Liaquat Garden has long been a popular spot for young Pakistani couples to meet. Today, however, it has morphed into a shrine after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
Each day since her slaying in a gun-suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27 at this park in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad, dozens of people have come to lay flowers and light candles near the main entrance under a large portrait of Bhutto.
Her death is the latest chapter in a long history of political assassinations, sectarian clashes, ethnic violence, terrorism and Islamic militancy in this country of 160 million people.
And Bhutto, 54, was not the first political leader to be cut down at Liaquat Garden.
"This used to be a small park named Company Garden, and then the country's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was shot twice in the chest during a public meeting here in October 1951, and he succumbed to his injuries at the hospital," recalled Saud Saher, 71, a prominent Pakistani journalist. "The place was named after him."
Amid public anger over the death of Khan, who played a vital role in Pakistan's independence movement in the 1940s, the government called in British investigators from Scotland Yard to assist the investigations.
But they had little to work on, because the only evidence was the shooter, who was killed by a policeman, Saher said. Scotland Yard left Pakistan before the investigation was completed. Their report was never made public.
History has repeated itself at Liaquat Garden. Bhutto, a former prime minister, was likely shot by her attacker before he detonated a bomb, killing himself and 22 people. The government has accused a Taliban commander linked to al-Qaeda of ordering the hit on Bhutto, while authorities in 1951 accused the Khaksar Movement, an anti-colonial Muslim organization, of assassinating Khan.
And as they did five decades ago, the Pakistani government of today, in this case President Pervez Musharraf, has again invited Scotland Yard to assist in the investigation into Bhutto's murder.
Once again, it will not be easy. The assassin died in the attack -- there is speculation there was an accomplice who detonated the bomb -- and local street workers hosed down and swept up the crime scene within a few hours, potentially destroying valuable forensic evidence.
The investigation into Bhutto's assassination has yet to have a breakthrough. The evidence that Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud is behind the hit is circumstantial at best.
The government has not helped its own case by making contradictory statements about how Bhutto died, including initially claiming that there was no gunman and then saying she was not shot but cracked her head on the sunroof of her security vehicle in the explosion.
Ironically, the doctor who attempted to resuscitate Bhutto when she was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital with bullet wounds is the son of the doctor who attempted to save Khan when he was shot.
A spokesman for Mehsud quickly denied responsibility, saying the attack may have been masterminded by rogue elements within the country's military, which also hanged Bhutto's father and former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1979 following an army coup. His execution also took place in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the army.
Prior to her death at Liaquat Garden, Bhutto said she had sent a letter to Musharraf in which she reportedly wrote that his close allies, including two former provincial ministers and the head of Pakistan's intelligence agency, should be held responsible if she were killed.
Bhutto's family has made similar accusations, pointing a finger at elements within Pakistan's so-called "establishment" -- a powerful but informal lobby of military officers, bureaucrats and hand-picked civilian politicians who run the country behind a facade of democracy.
The public and some historians have suggested over the years that this "establishment" also had Khan killed because he was a popular civilian leader.
The "establishment" has never accepted the existence of civilian government and a genuine democratic process because they both undermine their absolute authority to run the country, said Saher, who has covered Pakistani politics for five decades.
Crucial parliamentary elections, which were postponed until Feb. 18 following Bhutto's assassination, are supposed to usher in the return of civilian government following eight years of military rule by Musharraf, a recently retired army general.
But the polls will be bittersweet after the death of Bhutto, whose Pakistan People's Party was tipped to win and select her as prime minister for an unprecedented third term.
"The things that have happened at Liaquat Garden have destroyed the nation," Ihsanul Haq, a rickshaw driver, said after offering a prayer for Bhutto at her makeshift shrine.
"We should turn this place into something else, like a shrine for Bhutto or a business center," he added.
Taiwan faces complex challenges like other Asia-Pacific nations, including demographic decline, income inequality and climate change. In fact, its challenges might be even more pressing. The nation struggles with rising income inequality, declining birthrates and soaring housing costs while simultaneously navigating intensifying global competition among major powers. To remain competitive in the global talent market, Taiwan has been working to create a more welcoming environment and legal framework for foreign professionals. One of the most significant steps in this direction was the enactment of the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) in 2018. Subsequent amendments in
After nine days of holidays for the Lunar New Year, government agencies and companies are to reopen for operations today, including the Legislative Yuan. Many civic groups are expected to submit their recall petitions this week, aimed at removing many Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers from their seats. Since December last year, the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) passed three controversial bills to paralyze the Constitutional Court, alter budgetary allocations and make recalling elected officials more difficult by raising the threshold. The amendments aroused public concern and discontent, sparking calls to recall KMT legislators. After KMT and TPP legislators again
US President Donald Trump on Saturday signed orders to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China effective from today. Trump decided to slap 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada as well as 10 percent on those coming from China, but would only impose a 10 percent tariff on Canadian energy products, including oil and electricity. Canada and Mexico on Sunday quickly responded with retaliatory tariffs against the US, while countermeasures from China are expected soon. Nevertheless, Trump announced yesterday to delay tariffs on Mexico and Canada for a month and said he would hold further talks with
Taiwan’s undersea cables connecting it to the world were allegedly severed several times by a Chinese ship registered under a flag of convenience. As the vessel sailed, it used several different automatic identification systems (AIS) to create fake routes. That type of “shadow fleet” and “gray zone” tactics could create a security crisis in Taiwan and warrants response measures. The concept of a shadow fleet originates from the research of Elisabeth Braw, senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. The phenomenon was initiated by authoritarian countries such as Iran, North Korea and Russia, which have been hit by international economic
RSS