Bhutto & I

[genmirajborgza786]

Bhutto and I
Nadeem F. Paracha

- File photo
On the morning of April 4, 1979, the military dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq hanged to death Pakistan’s first elected Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Today is the 35th anniversary of that judicial crime.

If you are as much of a maniacal reader on the political and social history histories of Pakistan as I am, then I’m sure you’ve already noticed that after Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the second most discussed Pakistani leader in such books is Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

So much has been written about the man. His achievements and follies; his charisma and eccentricities; his accomplishments and blunders. I can’t really add more to what is already out there in the shape of whole books, papers and articles written on the man.

I was barely 6 years old when Bhutto rose to become Pakistan’s head of state (in January 1972) soon after the secession of what was once called East Pakistan.

Bhutto’s populist Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had swept the 1970 general election in West Pakistan's two largest provinces, Punjab and Sindh, and it became the country’s majority party once East Pakistan broke away (after a violent and tragic civil war there).

I do have some memory (rather random images) of the 1971 Pakistan-India war (that followed the civil war) and of Bhutto’s first address to the nation on PTV when in early 1972 he took over the reins of a defeated and demoralised nation.

What I remember about the war are the blanket blackouts, loud sirens and terrifying sounds of artillery fire and jets zooming over our house near the coastal areas of Karachi in Clifton; and how one evening there was a huge explosion that shattered the window panes of almost every house in the vicinity after which (in the morning), the war was over (December 1971).

We trickled out of our basements and make-shift bunkers only to see a number of oil refineries visible from our house, and a series of war ships on the horizon on fire.

The flames rose so high it seemed (at least to a 6-year-old kid) that their thick black smoke was about to darken the fluffy white winter clouds hovering over Karachi.

Two peasant children stand amidst unexploded bombs in a village in former East Pakistan during the 1971 Pakistan-India war.
Then Radio Pakistan announced that the Pakistan armed forces have surrendered. But we kids were too busy collecting the smothering splinters of the bombs that had been dropped by Indian jets only miles away from our area of residence, not knowing that the country had acutely been split into two.

Bhutto was no stranger in our house. In the early 1960s my father was a Psychology major at the University of Karachi (KU) and a member of the left-wing National Students Federation (NSF).

He was also a bosom buddy of famous student radical (and future PPP minister and politician), Miraj Muhammad Khan.

Though my father came from a large, conservative business family from North Punjab, he was a rebel. He was the first in the large family to bypass studying for a business degree; the first to marry outside the family (to a ‘mohajir’ - an Economics major at KU, my mother); and the first to join journalism (instead of the widespread family business) after he graduated from the university in 1964.

Like many passionate young men and women in the late 1960s, he too became a Bhutto enthusiast and remained to be one until his death from respiratory failure in October, 2009.

When Miraj Saheb, these days himself facing health issues, called and spoke to me at length soon after my father passed away, it reminded me how in January 1972 my father returned home from the Karachi Press Club and told my mother that Miraj had told him that Bhutto would be speaking to the nation on TV.

A January 1972 edition of DAWN.
Being just 6 years old then, today I only vaguely remember my parents, cousins, younger sister, grandparents and paternal uncles gathered in front of our Russian-made ‘Mercury’ TV set listening to that address.

Bhutto addressing the nation on PTV (January 1972).
In those days we were one of the few homes in the country that actually owned a TV set, so the address was largely heard by Pakistanis on the radio, in spite of the fact that Bhutto spoke in English.

It is said that the speech remains to be one of the most widely heard addresses from a head of state and government in Pakistan.

In February 1972, my father moved our family to Kabul in Afghanistan where he agreed to heed my paternal grandfather’s advice to set up offices of the family business in that city.

Instead my father became the Afghanistan correspondent of the PPP’s newspaper, Musawat. It was a Kabul that today would seem like a totally different planet compared to what happened to this city at the end of the Soviet-Mujahideen war in the 1980s and beyond.

I remember Kabul to be a pleasant and clean city, with hordes of western tourists (mostly hippies) roaming its streets and markets.

Afghan women walk down a shopping street in Kabul in 1972 (Picture Courtesy LIFE).
My father became a regular visitor to a popular coffee house in central Kabul where the city’s most animated leftist intellectuals met for coffee, tea, beer and most importantly, to strike passionate discussions on the state of affairs in Afghanistan.

One day my father brought home an intense looking and stocky Afghan Pushtun for dinner. The Afghan was bald, had thick spectacles on him, chain-smoked and spoke both English and an accented Urdu. The gentleman was Sardar Daoud - the former Prime Minister of Afghanistan (1953-63) and the future President of that country.

Daoud, who was a cousin of Afghanistan’s monarch, Zahir Shah, had resigned as PM in 1963. He was also a passionate advocate of ‘Pushtunistan’ – a movement that wanted to merge Afghanistan with the Pushtun majority areas of Pakistan.

My father later told me that Daoud – who’d been banished by the monarchy and had become a radical pro-Soviet republican – befriended my father at the coffee house and told him about a ‘coming revolution in Afghanistan.’

‘Bhutto was not very happy with my friendship with Daoud,’ my father told me many years later. Bhutto as well as Pakistan’s military establishment were extremely anti-Daoud, especially due to his views on ‘Pushtunistan.’

Though we returned to Pakistan in mid-1973, Daoud would go on to topple the Zahir Shah monarchy in a military-backed coup and declare Afghanistan to be a republic (in 1974).

He was himself toppled in a communist coup in 1978.

Sardar Daoud

 

[genmirajborgza786]

Sardar Daoud
In Pakistan, my father began publishing a radical pro-PPP Urdu weekly called Al-Fatha with another journalist colleague of his, Mehmood Sham. Al-Fatha's name was inspired by Yasser Arafat’s militant left-wing Palestinian outfit.

Now back in school in Karachi I fondly remember how small kids (especially boys) loved to imitate Bhutto’s antics as a public speaker. At first I just couldn’t understand, until I rediscovered Bhutto on TV.

Afghanistan didn’t have any TV in those days, even though I remember accompanying my parents to a host of Rajesh Khanna films at Kabul cinemas.

back in Karachi, I particularly remember one Bhutto speech on PTV that he made in late 1973 that finally made the now 7-year-old me understand what all those boys at school were up to.

It was during a public gathering in Lahore. It set the nation on fire! Drunk on passion, patriotism (and his favourite brand of whisky), Bhutto was canvassing to ask his supporters to help him regenerate Pakistan’s lost pride. To my delight, a small section of this speech can now be found in cyberspace (see below):

Another memory I have of the period is watching my father discussing the passing of Pakistan’s first genuine constitution (the 1973 constitution) with his cousins and brothers.

Later on when I entered my teens in the early 1980s, I asked my father why the Bhutto regime declared the Ahmadis as non-Muslim.

His explanation was that since Bhutto wanted to bag the support of Islamic outfits like Jamat-i-Islami and others before the historic 1974 International Islamic Summit in Lahore, ‘he threw them a bone they could get busy with and get distracted by.’

I continued disagreeing with him on this issue, and he continued defending Bhutto’s action even many years later.

I remember the Islamic Summit very well. PTV ran a marathon transmission of the event and I also remember watching speeches by a number of leaders from various Muslim countries.

The Summit was explained as a global expression of Bhutto’s ‘Islamic Socialism’ and ‘vision’ of turning the Muslim world into a ‘third progressive force’ between western capitalism and Soviet communism.

Bhutto greets Syrian leader Hafizul Asad at Lahore airport during the Islamic Summit in 1974. Asad was one of the many leaders of the Muslim world who arrived to attend the historic summit.
My childhood unfolded in a very different Karachi. TV was a joy to watch (even though it was entirely one-sided); men and women were crazy about cinema as the Pakistan film industry churned out an average of 60 to 70 films a year; and people loved staying outdoors without any fear and at all hours.

A group of friends pose outside their class at the Karachi University in 1973. –Photo courtesy: Pakistan Herald

A European tourist relaxing outside a cheap food joint on Burns Road in Karachi (1973).
Bars, nightclubs, cinemas and other recreational sites were always illuminated with bright, shimmering lights. I remember accompanying my elder cousins and their friends to the edges of the Clifton area on weekends (on bicycles) where people would gather to drink, chat, take long walks on the Clifton beach and especially eat chaat and ‘gola-gupas’.

Some would order ‘special gola-gupas’ whose liquidy chatni was laced with a heavy dose of tamarind but mixed with beer.

At this edge of Clifton was a house called ‘70 Clifton.’ This was the spacious residence of Z A. Bhutto and his family.

From 1975 onwards, when I turned 9, my father began to often take me with him to this house whenever he had to meet Bhutto.

By now he had also joined the Soviet Embassy (on Bhutto’s suggestion). Bhutto had wanted him to use his position to strengthen the media and cultural ties between the Soviet Union and Pakistan.

It was, I think, in the summer of 1975 when I first met Bhutto in real life. I saw a very young Benazir Bhutto as well, lurking in the background; and I also remember a tall, lanky guy shaking my hand as my father stood talking to the lad in the garden of 70 Clifton. He was Murtaza Bhutto, then just 21 years old.

I found Bhutto’s wife, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, to be the warmest and closest towards my father. I would last meet this amazing woman in 1993 when (as a journalist) I made my last trip to 70 Clifton on the evening Murtaza returned from exile.

As a former member of the PPP's student-wing (PSF), I had sided with Benazir in her little tussle with Murtaza. And I continued siding with her. She was to my generation of young ‘radicals’ in the 1980s, what her father had been to the generations before us.

A young Benazir Bhutto at 70 Clifton (1976)

Shahnawaz, Benazir and Murtaza (1975).
But the fondest ever memory of those visits with my father to 70 Clifton was of one evening in early 1976 (I was now 10) when, as my father and I entered a spacious hall, Bhutto, smartly dressed in a suit and a tie and with a cigar in hand, approached my father and with a mischievous smile loudly asked: ‘Aur Paracha! (So, Paracha); how are the Soviets treating you?’

My father smiled back and answered something to this affect: ‘Sab sahi hai, Bhutto Sahib (All’s well, Mr. Bhutto); the Soviets are fine as long as one keeps appreciating their Vodka!’

Bhutto burst into laughter.

My saddest childhood memories of the time were not exactly the shutting down of schools and the curfews that were imposed during the right-wing Pakistan National Alliance’s protest movement against Bhutto in April 1977.

Nor do I remember what I felt when I saw this weird looking military man with a strange handlebar moustache talking on PTV (in July 1977) - A man against whom I would eventually spend all of my college years fighting as a student activist in the mid and late 1980s.

A tyrant who would retard the political and social evolution of Pakistan for years to come. A man called Ziaul Haq.

Zia announcing the imposition of Martial Law on PTV (July 1977).
My saddest memory regarding Bhutto is, of course, of April 4, 1979. I was 12 years old and now smart enough to understand what was going on.

My father had been blacklisted by the Zia regime (in 1977) and was out of a job. He still refused to join the family business.

I’d had a terrible morning at school two days before Bhutto’s hanging. My mother was summoned by my teachers and told that I would be suspended for giving a fellow student a big fat black eye! Thankfully I wasn’t.

The bugger had been waving a picture (cut out from Jang newspaper) of a cop flogging a man in public. He was mocking the flogged man, saying that all PPP supporters would be getting flogged this way.

Suddenly, bam! I smashed my fist in his face, knocking him out in 5 seconds flat. My anger was purely the result of the depression I was feeling from the economic pressures and uncertainty my family had been facing ever since the Zia regime blacklisted my father, making it impossible for him to get a job in any newspaper or magazine.

Saddest was when on the night of 4th April, some 12 hours after Bhutto’s hanging, I entered my parent’s bedroom and found my father sitting on his bed, his palms cupping his face, his head hung low, as he listened to a special programme on Bhutto on BBC Radio’s Urdu service.

I quietly sat on a chair opposite him, my knuckles still sour from punching my classmate. Then it happened. A sight I shall never forget.

My father removed his palms from his face to light a cigarette. And for the first time ever, I saw this cool, calm and stoic fellow, wiping tears from his cheeks. His eyes were swollen and red, as if he’d actually been weeping for hours.

I was stunned. I had no clue what to do. It was only then that I realised that Bhutto really was dead.

Scene after scene was related over the years in articles and books by so many people of how Bhutto’s death had actually made grown-up men and women cry.

I saw one such person do that right in front of my eyes. That evening I wanted to hug my father. But I somehow couldn’t. I just got up and left. The age of apathy had arrived in Pakistan.

My father at our house in Karachi in 1967. He passed away in 2009.
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Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

Bhutto and I - DAWN.COM

 

[Jf Thunder]

Zia was awesome, and Bhutto was just useless, broke Pakistan in two, and was crazed with power, his death suited him

 

[genmirajborgza786]

you were the blessing for Pakistan, your speeches, confidence, rule, diplomacy, was everything we the ungrateful people that we are, had ever hoped for ,but could not value it ,today you are faraway from us & we cry for you, on this fateful day of your martyrdom, our nation stands to pay respect to you "oh Bhutto thou shall always be loved......
: genmirajborgza786

@Azlan Haider comrade today is Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's Barsee

 

[M. Sarmad]

you were the blessing for Pakistan, your speeches, confidence, rule, diplomacy, was everything we the ungrateful people that we are, had ever hoped for ,but could not value it ,today you are faraway from us & we cry for you, on this fateful day of your martyrdom, our nation stands to pay respect to you "oh Bhutto thou shall always be loved......
: genmirajborgza786

@Azlan Haider comrade today is Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's Barsee

JIYE BHUTTO !!

ZAB was hanged at 2:12 AM on the morning of April 4th, 1979.

Jiss dhaj say koee maqtal meiN gaya .......

 

[Developereo]

you were the blessing for Pakistan, your speeches, confidence, rule, diplomacy, was everything we the ungrateful people that we are, had ever hoped for ,but could not value it ,today you are faraway from us & we cry for you, on this fateful day of your martyrdom, our nation stands to pay respect to you "oh Bhutto thou shall always be loved......
: genmirajborgza786

@Azlan Haider comrade today is Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's Barsee

This is probably the only NFP article I would agree with.

Despite his faults, Bhutto was by far the best thing that happened to Pakistan after independence.

If he had lived, Pakistan would easily have been one of the leading nations in Asia in terms of HDI.

 

[genmirajborgza786]

@Developereo Bhai
thank you


@Azlan Haider thank you comrade

Lal Salam

 

[Khan_patriot]

I personally hold Bhutto responsible for the BD fiasco, had he not been a power hungry tyrant, shit would not have hit the roof....

 

[Informant]

This is probably the only NFP article I would agree with.

Despite his faults, Bhutto was by far the best thing that happened to Pakistan after independence.

If he had lived, Pakistan would easily have been one of the leading nations in Asia in terms of HDI.

How so? Running aground industries by nationalizing them? Socialist policies result for a short stretch and then it tanks. Never has any socialist country succeeded. Bhutto did a LOT of good but the bad's he did cost us an arm and a leg. Plus his open initiatives to suppress revolts through violence and alienating a half of the country led to his own downfall.

Should he have been hanged? Nopes. But it happened and we should move on. And no Pakistan would'nt have been a leading nation in HDI. Short bursts of rapid growth arent sustainable.

Now his ilk is the most corrupt, deceptive, indecent, vile, piece of shit all in all. Dont agree with me just look at their past performance. 2007 to 2013. Ran the country aground, doubled the debt and fucked the economy so bad it will take a decade to reach Pre PPP levels. This is Bhutto's legacy now.

 

[Jaanbaz]

This constant death match between Liberal hippies and Right Wing Mullah and Zai' creatures is what destroyed Pakistan. Pakistan doesn't need Socialism or Islamism. Pakistan needs a Centrist Government which looks after its people and Pakistan's interest.

 

[Developereo]

How so? Running aground industries by nationalizing them? Socialist policies result for a short stretch and then it tanks. Never has any socialist country succeeded. Bhutto did a LOT of good but the bad's he did cost us an arm and a leg. Plus his open initiatives to suppress revolts through violence and alienating a half of the country led to his own downfall.

Should he have been hanged? Nopes. But it happened and we should move on. And no Pakistan would'nt have been a leading nation in HDI. Short bursts of rapid growth arent sustainable.

Now his ilk is the most corrupt, deceptive, indecent, vile, piece of shit all in all. Dont agree with me just look at their past performance. 2007 to 2013. Ran the country aground, doubled the debt and fucked the economy so bad it will take a decade to reach Pre PPP levels. This is Bhutto's legacy now.

First of all, respecting ZAB has nothing to do with PPP or his family: I have the utmost contempt for Bilawal and the current PPP.

Secondly, as I wrote above, I accept that Bhutto had many faults. I accept that his arrogance caused the Bangaldesh split, I don't like the Ahmedi ruling, and I have mixed feelings about his nationalization policy. I don't support socialism, but I recognize the value of reining in the robber barons. Also, despite being a feudal, ZAB promoted social democracy in Pakistan. The reference to HDI was based on the fact that ZAB recognized the importance of having certain HDI metrics for the entire citizenry, not just the elite.

The most important thing that ZAB did was to give Pakistanis a sense of national unity, pride and purpose. At the worst of times, when the nation's morale was at its lowest, ZAB pulled a miracle that few leaders in history have ever achieved. Under ZAB, Pakistanis were proud to be Pakistanis and there was a belief that Pakistan was destined for greatness. The nuclear program was the most visible manifestation of that spirit.

And Bhutto did not achieve this in a vacuum. Under him, Pakistan was respected as a leader amonst developing nations. The Arabs, the Iranians and the Turks saw Pakistan as an equal partner worthy of respect, not a destitute beggar to be derided and used. These countries saw Pakistan as a nation of scientists, engineers and artists; a nation which could achieve much if provided the proper funds (as a partner, not a beggar).

Never in the last 35 years since ZAB has Pakistan ever come close to achieving that sense of respect and self-worth as a nation. Today, Pakistan is viewed universally as a destitute beggar; a nation of sellouts which can be bought or sold for a few million dollars. Zia-ul-Haq set the trend for this, and subsequent "leaders" only made it worse.

Pakistan today lacks a sense of national unity, purpose and pride that ZAB provided. We are a nation that is muddling along, living day to day, with no grand vision or sense of purpose.

So, yes, without a doubt, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the greatest leader Paksitan saw after independence.

 

[jandk]

How so? Running aground industries by nationalizing them? Socialist policies result for a short stretch and then it tanks. Never has any socialist country succeeded. Bhutto did a LOT of good but the bad's he did cost us an arm and a leg. Plus his open initiatives to suppress revolts through violence and alienating a half of the country led to his own downfall.

Should he have been hanged? Nopes. But it happened and we should move on. And no Pakistan would'nt have been a leading nation in HDI. Short bursts of rapid growth arent sustainable.

Now his ilk is the most corrupt, deceptive, indecent, vile, piece of shit all in all. Dont agree with me just look at their past performance. 2007 to 2013. Ran the country aground, doubled the debt and fucked the economy so bad it will take a decade to reach Pre PPP levels. This is Bhutto's legacy now.

Bro, look at Cuba- they kick even America's *** when it comes to Education, health care, life expectancy, gender equality, and other social indicators. Cuban doctors are world famous for their professionalism and high ability. If applied well, socialism can work to improve society.

 

[Informant]

Bro, look at Cuba- they kick even America's *** when it comes to Education, health care, life expectancy, gender equality, and other social indicators. Cuban doctors are world famous for their professionalism and high ability. If applied well, socialism can work to improve society.

Cuba is a run down country barely able to afloat themselves. People could not change houses until just an year or so ago. There was no petrol for day with rolling black outs. Their economy runs on tourism. This sounds romantic but is a shitty scenario where there is no freedom to sell or buy "Cars". I'm not even kidding man.

Socialism hasnt worked ever.

 

[M. Sarmad]

4th April in new perspective

The fourth of April is the anniversary of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s judicial murder in 1979. Most people know it as the date when Pakistan saw its lowest. A wily dictator coerced the judiciary to illegally execute the most popular elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto gave his life but refused to bow down to the evil that Zia ul Haq represented.



But for the new generation that may have only read or heard about the 1970s I would like to emphasise the significance of the 5th of July. This was also the cut-off date when a prosperous and tolerant Pakistan was thrown into dark ages. The seeds of terrorism and violence that we see all around us today were sown in that very year when Zia plunged Pakistan into Afghanistan as a US stooge.

Pakistan under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was seen as the emerging economic and military power in the region. Tourists from all over the world came here to relish our tolerant society and fabled hospitality. Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto made us proud as Pakistanis by pushing us from the political periphery to the centre of the Islamic world.

I often wonder how Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto might have dealt with the multiple crises that we face today. We are despised as the patron of militant Islamists. We stand isolated as never before despite being the only Muslim nuclear power with the fifth largest army in the world. We are intimidated by India in the east and face continued hostility on our western borders. We see the Middle East in utter chaos as Saudi Arabia and Iran fight through their proxies.

We miss Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto today more than ever before because now is the time when we need somebody like him. He had a great diplomatic sense and he would have found a way to mediate between Muslim countries in rivalry with each other besides playing a crucial role to stabilize the Middle East. He did that precisely when he brought Iran and Saudi Arabia on a single table at the famous 1974 Islamic Summit in Lahore. This was how Arabs realised how to use oil as a weapon and Pakistan cashed in by sending millions of its workers to Arab countries. Thanks to Bhutto, we survive on the roughly $ 15 billion remittances that come from the Middle East today.

It may require lots of space to enumerate Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s lasting contribution to Pakistan but a few things stand out. The new generation may not realise in what difficult times Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was asked to play his innings. Pakistan was absolutely demoralised after the separation of Bangladesh with its 90,000 troops languishing in Indian custody. Bhutto brought home our troops without conceding to any compromise in Kashmir or otherwise at Shimla. It was no small feat. He got the phoenix of Pakistan rise from the ashes by restoring our self-respect as Pakistanis. He brought everybody together to forge the much needed 1973 constitution and set the country on the path to nuclear security. But his biggest achievement was that he empowered the ordinary Pakistanis by introducing participatory democracy in this country. The man in the street loved him and the world looked at us with respect and envy. Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was respected internationally as a leader of great caliber and his achievement were acknowledged by prestigious newspapers including The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor – to name a few.

Yet the 4th of April had to happen. I still wonder why. Perhaps our enemies got scared by our rising power; perhaps the West got threatened by Bhutto’s ability to gather Islamic counties in a common bloc; perhaps our ever growing relationship with China was thorn in the eyes of our enemies. Here I sit in the old attic of Bhutto Legacy Foundation and sift through files to understand that crucial chapter of our history. I am convinced that, whatever the case, Zia connived with the foreign enemies to rig our institutions to execute that great leader that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was. I am proud that I got the chance to know Bhutto sahib and then worked with his great daughter, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed. And now I feel it important to bring out the duty files from my attic to remind the third generation represented by Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari of the rich legacy of the Bhuttos.

The 4th of April also reminds that the supreme sacrifice of the great leader Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He spent his 51st birthday in the death cell of Rawalpindi. He was a courageous man and he faced this ordeal with dignity and calm demeanour despite ill health. This day is a reminder for us to reiterate our commitment to follow Bhutto’s democratic ideals and political philosophy. The evil of terror and injustice that tried to erase Bhutto’s name failed miserably because the name is alive even today; the streets of Pakistan still echo with zinda hai Bhutto zinda hai.

http://nation.com.pk/columns/04-Apr-2017/4th-april-in-new-perspective

 

[Max]

a criminal who nationalised thriving economy and destroyed Pakistan's future.