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2008-01-24T03:00:00.001-08:00

"Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame."--AP

Tragic death of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto

2008-01-19T02:53:00.000-08:00

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the undisputed leader of the Pakistan People's Party--the largest political party in Pakistan, twice-elected prime minister and eldest daughter of late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto died on Dec 27, 2007 after addressing a mass gathering at Rawalpindi. It is not yet clear as to whether she was gunned down or died in a bomb blast. Her tragic death at a crucial moment in Pakistan's history has a big jolt to the country's politics and its political future.

Her 19-year son Bilawal has been made chairman of the party while her husband Asif Ali Zardari has become the co-chairman. The party is set to contest the general elections on Feb 18, though the vigour, zeal and enthusiasm may be lesser than what it would have been under the chrismatic leadership of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. The party has swiftly recovered from the aftermath of her death and that goes to the credit of the current party leadership who swung back to face the challenges ahead.

2007-10-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

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For Whom the Bell Tolls

2007-10-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

Benazir Bhutto, twice-elected prime minister of Pakistan, is back home after ending her 8-year self-imposed exile abroad. She is the chairperson of the largest political party in Pakistan known as the Pakistan People's Party, founded in 1967 by her father late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who also served as elected prime minister of Pakistan from 1971-77 before he was deposed in July 1977, tried and executed by his hand-picked Chief of Army Staff General M. Zia-ul-Haq.

Since 1967 todate, the PPP has been a major political force to reckon with. It is the only political party that has its roots in the countryside as well as urban areas. In terms of mass popularity, there is no parallel political outfit in the country. It is only in personal popularity that Benazir Bhutto is neck to neck with Mian Nawaz Sharif who was also elected prime minister twice, deposed by his hand-picked Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf in a military coup in Oct 1999 and then exiled to Saudi Arabia.

Benazir Bhutto is reported to have taken the decision to come back to Pakistan under a power-sharing deal with the incumbent President Pervez Musharraf. The details of the deal are yet to be formally announced by either side. It is, however, generally assumed that she put forward three conditions for her return and sharing power with the president. Firstly, she will be allowed to contest the election as prime minister for third time. Secondly, all corruption cases, pending in courts in Pakistan and abroad against her, her husband, party officials and favored bureaucrats will be withdrawn by the government. Thirdly, the power of the president to dissolve the parliament and dismiss the prime minister under section 58(2b) of the constitution will be vacated.

President Pervez Musharraf has all along insisted that Benazir Bhutto should return to Pakistan after the process of general elections is completed. He has also deferred agreement on conditions# 1 and 3. He has accepted only condition #2 by promulgating National Reconciliation Ordinance.

The political pundits are keeping their fingers crossed. Nobody is sure what is going to happen in the months ahead till the general elections, scheduled for Jan 2008, are held. It is generally perceived in the country that President Musharraf would not be able to get along a strong, dominating and popular prime minister for too long. He would not like to take a back-seat and assume the role of a ceremonial head as envisaged in the country's constitution of 1973. There are greater odds against an harmonious relationship between the president and Benazir Bhutto. "Two kings can't sit on the same throne," as one saying goes.

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Unforgetable Quotes

'When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the one which open for us.'---Alexandar Graham Bell

'God, grant me the strength to change that I need to change, the patience to accept that which I cannot change, and above all, the wisdom to know the difference.'---St. Francis of Assisi

'Success is based on imagination plus ambition and the will to work.'---Thomas Edison

'Minds are like parachutes, they only work when open.'---Anonymous

'The best way to predict the future is to create it.' ---Peter F. Drucker

'It is no use saying, we are doing our best. You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.'--Sir Winston Churchill

'Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new' ---Albert Einstein

'A life without cause is a life without effect' ---Barbarella

'A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every dificulty' ---Sir Winston Churchill

'You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not"---George Bernard Shaw

'Love all. Trust a few. Do wrong to none. This above all: to thine own self be true. No legacy is so rich as honesty. Brevity is the soul of wit'---William Shakespeare

'Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.' ---Irving Kristol

'Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.'---George Bernard Shaw

'You have to live before you die, or you'll die before you live.'---Peter Sellers

'It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.'---John F. Kennedy

'Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who defuse it; it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.'---George Eliot

'Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living.'---Emily Bronte

'We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.'---Rudyard Kipling

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