My Benazir Lives... By Saria Benazir

BENAZIR – I screech out to top of the volume, as much as my larynx could afford. Engraving the name “Benazir” – it fills my eyes with tears & breaks my heart into trillions. I ramble here and there, oblivious, hopeless and comatose in the boulevards packed with blood. Where is my Benazir?? I bellow, but there wasn’t anyone to rejoinder me, I’ve been asking the same from the dismal sun, the shadowy moon and the hushed winds – were they too insensitive enough to overlook a young girl’s cries? I continue to saunter in dimness; no one is there to provide me with a candle to cope with the sinister night. I’ve been listening to the rumbles of the scavengers, but there is no one in the entire world to shield me. Every face appeared to have transformed, for I could scarcely find a smile on the face the most vicious person on the earth. I fall in a deep sea – too unfathomable for me to drown into it. It is blood, and I can feel a perpetual placate in it, but why?? I utter it again and again “Please – take me to my Benazir”, no one is paying any heed to my words. “This blood would not go waste” – It appears the voice of my life’s sole fervor. Again, I hear: “To you, the youth, we pass the torch of leadership, baptized in the sacred blood of our martyrs”. Don’t tell me, it’s your blood; every single breath of mine is associated with you, you can’t be killed. “You can kill a man, but not an idea” – I hear a voice like Benazir’s repeatedly: “You cannot murder a legacy”. – it was the murkiest night of my life, when I lost my leader Shaheed Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto, but her blood did give me some courage to take a gulp of air.

June 21, 1953 – the sun rose from the East and blessed the world with the Daughter of the East. The baby with “pinky” cheeks was destined to be the “Benazir” of Pakistan and struggle to make a “Benazir” Pakistan. Brought up with immense fondness, no one could ever reckon that “Pinky” would have to battle against so many vultures. Her existence began with optimism. As a student of Harvard and Oxford, her empathy would only pound for Pakistan and she had dedicated her life to making her country a prosperous one. Despite living in deluxe, she had an enormous revere and love for her native land’s mores and rituals. Blessed with amazing qualities of head and heart, Pinky had to materialize the vision of and fulfill the anticipations of her father, from whom she inherited the love and concern for the people. Her struggle from the first female foreigner to win the presidency of the prestigious Oxford Debating Society to the youngest and the first ever Muslim woman to head a Muslim state is a fable of anguishes and bloodshed, and of tortures and exiles. A young girl, whose father was previously murdered by Zia ul Haq, was now the victim of the tyrannies of the same predator, who left no opportunity to harm her, but Benazir did face all with patience and in the end, it is the forces of democracy and justice which triumph. Her endeavor to bring about an egalitarian government in Pakistan was though, filled with thorns, but the December of 1988 gave a fatal trounce to the dictators and proved the authenticity in the words of Quaid e Awam Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto: “My daughter Benazir would become Benazir in the history of the Sub – Continent”.

During her terms as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mohtarmah Benazir Bhutto worked assiduously to assist the underprivileged of her state and make Pakistan, an exemplary nation for the rest of the Muslim World to follow, but the heirs of Zia ul Haq couldn’t stomach the development of the state and continued to conspire to terminate democracy and ended up making fake corruption charges against her and her husband. Every being is forced to bow in admiration of her courage, who, despite facing grave hardships did not discontinue to fight for democracy and the rights of her people. The days of her exile, during which she had to attend to her ailing mother, look after the kids and prove the innocence of her captured husband ache every heart. Though, the realities were too vindictive, but Benazir returned to her state with a BENAZIR nerve, audacity - that was nowhere else to be found. Copious chanting out for Benazir & of course, the world can never close eyes to the martyrs of Karsaz, who gave up their own lives to shield their leader & so many, who became crippled. History never witnessed a day like October 18, 2007 – The day, when the soil of Pakistan gained its life, as Benazir’s feet touched it.




“Despite threats of death, I will not acquiesce to tyranny, but rather lead the fight against it” and the cost of this fight was her blood and she willingly gave even the last drop of it for her motherland. To this day, no one can impede the world from chanting out “ZINDA HAI BIBI, ZINDA HAI”, for she dwells in every psyche and rules the humankind from her grave. Those, who assassinated her were too naïve to the fact that Bhutto –ism has come to exist forever & Benazir lives in the form of President Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Aseefa Bhutto Zardari. She, indeed, is a source of eternal guidance for us and her struggle and sacrifice sets an instance for the future generations to follow. Whatever I am this day, I owe it to her inspiration and no one can substitute for the vacuum, created by her brutal assassination.
“I know death comes. I’ve seen too much death, young death.”

MY BENAZIR LIVES…….
Happy Birthday :)