“The major issue in this country is the rapidly increasing population”

Q. Do you think you will face some difficulties in the election campaign and in organising the party in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination?

A. The shahadat of Benazir Bhutto is a shock for the nation, the family, the children, the party, the world and me. Yes, there will be hurdles. Politics in Pakistan is not a bed of roses, especially for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Last year alone we lost around 300 party workers. Another 600 lost their limbs. PPP has chosen to do the politics of the people — this is a difficult path to tread.

Q. Are you expecting to sweep the elections?

A. Mohtarma Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Sahiba had already predicted that the PPP was going to win these elections. Her death has given a new impetus to the party and the society. People have started thinking, poets have started writing and even her detractors have shown their commitment to democracy. For 40 years the establishment had played a game and politics had become a dirty word. With her martyrdom, she has washed away all that. It is time to rethink and cooperate with those parties with which we had never been able to work before.

Q. Suppose the elections are rigged or you think they have been rigged, will you take to the streets to protest?

A. Neither the PPP nor I am saying that the elections might be rigged. They have already been rigged. We are participating in these elections under protest. All the monitoring teams have already given their verdict — the forthcoming elections in Pakistan will be rigged.

Q. If the results are not fair, will you take to the streets?

A. We will talk to other political parties and come up with a joint action plan. Parties have been asking us not to take part in the electoral process. But we chose to do so. And then we lost our commander in the battle. What other proof is needed of rigging? Mohtarma Benazir’s martyrdom should not be considered an isolated incident. It is part of the overall effort to take over the country.

Q. Why was the relevant part of Bhutto’s will not made public?

A. The will is going to be part of the revised edition of Daughter of the East, which is coming out in March.

Q. In your first press conference you said that you did not want Bhutto’s post-mortem carried out. But now you are saying that the government should have carried it out…

A. I came six hours late. They had already brought her remains to the Chaklala Airport. I did not ask them to bring it there. In fact, they wanted me to come straight to Larkana but my children were with me and we all wanted to be with her on her last journey. And then they asked me whether I wanted a post-mortem: that would have meant taking the body back to the morgue and wait for another five hours for the autopsy to be carried out. This is just muddying the waters. That’s what makes our demand for an investigation by the UN even more genuine. It is not that the incident was allowed to happen — it is the conduct of the present government afterwards that needs probing.

Q. If the remains were in the morgue you would not have objected to a post-mortem?

A. Why should have I objected? They should have conducted the autopsy immediately without my permission.

Q. If the PPP forms the government on its own or in alliance with other parties after February 18, will you accept General (retd) Pervez Musharraf as the president?

A. The consensus is that we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Q. Do you fear that the party will face another split as it did when Benazir took over after the death of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto?

A. After the shahadat of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Sahib, the party did not split. Some people did leave. But the party is the core workers. Some people at the helms of affair at that time, for one reason or the other, did not want to walk the path that Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was walking. We lost those people. History has proved that most of them were asked to leave the party to weaken it. And this can happen at any time. They are in the business all the time, weakening the populist forces that exist.

Q. If returned to power what will be your government’s priorities?

A. I think the major issue in this country is the rapidly increasing population. The party’s contention is to convert our weaknesses into strengths. The population is our biggest weakness. Everybody from the US and the IMF feels that it is a drain on our resources. If we convert this population, this human resource, into a positive force, it will be an asset.

Q. What is your party’s stand on the amendments that have been introduced into the Constitution?

A. We will have to view them on a case to case basis. If you tell me that the Women’s Bill has to be amended, I will say no.

Q. How do you propose to protect the judiciary against the excesses of the executive? And how will you tackle the issue of the sacked judges and of those who have taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order?

A. If I say we will do it by an executive order, then probably we’ll be doing exactly the same as those we are fighting. But if we empower the parliament, then it will have to decide and find permanent solutions. The position of the party is that we are going to strengthen the institutions. If you say that so-and-so eik sharif aaadmi tha jissay nikal diya gaya, you will have to provide the definition of a sharif aadmi.

Q. How will you check the rising tide of militancy in Pakistan?

A. For the last five years they were running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, to quote Shaheed Mohtarma Bhutto. And I think the world has had enough. We, the people of Pakistan, have to give them a way out. We will have to find a solution and then win the support of the international community, because it is an international issue, although we are its first victims.

Q. The 1973 Constitution has failed to safeguard against army intervention. What amendments can effectively forestall such adventurism?

A. No amount of amendments can prevent such adventurism. I am not saying that the 1973 Constitution should not be there. But there has to be a description, a definition, a prescription to follow. Why is it that for a single issue, the people of Bangladesh come out on the streets. It is the collective responsibility of journalists, generals, politicians, clerks, those working in the fields, labourers — everyone. And I think the communication revolution has helped the younger generation to get involved. It is waiting for its chance.

Q. Are you satisfied with the state of the economy?

A. I don’t think anybody who understands the ABC of economy is satisfied. Even the caretaker prime minister has said that he is not satisfied with the state of the economy.

Q. It will be a great challenge for the next government…

A. I think it will be a challenge for the entire nation, not just the government. I may be wrong, but I see people committing suicide for economic reasons. Today they are hiding the facts but the people of the country will face a grim situation.

Q. Are you in favour of privatising state-owned enterprises?

A. We initiated privatisation in 1988. But somehow it has lost its way. We still are in favour of it but not the way the present government carried it out. We should find a better way to carry it out where the base of shareholders is expanded, professionals are brought in to run enterprises and the people who are already working there – the workers, the management – get a say in its affairs. We will create circumstances so that the people are better off, as a whole, instead of just an individual or one family.

Q. How do you propose to check the growing intervention of the US and other Western powers in Pakistan’s internal affairs?

A. I don’t think that we, as a nation, understand the issue because the people have been depoliticised, deliberately. People usually want the world involved. We want the world out. When we should have had the world out, we had the world in. Instead of taking advantage of the bipolar world we went along with policies which were not in the interest of the country.

Q. How do you view the curbs imposed by Musharraf on the media, especially the electronic media?

A. We started the media revolution. In 1988, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto saheba brought in the BBC, CNN and other channels. I am against curbs on the media. Apart from ensuring that some norms of decency are observed, there should be no curbs on the media.