Published in Friday Times on November 2nd, 2007
Sir, Is BB fit to be
prime minister again? The events of October 18 prove that she isn’t. First of all,
you don’t need a degree from Harvard to know that arranging a procession of some
200,000 people on Karachi’s main artery will bring life to a standstill.
If only she had any
love for Pakistan, she’d have simply told her followers to collect outside the Quaid’s
tomb. That way, at least she wouldn’t have exposed them to bombs or sniper bullets.
Instead, she chose to stand in an open truck, ignoring security officials’ advice.
Anyone with an ounce of intelligence could see that she was a sitting duck.
To then expect that
she wouldn’t be attacked proves that she’s entirely ignorant of the situation in
the country.
And while her procession
was moving through the streets at a snail’s pace, people were stranded in their
homes, unable to leave in case of emergency.
If Benazir really cared
for the people, she’d have asked her party workers to occupy only half the road
and leave the other half open for traffic. Or she’d have cancelled the procession
and made a speech at another place, that day or later.
What did the procession
prove, anyway? Her popularity among the masses? Even if there were a million souls
out there, filling up Shahrah e Faisal, she should not forget that the population
of Pakistan is 160 million, so those on the roads did not even take up one percent
of the country’s strength .
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