| Sir Winston Churchill, born of a British father and an American mother, once observed that Great Britain and American were two nations divided by a common language. Pakistani voters could be forgiven for thinking that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif – now the prime minister and the leader of the opposition respectively - are similarly divided. They speak the same languages (her oral Urdu has improved as much as his spoken English). For the past ninety days they have been talking to the same electorate, addressing the same issues, learning to talk in the dialects of local and populist politics, they still find it almost impossible to communicate with one another. |
| This could be a worrisome augury, when one considers the significance of their positions. The recent election results have propelled them to heights of prominence unmatched in Pakistan’s history. The last time this occurred was in December 1970, when the general elections conducted by President Yahya Khan saw two singular representatives of parallel stature emerge – Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in the Bengali-speaking East wing and Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the Urdu-speaking West. [EXTRACT] |
| Published in THE NATION 21 October 1993, and reprinted in THE ARMLESS QUEEN (1994). |
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