Pakistan: Test of Wills

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Zia's main worry was not so much Shahnawaz's funeral as the anticipated return of the former Prime Minister's daughter Benazir, 32, and the emotional welcome she was expected to receive. Benazir, who was educated at Harvard and Oxford, is her father's political heir and the present leader of the P.P.P. After her release from imprisonment and house arrest in 1984, Benazir moved to London and has led the party from exile. Although the P.P.P. has been banned for the past eight years, it is still the most popular party in Pakistan. It is also the dominant member of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, a coalition of political groups that has been pressing Zia to end martial law and restore full parliamentary democracy. The coalition boycotted national elections called by Zia last February to establish an elected National Assembly; political parties were not allowed to participate. The M.R.D. also opposes Zia's attempt to get the Assembly to ratify constitutional changes that would ensure a permanent governmental role for the military and legalize all actions taken by his regime under martial law.

Zia's dilemma, after eight years of military dictatorship, is that the more he tries to eradicate the Bhutto legend, the more powerful it becomes. Many Pakistanis are still bitter that Zia allowed Prime Minister Bhutto's body to be buried without a member of the family present. When news of Shahnawaz's death reached Pakistan, thousands went to the Bhutto home in Karachi to pay their respects. People burned stacks of an Urdu-language newspaper that suggested Shahnawaz may have died from alcohol and drugs. In Sind province, most business came to a standstill. Some defied the ban on entering Sind for the funeral rites. Said Malik Mohammed Qasim, secretary-general of one faction of the Pakistan Muslim League: "To attend a funeral is the basic right of a citizen, and to prevent a Muslim from doing so is un-Islamic." The struggle between Zia and the Bhutto family is evidently far from over.