Comments on: The Benazir They Knew

By: Faryaz Shaikh

Faryaz Shaikh — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:29:30 +0000

Awesome post, good lines!

By: mazhar ali shaikh

mazhar ali shaikh — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:45:40 +0000

plz sand me pic of bothoo fimaly

By: koonj

koonj — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 03:22:38 +0000

Middle class Punjabi/Kashmiri Lahori?
I KNEW we were related, CM!

By: saeed

saeed — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:06:29 +0000

Daphne Barak—–>Ehud Barak——->Israel
O my gosh is it just me or those conspiracy theorists seem to have got it right much before us common folk.

By: mikal

mikal — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:29:16 +0000

If journalists use their ‘access’ to Benazir, you too as an academic use the native/authentic subject Billa to tell the same story. Who is Billa in this story and why is he there? Narrative device or authenticity effect? While you are critical of similar characterizations but feel compelled to give a personal connection to Ground Zero in Pakistan yourself. And how caricatured is Billa in this account, in the end his only understanding of politics is reduced to a dehari?

By: Rohit

Rohit — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:05:46 +0000

Who is Daphne Barak, and what has she been smoking?

By: captainjohann

captainjohann — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:14:13 +0000

Sir, the elite Non Resident pakistanies cannot understand how this feudal lady was able to attract TEARS in baloachistan,NWFP and start her campaign from peshawar.These same non resident pakistanies were signing praise of Musharaff only 1 year back when karachi index was at its zenith. We the people of south asia are feudal and let us face it man.I in India feel for this lady because she has shown willingness to learn inspite of her corruption during her previous stint. is Bush or chen ey not corrupt?
Her win would have unravelled the might of ordinary poor people of pakistan who donot follow the suitwallahs or jehadies.they just want food,shelter,security for their womnfolk, and education may be to get a greencard.

By: Memories of Pinky « Lakshmi Gandhi’s Blog

Memories of Pinky « Lakshmi Gandhi’s Blog — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:00:35 +0000

[...] Mystery’s Sepoy also recalled his few encounters with Bhutto this week, describing his disgust after hearing her speak at the University of [...]

By: Farangi

Farangi — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:38:17 +0000

I’m not sure how G-d and the USA are different, Habby. Both have reputations sullied by representatives, both speak English only and are obviously white, and both have abandoned Pakistan.

By: habby

habby — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:36:58 +0000

Daughter of Pakistan?
I agree that Benazir’s death is sad and it was a hineous crime. However I would question her status in pakistans history. She and her family were landowners and landowners can not be so rich to have faboulous homes or palaces in Surrey, great houses in Dubai, hotels & buisnesses in Dubai, Switzerland accounts. Where has all this wealth come from? Clearly it has been stolen from the pakistan.
Secondly - Did she go to pakistan to restore democracy? To help the poor masses? No, I dont think so. She went their to amass more wealth and satisfy her hunger for power?
Thirdly did she trust God would help her in her quest? No I think she thought USA would help her in her quest?

By: Remembering Benazir « Kafr al-Hanadwa

Remembering Benazir « Kafr al-Hanadwa — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:36:27 +0000

[...] 2, 2008, 1:36 pm Filed under: Democracy and Human Rights, Desiland Manan Ahmed has a personal reflection on Pakistan under Benazir’s rule that’s worth reading next to the paens to the [...]

By: Chapati said ‘giddy’ and fell silent! « baCk in aCtion

Chapati said ‘giddy’ and fell silent! « baCk in aCtion — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 08:12:16 +0000

[...] to make BB their mascot girl. Sepoy seems to have been left with a similar impression — Boy! did she have a sweet tooth, he says. But since he frowned at most of the commentators’ who make BB out to [...]

By: John Abraham

John Abraham — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:49:13 +0000

You write: I am struck by how utterly unrelatable she is deemed to appear to the vast majority of Pakistanis.

This unrelatability has not stopped her from sweeping the polls in Sindh and some parts of the Punjab. Mind you these are the rural and the poor folk. She might have done so this time round too notwithstanding the machinations of the Qaf League and the puppetmaster behind it.

So who then are these vast majority of Pakistanis, I wonder.

By: Farhat

Farhat — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:30:15 +0000

I have also been reading many op-eds written about BB and yours is the best one so far because it is not about her celebrity as much as it is about the 1980’s and 1990’s political scene and her mixed legacy. One of the questions I have been mulling over is the modes of connections to the people she and her father exemplified, their ‘awami’ style. You are the historian so you can think of the historical analogies but it seems to me that their way of connecting with the public had a lot to do with the notions of ‘badashas’ and their ‘rayia’ but mixed in with lefti populism. I wonder if anyone has studied Z.A. Bhutto’s rhetorical style and why it seem to work so well…or at least that is what we are told.
The tremendous outpouring of grief over BB death also reminds me of the Princess Di effect. This is the first time in Pakistan’s history that there has been relentless coverage of a political murder and given her family history she made such a ‘good’ story. Somehow all of us watching felt ‘it’ whatever that ‘it’ was, for me it was someone so full of life and full of joy that particular day being cut down so quickly with such finality. My mother lives in Sargodha and has been a strong critic of BB because she had decided to take part in election and jettison Athizaz Ahsan. But now she tells me she might vote for PPP and that many of the women she had talked to during a relatives funeral in a nearby village had become major supporters of PPP.

By: Aziz

Aziz — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:22:08 +0000

awesome post. I’ve added it to the Carnival of Brass.