Days before the whole world said goodbye to 2007, the world also said goodbye to one of the bravest, if not the bravest woman in Pakistan. On December 27, 2007; the late great Benazir Bhutto - Leader, Mother, Wife, Sister, Friend and Woman, was assassinated in front of the very eyes of her thousand supporters after departing a Pakistan Peoples Party rally in Rawalpindi, a Pakistani city, two weeks before the scheduled general elections in Pakistan where she was a leading opposition candidate.

I first encountered the name Benazir Bhutto when she made courageous homecoming and was welcomed by thousands and thousand of her supporters last October 2007. Then, I came across of her name again when I was reading Hillary Clinton’s Living in History.

For those who do not know here, Benazir Bhutto came from the prominent family and succeeded Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, her father, as the chair of PPP. Her father was hanged to death by the military government in the 1970’s on the charges of corruption. During the late 80’s, Benazir made history as the first Pakistani woman who won as a prime minister. She was removed from the office 20 months later on the grounds of alleged corruption. In 1993, the late Benazir made a comeback when she was re-elected but was once again removed from the office on the similar charges. I do not know whether those allegations were true. Benazir and her family put themselves into self-exile in Dubai and had lived there since 1998.

During the times of the exile, Benazir took care of her children and ailing mother. She also continued strengthening PPP by contiuing to contact its supporters. She was a critic of Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf. I made several inquiries about the late Benazir Bhutto through my Pakistani friends and numerous cab drivers I met. Majority of them told me how they like the late Benazir and how good she was. However, some Pakistani conservatives opposed the idea of woman in government and woman taking responsibilities aside from being a mother and a wife.

I joined the whole world mourning and condemning the tragic assasination of Benazir Bhutto. There are a lot more senseless political killing happening in the whole world. The harsh reality is, most of victims are defenders of democracy and human rights, good leaders and innocent civilians.

Three days after the tragic assasination of the late Benazir, her son, a nineteen-year-old man, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, succeeded her as the head of PPP, with his father effectively running the party until the young Bhutto completes his college education at Oxford. Nobody knows what to expect with the leadership of the young Bhutto but everybody is hoping for the best not only for Bilawal and his Pakistan’s People’s Party but also most especially to all the people of Pakistan. The world is watching and I am pretty sure, the late Benazir watches her son too.

Last month, Pakistan held its national elections. Bhutto’s political party and the other opposition party won a significant number of seats on the Congress. The world is watching what will happen next. Truly, there is no defeat in Benazir Bhutto’s death. Because victory already came when she defended, what she knew was right while she was still alive.

image taken from here.