th October 1997<\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>
It is a pleasure to meet you today on the island of Cyprus, which is a most appropriate venue to discuss the complex political, cultural, moral and religious intersections between Islam and the West.<\/p>
It was only four years ago that Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington shocked the world with his contentious monograph on the subject entitled \u201cClash of Civilizations\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>
As a Muslim woman who has been educated in the United States and the United Kingdom, I was initially appalled by the specter of inevitable conflict that he outlined. I particularly disagreed with Huntington\u2019s unshakable pessimism about the emerging clash between the west and an increasingly self-confident and economically independent Islamic world.<\/p>
Four years after I heard Prof. Huntington speak at Davos, I have moderated my own initial response to Prof. Huntington\u2019s thesis of a clash between civilizations. I do not subscribe to its inevitability but his article has served as a useful mechanism to bring to the forefront of intellectual attention significant issues that warrant debate.<\/p>
Whether we like it or not, whether it must be so or not, the world seems to be increasingly looking at the values and mores of the West, and the values and traditions of Islam, as mutually exclusive and confrontational.<\/p>
Let\u2019s explore these issues to day.<\/p>
The world is very different place now than it was just ten years ago. At that point the nuclear threat was omnipresent. The Cold War raged on between the West and the Soviet bloc, reaching a boiling point in the battle for self determination for Afghanistan.<\/p>
It was the common stand of the Islamic world through the Fifties, and Sixties, and Seventies and Eighties that was central to the containment of Communism on the Asian continent.<\/p>
It was victory of the Mujahideen, the Islamic freedom fighters, supported by the forces of freedom all over the world, that extinguished the fading embers of a dying system.<\/p>
Islamic resistance to the Soviets in Afghanistan proved, once and for all, that the Soviet Union could not, with all of its military might, suppress the forces of history and the forces of justice.<\/p>
Afghanistan proved that might does not make right. Afghanistan proved that at least sometimes, and some place on this earth, right makes might.<\/p>
I remember vividly my feelings on February 15th, 1989 when as Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan I witnessed the final withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. The Western and Islamic world jointly celebrated this victory for freedom and for democracy.<\/p>
Little did we realize at the glorious moment, that the victory in Afghanistan would be a catalyst to a curious corollary. The West\u2019s interest in, and need for alliance, with the Islamic world would steadily deteriorate with time!<\/p>
Interdependence gave way to indifference. Indifference has, in many ways, been replaced by contempt.<\/p>
Many in the west would like to think of us as terrorists and fanatics. We are neither, Muslims expect nothing from the West but basic respect. Mine is a religion that sanctifies Abraham, Moses and Jesus as Prophets.<\/p>
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Communist threat united the Western and Muslim world. The Western world was rich, the Muslim world poor. The alliance between the West and the East led to the transfer of vast resources from one continent to another. In Pakistan alone, we received $ 4.2 billion of military and economic assistance, which sustained our economy. Other Muslim countries saw an influx of finances from one of the two super powers. The end of Super power politics heralded the end of the world of aid. Suddenly Muslim countries were economically at a disadvantage. The end of superpower politics also heralded the end of an alliance. The West no longer needed the Muslim countries to contain communism. But the end of superpower politics heralded something far more significant: a power vacuum. Each generation and each civilization needs to unite against a common threat. A vacuum cannot remain a vacuum for long. The power vacuum caused by the end of the cold war coincided with a historical economic shift.<\/p>
Since the end of World War II, newly emergent independent nation states had been involved in national reconstruction. While the economies of the West appeared to have reached saturation point, the economies of the Muslim and Christian world seemed poised for an economic take off. Resources are finite. Therefore the transfer of resources from one part of the world to another indicates the enrichment of one part at the expense of another. The demise of Communism lifted the strategic blinkers and opened the optic vision of a world of markets. Suddenly the West realized that the inexorable march of history would announce a reversal of roles. Whereas in the past era, the Muslim countries (and Confucian countries) were dependent on the West for territorial security, suddenly the West was on the brink of an era of dependence on Asian\/Muslim\/Confucian markets. Historical fears reared their heads, for the West meets Islam at the doorway of Europe. Irrespective of whether it looks East or West, it sees the world of Islam. A world that had once knocked on its doors and threatened conquest. The Islamic\/Asian World on the other hand, feels let down at the unceremonious way in which the alliance and with it the concurrent economic assistance ended. Conscious of its economic potential, the world of Islam wonders whether the West will allow the principles of Free Trade to work when free trade could mean a disadvantage to a dominant West and an advantage to a rising East.<\/p>
Many Muslim countries view global values such as child labour, Human Rights, Environment as attempts by the West to erect invisible barriers to prevent free competition. Of course, Muslim countries subscribe to the global values aimed at protecting human rights, promoting the environment and ending child labour. But when they see a West selective in its application of global values, they wonder whether the West wishes to promote a new global partnership or use these values as a tool to tame markets. This is a serious misgiving which needs tackling. Many Pakistanis wonder why the West is vocal about human rights violations in Burma but silent about human rights violations in Pakistan, Kashmir and other parts of the Muslim world. The Muslim World embraced the economics of deregulation and privatization. Foreign funds were invested in its markets. But now there is a growing fear whether these foreign funds will be used for economic or political purposes \u2013 for instance, will contracts be given on merit or will countries be punished with withdrawal of foreign funds leading to erosion of balance of payments if a contract is not given to a favoured company in a favoured country.<\/p>
I read an article in Vanity Fair (July 1997) that the rise of Kabila in Zaire had something to do with the grant of mining rights to a Western country. Let me give you the case of Pakistan. As Prime Minister I tried to diversify Pakistan markets between the West, the Gulf and East Asia. Although there was a quantum leap forward for Western companies during my stewardship of Pakistan, at least one diplomat considered me a threat to the commercial and agricultural interests of his country, although his country got billions more in contracts during my tenure than any other. As an Asian and a Muslim I wanted the Gulf and East Asia to have a share of our market. And many in Pakistan believe I paid a heavy price for that.<\/p>
The West has a vital stake in the markets of the Muslim World. That stake gives rise to fears and insecurities in the minds of Western analysts. The Muslim countries welcome deregulation but also see it as a vulnerability for the powerful western companies to dictate contracts or for their countries to dictate a political agenda. This mutual suspicion is at an incipient stage. Prof. Huntington must be credited with scenting it so precisely at a time when the rest of us were caught up in the warm glow of global brotherhood, peace and harmony.<\/p>
To compound the rise of mutual suspicion is the rise of the Information age. The Information age is dominated by Western cultural moves. These Western moves are at a variance with the cultural taste of the Muslim countries. Many in the Muslim countries believe that Western culture is characterized by the indulgent individual. An indulgent individual which puts himself\/herself above church, spouse, children. Divorce and drug rates are cited as examples of families falling apart. The East believes that the individual needs to sacrifice individual craving at the alter of the family or the community\u2019s needs. Thus there is a gulf between the perceived roles of individuals in the West and the East. Then there is a threat to the concept of identity. Scholars have written that we are not only moving into a new millennium but into a new age. An age where individuals will be freed from the straitjacket of the nation state itself, where individuals will be able to access hospitals, schools, contacts and contracts through the computer. The global citizen is emerging from the chrysalis. This is change in a big way. And change is always resisted by the status quo.<\/p>
Therefore the Western dominance in international media threatens the age-old traditions, identities and values in the Muslim world leading to another fault line of suspicion. Does this mean that the civilizations must clash? I believe the tension prints for a clash are there, but that a clash is not inevitable. This is an age of communication. We need better communication between the two worlds. We need, not to dictate, but make concessions. We need to show greater sensibility on both sides and we need most of all to develop a universal morality for a global age where the global citizen will emerge. Leaders on both sides of the two civilizations need to show sensibility.<\/p>
Let me give you an example. Muslims were horrified at the carnage in Bosnia. Outrage that the West which had acted so swiftly in the Gulf War to secure oil supplies, now watched silently as Muslim blood washed the streets of Sarejevo. As Prime Minister, I considered it my duty to help end the ghastly genocide and to reduce a potential gulf between the West and the East. With Prime Minister Ciller of Turkey, I flew to Bosnia to highlight, as Mothers, our concern for the innocent children of Bosnia. I took up the issue with European and American leaders. I found them receptive particularly President Clinton, Chirac and Republican leader Bob Dole to my contention that delay in a cease-fire would lead to a backlash in Muslim countries. Our efforts paid off in the form of the Dayton Accord. When I met President Chirac upon his election, he mentioned Bosnia to me, and what I had said to him earlier. Europe and America alerted by a Muslim leader showed the sensibility required to act.<\/p>
Similarly in the case of the genocide in Jammu & Kashmir, my government highlighted the issue. And we were successful. President Clinton\u2019s Deputy National Security Advisor told me that when re-elected, President Clinton would focus more intently on South Asia. And that is what is happening now. Sensibility, communication, compromise are the key to building an understanding between the West and Islam. Many Muslims are perturbed about the manner in which Prime Minister Mahathir has been portrayed in the Western dominated media. There is a perception, whether true or false is irrelevant, that the West is out to get Mahathir. It is no secret that many in the West viewed with dismay the rising deficit in Malaysia and the grandiose projects being undertaken by the government there.<\/p>
However the Muslim perception is not that the Western investors withdrew funds from Malaysia because of an economy going off track. The perception is that Mahathir led the ASEAN fight to include Burma on its economic frequency despite Western warning. And for that he had to be punished. So the signal went out for the Western investors to withdraw funds, send the Malaysian currency into a tailspin and rock the Malaysian economy. I could see the Malaysian storm breaking and had I been Prime Minister I would have tried for Pakistan to promote a greater understanding between the agenda of the West and the agenda of the East. I give this example to illustrate once again that sensibility, communication and a spirit of compromise are necessary to promote a better understanding between Islam and the West in an age of transition, in an age of transfer of resources and in the Information age.<\/p>
No doubt the West fears that a growing Muslim world will begin to flex its muscles in two to three decades. But attempts by the West to tame the Muslims through the tools of deregulation and free market vulnerabilities will surely backfire. Rapping the knuckles of leaders that do not fall into line will widen the gulf of understanding. Building bridges of understanding will lead to peace, harmony and stability. One billion Muslims stand at the crossroads today. One road leads to intolerance. Another leads to accommodation. There are voices of madness on both sides. There are those who say Muslims are barbarians who lock up their women. There are others who say the West is decadent, obscene and vulgar. In every society there is an extreme. Men and women of reason in the Information age need to tread the path of moderation for global understanding.<\/p>
And I come to Cyprus to say that we in the West and in the Islamic World have a choice to make: For we are about to cross, together, into a new century, and into a new millennium. Whether we cross the millennium with acceptance, or fear, is very much in our control. For Islam and for the West, the forces of change, the thrust of modernity and technology, the strength of tolerance, the inevitability of freedom and liberty, and the sanctity of human rights, are all converging on this time \u2014 on our generation \u2014 providing an extraordinary opportunity to move the world.<\/p>
In just 791 days from today, the calendar will mark the new millennium. We will have to determine whether this is just a change in date, or a change in attitude, in spirit, in hope. Let us determine to make that choice with reason and pragmatism in the light of an alliance that has ended with the cold war but left behind the embers of a warm understanding upon which much can yet be built.<\/p>
Thanking you ladies and gentlemen.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t International Leadership Day Benazir Bhutto, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Goteborg, Sweden \u2013 25 November 1997 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInternational Leadership Day<\/strong><\/span>
Benazir Bhutto, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan<\/strong><\/span>
Goteborg, Sweden \u2013 25 November 1997<\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen.<\/small><\/p>
I wish to thank you for your kind invitation to speak before you today in Goteborg, and for your extraordinarily warm welcome.\u00a0 Sweden is a country with great significance to me. I was only the Second Prime Minister of Pakistan ever to visit your country. The first was my father, the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who came here in 1976. Thankfully, our two nations have enjoyed extremely close and friendly relations for almost a half century. We in Pakistan will never forget that Sweden was the first Scandinavian country to recognize and establish diplomatic relations with Pakistan in\u00a0 1949. I should also note that a significant number of Pakistanis have chosen Sweden as their second home. Seeing the beauty of Goteborg and the countryside surrounding it, and feeling the unique warmth and openness of your people, I can fully appreciate this choice.<\/small><\/p>
\u00a0Ladies and gentlemen, as many of you know, I am a daughter of the East who was educated and spent\u00a0 significant parts of my life in the West. In a sense, I am a bridge of two cultures, two worlds, two pasts.<\/small><\/p>
As a child I attended a private school in Karachi, run by Catholic nuns, sheltered from much of the turmoil of early Pakistan, a shy and insulated girl.\u00a0 When I was but sixteen years old, my father determined I should not be denied the Islamic right of knowledge, and thus he sent me abroad for higher education, and I was admitted into America\u2019s premier university, Harvard College.<\/small><\/p>
All my life, and even spiritually to this day, it was my father who guided me, who mentored me, who encouraged me, who gave me the strength and confidence to express my views. His soul and his values are alive within me, wherever I go.<\/small><\/p>
It is interesting that the person who insured that I would break lose of the constrains of my culture and gender, was not a woman, but a man. A very great and a very wise man. The man who was and is the greatest role model in my life \u2014 Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.<\/small><\/p>
My travel to America when I was 16 was a true awakening. I walked into a very new world. I was alone for the first time in my life. The pampered child was suddenly cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing \u2014 independent and self-sufficient. I was exposed to the most brilliant and respected professors, to the most compelling ideas, to a demanding curriculum, to the most accomplished students in all of North America.<\/small><\/p>
I was for the first time in my life living together with strangers, in a dormitory of peers, where I had to take care of myself but also participate in an intellectual village. It was the first time in my life that I was in an environment where women were treated as full participants in society in every way.\u00a0 I was also thrust into a political environment that was unlike anything I had ever known. I came to Harvard in 1969, at the heart of the Vietnam War, with our campus, and all of America, in political and social turmoil. In time, I, like many of my classmates, took to the streets, took to the barricades, demanding an end to an unjust war. And while I was in America for those four years, I participated and observed in a miracle of democracy \u2014 I saw the power of the people changing policies, changing leaders, and changing history.<\/small><\/p>
It was that early experience, possibly more than anything else, that shaped my political being, that unalterably shaped my faith in democracy.\u00a0 From Harvard I spent almost four years in Oxford, where I became the first foreign woman to be elected as President of the Oxford Union. It was my first election, my first victory.<\/small><\/p>
I had been told that as a foreigner, I could not win and should not run.\u00a0 I had been told that as a woman, I could not win, and should not run.\u00a0 I knew I could win, and I did.<\/small><\/p>
Thus, I learned a valuable lesson: never acquiesce to obstacles, especially those that are constructed of bigotry, intolerance and blind, inflexible tradition. I also learned another critical lesson in life \u2014 to follow my own political instincts. I returned to Pakistan in 1977, hoping to pursue a career in the Foreign Service.\u00a0 I also had hoped I might become an editor.\u00a0\u00a0 But circumstances would soon unfold that would dictate the path of the rest of my life\u00a0 and change the direction of the future of\u00a0 my country.<\/small><\/p>
Within one week of my return from Oxford, a military coup toppled the elected democratic government of my father. Our house was surrounded by tanks. We did not know if we would live or die, if we would survive to see the dawn of the next day\u2019s sun. A brutal, criminal dictator had overturned a free and fair election, imposed martial law, and suspended all constitutional rights within my country. My father was arrested, .released, re-arrested and finally hanged.<\/small><\/p>
My party was targeted.\u00a0 Our leaders were murdered, tortured, imprisoned.\u00a0 The lucky ones went into exile. A political vacuum was created with the imprisonment of my Father and his colleagues. In this vacuum, I saw many members turn towards me to lead rallies, tour the country and seek a restoration of democracy.<\/small><\/p>
I did not seek leadership, it was thrust upon me. Tragedy, political circumstances, and the forces of history rallied a nation around me.\u00a0 I was fortunate in my campaign to lead my nation, as my name was recognized throughout the country \u2014 and the same people who supported my Father\u2019s vision of a modern Islamic democracy rallied around me to continue the struggle.<\/small><\/p>
I was fortunate in that a political party with roots in all four federating units of the country presented me with a national platform from which to launch not only the struggle for democracy but my own political career. I also was fortunate that my father had provided me with a strong education, and the means to be conomically independent. This allowed me the time and resources to strengthen our political base.<\/small><\/p>
Exposure to modern, liberal ideas and a liberal education in some of the best schools in the world certainly helped me in preparing to play the leader\u2019s role.\u00a0 But it was the real, practical education which I received from my father, who took great interest in my upbringing and initiating me in debates on major contemporary issues, which prepared me most.<\/small><\/p>
When I reflect on the road I have traveled, I recall my early aspirations to become an editor, and as mentioned, my interest in the Foreign Service \u2013 my intentions were never to become involved in politics. However, now I realize I had no control over the events which would quickly change my fate, and my course was no longer mine.\u00a0 I was catapulted into politics by the force of circumstance. When my father was executed, and the Party rudderless, I was called upon by the Party and the people to take charge and pursue the mission of my father for freedom and constitutional rule. The Pakistan Peoples Party provided me, a woman, the opportunity to lead the nation because the PPP had an enlightened, liberal message, proclaiming the equality of men and women.<\/small><\/p>
This was not an easy task at a time when the military dictatorship insisted that a woman\u2019s place was behind the house and behind the veil. And not in the work place\u00a0 However the different approach between our opponents and supporters on the role of women in a Muslim Society helped one in enlarging and co-opting a liberal constituency in a Muslim country where tradition and tribal customs had played a pre dominant role.<\/small><\/p>
Many believe that South Asian women leaders have inherited leadership through assassination of loved ones in the family.\u00a0 The other part is that each of us had to win our badges of honors by paying a political price.
I paid that political price, spending nearly six years in one form of imprisonment or another, mostly in solitary confinement, in an all pervasive climate of fear and dread. Senior members of the party could not reconcile themselves to being led by \u201ca chit of a woman\u201d to use their phrase. Bruising battles for leadership continued with the youth and second tier of the leadership supporting me over the senior leaders.<\/small><\/p>
The downside of a politics born of struggle was the inadequate exposure I, or my young supporters had, to the members and working of the elite and influential groups in the countries social and economic and administrative structure.\u00a0 Due to the dread of the mixing with the opposition, members of the business community, bureaucracy military and judiciary kept clear of me.<\/small><\/p>
I had little experience of government, having not worked myself up the ladder as a democratic system allows. And this would remain a vulnerability when the party achieved power. However, I gained much experience in organizational and managerial matters in running the PPP, the nation\u2019s largest and most popular party, against all obstacles.<\/small><\/p>
However, I found that it was not easy for the elite groups to accept the woman as a leader, particularly one which, perforce to circumstances, they did not know my youth, went against me too. I remember, when I was elected my supporters were jubilant but not my opponents.<\/small><\/p>
A leading religious scholars from a leading Muslim country issued an edict declaring that it was un-Islamic for a woman to become chief executive of a country. Members of the religious parties and conservative minded segments of the public embarked on a mission create a religious frenzy against the newly elected government.<\/small><\/p>
Pamphlets were distributed claiming it was the religious duty of the country to assassinate me as I was a woman who had usurped a man\u2019s place in an Islamic society. Several assassination attempts were made including one within the first month of my election at the Lahore airport.\u00a0 A group of scholars within the organization of Muslim countries embarked on an agenda of having Pakistan thrown out of the OIC because it had violated Islamic tradition by voting for a woman. Luckily I learnt of this plan and pre-empted it.<\/small><\/p>
The removal of the government was branded a religious mission from the ++++++++++++. Every Friday, from the mosques, sermons were given inciting the people to overthrow the government.\u00a0 However, having a popular base meant having the popular support. We proved in Pakistan that the barriers of tradition could be broken. We proved in Pakistan that a woman could be elected chief executive in a Muslim country.\u00a0 It was a victory for women every where especially Muslim women.<\/small><\/p>
And although my opponents fulminated, calling me an Indian agent and Israeli agent, the people supported me.\u00a0 In November of 1988 my party was swept into office and I was sworn in as the first Muslim woman to head a government anywhere in the world.\u00a0 I was 35 years old.\u00a0 We immediately embarked on an ambitious program of political liberalization, an end to press censorship, legalization of trade unions, a commitment to the long neglected social sector with emphasis on education, health delivery and women\u2019s rights, and macroeconomic reform.<\/small><\/p>
Despite the peoples support, after just 20 months, the entrenched Establishment that had supported the dictatorship, that had refused to bow to the people\u2019s will, toppled my government, acting under the cover and distraction of Saddam\u2019s invasion of Kuwait.\u00a0 However, the new government brought in by the security apparatus of the country fail to give Pakistan stability. It launched bitter battle of persecution against its political opponents. The result was that anarchy and chaos gripped the Nation. Pakistan was on the threshold of being declared a terrorist state and our economy was on the verge of collapse. My party did not lose its faith in one nor did I lose my faith in politics or the people of my country. Within the three years I was re-elected a Prime Minister of Pakistan.<\/small><\/p>
In reflection, I realized that being a leader in a large developing country that had been stifled by the forces of dictatorship was difficult in itself. But being a woman made the task even more formidable.\u00a0 I faced greater challenges than I could have ever imagined. It is not easy being a woman in Pakistan, and in many ways in Sweden. Still more difficult is being a woman politician, a woman parliamentarian, in our two countries.\u00a0 Moreover, for women leaders, the obstacles are greater, the demands are greater, the barriers are greater, and the double standards are greater.<\/small><\/p>
And ultimately, the expectations of those who look at us as role models are greater as well. For all women, it is critical that we succeed. Unfortunately, there are still many men who would just as soon have us fail, to reinforce their myopic stereotypes restricting the role of women.<\/small><\/p>
I recall with great empathy the words of Lady Margaret Thatcher, who once said:
\u201cIf a woman is tough, she is pushy. If a man is tough, gosh, he\u2019s a great leader.\u201d<\/small><\/p>
How often, in Pakistan, Sweden, all over the world, we have heard characterizations of women in politics as pushy, as aggressive, as cunning, as shrewd, as strident. These words, if applied to men in politics, would be badges of honour! Those of us who have chosen to serve in business, government and other professional careers have broken new ground.<\/small><\/p>
We have broken glass ceilings, we have broken the stereotypes, and we have been and continue to be prepared to go the extra mile, to be judged by unrealistic standards, to be held more accountable. Therefore, women leaders have to outperform, outdistance and out manage men at every level.<\/small><\/p>
We should not shrink from this responsibility, we should welcome it. Welcome it on behalf of women all over the world, in cities and rural villages, in the great universities and those still struggling under the miasma of illiteracy. For all who have suffered before, and for all who come after us, we are privileged to be in this special position, in this special time, with unique opportunities to change our countries, our continents, to change the world and inevitably change the future.<\/small><\/p>
I have not found that there are any male leaders who will agree there are differences in styles between male and female leaders. But we female leaders, and I speak from my conversations with other women leaders, believe that female leaders are stronger and more determined. I personally believe that women leaders are more generous and more forgiving.\u00a0 Male leaders tend to be more inflexible, and more rigid.\u00a0 However, ironically, I have met many male leaders who feel that women leaders are actually more rigid.<\/small><\/p>
Male leaders can learn from female counterparts how to keep people together. Women leaders have a tradition and an historical legacy of bringing up families and creating a sense of family community and unity.
Women have a greater natural and inherent strength in keeping a team united and this is what men leaders need to from women leaders. I asked a male leader what we female leaders could learn from them and he replied in a simple word \u201cintrigues\u201d.\u00a0 Men know how to intrigue and women are not so good at intrigues.<\/small><\/p>
Just as men and women can learn from one another, so can leaders from different cultures, regions and religions. We in East, feel that there are greater complexities in the politics of the East than there are politics of the West. The leaders in the West can therefore learn from the leaders in the East how to deal with more unstructured and complex social, economic and political realities. In leading people from different cultures, a leader has to keep in view and have a sensitivity toward the values of different cultural groups and make sure that the different cultural groups feel that their cultural values and mores remain intact.<\/small><\/p>
A leader must also strengthen the common points to bind the different cultures together.\u00a0 He or she must make pluralistic diversity into a mosaic that is strengthened, not weakened, by differences amongst our people. In the West, people often take free choice, free speech, and human rights for granted, as a matter of right. In the East, the leaders have not only had to battle the different political parties, but also resist the entrenched establishment.<\/small><\/p>
Since many countries in the East have had long experiences of military dictatorships, their security apparatus is strong and often resists change. Civil\/military relations is something that the East and West can learn from each other. I have been asked what political leaders from the West can learn from the East? The west needs to appreciate that the East, and I speak of the Muslim Nations in the East, or part of the same Judaic, Christian Civilization.<\/small><\/p>
Ours is a religion that sanctifies Abraham, Moses and Jesus as Prophets. When the Jews were being persecuted all over Europe, it is within the Islamic societies that they sought sanctuary\u2026and they were welcomed as brothers and sisters, to live free and prosperous. This is the history of Islam.\u00a0 This is the reality of Islam.<\/small><\/p>
Secondly, I would ask leaders in the West, not to think of the people of the East as terrorists or fanatics. No doubt there are extremists in each society in each country. However, it is the misfortune of Information Age that while we think we have more information for each other in fact we have less. The reason we have less knowledge is that the Information Age broadcast the extreme rather than the mainstream.<\/small><\/p>
The mainstream in the East is very much the mainstream in the West if not more so.\u00a0 The mainstream in the East is grounded in faith, in family, in our dreams for the future.\u00a0 I have attempted, throughout my career, to combine the best of many cultures, the richness of disparate experiences, to build for my people the ability to compete and thrive in the challenging new technological era. Introducing the world of modern communication into Pakistan was one of the goals of my party.<\/small><\/p>
We heralded the information revolution by introducing fax machines, digital pagers, optic fiber, cellular telephones, satellite dishes, internet, the e-mail and even CNN into Pakistan. As a political activist I noted with deep interest the politics of de-regulation introduced by Western Leaders, primarily management in Europe. And I took these lessons from the West to the East. Pakistan became one of the first countries to embark on de-regulation. We introduced the concept of privatization in our manifesto of 1988 and piloted the bill for privatization through the Parliament. We broke the dominance of public sector units and gave an impetus to the private sector. Within a decade Pakistan has been transformed. Today we have a burgeoning private sector and entrepreneurs that consist of both men and women. I was proud of Pakistan when under my leadership of de-regulation, Pakistan integrated into the global economy and became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world.<\/small><\/p>
In modernizing our economy we learnt much from the West: introducing private sector financial institutions, computerizing the stock market and in Central Revenues Department, making the State Bank autonomous and reforming the Corporate Law Authority.<\/small><\/p>
Talking of the qualities of a leader which he\/she must posses I think a leader should have the qualities of always talking the truth and to live by a moral value system. Indeed these are the qualities I would like my children to inculcate. I once had a fight with one of my political colleagues when he said there were not ten but eleven commandments. I asked what was the eleventh commandment. \u201cWell\u201d, he said, \u201cthe ten commandments are thou shall not do all these things and the eleventh is thou shall do all these things unless caught\u201d. I said that may be a very male view but that was not a woman\u2019s world view and we had a big argument. A leader must also have this additional quality of remaining in touch with people. To feel for them and with them. That is an essential quality a leader. On Role Model For any Muslim the greatest role model from which to seek guidance is the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Although it is difficult to identify a single role model from which I seek political guidance, my father late Zulfqar Ali Bhutto has always inspired me. He gave me self-confidence and dignity and I learnt from him how to stand firm in adversity. He was a great man and today I am because of my father and not because of anybody else. I have succeeded because my father lived up to the Islamic tenets and made no discrimination between his sons and daughters. At the tender age of 16 he sent me to the best universities of the world, believing his daughter must not be denied the Islamic right of knowledge. It was my father who inspired me and encouraged me, gave me the strength and confidence to express my views. And he always believed that his daughter would one day be Prime Minister, when such a thing was unheard of in the Muslim world. My greatest support as a leader has come from the people of Pakistan and the political party I lead. I have a great sense of achievement for what my government has been able to accomplish for the women and the downtrodden, for what we have been able to do for the poor and the less fortunate segments of the society like the minorities. Faith in the people and the justness of the cause which we have propounded has been a great support which has sustained us in difficult times.<\/small><\/p>
On the Conference Theme The conference theme \u201cWant to change, dare to lead\u201d means a great deal to me. Whenever asked as to how I wish to be remembered, my answer has been that I wished to be remembered as a person who made a difference\u2014\u2014and a difference for the better. Wanting to change the lives of our people has been my dream, my passion. I am happy to recall that at least in one area namely the life of women in Pakistan, I have been able to bring about a meaningful and positive change. The conference them \u201cWant to change, dare to lead\u201d is therefore close to my heart and my own thinking.<\/small><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, our generation stands at the door way of history. Not only the door way of a new century, but the doorway of a new millennium.\u00a0 And as we prepare ourselves to meet this century, this new millennium,\u00a0 I believe we need to clearly understand the challenges that still await us and await the century.
It is up to us, all of us,\u00a0 to determine the moral parameters of that new era\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 the coming decade, the coming century, the coming millennium.<\/small><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,<\/small><\/p>
In just 766 days, we will witness only for the third time in recorded history the momentous turning of the millennium.\u00a0 Where and what will we be, at that extraordinary moment, when the huge ball drops and the year 2000 lights up the winter sky?<\/p>
Will we be prisoners of the mind-set of the past, or will we be liberated to the endless possibilities of an historic future?\u00a0 Our generation, the first in recorded history, is fundamentally empowered with the control of its own destiny. The chains of the past\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 colonialism, ignorance, dictatorship and sexism\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 are broken.<\/small><\/p>
The world has finally accepted, in the words of Robert Browning, that \u201cignorance is not innocence, but sin.\u201d<\/small><\/p>
We must persevere and not be intimidated by fear, not constrained by obstacles.\u00a0 I remember the last words of my father to me, writing to me from his death cell, quoting\u00a0 Robert F. Kennedy on Tennyson:<\/small><\/p>
\u201cEvery generation has a central concern, whether to end war, erase racial injustice, or improve the conditions
of working people.\u00a0 They demand a government that speaks directly and honestly to its citizens.<\/small><\/p>
The possibilities are too great, the stakes too high, to bequeath to the coming generation only the prophetic\u00a0 lament of Tennyson:<\/p>
\u2018Ah, what shall I be at fifty\u2026If I find the world so bitter at twenty-five.\u201d<\/small><\/p>
I remember my father\u2019s words.\u00a0 I will not be afraid.\u00a0 I will continue to speak, to fight, to help build a newer world.\u00a0 What will that world be?<\/small><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen, I see a Third Millennium where the gap between rich and poor states evaporates, where illiteracy and hunger and malnutrition are conquered.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium where human rights are universal, and self-determination unabridged anywhere on the planet.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium where civil dialogue is restored, where consensus and comity once again guide the national and international debate.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium where people\u2019s trust in government is restored, and government gets on with the business of addressing the pressing needs of the people.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium where every child is planned, wanted, nurture and supported.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium of tolerance and pluralism, where religions respect other religions.<\/small><\/p>
I see a Third Millennium where the birth a girl child is welcomed with the same joy as the birth of a boy.<\/small><\/p>
This is the Third Millennium I see for Pakistan, and for Sweden.\u00a0 For my children, and for yours.<\/small><\/p>
If we fail, we will have only ourselves to blame.<\/small><\/p>
For the crutches of history are gone. We walk on our own.<\/small><\/p>
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.<\/small><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Unique Lives and Experiences Lecture Series Ms Benazir Bhutto Leader of the Opposition Speech delivered at Boston \u2013 USA May 01, 1998 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUnique Lives and Experiences Lecture Series
<\/u>Ms Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
Leader of the Opposition<\/strong><\/span>
Speech delivered at Boston \u2013 USA<\/strong><\/span>
May 01, 1998<\/strong><\/span>

<\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
I recall the vivid images of Dantes Divine Comedy, and his characterization that \u201cthe hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral at times of moral crisis.\u201d\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
This is not time for neutrality or inaction. The special demands of this extraordinary historical moment requires great action from men and women of great vision and courage.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
In that regard, I cannot but be uplifted and empowered by the recent accord signed in Belfast on Good Friday to end the conflagration in Northern Ireland. The agreement was reached after years of backbreaking negotiations jump started by President Clinton and former Senator George Mitchell.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
They saw a situation where men and women of moderation and good will needed a champion willing to take risks to bring the parties together.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Clinton acted in the great tradition of President Harry Truman, who with George Marshall shaped and defined the modern era with a bold economic plan to contain communism in Europe called the Marsahll Plan, and a political and military alliance called NATO.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
But President Harry S. Truman was a leader, and not a follower.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
He chose to convince a reluctant public, and built a national consensus in America and the West that was maintained through forty years of Cold War, and ultimately led to the triumph of freedom and market based economics that has swept over this planet with the implosion of communism.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
There is a lesson to be learned in this.\u00a0Nothing ventured, nothing gained.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We hope that the path to reconciliation in Northern Ireland through honest mediation by the world\u2019s sole superpower can be repeated in other areas of the world where the problems look equally intractable, equally impossible, but where men and women of good, will look beyond fear and loathing to reconciliation and resolution.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
If Northern Ireland can be settled, why not a new initiative to save the frozen peace process in the Middle East.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
If Northern Ireland can be resolved, cannot the world turn its attention to the horrors in Kosovo before Kosovo becomes another Bosnian genocide.\u00a0If Northern Ireland can be settled, why not a new and credible initiative to bring India, Pakistan, and the Kashmiris together to finally resolve the Kashmir issue which hangs like a sword of Damocles across not only South Asia, but the entire world.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The valley of Kashmir has been occupied by India and denied the basic right of self-determination. Tens of thousands of men, women and children have lost their lives in the quest for freedom.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Villages have been burnt.\u00a0 Women and children targeted.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Three wars over Kashmir have wrought devastation in its path. Today, 600,000 troops hold the people of Kashmir hostage.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We who support freedom in the world ought not remain silent when freedom is threatened.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
That is why I say, it is time now, consistent with President Clinton\u2019s stated policy of preemptive crisis management, to facilitate an agreement between India and Pakistan so that the people of Kashmir and Jammu are finally allowed to determine their own political futures on the basis of the right to self determination.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
This is the moment of opportunity.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
This is also the moment, as we cross the millennium, for the world to finally become sensitive to and tolerant of different cultures, different religions, different peoples.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The west needs to appreciate and understand the East, for we are all part of the same Judaic, Christian, Muslim Civilization. We are all people of the Book.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
I would ask leaders in the West, not to think of the people of the East as terrorists or fanatics.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
No doubt there are extremists in each society in each country.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
However, it is the misfortune of the Information Age that while we think we have more information for each other in fact we have less. The reason we have less knowledge is that the Information Age often broadcasts the extreme rather than the mainstream.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The mainstream in the East is very much the mainstream in the West if not more so. The mainstream in the East is grounded in faith, in family, in our dreams for the future.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
I have attempted, throughout my career, to combine the best of many cultures, the richness of disparate experiences, to build for my people the ability to compete and thrive in the challenging new technological era. Introducing the world of modern communication into Pakistan was one of the goals of my party.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We heralded the information revolution by introducing fax machines, digital pagers, optic fiber, cellular telephones, satellite dishes, internet, the e-mail and even CNN into Pakistan.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We implemented a policy which guaranteed to 95% of our urban population and 70% of our rural population adequate sewage facilities.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We constructed over 30,000 new primary and secondary schools in three years
and renovated an additional 9,800 ones. Of these new schools, approximately 70% were for girls.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We recruited 53,000 new teachers, 70% of whom were women.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We increased the health budget by 60% and the WHO gave me a gold metal in recognition of Pakistan\u2019s effort to eliminate polio and provide basic health facilities to our people.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We recruited and trained an army of women, 50,000 strong, to tackle the problems of infant mortality and population control. In my two terms as Prime Minister of Pakistan, one of the nine most populated countries in the world, we brought down the population growth rate from 3.1% to 2.6%.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We brought our energy revolution directly to the people of Pakistan ending 16 hours of daily power shut downs which had crippled the economy and stunted growth.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We brought the fruits of the energy revolution to the villages which had lived in darkness for centuries, electrifying over 18,000 villages in three years.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
All this needed money. And we pumped in resources toward the social sector while cutting the countries deficit and reducing its national debt.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We built 10,000 kilometers of roads and 100,000 homes per year for the needy and deserving.
The social revolution we had launched came to a grinding halt the day I was dismissed.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Today, education, health, population and the environment are starved for funds while Big Bank defaulters, led by the Prime Minister, seek to enact laws meant for personal benefit and neglect the people of the land.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
My friends, I am proud that the government I led brought about a miraculous transformation of a society.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We opened up markets and we opened up minds.\u00a0We attacked prejudice and discrimination.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We carved out an entrepreneurial society where young men and women had the freedom to choose their careers, and to embark on business ventures to compete with each other and with the world.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Explosions versus\u00a0 Emergency Speech of\u00a0Ms Benazir Bhutto on Proclamation of Emergency June 8, 1998 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplosions versus\u00a0 Emergency<\/strong><\/span>
Speech of\u00a0Ms Benazir Bhutto on<\/strong><\/span>
Proclamation of Emergency<\/strong><\/span>
June 8, 1998<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
It was with a rude shock that the nation was informed of the Proclamation of Emergency, where with a stroke of the pen all the Fundamental Rights where suspended.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Ever since it assumed office, the Nawaz regime has assiduously sought to dismantle democracy. One by one, independent centers of power had to go. The independent President, the independent Chief Justice, the independent Chief Election Commissioner all fell victim to the machinations of this regime.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Three Special laws, Ehtesaab, Anti-Terrorist IPP were made which were opposition specific. And then, hiding behind the Nuclear blast, the regime embarked on a partisan agenda of seizing property and seizing freedom.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
There is not a single precedent in the history of the countries who have conducted nuclear tests where emergency has been declared or Fundamental Rights denied. Representative governments trust their people. Obviously this regime did not trust the people of Pakistan. A single appeal to people not to withdraw foreign currency would have led to an outpouring of patriotism. This was not done and we condemn it.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The Pakistan Peoples Party sees no justification for imposing emergency and suspending all the Fundamental Rights. People of Pakistan, are not less patriotic than the citizens of India? If India did not need Emergency, people want to know why Pakistan needs Emergency. It is not Pakistan that needs this draconian action. It is an unpopular dictator who fears the wrath of his people.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Under our Constitution, there are three different kinds of proclamations of emergency One in the event of external aggression or internal disturbance beyond the control of a Provincial Government. The second kind is when the President is satisfied that the that government of a province cannot be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. This emergency is commonly known as \u201cGovernor\u2019s Rule\u201d. The third is a Proclamation which the President can issue when the financial stability of the country is threatened. This is called \u201cFinancial Emergency\u201d.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
It seems the President has issued a Proclamation of Emergency because he is satisfied that the\u00a0 security of Pakistan is threatened by war or external aggression. However after the successful nuclear tests, the regime was assuring the nation that \u201cthe nuclear tests successfully carried out by Pakistan have averted the threats of aggression by India and now balance of power has been achieved in the South Asia which is necessary for preservation of peace\u201d.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We have been categorically told that \u201csuccessful nuclear tests by Pakistan will prove an effective deterrent against aggressive and expansionists aims and designs of India\u201d.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
With such statements from responsible officials of the State, it would appear that the threat of war has been averted. And if the threat of external aggression has receded, there is no valid reason for the enforcement of Emergency.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The real reason was a fear by the regime of a run on foreign currency accounts.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Having mismanaged the economy and having exhausted forex reserves, the regime saw a golden opportunity in the nuclear tests to grab the foreign currency held by Pakistani citizens. (Of course it first used insider knowledge to take out money belonging to the ruling family and their friends and cronies).\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The latest statement whereby depositors have been told to collect their money in Rupees or else they will face scrutiny discloses the whole game. The Economic Reforms Act promised protection of Foreign Currency Accounts. But the regime is violating that protection to illicitly grab money of middle classes. The regime wants dollars and it is taking the dollars of the citizens by force. It is threatening the citizens in its typical bully boy fashion. Take the Rupee while you can or I will not even let you have that. This is sheer blackmail !\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Lately the regime has started resorting to legislation through Ordinances despite having a two-third majority in the Parliament. The Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, the amendments in Contempt of Court Law of 1997, The Eradication of Corruption Ordinance, 1998 and the Ordinances promulgated to amend The Ehtesab Act are some of the statutes which clearly reflect a contempt for Parliament.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The proclamation of Emergency shows contempt for our people and for their property rights. We protest against this action. This action shows the bankruptcy of the economic policies of this regime\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
At this crucial juncture, the Government should have promoted harmony and unity in the nation instead of promotion of further polarisation, unrest and sense of insecurity both among the provinces and the people of Pakistan. Therefore in the national interest, we call upon the regime to withdraw the proclamation of Emergency forthwith.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Budget Speech by Leader of the Opposition, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto June 15, 1998 <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBudget Speech
<\/u>by Leader of the Opposition, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto<\/strong><\/span>
June 15, 1998<\/strong><\/span><\/p>
Ladies and gentlemen,\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
As I address the National Assembly in the first budget session after Pakistan joined the nuclear club, I recall the words of our founder. Fifty years ago Quaid-e-Azam had prophesied \u201cPakistan has come to stay\u201d. Quaid-e-Awam Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave us the nuclear technology to fulfill that prophecy in the face of Indian intransigence.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The facility at Kahuta where Pakistan developed its nuclear capability was established by Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was warned of being made a \u201chorrible example\u201d and finally assassinated. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission working under Prime Minister Bhutto\u2019s instructions with their teams fulfilled the mission given to them. We always hoped that India and Pakistan would make the sub-continent a nuclear free zone. Those dreams were shattered by the Indian explosion. We must ask: \u201cWhy\u201d?\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
For more than 20 years, when the Kahuta Laboratories were established in 1976 and the five Indian nuclear tests of May 11, 1998, India was restrained from testing nuclear weapons by a vigilant Pakistan. We ask what were the circumstances emboldening the Indian government to defy world opinion.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The answer lies in the policy of APPEASEMENT, adopted by Nawaz Sharif towards India so that he could concentrate on his internal enemies. Benazir replaced Kashmir as Pakistan\u2019s foreign Policy. Principles were abandoned. People of Kashmir were abandoned. All morals were abandoned.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
India had larger markets to offer the Ittefaq regime, which had already cornered the sugar, textile, fertilizer, cement, and banking sector of Pakistan. So the son was sent as a special envoy. The Indians sensed the weakness of the new Pakistani leadership. They tasted its commercial flavour. And they took Pakistan and the world by surprise.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The Indians calculated they had nothing to lose. The Americans had brought the Soviet Union to the point of disintegration by upping the ante. India decided to up the ante. If they detonated, Pakistan would be forced to detonate. They calculated that if Pakistan did not detonate, they could attack Azad Kashmir. If Pakistan did detonate Pakistan\u2019s weak industrial base and mismanagement of the economy dominated by Motorway kickbacks would lead to an internal explosion.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The policy of appeasement led to its logical conclusion.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Today Pakistan is facing the gravest threat to its security since the fall of Dacca.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
I had been warning of this internal, economic threat time and again.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The budget speech gave an impression of Business As Usual in stark contrast to the speech by Nawaz Sharif a day earlier. The reality is that since the dismissal of the PPP government on November 4, 1996, Pakistan has slipped into anarchy and chaos. Today we stand internationally isolated, politically divided and economically bankrupt.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The Finance Minister failed to tell the Nation why:
<\/small><\/p>
The Nawaz regime had rolled back the frontiers of the free market economy;\u00a0<\/small><\/li>
What the effects of sanctions would be;<\/small><\/li>
How these would be met,<\/small><\/li>
How much aid flow was affected;<\/small><\/li>
Whether Pakistan would default and declare a moratorium on further debt repayment;<\/small><\/li>
How the de-dollarisation of the economy would affect money supply, the value of the rupee and inflation;<\/small><\/li><\/ul>The Budget for 98-99 did not indicate how we would reduce debt and become self-sufficient.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
\u00a0Instead of building up a climate of confidence and understanding, the regime has willfully created panic, fear and disharmony. The measures taken by the regime to destabilize Pakistan include:\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The declaration of Emergency suspending all human rights;\u00a0<\/small><\/li>
The confiscation of foreign currency;<\/small><\/li>
The declaration to build a controversial Dam alienating three of the four federating units;<\/small><\/li>
Misappropriation of public money to pursue a political vendetta<\/small><\/li><\/ul>Mr. Nawaz Sharif came on TV to announce a so-called \u201cNational Agenda\u201d.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
He came across as desperate man making wild and unrealistic empty promises. He had nothing to offer the Nation. He talked of:\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Land Reforms of 1977 which have already been implemented except by the collaborators of the Martial Law regime. He refused to give up the 1700 acres in the heart of Raiwand, which he and his family have grabbed in violation of the land reforms of 1977. They have robbed Rs. 70 crores to build a canal of water there and rupees 2 billion from WAPDA to import and build an uninterrupted water supply. This is a gross abuse of power and the resources of the state for which he will have to account;\u00a0<\/small><\/li><\/ul>He promised to give loans of Rs. 3 \u2013 50 lacs to the un-employed knowing the money was not there;<\/small><\/li><\/ul>He promised to build Kalabagh Dam without disclosing where the money was to come from;<\/small><\/li><\/ul>\u00a0He asked the nation to drink half a cup of tea and use one spoon of ghee while his regime relaxed rules for the import of luxury items such as air conditioners and expensive cars for Redco\u2019s benefit;\u00a0<\/small><\/li><\/ul>His personal agenda came to the fore when he said the former Prime Minister had caused him losses by refusing to give railway wagons to the ship \u201cJonathan\u201d carrying scarp. He hid the fact that he had abused his position under General Zia to construct a dry port at Ittefaq Foundries and got Pakistan Railways to transport scrap at concessional fees, causing Pakistan Railways a loss of Rs. 2 lacs per train (see Annex I of \u201cThe Dawn\u201d July 22, 1989)<\/small><\/li><\/ul>He hid the fact that he made money out of the \u201cJonathan\u201d incident when he got compensation of about 8 crores of public money by a court process where the defence and state had colluded;<\/small><\/li><\/ul>He declined to tell the Nation that he had taken Ittefaq Foundries for free under a Martial Law Regulation with the assets in tact and the liabilities written off. He failed to mention that it was an iron mongery before nationalization.\u00a0<\/small><\/li><\/ul>He failed to tell the nation he had plundered billions of rupees to build himself scores of factories in three years, of how he had sold 600 plots in one evening to make a packet, of how he had bought up land at Raiwand at throwaway prices and then declared it an industrial estate;\u00a0<\/small><\/li><\/ul>He failed to tell the nation that he has embezzled about Rs. 1 billion to malign the Leader of Opposition for exposing his fraud, corruption, misconduct and abuse of office.<\/small><\/li><\/ul>He failed to tell the people that he was scandalizing the pre-shipment firms because they had discovered $650 million of uncollected customs dues. (see Annex 2)<\/small><\/li><\/ul>The people\u00a0 want Nawaz Sharif to return the 1000 crores that he has plundered. Returning 2 or 3 debt ridden assets with a view to plunder the rest will not do. The people know that there were no engineered defaults. These are engineered excuses to hang on to ill-gotten wealth. The people cannot be expected to make sacrifices when the rulers are bent upon keeping ill-gotten assets even at a time of national crisis.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The combined expenditure of the Prime Minister\u2019s Secretariat, the President\u2019s Secretariat, the National Assembly, the Senate and the Supreme Court of Pakistan doesn\u2019t come to the amount that defaulter Nawaz Sharif and his gang of defaulters is lavishly spending in its criminal conspiracy internationally to malign the leader of the Opposition who happens to be the twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan and the architect of its Missile Technology.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The Pakistan Peoples Party demands that:
<\/small><\/p>
A judicial commission inquire into the corruption allegations against Nawaz Sharif, his family and his cronies.\u00a0<\/small><\/li><\/ul>A judicial commission identify all state funds usurped, embezzled and unlawfully taken for the personal vendetta against the leader of opposition.<\/small><\/li><\/ul>This money belongs to Pakistan. Our people will take it back, every paisa from Nawaz Sharif and his henchmen. How dare he take money from the pockets of the poor people of Pakistan to squander on detectives, propaganda and forgery against his political opponents?\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Suitcases of dollars are given to members of Ehtesab Bureau.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
A chain of information centres have been set up world wide for the propaganda war against the champion of democracy and rule of law to leave the Nation leaderless in its hour of crisis. The people for the forces of truth will defeat this sinister campaign by savage tyrants for justice can not be for ever denied.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
While our people drink a half-cup of tea, the Ministry of Information eats barrels of cash in its propaganda war. These include:\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
( 98-99)<\/b>
Demand No. 64 for information of Ministry of Information
Rs. 76,779,000\u00a0<\/b>Last year\u00a0Rs. 73,674,000\u00a0<\/b>was spent on \u201cPublicity\u201d\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
( 98-99)<\/b>
Demand No. 65 for documentaries of Information Ministry
Rs. 31,799,000\u00a0<\/b>Last year\u00a0Rs. 37,896,000\u00a0<\/b>was spent on \u201cPublicity\u201d\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
( 98-99)<\/b>
Demand No. 66 for information Department of Information Ministry
Rs. 85,522,000\u00a0<\/b>Last year\u00a0Rs. 94,423,000\u00a0<\/b>was spent on \u201cPublicity\u201d and \u201cRecreation\u201d\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
( 98-99)<\/b>
Demand No. 67 for information abroad of Information Ministry
Rs. 87,405,000<\/b>\u00a0Last year\u00a0Rs. 116,927,000<\/b>\u00a0was spent\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
( 98-99)<\/b>
Demand No. 68 for other expenditure of information Ministry
Rs. 588,683,000<\/b>\u00a0Last year\u00a0Rs. 105,065,000<\/b>\u00a0was spent on \u201cPublicity\u201d\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
( 98-99)<\/b>
Demand No. 129 for development of information Ministry
Rs. 25,400,000<\/b>\u00a0The whole amount was allocated for \u201cPublicity\u201d\u00a0\u00a0TOTAL Rs. 895,588,000\/-\u00a0<\/b><\/small><\/p>
This comes to a staggering sum of nearly one billion rupees.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The expenditure on the entire state machinery comes to half that :\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Prime Minister\u2019s Secretariat\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rs.\u00a0\u00a0 98,457,000
The Supreme Court\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rs.\u00a0\u00a0 69,559,000
The President\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rs.\u00a0\u00a0 74,666,000
The National Assembly\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rs.\u00a0 250,439,000
The Senate\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rs.\u00a0 111,240,000\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TOTAL\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Rs.\u00a0 604,361,000<\/b>
<\/small><\/p>
It is nothing but a cruel joke for defaulter Nawaz Sharif to come on TV and say that he will leave the Prime Minister Secretariat. The cost of all the main institutions, including the Presidency, the Prime Minister Secretariat, the Supreme Court, the National Assembly and the Senate is less than the ill-gotten expenditure on the propaganda war against the Leader of Opposition.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
\u00a0This cost excludes the ill-gotten money spent on:
<\/small><\/p>
Ehtesab Bureau and its secret expenditure;<\/small><\/li>
Law Ministry\u2019s expenditure on lawyers and accountants;<\/small><\/li>
Intelligence Bureau\u2019s expenditure through secret services funds;<\/small><\/li>
Prime Minister Secretariat expenditure through secret services funds;<\/small><\/li><\/ul>The divisive policies of the regime are sabotaging the progress and prosperity of the Nation.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The poor grow poorer. The middle class cannot make ends meet. Government employees lack job security. Labour can hardly make ends meet. Shops are starved for customers. Foreign investors have been threatened and scandalized. Bureaucrats and Bankers vilified. No institution has been left with respect or sanctity. There is discontent and disillusionment. The people feel cheated and angry. Hunger stalks the land. Young people commit suicide because they cannot make ends meet.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
And we spend one billion rupees on propaganda.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Considering the grave crisis threatening the very existence of Pakistan, we expected the Finance Minister to announce austerity measures. This was not done.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The Federal government has grown too large. The time has come for us to live within our means. The Peoples Party calls for a real cut in federal expenditure. This means doing away with unnecessary ministries, divisions and buildings. This means transferring government to the provinces and to the districts. This means devolution. It means trusting the people.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The Peoples Party began the process of district government by creating Social Action Boards consisting of elected members at the district level. The Social Action Boards did remarkable work building 30,000 primary schools in 3 years, launching a campaign to iodize salt, eliminate polio, reduce the population growth rate and grow trees to protect the environment.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
It is not enough to transfer resources to the provinces alone which have become bloated. We call upon the Federal government to transfer social and local issues to the provincial governments who ought to be mandated to re-distribute 50 to 60% of their resources, according to population to the districts. Each district should have a board of elected members to run programmes of poverty alleviation as a prelude to district government.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The Universities and Hospitals on Federal government grants must be directed to come up with self-sufficiency plans while maintaining a safety net for the poor and the children of the poor. The Universities, Hospitals and institutions must be allowed to keep the money they charge as fees and not send it to the Center.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The Supreme Court and High Courts must be allowed to keep court fees so that they can provide justice freely and expeditiously.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The proceeds of General Sales Tax must go to the provinces as originally envisioned in the Constitution. A percentage may be donated by the provinces to the Center earmarked for Balochistan, Northern Areas, FATA and Azad Kashmir.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Debt incurred on different provinces must be assumed by those provinces for repayment. We cannot expect Balochistan to bear the cost of the extravagant Motorway.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We cannot expect people of one area to subsidize the electricity charges of other area.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The fall in oil prices should be passed on to Wapda and the Thermal Power Plants. This will make Wapda solvent and reduce the charges of electricity.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Each Area Board should have a different rate of electricity charges based on cost of production. This will lead to greater efficiency and better rates for better customers who pay their bills. Wapda\u2019s old thermal plants are oil guzzlers producing expensive electricity. These should be shut down and cheaper power obtained from the private power projects.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Our Country is calling out for drastic Reforms. The old ways will not do. This regime has squandered the massive engineered majority given to it by President Farooq Leghari in a deal brokered by Governor of the Punjab. It has miserably failed to chart out a course of self-reliance and reform. Women\u2019s seats have not been restored. Minorities have not been given joint electorate. Blasphemy Law has not been amended.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The projects pertaining to Water logging and salinity have been abandoned which has slowed down growth. Growth figures are constantly adjusted. Last years (for 96-97), We were told growth rate was 3.1%. This has now been revised to 1.1%. This year and next years growth target will be re-adjusted too, as there is simply no growth, except in the population sector.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
It is incorrect to state that industry has grown by 6%. Ironically, only good crops in the agriculture sector helped industries dealing with primary commodities. For example sugar due to a good sugar cane crop and jute bags due to a good rice crop.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
However, steel, fertilizer, chemicals all went down exposing the so-called growth rate of 6% as a fraud. Investment has gone down too as admitted by the finance minister. Only the ICI, Engro and other projects of PPP, including power sector, continue towards completion. Otherwise the regime has returned with IOUs and not MOUs, despite an expenditure of nearly rupees one billion on the Prime Minister\u2019s fruitless and barren travels.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Cement production, steel production and import of machinery has all gone down exposing a stagnant economy.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Debt servicing is likely to hit Rs 300 billion as compared to the figure of Rs 276 billion reflected in the Budget.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Prosperous public sector corporations have lost Rs 50 billion during the current year.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
External loans of Rs 142 billion promised by the Budget are going to be impossible to raise.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The provinces are starved for funds having received Rs. 19 billion less than promised last year in the federal Budget as their share. Next year looks no more promising.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
To dupe the IMF, Rs. 9 billion excess tax has been collected from Habib Bank and National Bank. The Chairman FPCCI has claimed that Rs 15 billion of refunds etc have been withheld by the CBR presumably to doctor figures.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The regime has decided to buy dollars at 9% premium by announcing that any Pakistani remitting $100,000 legally will receive relief of Rs 4 lacs . This will further erode the value of the rupee.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The Stock exchange whose main aim is to mobilize capital has crashed. In the PPP days. There would be 10-15 new issues annually. The Bad \u2013 Kismet Nawaz era has produce only one issue in the Karachi Stock Exchange in the last one year.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Poverty alleviation programs have been badly affected. The public sector programme is meant for the down trodden segment of the society and the backward area of Pakistan. The expenditure on PSDP i.e. poverty alleviation has gone down from 5% of GDP to 3% GDP.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Dark omens indeed for the dark days ushered in by a dark regime.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Tax revenues have fallen drastically from 14.1% to 11.5% of GDP.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Non bank borrowings broke all record coming to Rs. 69 billion thus ballooning the internal debt.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We reject the claim that inflation has fallen to 8%. With a massive increase in price of lentils and a 30% increase in price of wheat, inflation has climbed to new heights.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The deficit has risen to nearly 7% if not more. The rupee has been devalued by 10% with more to come in the following months.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Exports have increased by a miserable 5% and that too, due to agriculture and good weather.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Bank default and bad debt has risen from Rs. 121 billion to Rs. 150 billion despite giving bank managers discretion to write off the bad loans of the Ittefaq family and friends.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Privatization has come to a grinding halt. Share prices of public sector corporations have fallen drastically. PIA does not have money to pay salaries. Share price of PSO has fallen from nearly Rs. 500 to a paltry Rs. 75. Sui Gas and OGDC are bankrupt.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Debt repayment has increased tremendously as the figures below show:\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
95-96\u00a0 $22.275 billion
96-97\u00a0 $25.00 billion
97-98\u00a0 $25.00 billion\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Yet not a single measure for austerity
Not a single measure for self reliance
Not a single measure for poverty alleviation
Not a single measure for debt reduction\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Contrary to breaking the begging bowl, the Nawaz regime has expanded the begging bowls that go around. We beg from friendly countries, from overseas Pakistani in Manchester, Birmingham and else where.\u00a0 We beg even from our school children who can not afford a glass of milk a day.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Sir,\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
It gives me no pleasure to throw back at the finance minister his pious promises of one year ago. The treasury benches have failed to :
<\/small><\/p>
ensure a society free from provincialism\u00a0<\/small><\/li>
improve the lives of common man<\/small><\/li>
reduce dependence on others;<\/small><\/li>
generate health, education and employment facilities,<\/small><\/li>
modernize our industrial sector;<\/small><\/li>
create stability and confidence;<\/small><\/li>
promote growth;<\/small><\/li>
eradicate corruption and mismanagement;<\/small><\/li>
build forex reserves;\u00a0<\/small><\/li>
allow stock exchanges index to increase;<\/small><\/li>
encourage foreign investment;<\/small><\/li>
increase revenues;<\/small><\/li>
control government expenditure;<\/small><\/li>
take stern action against defaulters;<\/small><\/li>
ensure better law and order;<\/small><\/li>
expand exports to 15%;<\/small><\/li>
create job opportunities;<\/small><\/li>
provide green tractors and green tube-wells;<\/small><\/li>
reduce tax rates;<\/small><\/li>
drop custom duty to 45%;<\/small><\/li><\/ul>Never before in the history of Pakistan has so much damage been done to the national economy in such a short time.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The PPP had:
<\/small><\/p>
Given the country the lowest deficit \u2013 5%,<\/small><\/li>
Reduced debt for first time in Nation\u2019s history by repaying principal amount through privatization proceeds;<\/small><\/li>
Brought in massive, unprecedented foreign investment creating jobs and a new private sector class;<\/small><\/li>
Tripled growth rate from 2% to 6%;<\/small><\/li>
Invested heavily in human resource development.<\/small><\/li><\/ul>It is all very well to shed crocodile tears but sacrifices, like charity, begins at home. May I ask how much income tax the Prime Minister paid during 1997-98? Or his cronies? His Cabinet?\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Instead the government pounced upon the unsuspecting middle class holders of foreign exchange deposit. Freezing eleven billion dollars was a criminal breach of trust, which amounted to confiscation of property. Earlier the Nawaz regime had subjugated the economy to its partisan political purposes by scandalizing the Independent Power Producers (IPP\u2019s) asking them to admit paying bribes or else face contract cancellations. And when the Nawaz regime sought to enter the Energy market, the staff of Hubco, one of the leading shares on the Karachi Stock Exchange were arrested so that share prices should fall and be picked up by the economic vultures in the regime. The crash of the Hubco shares led to a slump in the Karachi Stock Exchange, which crashed below the 1000 index.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
What a fine way, to drive away foreign investors and destroy one\u2019s own economy.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
There is more to come. The annual Japanese assistance of about 500 million dollars the World Bank assistance of 750 million dollars and the remaining tranches of 1.6 billion dollars committed by IMF will dry up.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Public confidence in the regime is so low that I demand on behalf of the people that the detail of the remittances of $ 500 million made by the cronies of Mian Nawaz Sharif be published. Let the people of Pakistan know the names of the rats which jumped the ship before the State Bank freezing order.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
The unkindest cut of all has been the day light robbery of the fundamental rights of the citizens. There is no constitutional nexus between the provisions of article 232 and the proclamation of emergency. In one nuclear strike the peasants and workers, the intellectuals and businessman, the minority and women have been deprived of their inalienable right to life, liberty, property, freedom of expression, association and all the rights associated with a civilized democracy. The power of Supreme Court of Pakistan for the enforcement of fundamental rights under article 184 has been curtailed. The power of the High Courts under article 199 for the enforcement of the fundamental rights enshrined under article 8 to 28 of the constitution suspended. In short we are living in a police state under civilian martial law.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
A state where the regime is involved in a criminal conspiracy against its own people.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Where the cream of the political clan has been branded in one sweep of the pen as drug suspects.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Mr. Speaker, Sir,\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
I had warned last year that there are hard times ahead. Only a national government can deliver the goods. It is quite evident from the track record of this myopic, selfish, brutish and vindictive regime that it has neither the will nor the vision to respond to the challenge that lies ahead. At a time like this when England was in the grip of economic recession, the only way out was the formation of a national government in 1931.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Let us remember that a nuclear power has greater responsibilities. Having achieved nuclear parity with India, let us now free ourselves of the Indian Chain. For 50 years we have remained chained to what India did. For 50 years, our only goal was to react to India. Nuclear parity frees us from such ties.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We should begin negotiations to sign the CTBT. Let us take the initiative, let us act and not just react if we are to overcome the danger that face us.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Now that aid has dried up. We can no longer afford the old lifestyle. People are angry because hospitals do not have medicines, schools do not have books, streets are broken and water is not available.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We tell the people that this is due to the extravagant lifestyle of the Rulers. Or that it is due to corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. We don\u2019t tell them aid has stopped.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
We should have the courage to say:
<\/small><\/p>
That we borrowed too much in 50 years believing there was no tomorrow.<\/small><\/li><\/ul>That we produce too many people and have one of the highest population rates in the world.\u00a0<\/small><\/li><\/ul>That three wars over Kashmir have forced us to spend significant amounts on defence.<\/small><\/li><\/ul>Whatever Pakistan earns, it goes on debt and defence. There is nothing left.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
As long as we borrow for Motorways and refuse to spend on water logging and salinity, on Health, Education and Population, we cannot prosper.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Nuclear parity has forced issues into the open. Either we have the vision and maturity to deal with these issues or else a sea of people seething with hate will erupt in our country sooner than later.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
And this House bears the Responsibility for what will happen.\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014
<\/small>Annexures<\/u><\/b><\/p>
ANNEX \u2013 I<\/small><\/u><\/b>\u00a0\u2018PR not to yield to Ittefaq\u2019s blackmail\u2019<\/b><\/small><\/p>
\u201cThe DAWN\u201d,
Karachi, 22-7-1989\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Lahore: July 21: A spokesman for Pakistan Railways, commenting on the transportation of Messrs Ittefaq Foundries\u2019 steel scrap from Karachi to Lahore; disclosed here on Friday morning that Pakistan Railways has a capacity of running an average of 12 goods trains from Karachi to other parts of the country every day.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
The PR, he said, was bound to give priority to essential commodities and perishables for the national good.<\/i><\/small><\/p>
The spokesman, giving the break-up said four trains of imported wheat, five of kerosene, furnace, diesel oil, petrol and edible (vegetable) oil, one train of cement from Hyderabd, one of other miscellaneous essential items and one of bonded containers for Lahore Dry Port were running from Karachi every day.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
He said railways were providing one train daily for the transportation of imported phosphate fertilizer by withdrawing it from one of the above stated break-up because the fertilizer is essentially required for the sowing\/planting of the Kharif crops. Delay in transportation of fertilizer would badly affect the small farmers who can not afford to store it.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
He further said that railways had to give top priority to the movement of imported wheat from Karachi Port before the setting in of the monsoon because the wheat would be badly damaged if moved in the season, causing huge losses to the national exchequer.\u00a0<\/i>
<\/small><\/p>
He said that previously railways was bound to transport Ittefaq\u2019s scrap because it was bonded cargo and used to be customs-cleared at Ittefaq\u2019s own premises which was declared a \u201cbonded ware-house\u201d as a part of Lahore Dry Port, a privilege not extended to any other importer. Now, however, the customs producers of the scarp imported by Ittefaq have to be completed in Karachi like all the other importers. Railways, this have no obligation to transport Ittefaq\u2019s scarp and they could use other modes of transport like every body else.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
The spokesman said that railways had to bear a loss of approximately Rs. 200,000 per train (of about 60 wagons) for the transportation of Ittefaq\u2019s scrap because of the special concessional fare allowed to them.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
He said that railways was national service and no one company or group had any right to use it for their personal gain.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
Concluding, he said that the present pressure tactics of the Ittefaq management amounted to blackmail and a threat to security. Trying to block the railway track was subversion in law and the railway would deal with it according to Law. There was no question of submitting to blackmail, he added, \u2013 PPI\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
ANNEX-II<\/small><\/b>\u00a0<\/small>Cotecna denies violating any law<\/b><\/p>
DAWN
June 11, 1998\u00a0<\/small><\/p>
Islamabad, June 10: Cotecna Inspection S.A denied that any of its employees had violated any law of Pakistan.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
\u201cWe wish to categorically state that no company employee has ever, directly or indirectly, committed any action which does not scrupulously respect national and international laws, as well as recognized practice in international trade and industry\u201d, it further stated.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
According to a Press release faxed to Dawn by Cotecna from Geneva here, it said events that had occurred during these last days concerning the case of Cotecna inspection S.A., needed clarification.<\/i><\/small><\/p>
\u201cOur company, Cotecna Inspection S.A., has recently been implicated in proceedings initiated in Switzerland upon the request of the Pakistani Government. In this context, the management of Cotecna Inspection S.A. has seen itself blamed for deeds linked to the legitimate payment of commissions to its agent. our company deplores being the victim today of Pakistan\u2019s internal political rivalries, which overflow onto the international scene\u201d, it said.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
In Sept. 1994 Cotecna Inspection S.A., the clarification said, was awarded a five year contract for the assessment of customs values of Pakistan\u2019s imports.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
\u201cThis contract was unilaterally and illegally terminated after two years when the new government took over\u201d.<\/i><\/small><\/p>
Those two years of operation brought to light uncollected customs dues identified by ourselves in the course of our mandate and amounting to over 650 million dollars\u201d, the Press release said. It added that this result had been audited and confirmed by international auditors, Price Waterhouse.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
\u201cTo the best of our knowledge, the new Pakistani government has, to date, taken no measure whatsoever to correct this apparent fraud\u201d, it claimed.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>
Cotecna Inspection S.A said it confirmed its determination to vigorously defend its interests and maintain its commercial policy, which fully respects all ethical rules which are in conformity with national and international laws.\u00a0<\/i><\/small><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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