American Admirers & Friends of BB have made a Documentary on her Legacy

The Public Broadcasting Corporation (PBS) Houston Channel 8 will be airing a documentary called “BHUTTO” on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011 at 10:00pm under their “Independent Lens Series”. This documentary is directed and produced by Duane Baughman, while majority of the statements in the documentary are from Mark Siegel of USA, a close friend and advisor of Benazir Bhutto.

The preview of this Former Late Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto’s (BB’s) documentary was shown at Rice University Cinema last week, which was attended by Consul General of Pakistan in Houston Honorable Aqil Nadeem, many Americans of Pakistani origin and several indigenous Americans. Program was jointly sponsored by the Houston-Karachi Sister City Association (HKSCA) and Pakistan Chamber of Commerce – USA (PCC-USA).

Julie Coan of PBS Houston moderated the session before the screening of the movie, with brief statements given by the representatives of the two partnering organizations, namely Saeed Sheikh of HKSCA and P. J. Khan Swati of PCC-USA.

People had mixed feelings about the documentary, as they commented and asked questions during the panel discussion after the filming of the documentary. The panel discussion was moderated by award-winning journalist Patricia Gras (Patty), featured internationally acclaimed author Bapsi Sidhwa (now lives in Houston and originally from Lahore, Pakistan); and University of St. Thomas Professor of Economics Dr. Javed Ashraf.

The documentary has several stereotypical images, like while talking about terrorism and extremism; people are shown establishing congressional prayers in mosques. Another image was of jovial faced Indian leaders after the independence, while enrage faced Pakistani leaders.

Most of the people agreed with Ms. Sidhwa that the heroin of the documentary is BB and the whole film revolves around that theme and angle. The film portrayed BB as a brave lady, who originally had to wear Burqa, but then her charismatic dad Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto allowed her to come out of it, being one of the first ladies in the Bhutto family to do that. Some people felt that mistakes made by BB in terms of not fully supporting political culture in Pakistan by having it within her party, was not much highlighted in the documentary, while others said that BB fought & died for democracy.

Several people were bemused by the comments in the documentary of famous professor Dr. Akbar Ahmed, who somehow termed BB as mystic and Sufi.

Many people talked about the role of army in Pakistan and its corruption. Some said doubting comments if Pakistan and Pakistanis will ever embrace democracy.

On this our media representative at the event reminded that somehow people worldwide keep forgetting that the birth of Pakistan in fact came through a constitutional, political, and democratic struggle: So existence of Pakistan has very deep roots in democracy and political activism.

In a write-up, Duane Baughman, Director and Producer of the documentary “BHUTTO”, has said that he watched CNN in horror on Dec. 27, 2007, when Benazir Bhutto, the first woman in history to lead a Muslim nation, was blown away by a suicide bomber. Millions felt Benazir was the best hope for democracy and progress in that strategically critical nuclear-armed country. He has written that before Benazir’s death a close colleague of his reconnected him with Benazir’s advisor and close friend Mark Siegel, who had been pulling together American consultants on her behalf in anticipation of her 3rd rise to power in Pakistan. Three days after her death, Mr. Baughman watched Mark Siegel desperately trying – almost singlehandedly – to keep Benazir’s legacy alive by making the rounds on every conceivable news show. Before long, he spoke about telling the world Benazir’s story via a documentary film; and that is when they started to work on this documentary in Dubai, talking to her widower Asif Ali Zardari and three of her heartbroken children.

Duane Baughman has brought this angle in the story of BB that the Bhutto’s are called the “Kennedy’s of Pakistan.” Ironically, at Harvard, BB’s roommate was Bobby Kennedy’s daughter, Kathleen Kennedy.

Again the Public Broadcasting Corporation (PBS) Houston Channel 8 will be airing this documentary called “BHUTTO” on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011 at 10:00pm. under their “Independent Lens Series”.

13-19