Fall of a Fascist – By Saria Benazir

‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.’ This saying aptly captures Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s remarkable feat of defenestrating the farce that the PTI government was. On February 27, the world watched in awe – millions said a prayer for their safety – as the Daughter of Destiny’s children, Bilawal and Aseefa, mounted her truck marred with the tragic memories of October 18, 2007 to reconstruct their country’s destiny by ridding it of an inimical and incompetent regime; a regime that has robbed citizens of necessities as basic as roti, kapra and makaan. The PPP’s procession pulsated with the sentiments of those downtrodden and dispossessed masses and its spectacular success messed with the former Prime Minister’s head. However, what threw him off balance and eventually out of office was the vote of no confidence propounded by the PPP Chairman since September 2020: the motion for it submitted with the National Assembly at the conclusion of his arduous ten-day march from Karachi to Islamabad and brought to fruition by former President Asif Ali Zardari’s astute politics, credibility and restoration of the constitution of Pakistan in April 2010.

On April 3, it was clear as daylight that Imran Khan had lost confidence of the august House. In place of an honorable exit, he and his abettors chose to defile the constitution and disenfranchise the representatives of the majority of the population. That he became the first Prime Minister in the country’s history to be voted out through the Parliament on the Constitution Day, also the anniversary of Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto’s glorious homecoming to Lahore in 1986 to fight Zia’s brutal dictatorship is redolent of divine retribution. While it is hurtful to witness the ignominious fall of Pakistan’s cricketing legend, let us make no bones about the fact that he is a fascist who has sullied our democracy, undermined our national interests and fractured our polity in his quest to attain and retain power.

A fascist’s manual consists of tactics such as propaganda, victimhood, unreality, anti-intellectualism, espousal of patriarchy, perversion of law and demolition of public unity, order and welfare. Imran Khan is adept at each one of them. His is a politics based on deception, deflection and disruption. ‘35 Punctures’ was the catchword when PTI could not win general elections in 2013; a fabrication about rigging peddled without remorse that held the functioning of the state hostage for four months and led to attacks on the Parliament House and Pakistan Television. Come 2022. As soon as his numerical support for office withered, Khan resorted to shamanistic incantation of a foreign conspiracy bankrolled by American dollars to dislodge his government. Identical to the ‘Pizza-gate’ launched during the 2016 US Presidential election to tarnish the Clinton campaign, the ‘Letter-gate’ connects its targets – everyone who sits on the other side of the aisle – to acts of bribery and treachery. The repercussion was similar: armed men arrived at the gates of Sindh House, the site of this alleged Faustian bargain and dissenting politicians relentlessly hounded. Like a prototypical fascist, the former Prime Minister has constructed a gravely divisive narrative by labeling his opponents as enemies of Pakistan and Islam and calling for their social exclusion. His self-deifying assertion that there is no alternative to him, that he alone is patriotic, true believer and incorruptible has ready followers and when truth becomes oracular rather than factual, evidence becomes irrelevant.

Contradiction is the hallmark of fascists and openly embraced by their disciples. The conspiracy theory about foreign conspiracy is replete with it but so are the rest of Imran Khan’s claims. He promised to ‘drain the swamp’ and recover the nation’s looted money but his anti-corruption campaign concealed a vindictive agenda; like Nazi Germany, the Niazi regime mainstreamed all kinds of mafias and bled Pakistan dry. A government that pontificated about national honor mortgaged its economic sovereignty to international financial institutions. Examples were quoted of Caliph Umar (RA)’s probity but the details of gifts received by the Prime Minister were never disclosed. ‘Do nahi, aik Pakistan’ was PTI’s rallying cry but the huts of the poor were demolished and bungalows of the rich regularized. Khan waxed lyrical about the British parliamentary system but converted Pakistan’s Parliament into a madhouse and ruled by decree. When push came to shove, the captain fled the field and began to cry foul.

The Deputy Speaker’s subversion of the constitution to thwart the opposition from voting on the no confidence motion on the pretext of disloyalty to the state was Pakistan’s Reichstag Fire moment. Hitler exploited it to arrest all communist members of the Reichstag, win a decisive electoral victory and impose a state of emergency in Germany that lasted twelve years. Khan’s ambitions were no different but fortunately, the Supreme Court stood in the way. Like the military, it is also under fire by zealous supporters of the PTI for upholding the constitution and adhering to professional ethics because that is what fascists do: incapacitate institutions to evade accountability and rule with impunity. This abandonment of reason, contempt for rule of law and degeneration of promising men and women into a mob is recipe for national disaster. We must defend our institutions to avert it. The 33-year-old Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has shown us how it is done by spearheading the movement to oust Imran Khan’s totalitarian regime constitutionally, legally, democratically and peacefully – through the same Parliament that installed him in power in the first place. He did so, not to wrest control of the high office but to liberate it from a demagogue not worthy of it.

‘Fascism is a lie told by bullies.’ Ernest Hemingway could not have been more straightforward. The heir of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto has shown Imran Khan the door.  Now, we must support him to weed out his noxious brand of politics from our country. Long Live Pakistan!

Benazir Bhutto: From My Heart – By Saria Benazir.

Benazir Bhutto – my heart glides a beat every time I pronounce the very name, for it means no lesser than an existence to me, and streams in my veins like blood. Bibi – the voice that had stroked my essence, and defined my creation was not an ordinary being. Like her name ‘Benazir’, she is inimitable and wrote the elegy in her red; my Bibi remains my exclusive inspiration and every deed I perform is in veneration to the woman who showed me illumination in the shadows, and gave my countrymen a say by sacrificing her father, brothers, family life and her own life for the earth that was the dearest to her. I owe my Bibi nothing less than my life. She was Benazir, the peoples’ princess, who was laden with the roses when she took the assassin’s bullets to guarantee Pakistan’s survival.

Benazir Bhutto was exquisiteness – her life, an exemplar. She was a saviour, her trademark green and white, a parable of her unwavering commitment to winch the Pakistan’s flag too lofty. The white dupatta that perched on her head (with long dark hair and sometimes a breathtaking flick!) added to her classiness and wrote the myth of a young, unarmed knight in the shining armor of democracy, who fought against the repressive regime of zia ul haq, and stood unabated in front of the fanatics to surface as the first woman ever to head a Muslim state. She was only 35 at that time. Her ashen scarf was also verification of her adherence to her country’s rituals that she greatly appreciated.

Her eyes encumbered with kajal made her looks more sensational than Diana – eyes that were intuitive, and could feel the woe of her dispossessed masses, and would rip into tears to hear the anguishes of her countrymen. These eyes carried the fascination to magnetize huge crowds – they described precision, earnestness, audacity, sacrifice, and nationalism. Love for her people was always palpable in them, so was the soreness of losing her loved ones. Reading these Benazir eyes is implausible – their intensity, too profound to sink in them.

The pink on her cheeks earned her the pet name ‘Pinkie’. Who knew that Pinkie’s life would get trickled into an unplumbed red?

Her ears, often carrying gems were the only one that could pay attention to the cries of the underprivileged, the criticism of the opponents and the counsel of the friends with noteworthy might and broadmindedness. Her broad forehead denoted good luck. What greater fortune would it be to die a martyr’s death?  Her lips adorned with bright shades of lipstick only articulated the truth, and the voice of the marginalized, constructing avenues to the hearts of the people, piercing them with her eloquence and acumen. Her words transformed into the pearls of history books – priceless lessons for the people of all times. She spoke like a tigress; her words scared the boots more than the enemy tanks, and sent frissons to the enemies of democracy.

Her flawless skin and nose demonstrated her high virtues, and the strength of her beliefs. The imam zaman on her shoulders and her wrist illustrated her unyielding belief in her Creator, as she so famously said: ‘Life and death is in the hands of Allah that is why I have the courage to stare in the eyes of death without any fear’. Her wrist watch was an emblem of a punctual Benazir, who always knew her fate that she would not be allowed to live for many years, and she had to do everything before late for the emancipation of her people. ‘Time comes, time goes. We decide what to do with time’ and she dedicated every instant of it to her people who loved her beyond boundaries. Her hands with neatly trimmed nails, and always embellished with four or five finger rings were made of iron, and carved an allegory that will remain unparalleled for all the times to come with a scarlet ink that will never grow fainter.

The mole on her neck defined charm, and her diamond necklaces would add to the grandeur of the already fairy tale character, sent from the heavens to help the dejected. Her outfit revealed her grace – the shalwar kameez, blazer and the scarf she wore enthralled the minds and the dazzling color choices would give a glimpse into a daring Benazir with tenacity and unflinching devotion to her motherland. Her glamour was equally Benazir!

Benazir Bhutto was the most entrancing leader of all the times to come, and the heart throb of millions.

Benazir’s feet left ineradicable marks in the annals of the history. Wherever she treaded, she left a prodigy there, and soil for me to worship. Her nails garlanded in crimson depict the course chosen by her – she was walking in the way of blood.

I have a heart to offer as a red carpet for her feet – their prints made me Saria Benazir.

A wish as cavernous as the colour of my blood: Happy Birthday Aseefa! – By Saria Benazir.

The white dupatta suspended on her head and her spacious smile with equivalently woeful, yet indomitable eyes splits my heart but ignites it with a glint of hopefulness; she has begun from where her martyred mother had left for the creation of a bright future for her native land which carries the Bhutto blood. Aseefa is a re-embodiment of Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto, in the fabulous looks and dauntless behavior. Catching a smirk of her, the hymns of ‘Zinda Hai Bibi Zinda Hai’ already initiate to ricochet in the ambiance, for she is the manifestation of her mother’s promise to her people.

Benazir Bhutto’s blood runs in her veins. The youngest of the three siblings, she is the heartthrob of every jiyala, barely 14 when she lost her raptures that lied in mama’s lap. Those tears, every time I hark back to carve ineradicable cracks in my heart – greater soreness that one could put up with, yet Aseefa’s courage overwhelms the universe and overawes her mother’s assassins more than the bombs and bullets they deployed to snatch her mother from her. Her slogans of Jeay Bhutto make their way unswervingly to the soul of the people who label her as Benazir Junior, an axiom she accurately merits and is fated to be.

‘Mama, I cry every night when you are away and Baba is in jail’. She is truly a daddy’s girl. Her startling similitude with her father, especially in that larger than life smile synonymous with endurance and triumph has made her invincible. She is the daughter of the strongest man in Pakistan – Asif Ali Zardari, who was devoid of basic human rights in captivity for eleven and half years without a single conviction and who saved the country in the repercussion of December 27, 2007 by his slogans of ‘Pakistan Khappay’; thus figuring a new history of resistance and resilience.

Benazir Bhutto lives in every speck of her. Aseefa Bhutto Zardari was the first Pakistani child to get inoculated against polio by her mother, thereby kick starting the anti – polio drive in Pakistan and Aseefa has embarked on to accomplish Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto’s dream by making Pakistan polio- free by her vigorous campaigning against the menace with remarkable resolve. God bless those hands that are all set to transform Pakistan’s fate by administering polio drops herself to the children to guarantee that no one is crippled for life. She was appointed as Pakistan’s Ambassador for polio eradication in her teenage, which itself reveals her matchless bravery to carry a huge responsibility too early in life, but undoubtedly, she has been created for a greater rationale – beyond ordinary conception.

She, at the core is very humanitarian. A few months ago, she took her jump for humanity by skydiving to help raise funds to support the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. You do not entail going further to find an exemplar of a super woman – unrivaled gorgeousness with an even unsurpassed audacity is what makes the Bhuttos affable and an enticement for the masses. Her fondness for the animals is inexpressible; the youngest Bhutto Zardari girl is always seen nurturing her cats who are auspicious to have the presence of this exquisite human being sent to alter the fate of Pakistan to an improved, healthier and enlightened future.

Aseefa Bhutto Zardari is an Iron Lady in the making. She has inherited these nerves of steel from her mother, Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto, who gained an endless life after being riddled with bullets. She has surfaced as the leader of Pakistan’s future generation following her elder, likewise enthralling siblings Bakhtawar and Bilawal. Aseefa believes in sharing her smile with the world, analogous to her father Asif Ali Zardari who is the only head of state to have donated his body organs.

From thousands of miles apart and gashed by numerous dividers, nothing can impede me from being the greatest ABZ aficionado. Love and prayers for you stream incessantly like the waters. As cavernous as the color of my blood, this birthday wish comes from the deepness of my heart and soul. Happy Birthday, my sister and my leader!

Happy Birthday to my Benazir in blood and flesh, Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari! – By Saria Benazir.

‘The other day, I took Bilawal to see his father in prison. The atmosphere was horrid – police, prison bars…When we got home I felt very guilty for having taken him. However, it was quite different when I went with Bakhtawar. I had given her a biscuit to keep her quiet on the way there. When we arrived at the jail she hadn’t eaten it yet and when she saw her father, her whole concern was to feed him. When we arrived home, she spent the whole time picking up the phone and saying ‘Daddy. Daddy’. Tear-jerking, yet buoyant, inclusive and gratifying graphic of Itty Bee who is my life! Do I have to seek out an auxiliary rationale to worship her? Where the universe culminates, my adulation for Bakhtawar commences.

She is my goddess – the hardest name to carve and enunciate because it already crafts a pathway to my heart. The incessant and unblemished twenty-two letters ‘Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari’ delineate the itinerary of my continuation which is devoid of a measure to the fondness and kindliness held within, doubtful for any vision to comprehend and any being to feel the slightest of it. She gushes through my veins and breaths and surfaces as the exclusive throb. Words fall short to replicate the accurate state of mind; nevertheless cannot help scrape a minute section of my heart to get adequate blood to whittle ‘Happy Birthday’ for my leader and my soul – sister, the prophecy of good fortune and her mother’s very beloved pudding.

 She is the Royal Baby. When Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto gave birth to Bakhtawar in 1990, she became the first modern head of state to give birth while in office. The breathtaking parable of the baby who did not suppurate at all in mama’s lap during the entire flight from her mother’s ‘Daughter of the East’ characterizes the very gratefulness and serenity of the best daughter a mother could ever have – a leader in the creation, who had dedicated herself to Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto’s cause of the emancipation of her people ever since she was born, and from the beginning of her reality was made to go through the mayhem of Pakistan’s politics by growing up with the father behind bars and the mother fighting to prove his innocence alongside battling for the rights of her dispossessed masses.

Fittingly named ‘pudding’ by her martyred mother, she is a merge of the superlative traits of head and heart. I cannot fail to notice the 18 year old in black and silver having lost her mother just before her birthday and her space that laid with her – the tears in her eyes demolish me, but the human race observed those tears alter into a voice that guarantees to take the pain away with incomparable valor and dedication that sent tremors to the enemies of democracy and kindled the candle of hope in her devotees. The triumph of the PPP in the 2008 elections led to her father, Asif Ali Zardari taking the office of the President of Pakistan. One cannot recount anything to the exquisiteness of hands with cherry – painted nails carrying her mother, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s picture in the National Assembly. In her foremost official address to the future Pakistan, she, ornamented with her mother’s last gift conveyed her resolution to creating a positive difference in the lives of the people.

The floods in Pakistan gave birth to a new Benazir who could not resist rupturing all the obstacles to lend a hand to her people and convert the tragedy into an opportunity. Her venture to form an enlightened Pakistan is demonstrated by her excellent grades at the University of Edinburgh and her fidgety efforts to escort Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology to new heights. Lately, she captivated the crowds at the launch of the Sindh Festival – Benazir’s daughter in the conventional Sindhi dress denoted the family’s adherence to their derivations and indestructible connection with the soil and its people. She, in her riveting smile reveals truth and hopefulness – woman with audacity to speak up for the derelict and dismiss the critics without a grimace.

She is a superwoman. Twenty four years of her life have made her tantamount to magnetism, bravery and fascination. Her presence completes me or rather creates me. Her hug makes Bilawal and Aseefa impregnable.

Happy Birthday to my Benazir in blood and flesh – my leader (the only woman who can construct and destruct me!), Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari!

Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari: 22 letters from admiration to my existence! – By Saria Benazir.

My heart space and headspace is entirely packed with her; a friendship culminated into existence, perhaps much treasured than the breaths for they depend on its prolongation. Words are not proficient to portray the life in the storyline. Photographs fail to confine the realism which is beyond every conception. She is the golden thread to the meaning of my life or the very rationale of it; a glow and voice of optimism in the wilderness – reincarnation of a love I had lost six years back; she characterizes gorgeousness, fascination and magnetism. She is and can be none other than the tremendously enthralling Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari.

They say Bakhtawar means the portent of good fortune. They could not have been more ingenuous. She is a celestial blessing and my heartthrob. ‘They took our mother from our hands’ traumatized her, but produced the best daughter a mother could ever have. Everyone’s darling, Bakhtawar is the verification of Benazir’s eternity who is replicated in her breathtaking looks to compelling leadership and sentiments for the dejected that are all beyond description. Her eyes divulge the vision left to her by her mother and her words and actions illustrate the pathway to its realization. ‘I would take the pain away’ is her assurance to the people of Pakistan and it echoes in the firmaments – her voice audacious as ever and the legacy celebrated as ever. It is a daughter’s promise to her mother who is larger than life to her and in her name, she has undertaken to stand up for the oppressed and the marginalized section of her population.

In July 2009, she addressed the future Pakistan officially for the first time. Dressed in golden with the necklace her mother had left for her eighteenth birthday, her slogans of ‘Jeay Bhutto’ and ‘Jeay Benazir’ ripped the hearts of her admirers and sent frissons to the haters. She enchants everyone with her inimitable kindheartedness and other traits of head and heart, for it takes a trillion tons of chocolate to compose the kindest Bakhtawar who is an exemplar in every sense of the word. Her affection and concern for her siblings is unvaryingly unparalleled, who are enormously fortunate to possess the best sister in the world. As she posts an image captioned ‘BBZ square’ or carrying Aseefa in her lap, I have to seek out a trillion stars to favorite her tweets but it still goes futile because in her presence, the stars go dim for she is the brightest of all.

She is the peoples’ princess. My fondness for the Bakhtawar in the red SZABIST robe and the green Pakistan shirt craves a lifetime to place it on paper. She is seen wooing the students at the convocation and the country’s cricket team at the stadium. That is what Bhuttos are about – they give love and receive love; that is what makes Garhi Khuda Bux a crowd-puller. That is what makes ‘Zinda Hai Bibi Zinda Hai’ an everlasting fate. That is what makes this blood sacred and this is what defines Bakhtawar – the leader of the people like her mother and grandfather.

Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari – my life’s lexicon comprises of these 22 letters. It will die away the day one of it drops out. It is the name that reverberates in the deepest of my heart and streams in my blood, making it the sole component of myself. I yearn I could carve her name on the stars with my red and make a red carpet for her with my heart. But deep down, the trepidation of losing her haunts me – the very thought of it trembles my compassion and mind. But with no making up, I owe every drop of my blood to her. The only space in my heart and soul is occupied by her.

‘Having a sister is like having a best friend you can’t get rid of. You know whatever you do, they’ll still be there.’

 

It has progressed from admiration to existence. The blue has not faded yet; it never will, InshahAllah.

Love from one sister to another!

Islam resurrects after every Karbala! – By Saria Benazir.

O Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa’sallam)! May the angels of heaven bless you. Here is Husayn in the open, stained with blood and with limbs torn off. O Muhammad! Your daughters are prisoners, your progeny are killed, and the east wind blows dust over them. These were the cries of Zaynab bint Ali as she passed the prostrate body of her martyred brother, Hazrat Husayn (AS). Of that gallant band, male and female knew that the enemy forces around were implacable, and were not only ready to fight, but to kill. Denied even water for the children, they remained parched under the burning sun and scorching sands, yet not one faltered for a moment. Husain marched with his little company, not to glory, not to power of wealth, but to a supreme sacrifice, and every member bravely faced the greatest odds without flinching.

The storyline of Karbala is imprinted in sacred and an indelible red, the stains of which will never grow fainter. It was the blood of the Prophet (PBUH)’s family which was drifted inhumanly in the murky waters of the Euphrates, a sip of which was not even available to a six months old baby Asghar who was murdered by the arrows of the brutal forces of Yazed. It was a battle that decided the fate on righteousness, on the soil and on the firmaments. ‘If the religion of Muhammad(PBUH)  was not going to live on except with me dead, let the swords tear me to pieces’  – this was the audacity of Hazrat Husayn (AS) who fell in prostration as he gave his life fighting for Allah’s religion after losing all of his companions. He was beheaded and the bodies of the martyrs were mutilated and left unburied for forty days. The violence did not culminate here. His family was enslaved and Husayn’s three year old daughter Sakayna died as a captive. However, the martyrs of Karbala were the eventual winners. They were killed, but their beliefs could not be obliterated. Instead, Husayn and his companions became an emblem of gallantry, resoluteness and legitimacy for the people of all the nations and all the religions, his sacrifice having set a paradigm. They were no non believers, but the so – called Muslims who killed the grandson of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) in cold blood about whom he said: ‘Hussain o minni wa ana minal Hussain’ – Hussain is from me and I am from Hussain. What could be a larger exhibition of fondness than calling him a part of himself? They did not attempt to kill Husayn, but a central part of the Prophet (PBUH) which they could not. Yazed and his followers were doomed to convene abhorrence and blight, their names tantamount to defeat and nuisance. Husayn’s message and venture to protect his grandfather’s religion, on the other hand achieved an undying existence of splendor. Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) is reported to have said: ‘As a result of the assassination of Hussain, such warmth will be kindled in the hearts of the believers that shall not become cold till the Day of Resurrection.’

The Karbala did not lapse with the martyrdom of Hazrat Husayn and his companions. It is an as pertinent phenomenon even today. The followers of Husayn (AS) continue to be butchered by the gruesome Taliban who claim to be the vendors of faith. The blood of the Shias does not arouse any remonstrations in this so known as the land of the pure. Hazrat Husayn (AS) gave the sacrifice of his life and his kin to protect God’s faith unlike the Taliban who use suicide jackets to kill innocent civilians and our brave soldiers to spread Yazed’s Islam. The Karbala recurred in Pakistan with the Bhutto tragedy. Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was murdered by Yazed’s courts by speaking up for the rights of the dispossessed population of his country. Benazir Bhutto Shaheed, following in the footsteps of Bibi Zaynab (AS) lost her father, both her brothers and travelled to the desolate wilderness of Karbala despite the dangers to her life and perceiving that the soil was thirsty for her blood, ultimately giving her blood for speaking against Yazed’s religion lectured by the scroungers. They, however, could not mute Hussainyat. The young grandson of ZAB, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stands as firm as ever against the forces of Yazed who have held our nation hostage. Despite being on their hit list, he is the only politician in Pakistan who holds the bravado to gape in their eyes and label them animals. It was probable for the Bhuttos to live a life of ease by surrendering to these tormenters but they chose not to be intimidated and silenced, but instead wrote a golden history which lies buried under the petals at the graveyard in Garhi Khuda Bux. Like Maulana Muhammad Ali Johar, the pioneer of the Khilafat Movement and a prominent figure in the struggle for Pakistan’s independence wrote ‘Qatl-e-Hussain asl main marg-e-Yazid hai, Islam zindaa hota hai har Karbala ke baad’, how true that resonates in Pakistan. It is the Bhutto’s blood that overwhelms radicalism and despotism and brings democracy to Pakistan. In the jargon of these Yazed Taliban and their appeasers, saying ‘Ya Ali’ and ‘Jeay Bhutto’ is a transgression, but in reality, these catchphrases cleave apart the skies and will persist to echo in the universe till the end.

On this Muharram 10, let us reiterate to fight the Yazed within us that has claimed the lives of thousands of Pakistanis. None of us is Shia or Sunni. It is either Yazid or Husayn’s religion. Let us join hands to eliminate these terrorists for once and all. Following Husayn (AS)’s Islam is the only way to the continuation of Pakistan. The words of Josh Malihabadi wrap up the story of Husayn (AS) and Karbala: “Insaan ko bedaar to ho lene do, har qaum pukaray gi hamare hain Hussain” (Let humanity awaken and every tribe will claim Hussain as their own.)

The Nightingale of India, Sarojini Naidu beautifully placed Hazrat Husayn’s sacrifice very admirably in her poem:

“Black-robed, bare footed, with dim eyes that rain

Wild tears in memory of thy woeful plight

And hands in blind, rythmic anguish smite

Their blood stained bosoms, to a sad refrain

From the old haunting Legend of thy pain,

Thy votaries mourn thee thru’ the tragic night

With mystic dirge and meloncholy rite

Crying to thee Husain! Ya Hussain!

Why do thy myraid lovers so lament?

Sweet saint, is not thy matchless martyrhood

The living banner and brave covenant

Of the high creed thy prophet did proclaim

Bequeathing for the world’s beatitude

Th’ enduring loveliness of Allah’s name.”

Jehangir Bader: The tale of heroism and devotion to the PPP. – By Saria Benazir.

He was beleaguered, whipped and incarcerated, but he never gave up on the doctrine, he so stalwartly believed in. His existence is an immaculate exemplar of audacity in times of adversity, and an unparalleled allegiance to the Bhutto family, and he has never desisted from any sacrifice to hold the red, green and black crest of his party too towering, as to pack the ambiance with its immenseness and distinctiveness. His parable is tear-jerking, but illustrates an unplumbed heroism and devotion to the cause of Pakistan Peoples’ Party. He signifies an indestructible bond with the party that is larger than life to him. Every time, he remembers his leader Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto, his eyes haze and the wretchedness is perceptible in his words.

He is a fighter – warrior of democracy, who from his teenage years had undertaken to bring an alteration in Pakistan’s political scenario that had always encompassed of the autocrats and drawing room politicians, who had utterly no going into the masses. Jehangir Bader initiated his political activism as the President of his college’s student union and in the course of that, led the campaign to oust the military rule of General Ayub Khan, which was apathetic to the needs and demands of the commoners. Profoundly enthused by Quaid e Awaam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his relation with the party he established goes to the heart. As a fervent aficionado of the entrancing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, he declined to be silenced, and persevered with the cause of an egalitarian Pakistan, in the face of getting tormented and locked up in the dictatorial regimes. He nevertheless set a history. 

The cause of democracy was the dearest to his heart, and he always placed his own verve on peril to hold the pennants of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party lofty, in the eras of the atrocious of the despots. His ‘transgression’ of receiving his leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the LahoreAirport was castigated by a year term and battering in front of the Shaheed Bhutto Cell. But he was a man of iron: thirty – five lashes at one fell swoop could not shatter that idol, or crack his faithfulness to the PPP. He was apprehended in the Kot Lakhpat Jail (alongside his leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was also held a captive there) for touring Punjab with Madr e Jamhooriat Begum Nusrat Bhutto. In the same year, his son, Zulfikar Ali Bader was born – a child, named by and after Quaid e Awam, who depicts the indestructible bond that links him with the PPP. Every consequent affliction was ruthless than the prior. He also remained seized and tortured in the Shahi Qila of Lahore on the commands of zia ul haq.

His fortitude to expel the domineering regime of zia ul haq was unflinching. He led the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy despite being inflicted with imprisonments and appalling ordeals and as the President of the PPP for the Punjab province, in April 1986, organized the grand and historical reception for the Daughter of the East, Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto – homecoming, that altered the tide and culminated the tyrannical decade of zia ul haq’s rule. In the following elections, the Pakistan Peoples’ Party won a landslide victory in Pakistan, and the Bhutto’s daughter was sworn in as the first ever woman to head a Muslim state. Finally, there was democracy in Pakistan, but that was too short lived. Both terms of the PPP in power did not amount to barely five years, owing to the coups and the extremist lobby in Pakistan’s politics who were apprehensive of a moderate, enlightened and egalitarian Pakistan. Another epoch of torments began. Fictitious corruption incriminations were leveled against Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto, her husband and other PPP leaders, including Jehangir Bader – accusations that were never proven.

Jehangir Bader was one of the closest companions of Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto and he has always stood dutiful to her, and the earth she was buried in. After her assassination, he began his doctorate in philosophy on his sister, and his leader he too dearly cherished – making him the first ever person to do so. This is a paradigm of his incomparable fidelity and adulation for his martyred Chairperson. Every time, he speaks about her, his tone carries mounds of tenderness, and his eyes, heaps of tears. His dedication to Bakhtawar, Aseefa and Bilawal is interminable, and he feels for them, like his own blood and flesh, and the same allegiance is reflected in his children, who have made the PPP the rationale of their existence.

Happy Birthday Uncle!

You are my hero, and I am proud of you, inspired by you. Your courage entails a book that would soon be on my list.

Jeay Bhutto!

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari: Engraved in a Jiyala’s Blood – By Saria Benazir.

“Democracy is the best revenge”: his mother’s words from the juvenile, captivating Bilawal Bhutto Zardari ricocheted as the catchphrase of the century – at 19, he had already treaded into the birthright gripped in cavernous scarlet; the parable of which elongates to every bend of the earth. With strenuous viciousness, they executed his grandfather, uncles and his mother, the “alluring” Daughter of the East; and yet, “Bhutto survives”… in his grandson, who is destined to escort the future Pakistan to the climax of prosperity.

He is the Bhutto’s blood – his flesh. Substantial similitude to the Quaid e Awam makes Bilawal Bhutto Zardari incomparable; for devoid of misgiving, he is “the one without a paradigm” as his name implies. He is the “Zulfikar Ali Bhutto” of Pakistan!

Newspaper captions read “The Child who fooled the President” – Born to Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari on September 21, 1988, Bilawal was the most “celebrated” newborn in Pakistan’s narration ; yet, his continuation – a hostage to his family’s assertion to an improved prospect for Pakistan’s inhabitants, who look upon the Bhuttos as an icon of veneration.

December 30, 2007 – there originated a new epoch, crammed with woe; yet exemplified by resolute dedication to the homeland. The jingles of “Jeay Bhutto” send frissons to the enemies of democracy. A new anecdote of red, green and black began with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, taking the mantle of leadership and assuming the headship of the largest political party of Pakistan:” It (the PPP) was not handed to me like a piece of furniture. The party asked me to do it and I did”.

Perhaps, in his leadership, the party stands more unified and stronger than ever – a new life surfaces with every bloodshed, for the martyrs’ blood is bound not to go vainly.

The Bhuttos have long been acknowledged for their magnetism and fearlessness. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari prolongs the heritage. Bold and brilliant, he reveals all the constituents of the future Prime Minister of Pakistan.

He is the distinct Pakistani leader, who can plainly clasp the ashen scrap in Pakistan’s flag and has undertaken to defend the religious minorities who reside in this country. Unreservedly against the frame of mind that killed the former Punjab Governor, and the Minorities Minister, he declines to believe that Islam authorizes sadism. Perhaps I am very certain that he will eliminate the tarnish of being the world’s most treacherous place for the minorities and journalists from Pakistan’s name.

He has persistently said: “May Baaghi Hoo” – undeniably, he is a dissenter to the double standards ripping us apart: frequent military governments, ostrich politicians, butchering of the minorities, inept law and order system, the radical attitude which have encumbered the country’s growth ever since its establishment.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari craves for the Jinnah’s Pakistan – forbearing, progressive and egalitarian. He endeavors for Pakistan free from the ills of scarcity, illiteracy, fanaticism and ailments. He yearns to make a difference, for in Bilawal’s words “Jo faisla hota nahi, wo faisla kar daiy gay hum…”

He is Benazir Bhutto’s son. The ordeal is detectable in his eyes and tone, every time he says: “Ya Allah Ya Rasool, Benazir Beyqasoor”… He is a son, who till the date has been shorn of justice for his mother, and grandfather, both of whom lost their lives to make certain that the ejected ones too do get “Bread, Clothing and Shelter” at the minimum.

On September 21, 2013, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari observes his 25^th birthday, and the ocean of my sentiments of undying adoration and devotion to him reaches the zenith, so I reach out to say Happy Birthday to Bakhtawar’s brother – the child, who sacrificed his adolescence to win a peoples’ love.

“I give you the gift of my feelings. You will fight the fight better than me. Your speeches will be more eloquent than my speeches. Your commitment equally total. There will be more youth and vitality in your struggle. Your deeds will be more daring. I transmit to you the blessing to the most blessed mission. This is the only present I can give you on your birthdays.”

An unending love, devotion and my blood for your birthday gift ❤

 Zinda Hai Bhutto Zinda Hai!

 

Thank you President Asif Ali Zardari: the bravest we ever had! – By Saria Benazir.

“God brings night and God brings day. God brings light and God brings darkness. Victory and defeat are in God’s hands. In our hands is the decision to live a life that can give us the satisfaction to say, when dying, that we lived a full life, a life devoted to serving humanity and its highest ideals.” Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto 

President Asif Ali Zardari – one of the most enthralling figures of the Pakistan’s politics observes his 57^th birthday on July 26. For the masses, he is the singular sanguinity, of course, because he leads Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto’s party – the largest political party of Pakistan, which was established to serve the “Awam”. There are many, who would convey their disenchantment over the existing circumstances, partially because their focal spring of comprehension is the news bulletins and the talk shows on the television. Nevertheless, divergent to their views, I would express gratitude to Mr. Asif Ali Zardari for leading this dominion in the worst predicament of its narration, and making this land, a very better place to live in, as reckoned by its founders.

He married the Daughter of East, Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto on December 18, 1987, and after joining ties with a member of the Bhutto family, President Asif Ali Zardari has demonstrated a paradigm of valor, and ardor by always standing by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto at the most awful of the times, favoring incarceration to treachery to his ideals – i.e. to provide Bread, Clothing and Shelter to the people of Pakistan, and to lend a hand those who had been dispossessed of their indispensable rights ever since Pakistan’s underpinning. This venture cost him his health, and family life, and for eleven and a half years, he had to tolerate the sweltering heat of the prison cells followed by appalling persecution, and other corporeal and psychological twinges. Despite the fact that the assertions against him remain unverified till the very day, he scarcely spent 9 years of his married life with his family – the lockup was Zardari’s second home. His children grew up devoid of a father’s affection and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto had to spend years fighting those bogus corruption arraigns alongside bringing up the children, and leading the party all alone. When released, he had become a heart patient followed by other ailments. The family had barely gotten together that the shadowy afternoon of December 27, 2007 filched his beloved wife and the leader of people, Benazir Bhutto from him.

He forfeited those 11 and half years of his life, and his personal life, purely in the anticipation of an improved prospect for the people of Pakistan. This nation is too obliged to Mr. Zardari! Salutation to his audacity!

In the repercussion of the earth-shattering December 27, 2007, President Asif Ali Zardari carried towering the crest of the peoples’ power – the red, green and the black flag which posed the utmost hazard to the despots and their mean ends, thus, saving Pakistan from mayhem and sliding doors. Zardari attested to be the true successor to the celebrated heritage of Quaid e Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and after routing a totalitarian – his wife’s murderer, led the Pakistan Peoples Party to victory in the general elections to serve the people of Pakistan, and materialize Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s vision of a progressive and egalitarian Pakistan – Pakistan that was too precious to her heart.

No one was primed to escort the country in those muddled situations, but it was Asif Ali Zardari who did not relinquish, and after becoming the President of Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari immediately relocated the powers to the chosen representatives of the people, and willingly handed over the authority to the Prime Minister by terminating the Article 58 – 2 (b) to the constitution of Pakistan. The NFC awards gave sovereignty to the provinces, and the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Income Support Programme was commenced to back the dearth stricken masses. Women were authorized through legislation, and the rights of the minorities guaranteed – Successful military operations were accomplished in Swat and the northern areas to blotch off the terrorists, who created a peril to the country’s security, solidity and economy. The setback of the internally displaced people was unraveled within a year, and the areas hit by the calamitous floods were rehabilitated. Poor friendly schemes were initiated, and the government ensured the freedom of press and judiciary. The strategy of reconciliation remains the hallmark of the current PPP regime, and enormous attempts were made to prevent this democratic system from being wrecked.

He is the first ever head of the state to donate all of his body organs, thus abiding with the Pakistan Peoples Party’s convention of sacrifice. After Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the challengers of democracy interrogated “Will the PPP survive”? President Asif Ali Zardari’s dedication and enigmatic leadership has provided a substantiation that the Pakistan Peoples Party has come to survive forever. He is the pioneer of a first ever smooth democratic transition in Pakistan. His love for every Pakistani child as Bakhtawar, Aseefa and Bilawal, and concern for the wellbeing of the population makes him unparalleled in Pakistan’s history.

Thank you Mr. President for setting the base of a tolerant and thriving Pakistan – We would always remain beholden to your enormous courage, and sacrifices.

From a daughter, always prepared to give up her life for you!

Jeyay Bhutto!

Bring me my Benazir back… – By Saria Benazir.

Benazir Bhutto – the tone, my heart had always hankered to heed to, a sensation that encompasses my endurance and has become the very rationale of my prolongation. Nevertheless, when I initiate to corral about that ceaseless essence, my entire body quavers and I am left paralyzed and disenchanted to distinguish how coldheartedly my leader Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto was assassinated and that my lioness princess now dwells under the soil of Garhi Khuda Bux Bhutto – The unsympathetic doom is hard to be articulated and I am left utterly oblivious in a wretched world – unjust realism : life ceases when one opens up the metaphor and every word of it whittles an incalculably cavernous lesion on my heart, one that is far from cure. Meanwhile, the jingles of “Zinda Hai Bibi, Zinda Hai” commence a new folio – a perpetual fable. My leader continues to be the pulse of millions – she persists to rule the masses and I am tremendously obliged to every act of hers.

My derelict empathy is not proficient enough to depict the enormity of my inspiration; for my ogles are too drenched to grasp unerringly the sentiments of the crowds that chant “Jeyay Bhutto” at every instant. I am startled that I survive – the entire itinerary of my life transformed and I cannot resist lettering about my leader Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto – the sole inhabitant of every of my conversation and all that goes on in the heart and psyche.

Born on the longest day of the year, hers is the longest struggle for egalitarianism – she left ineffaceable marks in the annals of history, fighting the clutches of totalitarianism too courteously. June 21 symbolizes the birth of optimism, and of perpetuity. Benazir Bhutto – my existence concludes here.

My ogles are filled with snuffle,

I plunk with a wrecked empathy,

My verve, trapped in billions of regrets,

My daylight hours, like if survival has seized,

My instant, repeating of anguish,

Such piercing accidents,

I have never faced…

Can never gaze up to them…

I don’t have that much courage,

To breathe without a personality,

Closer to me as anyone else,

Who skilled me to articulate,

To reside,

To escort the life,

To interact with the people around me,

To envisage about my community,

To have my essence in the dust,

To give this terra firma inclination over anything else,

To survive with audacity,

To face every situation with gallantry,

To believe in the help of God,

To have compact confidence in democracy,

In the clout of the commons,

Benazir Bhutto, It was you,

You made me discover that all,

Where should I now go?

Where to acquaint with you?

Return me my Benazir …

The watches grab vista of an agonizing phenomenon,

The grime of Garhi Khuda Bux Bhutto,

Too huge, but a pebble empathy it has got,

For it lost all of its sparklers,

Still, the origin of anticipate,

The centre of factions,

Thrash about for democracy,

It always gave confinement to the laudable people,

Who were wholly affiliated to their earth,

Though epochs were too ruthless,

They even gave up their blood,

This day, Benazir Bhutto,

The terrain of Larkana suppurates out,

Get me my Benazir back…

I spot your legacy,

The bequest filled with blood,

Owned by the redeemer of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari,

I heed him articulate Pakistan Khappay,

I listen to him dub out,

If you want to subsist like Benazir,

Learn to deal with living like her…

I see your glance in Bilawal,

His speeches, truly grasping your apparition,

The hallucination, you’d struggled for all your life…

Your words, embossed on his psyche,

Democracy is the greatest reprisal,

I see your adored Aseefa and Bakhtawar,

Carrying totally your manifestation,

In the means of their lives,

The act of their demeanor,

I perceive my Benazir,

Completely heart ached,

I am standing in a world,

Devoid of Benazir….

The instant of life calls out,

Bring me back my Benazir…

Oh! It’s June 21,

Bring me my Benazir back…

 

Sindh ji Rahri Benazir ji salgarah ji mubarak hujai – Happy Birthday, Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto.

You continue to dwell in our hearts!

Zinda Hai Bibi, Zinda Hai!