Profiles in Courage
SDPI Seminar - Islamabad
March 05, 1999

Ladies and gentlemen,

 I had never wished to enter public life. It was nothing that I sought. I had hoped, at Harvard and later at Oxford, that I could pursue a career in journalism or in the foreign service. Forces beyond my control shaped the direction of my future. Personal choice and personal happiness were replaced by social responsibility and political obligation.

 Ladies and gentlemen, I see myself as a daughter of the East who was educated and spent significant parts of my life in the West. In a sense, I see myself as a bridge of two cultures, two worlds, two pasts. As a child I attended a private school in Karachi, run by Catholic nuns, sheltered from much of the turmoil of early Pakistan, a shy and insulated girl. When I was but sixteen years old, my father determined I should not be denied the Islamic right of knowledge, and thus he sent me abroad for higher education, and I was admitted into America’s premier university, Harvard College. All my life, and even spiritually to this day, it was my father who guided me, who mentored me, who encouraged me, who gave me the strength and confidence to express my views. His soul and his values are alive within me, wherever I go. It is interesting that the person who insured that I would break lose of the constrains of my culture and gender, was not a woman, but a man. A very great and a very wise man. The man who was and is the greatest role model in my life -- Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. My travel to America when I was 16 was a true awakening.

 I walked into a very new world.

 I was alone for the first time in my life..

The pampered child was suddenly cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing -- independent and self-sufficient. I was for the first time in my life living together with strangers, in a dormitory of peers, where I had to take care of myself but also participate in an intellectual village. It was the first time in my life that I was in an environment where women were treated as full participants in society in every way. I was also thrust into a political environment that was unlike anything I had ever known. I went to Harvard in 1969, at the heart of the Vietnam War, with all of America, in political and social turmoil. In time, I, like many of my classmates, took to the streets, took to the barricades, demanding an end to an unjust war. And while I was in America for those four years, I participated and observed in a miracle of democracy -- I saw the power of the people changing policies, changing leaders, and changing history. It was that early experience, possibly more than anything else, that shaped my political being, that unalterably shaped my faith in democracy. From Harvard I spent almost four years in Oxford, where I became the first foreign woman to be elected as President of the Oxford Union. It was my first election, my first victory. I had been told that as a foreigner, I could not win and should not run. I had been told that as a woman, I could not win, and should not run. I knew I could win, and I did. Thus, I learned a valuable lesson: never acquiesce to obstacles, especially those that are constructed of bigotry, intolerance and blind, inflexible tradition. I also learned another critical lesson in life -- to follow my own political instincts. I returned to Pakistan in 1977, hoping to pursue a career in the Foreign Service.

But circumstances would soon unfold that would dictate the path of the rest of my life and change the direction of the future of my country. Within one week of my return from Oxford, a military coup toppled the elected democratic government of my father. Our house was surrounded by tanks.

A brutal, criminal dictator had overturned a free and fair election, imposed martial law, and suspended all constitutional rights within my country. My father was arrested, released, re-arrested and finally hanged. My party was targeted. Our leaders were murdered, tortured, imprisoned. The lucky ones went into exile.

A political vacuum was created with the imprisonment of my Father and his colleagues.

In this vacuum, I saw many members turn towards me to lead rallies, tour the country and seek a restoration of democracy. I did not seek leadership, it was thrust upon me. Tragedy, political circumstances, and the forces of history rallied a nation around me. I was fortunate in my campaign to lead my nation, as my name was recognized throughout the country -- and the same people who supported my Father's vision of a modern Islamic democracy rallied around me to continue the struggle.

I was fortunate in that a political party with roots in all four federating units of the country presented me with a national platform from which to launch not only the struggle for democracy but my own political career. I also was fortunate that my father had provided me with a strong education, and the means to be economically independent. This allowed me the time and resources to strengthen our political base. Exposure to modern, liberal ideas and a liberal education in some of the best schools in the world certainly helped me in preparing to play the leader’s role.

But it was the real, practical education which I received from my father, who took great interest in my upbringing and initiating me in debates on major contemporary issues, which prepared me most. When I reflect on the road I have traveled, I recall my early aspirations to become an editor, and as mentioned, my interest in the Foreign Service – my intentions were never to become involved in politics. However, now I realize I had no control over the events which would quickly change my fate, and my course was no longer mine. I was catapulted into politics by the force of circumstance. When my father was executed, and the Party rudderless, I was called upon by the Party and the people to take charge and pursue the mission of my father for freedom and constitutional rule.

The Pakistan Peoples Party provided me, a woman, the opportunity to lead the nation because the PPP had an enlightened, liberal message, proclaiming the equality of men and women. This was not an easy task at a time when the military dictatorship insisted that a woman's place was behind the house and behind the veil -- not in the work place. However the different approach between our opponents and supporters on the role of women in a Muslim Society helped one in enlarging and co-opting a liberal constituency in a Muslim country where tradition and tribal customs had played a pre dominant role. Many believe that South Asian women leaders have inherited leadership through assassination of loved ones in the family.

The other part is that each of us had to win our badges of honours by paying a political price. I paid that political price, spending nearly six years in one form of imprisonment or another, mostly in solitary confinement, in an all pervasive climate of fear and dread. Senior members of the party could not reconcile themselves to being led by "a chit of a woman" to use their phrase. Bruising battles for leadership continued with the youth and second tier of the leadership supporting me over the senior leaders.

The downside of a politics born of struggle was the inadequate exposure I ,or my young supporters had, to the members and working of the elite and influential groups in the countries social and economic and administrative structure.

Due to the dread of the mixing with the opposition, members of the business community, bureaucracy military and judiciary kept clear of me. I had little experience of government, having not worked myself up the ladder as a democratic system allows. And this would remain a vulnerability when the party first achieved power.

However, I gained much experience in organizational and managerial matters in running the PPP, the nation's largest and most popular party, against all obstacles. But I found that it was not easy for the elite groups to accept the woman as a leader, particularly one which, perforce to circumstances, they did not know My youth, went against me too. I remember, when I was elected my supporters were jubilant but not my opponents.

A Blind religious scholar from a leading Muslim country issued a fatwa declaring that it was un-Islamic for a woman to become chief executive of a country. I was delighted when a scholar from Yemen gave a Fatwa in support of a woman Chief Executive quoting the Holy Quran and the example of Queen Sabah who ruled a land of plenty. Hon'ble, Members of the religious parties and conservative minded segments of the public embarked on a mission to create a religious frenzy against the newly elected government. Pamphlets were distributed claiming it was the religious duty of the country to assassinate me as I was a woman who had usurped a man's place in an Islamic society. Several assassination attempts were made including one within the first month of my election at the Lahore airport.

A group of scholars within the organization of Muslim countries embarked on an agenda of having Pakistan thrown out of the OIC because it had violated Islamic tradition by voting for a woman. Luckily I learnt of this plan and pre-empted it. The removal of the government was branded a religious mission from the immanence.

Every Friday, from the mosques, sermons were given inciting the people to overthrow the government. Even non-Pakistani Muslims joined the challenge Pakistan had thrown by electing a woman leader. Osama Bin Laden bankrolled the no-confidence move against me. Ramzi Yousaf the man held responsible for the World Trade Center bombing made two unsuccessful assassination attempts in 1993. An armed group broke into the Prime Minister's House and two other break ins were also intercepted

However, having a popular base meant having the popular support. We proved in Pakistan that the barriers of tradition could be broken. We proved in Pakistan that a woman could be elected chief executive in a Muslim country. It was a victory for women every where especially Muslim women. And although my opponents fulminated, calling me an Indian agent and Israeli agent, the people supported me. In November of 1988 my party was swept into office and I was sworn in as the first Muslim woman to head a government anywhere in the world. I was 35 years old. We immediately embarked on an ambitious program of political liberalization, an end to press censorship, legalization of trade unions, a commitment to the long neglected social sector with emphasis on education, health delivery and women’s rights, and macroeconomic reform.

Despite the peoples support, after just 20 months, the entrenched Establishment that had supported the dictatorship, that had refused to bow to the people’s will, toppled my government. The fact that I was a woman played a great part. In my first term a serving Corp Commander called upon my husband and said that if he took over the leadership of the PPP the Party would be acceptable to the Establishment. In 1993, when we were preparing for Elections, a member of a royal house said the same thing to my husband and to me saying that my election posed problems for other Muslim countries. When I was dismissed in 1990, an anti-PPP interim regime was sworn in and the then President led the campaign against me even coming on television on the eve of the Election to say that "the dead body has been bathed. Tomorrow it will be buried!! The petition filed by Air Marshal Asghar Khan before the Supreme Court shows how the Inter Services Intelligence organized and turned the campaign against the PPP.

The new regime born in an establishment intrigue failed to give Pakistan stability.

It launched bitter battle of persecution against its political opponents. My husband was arrested, a hostage to my political career. I was dragged by my chadar from court room to court room. My supporters, including Parliamentarians, were kidnapped, arrested, baton charged, tear gassed.

The result was that anarchy and chaos gripped the Nation.

Pakistan was on the threshold of being declared a terrorist state and our economy was on the verge of collapse. We were asked to roll back our then peaceful nuclear programme. The Rangers and Police were eyeball to eyeball in front of Governor House, Lahore and civil war threatened our country.

My party did not lose its faith in one nor did I lose my faith in politics or the people of my country. I missed the opportunity to meet my workers or organize my party because of the harassment. I was brutally tear gassed while carrying my third child Aseefa for five hours. But the peoples Democratic Alliance succeeded in its goal of forcing Nawaz Sharif to resign.

Within three years I was re-elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan. It was a difficult campaign for me. Unknown to my family, my mother had begun falling ill and our opponents were able to exploit a Moma's love for her son. My own brother campaigned against me. My mother said that a boy should inherit my father's political legacy. My father had seen his legacy as belonging to the downtrodden and oppressed people of Pakistan. My mother's view caused me pain and anguish. Although I won the election it had to be at the cost of my brother losing the seats he had contested. So although I won, the sweet taste of victory eluded me. I tried to reconcile with my brother. His pride stood in the way. As an eldest child I had been a demi-mother to any brother and sister. It hurt me that my brother opposed my government. Just when we met, and reconciled in July 1996, he was snatched away by my enemies who triggered a battle in the streets of Karachi. I wondered if my brothers would have been used against me if I had not been a woman. I wondered whether, in different ways, my mother and brother had been used to wage a psychological war against me because women find to have greater emotional feelings.

My husband, Senator Zardari, too was targeted. I believe he is a victim of male rage felt by my opponents. A traditional wife listens to her husband. It is easy for my opponents to exploit this value system by playing on peoples nerves, falsely, that my husband views the show. As men in traditional homes dictate the way their women folk should behave, I believe there is male rage against my husband directed at him not keeping me at home and thereby not threatening the status quo with a working wife.

In reflection, I realize that being a leader in a large developing country that had been stifled by the forces of dictatorship is difficult in itself.

But being a woman has made my task more formidable. I faced greater challenges than I could have ever imagined when I took my oath of office in the Aiwan-e-Sadr on a cool December day in 1988.

It is not easy being a woman in Pakistan, and in many ways there are still hurdles for women all over the world. Still more difficult is being a woman politician, a woman parliamentarian, or a businesswoman. Moreover, for women leaders, the obstacles are greater, the demands are greater, the barriers are greater, and the double standards are greater. And ultimately, the expectations of those who look at us as role models are greater as well. For all women, it is critical that we succeed. Unfortunately, there are still many men who would just as soon have us fail, to reinforce their myopic stereotypes restricting the role of women. I recall with great empathy the words of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, who once said:

"If a woman is tough, she is pushy. If a man is tough, gosh, he’s a great leader."

How often, in Pakistan, we have heard characterizations of women in professions as pushy, as aggressive, as cunning, as shrewd, as strident.

These words, if applied to men in politics, would be badges of honour!

Those of us who have chosen to serve in business, government and other professional careers have broken new ground. We have broken glass ceilings, we have broken the stereotypes, and we have been and continue to be prepared to go the extra mile, to be judged by unrealistic standards, to be held more accountable.

Therefore, women leaders have to outperform, outdistance and out-manage men at every level. We should not shrink from this responsibility, we should welcome it. Welcome it on behalf of women all over the world.

For all who have suffered before, and for all who come after us, we are privileged to be in this special position, in this special time, with unique opportunities to change our societies, our value systems, our country and the World.

I have not found that there are any male leaders who will agree there are differences in styles between male and female leaders.

But we female leaders, and I speak from my conversations with other women leaders, believe that female leaders are stronger and more determined.

I personally believe that women leaders are more generous and more forgiving. Male leaders tend to be more inflexible, and more rigid.

However, ironically, I have met many male leaders who feel that women leaders are actually more rigid.

Male leaders can learn from female counterparts how to keep people together.

Women leaders have a tradition and an historical legacy of bringing up families and creating a sense of family community and unity. Women are more forgiving, more understanding. Male leaders more loner than women leaders stand on false pride or bold grudges.

 Women have a greater natural and inherent strength in keeping a team united and this is what men leaders need to learn from women leaders. I have often been criticized for forgiving and taking back those who have opposed the PPP. I do not know whether this because I am a woman leader or because I come from the land of sufis and as such live in the present letting go of the past.

 I asked a male leader what we female leaders could learn from them and he replied in a simple word "intrigues".

 Men know how to intrigue and women are not so good at intrigues.

 I once had a furious row with a male leader. He told me nonchalantly that there are eleven commandments, the ten not to cheat, lie etc. The 11th is to break all the ten commandments but do not get caught. I believe women leaders are driven by a moral or idealistic passion whereas male leaders love power to exercise power.

Just as men and women can learn from one another, so can leaders from different cultures, regions and religions.

In the West, people often take free choice, free speech, and human rights for granted, as a matter of right.

In the East, the leaders have not only had to battle the different political parties, but also resist the forces of tradition.

Moreover since many countries in the East have had long experiences of military dictatorships, their security apparatus is strong and often resists change. Often the security apparatus has had an unbiblical relationship with the politicians it has spawned while being deeply suspicious of popular leaders who had opposed dictatorship.

As a bridge between the East and the West I put lessons I learnt into practice and saw dreams that my Party and people shared. In 1988 Pakistan became one of the first countries to embark on de-regulation.

We introduced the concept of privatization in our manifesto of 1988 and piloted the bill for privatization through the Parliament.

We broke the dominance of public sector units and gave an impetus to the private sector. Within a decade Pakistan has been transformed.

Today we have a burgeoning private sector and entrepreneurs that consist of both men and women. We have a whole new Social class of NGOs who have flourished in an open society bearing how to organize core groups on single issues.

I was proud of Pakistan when under my leadership of de-regulation, Pakistan integrated into the global economy and became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world.

In modernizing our economy we introduced private sector financial institutions, computerized the stock market and in Central Revenues Department, made the State Bank autonomous and reformed the Corporate Law Authority.

When we began our second term, we were pitted against a precarious economic scenario. The country was on the verge of bankruptcy.

When my government assumed management of the economy in 1993, the country’s growth rate rested at a dismal 2.0%. We tripled that to 6% in three short years.

We were able to reduce our fiscal deficit three points in three years, from 8% to 5% of GDP.

We doubled tax revenue from 7.2% to 14.1%, a great accomplishment.

And due to the investment-oriented policies of the PPP government, we attracted more than $26 billion dollars in MOUs of direct foreign investment in Pakistan.

We moved urgently, made difficult decisions, sometimes unpopular decisions, to restore solvency and create a macroeconomic framework that would allow Pakistan to compete in the world and attract foreign investment to help jump-start our moribund economy.

We did many things that were necessary, but not terribly popular. What we did was good policy, but not always good politics. But my task was not to win a popularity contest, but rather to prepare Pakistan for the new millennium.

The record of our economic progress is something that I am extremely proud of.

We determined as one of our highest priorities that we had to rebuild the infrastructure of our nation if we were to become an economic leader of our region and of the world in the new century.

In providing a big-push to infrastructure development, our primary target was the energy sector. The World Bank called our energy infrastructure program a model to the entire developing world.

And we brought our energy revolution directly to the people of Pakistan by electrifying over 21,000 villages in our rural areas.

And it is the social sector that our accomplishments have the most special meaning to me. Possibly as a woman and as a mother I was more sensitive to the human cost of social neglect.

I wanted a new education system for Pakistan, an education system for the new technology and the new century.

We constructed over 30,400 new primary and secondary schools, and renovated an additional 9,800 existing ones.

Approximately seventy percent of the schools we built were for girls.

We recruited approximately 53,000 teachers, of whom 35,000 were women.

We started a computer literacy programme to bring our people into the computer age.

We introduced the internet and e-mail to Pakistan.

As a woman and mother, I was particularly concerned about the conditions of health for the children of Pakistan.

Approximately 50 million child deaths are predicted in South Asia over the next decade.

Of that astounding number, 30 million are avoidable if the countries of the region embark on serious health education and health delivery programs.

In order to promote mother and child health care, primary health care and nutrition, 50,000 village health and family planning workers were trained to provide services specifically geared to the needs of women and children, including family planning.

This program is credited by the international organizations for a dramatic drop in Pakistani fertility rates.

Further in the child health area, my government embarked an ambitious and comprehensive effort to immunize the children of Pakistan from a host of child hood diseases that have been brought under control in other parts of the world.

I wondered:

How many great authors will never live to write their novels and poetry? How many prospective great scientists, women and men who might go on to cure AIDS, to conquer cancer, to prevent strokes, will be among the thirty million children who could very well die if we do not act now?"

We almost doubled public sector expenditures on heath.

In order to reduce population growth and infant mortality growth rates, 53,000 health workers were recruited and trained.

As a result, population growth rate came down from 3.1% to 2.9% in the first phase and was targeted to go down to 2.6% in the second and is targeted to go down to 2.3% in the third.

When I became Prime Minister in 1993, one in five children born with polio in the world was in Pakistan. We were determined to end this dreadful statistic and launched our anti-polio campaign.

My own one year old daughter was at the heart of the campaign as I fed her and other children polio drops twice yearly to launch the campaign.

I was thrilled when 100,000 volunteers came forward yearly to assist the campaign to eliminate polio from Pakistan forever. It shows how keen our people are to join a crusade that they identify with.

The WHO gave me a gold medal in recognition of Pakistan’s effort to eliminate polio and provide basic health facilities to our people.

As a woman leader I was appalled to learn that most women in Pakistan did not know that domestic violence was illegal. Many somehow thought that beatings by their husbands were the man’s marital right.

To protect women in society, we established special women’s police forces and women’s courts, to hear with understanding and sympathy cases of domestic violence and domestic abuse. Courts and police forces for women, staffed by women.

In preparation for the Beijing Conference on Women, the PPP government signed the convention for the elimination of Discrimination against women.

And we created women’s banks for women entrepreneurs, empowering them with the tools to start their own businesses. And yes, we allowed men to deposit their funds in the women’s banks –and they did.

We brought the information Revolution to Pakistan we introduced FAX machines in government offices, made a telephone available to every Pakistani, ended power shut downs of 13 hours at a time. We introduced the World of modern communication Digital Pager, Cellular telephones, satellites, internet, e-mail.

It was a miraculous transformation of a society, a transformation that cannot be negated by dis-information and personal attacks on me.

What we accomplished -- concretely and specifically -- is my legacy to the people of Pakistan.

We opened up education, and we opened up markets.

We opened up opportunity and we opened up foreign investment.

We opened economic development and opened up our rural villages.

Above all, we opened minds. We opened up individual choice.

Ladies and gentlemen, leadership and courage are often synonymous.

Ultimately, leadership depends on action, daring to take actions that are necessary but unpopular, to challenge institutions and traditions.

To do what is right, not what is necessarily popular.

To educate and move an electorate, as opposed to just responding to people want.

We led when we challenged the extremists and shut down clerical academics preaching hatred and militancy in Peshawar.

We dared to lead when we diverted funds to the social services despite overall budget cuts to bring down the deficit.

We demonstrated leadership when we instituted our ladies health workers program on family planning, challenging the notion that a woman cannot control her destiny.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I have not lived through what I have lived through -- my father’s murder, my two brothers’ murders, the years in prison, the sacking of our two democratic governments -- to be intimidated into silence. The attempts by the present regime to force girl students into wearing Purdah, its refusal to restore Women's seats, its insensitivity to minorities, its attack on a liberal judicial system, its introduction of the CA-15 in a cynical bid to exploit the name of Islam are being resisted by my party under my leadership. Gravely concerned at the attempts to dismantle democracy.

I am determined not to let down those who believe in a democratic, modern, moderate, Muslim State.

Ladies and gentlemen, our generation stands at the door way of history.

Not only the door way of a new century, but the doorway of a new millennium.

And as we prepare ourselves to meet this century, this new millennium, I believe we need to clearly understand the challenges that still await us and await the century.

It is up to us, all of us, to determine the moral parameters of that new era -- the coming decade, the coming century, the coming millennium.

For in just over 300 days, we will witness only for the third time in recorded history the momentous turning of the millennium.

Where and what will we be, at that extraordinary moment?

Will we be prisoners of the mind-set of the past, or will we be liberated to the endless possibilities of an historic future?

Our generation, the first in recorded history, is fundamentally empowered with the control of its own destiny.

The chains of the past -- colonialism, ignorance, dictatorship and sexism -- are broken.

The world has finally accepted, in the words of Robert Browning, that "ignorance is not innocence, but sin."

We must have the will to shape our future. The time for blaming others is gone. The time for accepting responsibility is upon us. The days of looking up to Messiahs to solve all problems is part of the past. Instead o f waiting for the state to act, we need to take our destiny into our own hands and see what each of us can do to contribute to a peaceful society of equal opportunity, free of discrimination, favoritism and patronage. The time for criticizing is over. The time for seeking solutions has come. Our generation, the first post-independence generation have come of age. The truth has passed from our mothers and our father's to us. In fact, we have become our mothers and fathers. Our generation needs to identify its Central concern.

I remember the last words of my father to me, writing to me from his death cell. He said:

"Every generation has a central concern, whether to end war, erase racial injustice, or improve the conditions of working people. Today's youth demand a government that speaks directly and honestly to its citizens."

In seeking to identify that central concern, it is important for us to compassionate, to consult each other, to decide, not by dictate, but by consensus. My father, who influenced me tremendously, always asked me to keep compassion in my heart and humanity in my soul. He did this when he was tense and anorexic at the time. Hate filled my heart. Hate for what his enemies had done to him, to me, to our party, our people, our country. But my father always remained calm. His confidence and serenity shone through in that dark and dismal death cell. He saved me and made me the person I am. He who always slept on silk sheet and satin pillows, whom God had blessed with so much I saw him being inhumanly and barbarically deprived of every right. It made me bitter and made me angry. However, he wanted me to be free of hate and of anger which he saw as negative corrosive emotions. He wanted me to flower. He was fifty when I turned twenty five. As a birthday present, he gave me a letter, written in love, by hand, without table, or chair, or light, from memory. And he wrote me:

"The possibilities are too great, the stakes too high, to bequeath to the coming generation only the prophetic lament of Tennyson:

"Ah, what shall I be at fifty...If I find the world so bitter at twenty-five."

I remember my father’s words. I fight hate at every step. Each stage in life is a struggle against the forces who unleash anger in me and my struggle to overcome it to be a better person, a better mother, a better wife, a better leader working for a better world.

And what will that world be?

I see a Third Millennium where the gap between rich and poor states evaporates, where illiteracy and hunger and malnutrition are conquered.

I see a Third Millennium where human rights are universal, and self-determination unabridged anywhere on the planet.

I see a Third Millennium where women are treated with respect and dignity.

I see a Third Millennium where practices like Karo-Kari .disappear into the past.

I see a third Millennium where the state tells its people, you are free, free to be what you want to be , free to practice your religion, your sect and speak what language you like.

I see a Third Millennium where women inherit their due share and where their children are not snatched from them should a marriage breaks.

I see a third millennium where parents accept that daughters want to choose their own life-partners.

I see a third Millennium where the Islamic right of a Muslim Woman to adequate alimony and the right to seek divorce is accepted and written into the marriage contract.

I see a Third Millennium where every child is planned, wanted, nurtured and supported.

And above all, I see a Third Millennium where the birth of a girl child is welcomed with the same joy as the birth of a boy.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

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