Police, Fatima Bhutto, and LUMS

November 13th, 2007

Fatima Bhutto, niece of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and the grand daughter of PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, has commended the efforts put together by the students and staff at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. The University, popularly known as LUMS, is the premier institute of higher education in Pakistan.

LUMS has been at the forefront of news for initiating and supporting political activism within the student body all over Pakistan, ever since Musharraf declared an emergency on Nov 03, 2007. In a message sent to the students at LUMS, Fatima Bhutto mentioned:

“Having read that the police surrounded LUMS this past week on blogs online, I am very pleased to receive your email - our thoughts have been with you and your fellow students at this horrific time. Your bravery, in pursuing action against this injustice, is very noble and inspires all the rest of us Pakistanis watching this circus unfold at a distance.”

Fatima Bhutto further said:

I have always believed that the first step to enacting change, positive change, is to raise our voices. Only by speaking out, by writing, demonstrating, signing petitions, organizing can we truly speak truth to power. The current situation poses a great danger to this country and to our future. But of certain things we must be clear - demanding a return to the Constitution is not enough. We must call for the restoration of the 1973 constitution. The time for short term solutions is over, they have always betrayed us at the end. We need to restore the 1973 Constitution because its amended versions only propagate the powers of the state over the people. Power must not rest with the President, it must not be handed to the Prime Minister - they have the same interests at the end. It must be handed back to the rightful rulers of this country - the people.

Secondly, we know today that elections have been called. The time frame, being extremely short, is intended to benefit the government and their allies - they are after all the only forces with enough funds (and a distinct lack of moral grounding) to manipulate the time table to their own ends. They will bus people in to vote for their corrupt and disingenuous candidates because they can afford to, they will bribe polling agents and presiding officers with political favours, they will use illegal and invalid ID cards to push the vote to their favour.

This we must fight. We do that by voting. By using our votes we deprive this government and their cronies of stealing the election. We do fight by volunteering, by organizing students to campaign or to work as polling agents or to keep records or to write and tell the world what we are facing. This is crucial. We cannot give them this election, they do not deserve our complacency any longer.

Lastly, please let me know what I can do to help you - this is my request. If there is any information you’d like to get out please forward it on to me. I will forward you now an account from a lawyer in Karachi who has written about living under this emergency, information is key to our survival.

Keep your morale high, the fight is going to be a long one. We’ve got to get rid of the old guard and they’ll be stubborn about surrendering. But time is on our side. We’re the youth of this country, our future is in our hands, not theirs.

In solidarity,Fatima Bhutto


People intrested in views the comments & Fatima's response can view the original post at
http://www.naitazi.com/2007/11/13/police-fatima-bhutto-and-lums/