Bhutto Sworn In, Vows to Push for Democratic Reforms in Pakistan

To the stiff salutes and applause of the nation’s military leaders, Benazir Bhutto took the oath of office Friday as Pakistan’s prime minister, pledging to free the nation’s press and political prisoners, legalize banned student and labor unions, liberate its women and enrich its poor.

In a nationally televised address after a ceremony attended by diplomats and Pakistani officials in the presidential palace, Bhutto vowed that the government of her Pakistan People’s Party will “provide food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, jobs for the unemployed and education for the illiterate.”

At the same time, she promised to reinstate the minimum-wage law, give autonomy to state-run television and radio networks and improve laborers’ working conditions. And she announced plans to construct a memorial with “an eternal flame to commemorate the sacrifices of the martyrs,” including her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged after the late President Zia ul-Haq overthrew him in a 1977 military coup.

But the 35-year-old leader, the first woman premier in the modern Islamic world, conceded, “No doubt we are faced with a big challenge and many difficulties.

Financial Problems

“Our financial system is on the brink of bankruptcy,” she said in appealing to members of the nation’s growing middle class to share their wealth with the largely impoverished masses. “But we are not ones to fear challenges. . . . The trials that we have faced have strengthened our dedication and our determination.”

Bhutto spoke only briefly on foreign policy and abandoned the socialist--and frequently anti-American--rhetoric of her late father. She stressed that she wants to strengthen relations with the United States, which already has committed more than $4 billion in aid over six years.

In addition, she said, she hopes to improve relations with the Soviet Union. She made no mention of Afghanistan, Pakistan’s war-torn western neighbor, where Zia’s government and the United States heavily financed and armed the moujahedeen resistance in its nine-year war against the Moscow-backed government and Soviet troops.

Although she stressed her commitment to Islam as the founding principle of this overwhelmingly Muslim nation, she reserved perhaps her most impassioned comments for the state of the country’s largely illiterate and long-oppressed women.

“We are proud of our women,” she said. “They have fought very courageously in the freedom struggle. . . . We will now abolish all laws that infringe on women’s rights. They will be free to choose their profession, and they will be given equal wages.”

Bhutto also emphasized her party’s commitment to private enterprise, saying her government will seek to modernize Pakistan through international technology transfers.

As she has in most of her recent public pronouncements, she praised both acting President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the leaders of the 670,000-man armed forces, which have run Pakistan for most of its 41 years of independence.

Bhutto noted that the army supported the elections that brought her to power in November, three months after Zia was killed in a mysterious plane crash. She concluded her 30-minute speech by declaring: “I salute the president and the armed forces chiefs (because) after Aug. 17 (the date of Zia’s death) they used all their powers to restore democracy.”

A personal friend of Bhutto described Friday’s oath-taking as the most extraordinary event in the life of the new prime minister, who spent years in prison, house arrest and exile after her father’s execution in 1979.

Under the glare of television lights and surrounded by Islamabad’s diplomatic corps and top Pakistani elected officials, Ishaq Khan led Bhutto through the five-minute oath beneath the crystal chandeliers of the palace.

Bhutto, dressed in an electric-green shalwar kameez, Pakistan’s national dress, then picked up a matching green pen and signed the document formally making her the nation’s leader. Applause and shouts of “Bhutto lives!” spread through the palace hall, and Bhutto beamed from beneath her white veil.

Nusrat Bhutto, co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, watched her daughter from a front-row seat and observed: “She looks so young up there. She looks so vulnerable, but maybe that is just a mother talking.

“I am happy, but I am sad,” she added, recalling the execution of her husband and the poisoning death of her son, Shahnawaz, in France three years ago. “In your country, she would have become prime minister without my husband and my son being lost.”

But during a tea-and-cake reception at the palace after the oath-taking, Bhutto’s friends and supporters were filled only with joy--some to the point of tears.

“It’s the most exhilarating feeling in the world,” said Puchy Rashid, one of Bhutto’s closest friends. “It’s like giving birth to a child, and it is a birth that will bring unity to the nation. Imagine, those who were once so hostile to us were actually standing there and saluting.”

Nonetheless, at one point immediately after the oath-taking--when neither Ishaq Khan nor Bhutto thought anyone was listening--it was clear that the gulf between the forces of the establishment that Zia left behind and the young, modern administration remain wider than it seems on the surface.

As the two leaders left the hall, Ishaq Khan turned to Bhutto and said, “Will you permit me to offer my prayers now?”

Bhutto smiled and replied, “Can I join you in the prayers?”

The president, who, like most men who have served long in the government, frowns on women and men praying together, paused before he answered.

“I think you can watch us,” he said finally.