Let us do this thread, with the same ‘logic’, for another person:

“It reflects poorly on so-called-Liberals when they dismiss leaders like Zia-ul-Haq as representatives of “Establishment”.

He received the most vile personal abuse from opponents and eventually had to be killed https://twitter.com/ammaralijan/status/1343266313171558400
by a violent & terrified “International Establishment”.

He faced all these hardships not because he was merely a dictator (how many other Pakistani dictators suffer that fate?) but because he chose to take a stand against USA for Pak’s nuclear program
& was becoming too powerful for the International Establishment after his success in defeating USSR.

His sad & violent death reflected the tragic fate of our entire people who are forced to confront the tyranny & hegemony of a brutal “International Establishment”.
He made mistakes(i.e. NS) compromises& had limitations.
But those limitations were a result of a long & ardent fight against an entrenched Feudal class [PPP] & a brutal International establishment, a form of compromise borne out of a struggle rather than mere ideological fancy.
Each generation must learn from the mistakes of the past and go beyond them.

This is our task too. But it cannot come at the cost of denying the struggle of our state embodied in the life & death of Zia-ul-Haq.

His resilience & dignity are part of the proud legacy that we
inherit.

His limitations (i.e he used Islamic diction for mundane political reasons & gave us Gun Culture & Islamic Extremism) are our collective failure from which we must recover and move beyond.
Finally, so-called liberals across the world are attempting to reduce statecraft to ‘how-one-comes-to-power’, a clever but deeply cynical devise to depoliticize the youth.

In such a world view, Z.A. Bhutto will appear as a benevolent, tolerant & democratically elected leader
who democratically ruled Pakistan while Zia would simply appear as a brutal & vile dictator.

Instead, we must remember that politics is determined by the battles one choose to fight during one’s stint at power, and the sacrifices one is willing to give for one's choices.
In that regard, Zia remains a symbol of resilience against the post-colonial imperial international Establishment.

If we are to move beyond him, we must do more work & give more sacrifices for the cause. No matter how much fancy liberal jargon one uses, rejecting his entire
struggle reflects a poor politics and latent resentment, a position that brings us closer to the hate-filled politics of the Feudalists, so-called liberals & Western Polymaths rather than towards any genuine progressive alternative”

Thread Ended
PS: The entire thread tries to demonstrate how tenuous & flimsy his entire arguments are. I am not trying to justify (like him) Zia’s crimes & rescue him from history’s impartial judgement.

We need to come out of this mindset which portrays thugs/mafias & feudalists as saints &
lays the entire blame at Establishment’s doorstep.

Not that Establishment can be absolved of its crimes in our history but these (Bhuttos/Sharifs/Zardaris) were partners-in-crime & extracted full financial & political benefits from such sordid partnerships
So spare us your sermons about the lady who had a tragic personal life but a venal & criminal political record.

We know how ugly was Zia’s legacy but we also know how sordid was ZAB’s entire power stint i.e. abductions, pol. victimisation, assassinations & curbs at free speech
He banned political parties, had his opponents killed, tortured his own party members, fully demonstrated his fascist tendencies, placed curbs on media, abused his powers for personal vendetta. All during ZAB’s rule.

Certainly, it was not a golden era for us even before Zia
So, look at her legacy to judge her i.e the performance of Federal Govt from 2008-13 & of Sindh Govt in the last 13 years - Is it any better than Zia’s legacy? Starving Tharis, Fake accounts, corruption, police brutalities, palaces & chateaus in France,
sprawling mansions across Pakistan donated by Real-Estate Mafia Dons, wilful failure to transfer power & share resources with local governments.

This is what BB’s legacy is. Judge her on that. Not on her personal tragedies. Zia also had his share of personal tragedies
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