Benazir Bhutto monument provokes anger in Pakistan

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Benazir Bhutto monument provokes anger in Pakistan

Plans for a monument to Benazir Bhutto have provoked anger in Pakistan where thousands of people are demanding that its 900m rupee (£7m) cost be used instead to help millions displaced by the country's floods.

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007. Critics say the money for her monument would be better spent on helping victims of the floods. Photo: Getty Images​

Mrs Bhutto, a former prime minister of Pakistan and member of one of the country's most powerful families, was assassinated in a suicide attack in December 2007. Asif Ali Zardari, her husband, is now president, and the 10-acre park and library complex in her name received approval at the start of the month.​

The monument has been more than two years in the planning and had already attracted the ire of political opponents and campaigners before the floods. The government has estimated that the floods have caused damage of $43 billion.​

Kamran Shafi, a former press secretary to Mrs Bhutto and columnist for Dawn newspaper, has led the call to scrap the project. "It looks extremely bad when so many people are without medicine or homes," he said. "The idea is silly."
Mr Zardari has been accused of politicising relief efforts after his ruling Pakistan People's Party suggesting building new towns for flood victims to be named Benazirabad.
Plans for two monuments – one in Rawalpindi on the assassination site and one in Islamabad – have already survived a legal challenge, which argued that Mrs Bhutto should not be considered a "national hero".
A thousand people a day are signing an online petition urging the monument money be spent on flood relief instead. It says: "Our priority should be our people who are suffering, and we are almost sure that our former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, who loved this country and its people, would also agree."
Farhatullah Babar, the president's spokesman, defended the project. "Benazir Bhutto was the twice elected prime minister of Pakistan and she did so much for democracy and human rights that it is only fitting a memorial is built in her honour," he said.
"The design has been approved but so far no funds have been released. The committee will now consider what to do in light of the floods,” he added.​
 

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