Bhutto's Death Fuels Ethnic Division

Rabbani said the regime must desist from dividing the people otherwise the federation may face "dire consequences."

"The government is trying to divide the nation on linguistic basis in order to put the assassination of Bhutto on the backburner," Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, the deputy secretary general of the Pakistan People Party (PPP), told IslamOnline.net.

Just as her father premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged in 1979, Bhutto died a long way from home in the Sindh province.

She was assassinated in a shooting and bomb attack on a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison city in Punjab province and the home of the powerful military.

Her murder triggered widespread violence across the country, especially in the Sindh province, inflicting a loss of RS 100 billion (1.4 billion dollars) in just four days.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) has since published a half-page ad in major newspapers claiming that under a calculated campaign, the rioters (Sindhis) damaged and torched the properties of Punjabis and Mohajirs living in Sindh.

The ad asks members of the Punjabi, Mohajir, Baloch and Pushtun communities to register their losses with a PML-Q's complaint unit to be compensated.

The ruling party also announced setting up a refugee camp in the northeastern city of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, for Punjabis allegedly forced out of Sindh after Bhutto's assassination.

In a recent televised address, President Pervez Musharraf accused rioters of targeting people belonging to particular ethnic backgrounds, without naming Punjabis and Mohajirs.

Double Trauma

Shahid Shah is a Karachi-based journalist who traveled around the Sindh province to report the violence that followed Bhutto's assassination.

He has a totally different view about what the pro-Musharraf parties are trying to establish.

"The people of Sindh are currently suffering from a double trauma," he told IOL.

"After burying their beloved leader Benazir Bhutto, they are today being blamed by the government of being the villains rather than victims of the violence that broke out in Sindh in the aftermath of the tragedy," added the reporter.

"To rub salt in their wounds, the ruling party has even tried to target the Sindhis through an unsavory advertisement campaign."

Shah argues that Sindhis are as much the victims of the violence that broke out after Ms Bhutto's assassination.

"The law enforcing agencies mysteriously disappeared and left the field open to criminal elements across the province who took advantage of the tragedy and looted citizens indiscriminately," he charged.

He recalled that in some areas, notorious dacoits looted banks in broad daylight.

"Some of them even used the disturbances to settle old scores."

Shah notes that Bhutto's home district Larkana was where the largest number of people, mostly Sindhi-speaking, fell victim to the violence.

Property in the area was either burnt or looted. More than 50 shops were looted in the city and only one of them was a shop owned by a non-Sindhi.

Fragile Federation

Bhutto's murder triggered widespread violence across the country, especially in her Sindh province. (Reuters)

PPP leader Rabbani, who is also the Senate opposition leader, warned against playing the ethnic identity card.

"The government is toeing the same policy of divide and rule which had been toed by former military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq after the martyrdom of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto," he said.

"But the establishment is not recognizing the fact that the federation is much weaker than it was in 1979, and is not in a position to bear the brunt of such nasty and highly irresponsible tactics."

Bhutto's killing has inflamed long-simmering resentments among ethnic minorities toward the dominant Punjabis.

Pakistan, cobbled together more than 60 years ago as a homeland for Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, is a federation of four provinces, each associated with a different ethnic group.

The issue of ethnic identity has long been troublesome with Punjabis always running the army and, by extension, the country.

In Sindh, Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province, resentment of Punjab is widespread.

The three provinces feel they supply more than their fair share of natural resources and get little in return from the ruling Punjabis.

An ethnic strife culminated in 1971 after Bengalis revolted and established their one country, Bangladesh.

Rabbani notes that the PPP, Pakistan's largest opposition party, is operating for the first time in its history without a Bhutto.

"The establishment must not forget the fact that there is no Benazir Bhutto. We are operating without a towering personality like her," he added.

"Therefore, it must desist from dividing the people on linguistic basis just because of its nefarious designs, otherwise the federation may face dire consequences."

Bhutto believed ardently in the unity of Pakistan and her popularity transcended ethnic boundaries.

Observers believe Sindhis suppressed their ethnic-nationalist desires because they knew one of their own was among the country's most popular politicians.

While other parties appealed to particular ethnic groups, the PPP had backing across the country.

Rabbani insists that the PPP was in much better position to play the Sindh card after assassination Bhutto's assassination.

"We are in much better position to incite the sentiments of Sindhis and other smaller communities but we will never do that in the interest of Pakistan."

In his first press conference as the new PPP chairman, Bhutto's son Bilawal reiterated commitment to the unity of Pakistan.

"I will stand as symbol of federation as my mother, who used to say that democracy is the best revenge."

Election Game

Shaheen Sehbai, a senior political analyst, says that deeply aggrieved, full of anger and passionately in mourning Sindhis are totally at a loss.

"Sindhis are baffled and confused at the strange reaction in Punjab, specially the ruling elite which has adopted an aggressively parochial attitude not just against the PPP but against the entire Sindh after the death of Bhutto," he told IOL.

He believes claims that scores of Punjabis have been forced to flee Sindh may help the PML-Q rebuild its shattered election campaign but it is certainly not helping national unity.

"I got an interesting explanation by talking to residents and locals that most of the damage along the National Highway (which connects Karachi with the rest of the province) was in areas and constituencies which were not PPP strongholds and were either represented by Muslim Leagues or other breakaway PPP factions.

"Many gas and petrol stations were still totally undamaged while just in front of them on the road cars and buses had been burnt. The protestors were either not interested in burning some property or were cleverly selective in picking their targets," said Sehbai.

"So when the majority PPP dominated areas were relatively quiet, how would the violence in non-PPP areas be explained?"

The analyst believes that the setting up of the so-called refugee camp in Lahore, the power base of the country's politics, deals a blow to national unity.

"The creation of a refugee center in the heart of Lahore was almost hitting the federation below the belt. Some of the Punjabi small businessmen, roadside gas station owners and hotel stops whom we met on our journey were highly critical of this Punjab move."

Sehbai said one of them said he was always a PML voter but would now vote for the PPP as Punjabi leadership, especially close to the establishment, was unfair.

"He told us that he is safe and doing his business without any fear though he admitted that for four days after the Bhutto murder, he did not come out of the house or open his business. His hotel and shops had not been touched by anyone during the riots."

Despite attempts to fan ethnic hatred, Dilber Khan, an ethnic Pushtun and vice president of the damaged Light House market in Karachi, said is not afraid of Sindhis.

"I have been living here for years and years," he told IOL inside the Light House bazaar, where more than 10 shops were burnt during the violence.

"Sindhi people are as patriotic as anyone else in this country. In fact, Sindhis helped us control the fire."