Benazir Bhutto

The death of Benazir Bhutto has evoked memories of my reaction to her father's death in 1979. I was in Montreal and was in a dilemma of either going to Pakistan to work with my friend Hafeez Shaikh or to join Bechtel Corporation in California who had offered me a job. I had to leave Montreal since we had already sold our house and fed up with the daily turmoil of living there and achieve fluency in French. Montreal, Quebec is the only place in World where you had to pass conversational and written French test to become a Professional Engineer. Having spent my weekends and evenings learning French and passing the French test after a couple of attempts I was ready to live in Montreal. However, then came the ruling that Faisal would have to go to a French school because I and Tanzila were both not schooled in English in Pakistan. That is when cookie crumbled and decision to leave Montreal was made in the fall of 1978.

One of my colleauges told me about the hanging of the Zulfiqar Bhutto when I walked into my office in 1979. I felt that Pakistan will bein turmoil after his death; therefore,I immediately went to see my chief engineer and turned in my resignation. The rest is history. It is amazing how an event in Pakistan turned the course of our whole family's life. Allah has mysterious ways. I do not know how many lives will change because of Benazir's death. How many families will decide to live abroad and not go back to Pakistan. It is a shame and military dictators have to be blamed for all this. These are the people who were not able to be admitted top professional schools and universities in Pakistan and went on to Kakul Academy after high school. What do you expect from these dictators with 12th grade education.