Anwar Ahmed once heard former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto speak at the Economic Club of Colorado in 1991.
“She was a very well-read lady,” said Ahmed, vice president of the Pakistani Cultural Association in Denver. “She knew world affairs. Everyone respected her. Her death is a big tragedy for Pakistan and the future of Pakistan.”
But Syed Kamal, a self-employed engineer in Denver, passed up the opportunity to see Bhutto when she visited Denver.
“I just never agreed with what she was doing,” said Kamal, who still has family in Karachi. “In my opinion, her approach was not beneficial for the country. She had two chances — she was prime minister two times — and nothing happened in the country except corruption.”
Najeeb Jan, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, met Bhutto in Pakistan at a friend’s wedding.
“Being that she was the major icon of Pakistani politics, it was quite a treat to sit next to her,” said Jan, who is researching political Islam in Pakistan.
Still, like many in the local Pakistani community, Jan believes the legacy of Bhutto “is a very mixed one.”
Corruption and democracy, hope and disappointment.
“Her legacy will be positive and negative, both,” said Jafar Naqvi, a retired professor of physics at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Fatima Ahmed, Anwar’s 22-year-old daughter who frequently visits relatives in Pakistan, said the allegations of corruption tainted Bhutto’s success as a female politician.
“As the first woman leader in the Muslim nation, we thought it was a very amazing and very motivating thing for her to do,” Ahmed said. “But once in power, there was so much she could have done with it, but she abused it. She decided to take the corrupt way of going, instead of looking out for her people.”
Shortly after Bhutto’s assassination, Kamal spoke with his family in Karachi.
“We have property that has a bank on it, and people just came and blew it up,” he said. “What did the poor bank have to do with her death?”
As the violence continues, he reflected on the assassination that triggered it. “It didn’t surprise me at all. She was being constantly warned about those things.
“She was more into the popularity game, as far as I can see, rather than being realistic.”
Anwar Ahmed said that despite Bhutto’s reputation as a corrupt politician, she nevertheless worked for democracy. “In anything, you need a competition, like over here you have Macy’s and Nordstrom. You have to have competition, and you have to fight back.”
On the other hand, he said, her past colored her future. “Was she trying to create disturbance, terrorism or suicide bombers instead of helping (President Pervez) Musharraf fight terrorism?” he asked. “You never know.”
Such questions don’t surprise Jan, who attended high school in Karachi.
Conspiracy theories and shadowy mysteries are rooted, he said, in the lack of democracy.
“People really don’t know because the political process has not been open,” he said. “Under Musharraf, there was a real boost of power in the judiciary and independent media, but at the same time, when it turned against his power, he clamped down very ruthlessly.”
