The tragedy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
People in Pakistan continue to remember Zulfikar Ali Bhutto even after 39 years of his hanging. Pakistan’s former Prime Minister was hanged on April 4, 1979 in Rawalpindi. It was termed as ‘judicial murder’. Syeda Hamid, former member of Planning Commission of India, has come out with another book, Born to be hanged: Political biography of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The author did research on ZAB over two decades and met a couple of ZAB’s contemporaries and visited Pakistan a many time.
The book is a fascinating read. The author got hold of many letters written by ZAB from Sahiwal prison. The book highlights the ambition of
ZAB and his phenomenon rise. ZAB mesmerised Pakistan in early 70s with his speech in
UNSC and slogan of
Roti, Kapda aur
Makan. He spoke of Socialism. The book also narrates ZAB’s limitations. Once he became the PM, he started believing in intelligence agencies much more than his old comrades. Some of his best comrades left the party disillusioned within 1973-74.
The title of the book is taken from one of the last dispatches of Sir Morrice James, British High Commissioner in Islamabad in the 60s. He said, “In 1965, I so reported in one of my last dispatches from Pakistan as British High Commissioner. I wrote by way of clinching that Bhutto was born to be hanged. 14 years later, that was it turned out to be.”
The leaders like J. A. Rahim, Mubashir Hasan believed in left ideology. They were pillars of the party
initially, but after the party was formed,
ZAB never wanted to alienate the right wing parties. ZAB wrote to them from Sahiwal jail that PPP is not a tomb of the Communist party. He issued instruction from prison how they should deal with founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami Maulana Maudoodi. He asked Mubashir Hasan to meet Maudoodi. Mubashir ignored instructions as he did not want to meet Maudoodi. This indicates how complex ZAB was. The founding policy documents of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) clearly stood for Socialist Pakistan.
ZAB declared Ahmediya community as non-Muslims by second amendment in the Constitution. Ahmediyas contributed significantly in making Pakistan a reality, but ZAB under the pressure of religious clergy declared them non-Muslims. This indicates how he changed progressive laws for his own survival. Once you compromise with the religious fundamentalists and amend the laws, then it becomes virtually impossible to revoke it.
Still PPP supporters recall his speech at UN Security Council on September 1965 following Indo-Pak war. In his speech, then foreign minister of Pakistan, ZAB said, “We will wage a war for a thousand years, a war of defence.” During his speech the message of Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s President, was lying on his desk. Ultimately, he read the message. The message said, “In the interest of international peace and in order to enable the Security Council to evolve a self-executing procedure, which will lead to an honourable settlement of the root cause of the present conflict – namely, the Jammu and Kashmir dispute – I have issued the following order to the Pakistan armed forces. They will stop fighting as from 12.05 hours West Pakistan time today.” ZAB did not stop there. He went on and said, “It is the moral responsibility of the Security Council to address itself to a meaningful, a lasting solution of the problem of Jammu and Kashmir.”
The first general elections in Pakistan were held in December 1970. The Awami League (AL) led by Mujib ur Rehman won 151 out of 153 seats in the then East Pakistan. ZAB’s PPP won 81 seats out of 131 seats in West Pakistan. But military regime did not hand over power to AL. The rest is history. Bangladesh, a new nation state came into existence. Hamid writes, “In West Pakistan, General Yahya Khan was forced out by his army commanders and the power was transferred to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his PPP in December 1971.” Within six months of ZAB forming the government, India and Pakistan signed Simla agreement. Things were not going smoothly for ZAB. In October 1972, three ministers resigned. People were also getting disillusioned.
It was ZAB, who appointed Zia-ulhaq as army chief by superseding a couple of officers against US’s advice. Zia subsequently arrested ZAB on September 3, 1977 accusing him of a conspiracy to murder his opponent. In the shootout, the father of opposition leader died. After a sham trial he was hanged on April 4, 1979 at the Rawalpindi prison.
The book gives the idea of rise and fall of ZAB. Even today his influence remains, and PPP is benefitted.