After the death of Benazir Bhuto what bewilders me is why it is being portrayed like mother Teresa died and a shining beacon of democracy was extinguished when she is not only one of the most corrupt, but THE most corrupt person in Pakistan's history who bled the country dry. and was dismissed both time she was in power for being corrupt.
Actually all Bhutto wanted was power and didn't matter how she got it. That’s why she was in bed with the dictator Musharraf and even supported his moves of firing the judiciary and his illegal move into the President’s chair. In exile she opposed him but as soon as he dangled the carrot of certain leadership she got in talks with the dictator who then gave her amnesty from the scores of corruption cases against her filed by civilian governments.
All she wanted was power and was willing to do anything for it, which makes her the best candidate for America's vision of Pakistan, a sham democracy with a dictator in Presidents clothes, chief of Army Staff appointed by that dictator, The judiciary appointed by the dictator and a PM who would do what she’s told as long as she in power. If she has come in power (and everything was done to assure it) nothing would have changed. America and Musharraf could claim that there is democracy and everything would have stayed the same just as Musharraf and America would like it.
CNN : But with Musharraf's grip on his government slipping, the Bush administration had recently turned to what you might call "Plan B," a potential power-sharing pact between Bhutto and Musharraf.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/29/henry.us.pakistan/
Its unfortunate that she was assassinated but its not like Mandella was killed, the most Corrupt Leader and a power hungry person without any morals or principles died, I will not shed a tear. Pakistan would be better off without her if it wasn't for her thugs now tearing the streets apart.
LOOK below corruption charges for the timeline of how Bhutto was clearly being installed into power and things will be clearer on what has been going on. A pattern would be very clear, was she the shining beacon of democracy or a power-hungry corrupt individual in bed with a dictator.
Corruption and embezzlement.
- French, Polish, Spanish, and Swiss documents have fueled the charges of corruption against Bhutto and her husband. Bhutto and her husband faced a number of legal proceedings, including a charge of laundering money through Swiss banks. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, spent eight years in prison on similar corruption charges.
- A 1998 New York Times investigative report[12] indicates that Pakistani investigators have documents that uncover a network of bank accounts, all linked to the family's lawyer in Switzerland, with Asif Zardari as the principal shareholder. According to the article, documents released by the French authorities indicated that Zardari offered exclusive rights to Dassault, a French aircraft manufacturer, to replace the air force's fighter jets in exchange for a 5% commission to be paid to a Swiss corporation controlled by Zardari.
- The assets held by Bhutto and her husband have been scrutinized. The prosecutors have alleged that their Swiss bank accounts contain £740 million.[16]
- Zardari also bought a neo-Tudor mansion and estate worth over £4 million in Surrey, England, UK.[17][18] The Pakistani investigations have tied other overseas properties to Zardari's family. These include a $2.5 million manor in Normandy owned by Zardari's parents, who had modest assets at the time of his marriage.
- In the largest single payment investigators have discovered, a gold bullion dealer in the Middle East was shown to have deposited at least $10 million into one of Zardari's accounts after the Bhutto government gave him a monopoly on gold imports that sustained Pakistan's jewelry industry. The money was deposited into a Citibank account in the United Arab Emirates sheikdom of Dubai, one of several Citibank accounts used by Zardari.
- Together, the documents provided an extraordinarily detailed look at high-level corruption in Pakistan, a nation so poor that perhaps 70 percent of its 130 million people are illiterate, and millions have no proper shelter, no schools, no hospitals, not even safe drinking water. During Bhutto's five years in power, the country became so enfeebled that she spent much of her time negotiating loans to stave off default on more than $62 billion in public debt.
- Other properties that Pakistani investigators have linked to members of the Bhutto family include a string of luxury apartments in London. Pakistan has asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate still more bank accounts and properties, including a country club and a polo ranch in Palm Beach County, Fla., said to be worth about $4 million, that were bought by associates of Zardari in the mid-1990s.
- The Pakistani request to Washington, made in December, also sought American help in checking allegations that some of Zardari's wealth may have come from Pakistani drug traffickers paying for protection. In the past decade, Pakistan and its neighbor Afghanistan have become the world's largest source of heroin, shipping 250 tons of it every year to Europe and the United States.
- On July 23, 1998, the Swiss Government handed over documents to the government of Pakistan which relate to corruption allegations against Benazir Bhutto and her husband.[19] The documents included a formal charge of money laundering by Swiss authorities against Zardari. The Pakistani government had been conducting a wide-ranging inquiry to account for more than $13.7 million frozen by Swiss authorities in 1997 that was allegedly stashed in banks by Bhutto and her husband. The Pakistani government recently filed criminal charges against Bhutto in an effort to track down an estimated $1.5 billion she and her husband are alleged to have received in a variety of criminal enterprises
- The Polish Government has given Pakistan 500 pages of documentation relating to corruption allegations against Benazir Bhutto and her husband. These charges are in regard to the purchase of 8,000 tractors in a 1997 deal.[25][26] According to Pakistani officials, the Polish papers contain details of illegal commissions paid by the tractor company in return for agreeing to their contract
- Potentially the most lucrative deal alleged in the documents involved the effort by Dassault Aviation, a French military contractor. French authorities indicated in 1998 that Bhutto's husband, Zardari, offered exclusive rights to Dassault to replace the air force’s fighter jets in exchange for a five percent commission to be paid to a corporation in Switzerland controlled by Zardari.[30]
- In the years Bhutto was in office, Pakistan received billions of dollars in new loans, much of it to enable the country to pay interest on its debt. By 1996, interest on the accumulated public debt, including $32 billion in foreign loans, was absorbing nearly 70 percent of state revenues. With Pakistan's defense costs absorbing the remaining 30 percent, scarcely anything was left for the social programs that Bhutto had promised. www.samsloan.com/benazir.htm
And this is just the tip of the iceberg
BHUTTO's Timeline of hypocrisy and Attempts to install her as Pakistan's PM by America and Musharraf
Lets have a look at the Bhutto’s timeline and you will see the pattern, was she the shining beacon of democracy or a power-hungry corrupt individual in bed with a dictator being installed into power:
1979 Bhuttos Party PPP's founder and Benzir’s father is hanged after a controversial trial for authorizing the murder of a political opponent while in power.
Prior to the execution, Benazir’s brother Shahnawaz Bhutto and his elder brother Murtaza Bhutto embarked on an international campaign to save their father's life, but it was to no avail. The two brothers continued to resist the military abrogation of the 1973 constitution in exile and were prominent in the party.1984 – Benazir Bhutto becomes leader of her father’s party PPP.
1985 - Shahnawaz Bhutto is poisoned. Fingers are pointed at Benazir in a apparent power struggle to gain party leadership, Murtaza Bhutto is also to be killed later.
1988 Bhutto was sworn in for the first time in at the age of 35, but was removed from office 20 months later under the order of then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan on grounds of corruption and embezzlement.
1993 Bhutto was re-elected again as PM.
1996 While in Power bhutto has her other brother killed. He was not happy with the corrupt ways of Benazir's husband Asif Ali Zardari and wanted him removed from the interworkings of PPP. [3] When his sister decided to side with her husband, Murtaza became a strong critic of PPP government and the ongoing corruption. This didn't bode well with Zardari, and his protege Abdullah Shah Lakiyari (then CM of Sind) obstructed Murtaza's political compaign[3]. Murtaza invited Zardari to talk in private and settle the problems within the family. However, the meeting ended in confrontation so he had him killed.
On the evening of Murtaza Bhutto's assassination there were 70 to 100 police officers placed yards away from his residence (70 Clifton Road, Karachi), including several high-level police officials[5]. Some of the officers were in sniper positions in the nearby trees with the streetlights being shut. As the car carrying Bhutto approached the house, it was stopped by a police contingent. When Bhutto exited the car, the police opened fire. All of the six men accompanying him were fatally shot too. Bhutto was shot several times, but the shot that killed him was fired execution style on his neck [5]. The victims were left to bleed without any medical attention for half-an-hour to 45 minutes. All of the seven men were then taken to different locations, none to emergency hospitals[5]. Bhutto was taken to Mideast, a dispensary[5]. In the aftermath of this assassination, none of the police officers was arrested. Benazir Bhutto's government chose to arrest all the survivors and witnesses, two of whom died mysteriously in police custody[5]. The police officers involved in this assassination were later promoted to higher positions[5]
1996 Bhutto was again removed in 1996 on corruption and embezzlement charges, this time by her own President Farooq Leghari (PPP) and the Supreme Court.
1998 Bhutto flees the country instead of fighting charges and her overseas assests frozen by many countries.
2002, Dictator Pervez Musharraf amended Pakistan's constitution to ban prime ministers from serving more than two terms. This disqualifies Bhutto from ever holding the office again. He later removes this just for Bhutto when Bhutto does a deal with the dictator for power....beacon for democracy ??? while other opposition party refused to negotiate power sharing with the dictator as it is UN-DEMOCRATIC and a person with any principles will refuse to do !!!!
July 2003, after an investigation lasting several years, Daniel Devaud, a Geneva magistrate, convicted Mr and Mrs Asif Ali Zardari, in absentia, of money laundering. They had accepted $15 million in bribes from two Swiss companies, SGS and Cotecna. The couple were sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to return $11.9 million to the government of Pakistan.
2006, Interpol issued a request for the arrest of Bhutto and her husband on corruption charges, at the request of Pakistan.
May 2007 -Bhutto had declared her intention to return to Pakistan within 2007, which she did, in spite of Musharraf's statements of May 2007 about not allowing her to return ahead of the country's general election, due late 2007 or early 2008. It was correctly speculated that she may have been offered the office of Prime Minister again
June 2007 - Arthur Herman, a U.S. historian, in a controversial letter published in The Wall Street Journal on 14 June 2007, in response to an article by Bhutto highly critical of the president and his policies, has described her as "One of the most incompetent leaders in the history of South Asia",
mid-2007, the US appeared to be pushing for a deal in which Musharraf would remain a dictator but step down as military head (a symbolic move, he changed the constitution again to retain all the power), and either Bhutto or one of her nominees would become prime minister. A quote from CNN which does not form the basis of this assertion:
CNN : But with Musharraf's grip on his government slipping, the Bush administration had recently turned to what you might call "Plan B," a potential power-sharing pact between Bhutto and Musharraf.http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/29/henry.us.pakistan/
July 2007, some of Bhutto's frozen funds were released.[58] Bhutto still faces significant charges of corruption. In an 8 August 2007 interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Bhutto revealed the meeting focused on her desire to return to Pakistan for the 2008 elections, and of Musharraf retaining the Presidency with Bhutto as Prime Minister
September 10, Nawaz Sharif (The only real opponent of Benazir and last PM) arrived in Islamabad (after exiled by Musharraf) on a PIA flight from London but was deported to Saudia Arabia against his will and against Supreme Court's decesion to allow him in.
October 2007, after reaching an understanding with Military Dictator Pervez Musharraf by which she was granted amnesty and all corruption charges so she can have a powersharing government with the dictator who dissolved the judiciary and changed the constitution to give himself legitimacy. She had no problems with that either as all she wanted is power (Shows a lot about her morals and principals and democartic beliefs aswell)(and America's democratic principles aswell, like lets have free elections in Palestine and whoops didn't vote for our candidate - cut off aid, screw democracy).
October 5, 2007, Musharraf signed the National Reconciliation Ordinance, giving amnesty to Bhutto and other political leaders—except exiled former PM Nawaz Sharif (Only real opponent of Bhutto) (Filed by Musharraf) —in all court cases against them, so as to give Bhutto clear route to power and blocking her opponents. She hoped that the money-laundering and corruption cases pending in three European courts – in Valencia, Geneva and London – would now be dismissed. This doesn’t seem to have happened.
In return, Bhutto and the PPP agreed to support the illegal Presidential election drama after Musharraf arrests the Chief Justice and other non-coperative judges and replaces them with lackys (Illegal drama of making Musharraf a president from military leader - He changes the constitution to retain all the power and is STILL AN UNELECTED DICTATOR).
November 3 2007 - Dictator Musharraf re-imposes Martial Law and arrests oppositon leaders and the free-thinking Chief Justice
November 3 2007 , 64 Judges refuse to take oath under Musfarrafs new constitutuion, All oppositon want to boycott the elections as they cannot be fair under the dictator and His newly replaced judiciary, Benazir is unmoved as she knows she is guaranteed the job by rigging.Never before has there been such a huge forced exodus of judges from the superior courts, The News reported.
Senator Aitzaz Ahsan PPP, who was also lead counsel for the deposed chief justice. She informed him that either he was with the chief justice or with the Pakistan People's Party. The Cambridge-educated politician-cum-human-rights lawyer remains under house arrest and a supporter for judicial independence. He also withdrew his application to contest the elections.
November 8 2007, Bhutto placed in a loose house arrest (symbolic), while other politicians were jailed in unknown locations, exiled, phones cut, no press, etc while Bhutto frequently appeared on TV, and rallies appearing to oppose Musharraf, while the other politicians were on the run or in jail. A stage was being set to try to give her the credibility she lacked in people’s eyes due to her past and apparent deals with Musharraf.
The following day, the Pakistani government announced that Bhutto's arrest warrant had been withdrawn and that she would be free to travel and to appear at public rallies. However, leaders of other opposition political parties remained prohibited from speaking in public, Why ?? You should know by now
Oppositon leader Imran Khan confirms this :
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/benazir-a-trojan-horse-politician-imran/52178-2.html
November 14, 2007 the Harvard Law School Association decided to award its highest honour, the Medal of Freedom to Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, following the military crackdown the previous week. He becomes the first Pakistani to be presented with such honour.
The National Law Journal picked Mr. Chaudhry as the lawyer of the year for 2007, the only non-american in the history of the Journal.
December 3, the Election Commission of Pakistan banned Mr Nawaz Sharif (The only real opponent of Benazir and last PM) from taking part in the January 8 elections.
December 6, Mr Sharif attempted to meet former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry but was stopped by police. Mr Chaudhry was forced to leave office after refusing to swear allegiance to President Musharraf and also the authorities are preventing him from leaving his household. Mr Sharif told the crowd that he has come to show support for the judges and will not rest until they were restored.
December 7, it was confirmed by Nawaz Sharif that he would not appeal against the ban that was placed on him on December 3, and will not participate as a candidate in the January 8 elections. If Mr Sharif appealed against the ban the matter would have been taken to the Pakistan High Court. Mr Sharif said that he does not recognize this as legitimate because the judges were forced under the rule of President Musharraf. Mr Sharif wrote to the Election Commission saying that he was being prevented from standing for political reasons. (Make Benazir Bhutto PM)
December 27, 2007, Bhutto was killed whilst leaving a campaign rally for the PPP at Liaquat National Bagh.
30 December 2007, Bhuttos thoroughly corrupt and criminal husband (read above) becomes CO-Chairman of PPP, the other co-chairman is her 19 year old son Biawal Zardari who has been abroad all his life. What is Bilawals credentials apart from his bloodline ?? Is this a monarchy (well inline with PPP feudal roots and principals). How is he fit to be Pakistans PM ? What has he ever done for Paksitan ? Corrupt Feudal lord gets killed her son takes power.
Saint or Sinner ? - Answer Corrupt Feudal Trojan Horse placed by America and the Dictator for their own interests.
Most of the source is wikipedia with sources and i can confirm these to be true following it live on TV as these events took place.
Here is whats next IF YOU PAKISTANIS Remain Blind. Presenting Bilawal Bhutto:
