High Court Bar Association Sukkur
Address of Ms Benazir Bhutto
November 05, 1998

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Two years have passed since Pakistan Peoples Party duly elected Government was shabbily betrayed in a malafide act during the treacherous night of November 4, 1996. All three principle actors in that drama were in turn betrayed and were unceremoniously forced to make their exit from the corridors of power. In the process, the institutions of the State, the Presidency, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the High Command of the Armed Forces were attacked by the hand picked Prime Minister who has become a civilian dictator.

Thus, if you do not learn from history, it tends to repeat itself. The writing on the wall was there to see that the regime is driven by the lust for power and money and is willing to place all institutions at stake in the satiation of its greed.

The original excuse given for the destabilization of the Pakistan Peoples Party government was the state of the economy although this did not figure in the Dissolution Order. Any unbiased observer can judge that the economy was in much better shape during my tenure than it is today. In one of the biggest bank robberies perpetrated ill history, this regime has robbed the eleven billion dollars deposited under the Protection of Foreign Investments Act passed by this Government in 1992. The value of the Rupee has declined by more than 30% and another 20% devaluation is around the corner. Inter-bank rate is more than Rs. 55/- as opposed to the official rate of Rs. 46/-, which means that the defacto devaluation of 20% has taken place. Hundreds of thousands of workers in state enterprises have been rendered unemployed and the severe recession has led to retrenchment In the private sector. The Stock Market has lost more than two-thirds of its value with the index dropping from 2600 to 800.

Then came the charge of extra judicial killings in Karachi - Pakistan's biggest metropolis and its industrial and commercial capital. In Karachi itself hundreds of people have. been killed including the high profile killing of the Chairman, KESC, Shahid Hamid, four harmless employees of Union Texas, the day light murder of ex-MNA Zuhair Akram Nadeem and lately the assassination of renowned and revered Hakim Muhammad Said who served as Governor Sindh during my tenure as Prime Minister. In the wake of these events custodial killings have taken place. I found Karachi at war and left it in peace. This legacy was forfeited and bartered away by the dictator Nawaz Sharif for unholy political compromises.

As you sow so shall you reap. The high cost of the corruption, mismanagement and bad governance in high places is that the province of Sindh is the only province deprived of the opportunity to govern itself.

At the time of the nuclear test on May 28, I had made it easier for the Government to sign the CTBT during the course of my budget speech in the National Assembly of Pakistan in early June,1998 with a policy statement that Pakistan should sign the CTBT unilaterally. If this advice had been taken at that time, the Rupees would not have collapsed, the foreign exchange deposits need not have been frozen, and Pakistan would not have defaulted. Instead of taking the sane advise, the Government embarked upon a mad misadventure of raising issues which divided the country like the Kalabagh Dam and launching a cowardly attack on the foreign investors, the chief target being the IPPs. This resulted in a flight of capital and a sense of alienation in the minority provinces not witnessed since December,1971. The fundamental rights of the citizens were also stolen. The Government has been forced to beat a retreat on all these fronts. The Kalabagh Dam issue has been dropped. The campaign against the IPPs has floundered and run out of steam. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has struck down the notification suspending Fundamental Rights. The country is in default.

What is the cause of our present woes. Lets us face the fact: We have bad regime lacking popular support, driven by insecurity, bent upon the politics of revenge, creating a dangerous polarization amongst the people and provinces, threatening the very foundation of Pakistan. As a result of the mishandling of the situation, Pakistan's economic and internal security is under great threat. After having tried to take on the IMF with the help of donations from overseas Pakistanis whose dollars he had confiscated, Mr. Nawaz Sharif is on his way to Washington to sign the surrender document. After having made the country an economic hostage, the Government says that Pakistan is ready, six months too late, to sign not only the CTBT but also sign the NPT and impose a voluntary freeze on the production of fissile material, much before the fissile material cut off treaty has been finalized in Geneva, giving India a permanent advantage in the nuclear stockpile. Had Pakistan taken the moral high ground on proliferation matters in May, it would have won the goodwill of the international community; stolen a march on India, got some of its debt written off and been given some time to replace fissile material lost by detonating six bombs - when one would have the same effect - in a fit of machismo.

It is an axiom of geo-politics that it is not possible to sustain an independent unclear deterrent with a moth eaten and dependent economy. The first and foremost responsibility of any Government is to restore and stabilize the economy. We do not have to eat grass. We just have to pay taxes. The example must be set at the top.

Yet the power elite of today is infamous for not paying its loans or taxes.

Under the amendments to the Ehtesab Act, the Chief Ehtesab Commissioner has been deprived of the power to make any reference or conduct any inquiry without the blessing of the Chairman Ehtesab Cell, a henchman and crony of the Prime Minister. Who is going to inquire how the palaces in Raiwind and multi-million pounds Flats in Park Lane, were acquired or investigate the money laundering through the Qazi family of London, Saeed Sheikh of Washington and other cronies of the great dictator with dubious antecedents?

The latest of these scandals deals with the attempt of the Government to destroy the last citadel of democracy - Parliament itself.

Clause 4 of the l5th Amendment which has been passed by the National Assembly provides that "The provision of this article shall have effect not withstanding any contained in the Constitution, any law or judgment of any Court". This single clause amounts to the abrogation of the Constitution, the destruction of the Federation and erosion of the independence of the judiciary. I am second to none in my faith in Islam. It is not the desire to serve Islam that inspires this Bill. It is the desire to concentrate all powers in the hands of a dictator. Under this clause the Prime Minister can by-pass the rule of seniority in appointment of judges and the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court need not be the senior most, Mr. Justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui. Under this clause the Prime Minister's fiat would over ride any law, federal or provincial, thus making nonsense of provincial autonomy and re-imposing One Unit. Under this clause any provision of the Constitution itself can be struck down which amounts to abrogating the Constitution itself.

Let us therefore, resolve to save the Federation of Pakistan from the clutches of the dictator. Let us therefore resolve to rebuild our institutions. It is therefore resolved to respect the trichotomy of power between the legislature - whose duty it is to make laws, the judiciary - which is invested with the judicial power to interpret the law, and the Executive - which is obliged to implement the laws. Let us, therefore, resolve for the right of the people, to rid the country of the law of the jungle and to restore the economic and political rights of the people of the Federating Units.

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