Fond Memories of Benazir Bhutto                

      

By Shah A Siddiqui     

                                                                              

I first met with Benazir Bhutto (Shaheed) at the Foreign Office in Islamabad,Pakistan. It was the summer of 1976-1977, if I am not mistaken, when Benazir Bhutto used to come to the Foreign Office for study and training purposes after finishing her formal studies in England. It was her father’s ambition to see her as a political figure in Pakistan, but Benazir was interested in joining the Foreign Service. However, later on, the daughter brought the dreams of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, into reality, and the world saw her as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, twice.

During this period of time, luckily I was in charge of the Foreign Office Library which was across her office room. She was given a room for study purposes, which at the time was also used as a duty officer’s room on the ground floor of the building, close to the reception area and security office. The Foreign Office building used to be the Hotel Shaherzad, but after its renovation it was one of the most beautiful office structures belonging to the government.

I cannot forget Benazir Bhutto as I met her for the first time in the Foreign Office, when she asked me to look for some books for her to study. She handed over to me a handwritten slip with names of books that she intended to read. Her personality as a young lady was amazing and very astonishing for me. She was in jeans with a white kurta type shirt, holding a cigar in her left hand. She was a very skinny figure. I noticed that she used to return the books after three or four hours, before she left the office. Being a daughter of the Prime Minister, she did not seem to show an ego. I saw her most of the time in a good mood, except on a few occasions when she was seriously busy, reading over a cup of coffee.

Whenever she arrived at the office, she buzzed my desk to get her some books. There was not a fixed time for her to report to the office; she had her own schedule and perhaps was allowed to come any time during office hours. She never spoke to me in anything other than English, however one day she ordered me, “Sab, char books lana.” She handed me the list of books as usual as she spoke those words. I was surprised to hear only these couple of Urdu words from her during that last one week. One day, as I was standing in the lobby talking to a security officer, she came around 10 AM, which was very unusual. She waved at me, and I rushed to her office. “Madam, is everything fine with you?” I inquired. “Why, Mr. Shah? You were not expecting me at this time?” she replied with a question. “Madam, it is too early according to your schedule, that’s why,” I answered. Later on I came to know that she had to join a meeting between the Director General (Eastern Europe) and the Hungarian Ambassador in the Foreign Office.

It was a very short-term training for her because she hardly attended the Foreign Office, for a total of about two weeks. All of a sudden she stopped coming to the Foreign Office for some unknown reason. It may have been a political situation in the country. Uprising against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had started, and at last he was thrown out from government, imprisoned after a military coup by General Zia-ul-Haque, on July 5, 1977.

In the third week of January 1978, I was posted abroad on diplomatic assignments until 1994, when I resigned from the Foreign Service due to some conflict. I saw Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minister of Pakistan twice during my different assignments abroad, but never had a chance to see her or meet her in Pakistan. I used to watch her on TV and noticed very rapid changes in her personality after she came to power as the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan, and of the Islamic world.

It was unbelievable to me when I had a chance to receive her with my wife at the University of Illinois, Chicago, sometime in the late 90’s. She was there to deliver a lecture to the South Asian Students group. This was happening 23 years after she had left the Foreign Office at her then young age, where I had been assisting her in the library. I heard and read in books about Zufiqar Ali Bhutto’s sharp memory, that he would remember anyone he met. He even remembered the color of the shirt or tie the person was wearing during a meeting with him. As his daughter, this same quality was apparent in Benazir Bhutto. When she arrived at UIC, my wife, Noshi, greeted her, as did I, wondering if she would recognize me. After a couple of steps, she asked me, “Aap, Shah Sahib, yahan kia kar rahe hain?” I was so happy and proud to hear my name from her after almost 23 years, and it was most surprising that she recognized me right away.

It was a very happy and memorable moment of my life. It was the first time meeting with Benazir Bhutto, that day in Chicago, after leaving the Foreign Office. Later, in 2000 or 2001 she was kind enough to even give an interview for my then local TV channel, “PAKWATAN TV.”

Unfortunately, those would be the only, and last few times I would meet Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto. My wife and I were very upset that day, when we heard of the bomb blast assassination in Rawalpindi. The Pakistani nation will always remember such a genius, wonderful and great leader of the country, and I cannot forget those days working in the Foreign Office, or the meeting at UIC, and the interview for my TV show. She will always be remembered fondly in my heart and in the hearts of millions of Pakistanis.

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