Understanding Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

Harish,

Welcome on the post. Noticed that u joined in just after Manto mian did.

Regards

Taiko,

ZAB did damage Pak economy as seriously as did Indian socialists India`s. Or for that matter socialists anywhere in the world. I was merely alluding to the fact that if socialism means reducing disparities, he did nothing of that sort.

Zeemax,

Why did things come to such a pass that the Six Points Programme had to be put up in the first place. In any case once Mujib had a clear majority he should have been allowed to form a government, once in power he may have moderated his demands. At least it would not have been laid to Pak`s charge that it did not honour a duly elected majority.

Manto mian,

Welcome back.

Regards

Bhutto may get away from almost all of the allegations levelled against him, but he cannot escape from the charge that he reduced Ahmadis to being second-class citizens in their own land. Whatever their beliefs, no one can deny someone the right to be an equal citizen of the country in which they were born. To this day, the word `Ahmadi` carries a stigma with it, and Ahmadis are made to feel dirty on account of their faith. Even Shaukat Aziz had to issue a hurried denial when he was accused of being an Ahmadi.

So is Alephnull confessing that he is actually Pakistani?

#16 by majumdar

You have made a long charge sheet ... anyway let`s take this first which appears to be the main complaint against ZAB:

``He was morally responsible for the genocide in Bdesh`` .... and agreeing with our chief air-head zeena that ``ZA Bhutto is the main reason bengladesh is not Pakistan anymore. ``

Which of the following 6 points do you think ZAB should have accepted?

1) The constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense on the Lahore Resolution and the parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a Legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise.

2) The federal government should deal with only two subjects : Defence and Foreign Affairs, and all other residuary subjects shall be vested in the federating states.

3) Two separate, but freely convertible currencies for two wings should be introduced ; or if this is not feasible, there should be one currency for the whole country, but effective constitutional provisions should be introduced to stop the flight of capital from East to West Pakistan. Furthermore, a separate Banking Reserve should be established and separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East Pakistan.

4) The power of taxation and revenue collection shall be vested in the federating units and the federal centre will have no such power. The federation will be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures.

5) There should be two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings ; the foreign exchange requirements of the federal government should be met by the two wings equally or in a ratio to be fixed; indigenous products should move free of duty between the two wings, and the constitution should empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries.

6) East Pakistan should have a separate militia or paramilitary force.

Of-course you know none of the above points was negotiable by Mujib. In my opinion acceptance of above was akin to secession in any event. But you may differ.

This question is posed at the others as well who share your/zeena`s views. Though Zeena is excused because she`s in the Tara Masih mood :-)

Re: # 16 majumdar

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did little even for his pet cause socialism (non-initiation of land reforms etc.).

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Thank God / Allah / Bhagwan that he didn`t Show-shaw-lise the lands. Otherwise we would be as Bhookay-Nangay as the people in Bihar (under Lallu mis-rule), or Egyptians (after Gamal Nasir`s land reforms). Just read the articles coming from West Bengal that clearly show these Land reforms do not work (period).

Look what these Show-shaw-lists did to the factories, schools, and banks in Pakistan.

Did the factories increase production under Show-shaw-lism? Heck no!
Did the education standard improve under Show-shaw-lism? Heck no!
Did the banks provide better service, or protected the deposits? Heck No!

Even without this show-shaw-list destruction of lands, Pakistanis were subjected to the Commie-style ration-depots.

Party comrades occupied these ration-depots. These epitomes of honesty made tones of money by selling water-laden sugar, and ``dirt-enhanced`` wheat flour. Men and women from the bread basket of British India were forced to stand in Moscow like long lines to do what? Get 1 kg of adulterated sugar and 20 kg of dirt+wheat flour. This is what we call giving respect to the common man.

Had Bhutto survived any longer, we would still be rushing to the market for basic items. Yeah Baboo, run! Today we have shoes available. What? don`t worry if they don`t fit. Who knows when the next shoe-dump will come.

Bottom line is that the land owner class was too strong for Bhutto to allow him the show-shaw-list misadventures. I wish factory owners, and bankers were that strong as well. Today we may have saved our institutions from falling to the depths of third-world standard so prevalent in Bihar, Somalia or Iran.

Naqsh,

(I used to dislike him based only on hearsay from maulvis!)

In this case the maulvis were right, even if for wrong reasons. He was morally responsible for the genocide in Bdesh and physically for the carnage in NWFP/Bstan (1970s), broke up Pakistan for the sake of being PM and destroyed its economy. He undermined democracy (by his authoritarian rule, harassment and assassination of political opponents, rigging elections) undermined secularism (meausres such as Ahmedis being non-Muslim, prohibition, Friday holidays etc.) and did little even for his pet cause socialism (non-initiation of land reforms etc.).

Have to agree with Zeenaji that being hung once wasn`t punishment enough.

Regards

Well, he endorsed the military operation, did he not?

Zeemax that last quote refers to Ghous Bizenjo..who was the only opposition leader to ask for clemency for Bhutto. A fact which speaks even more for the level of hatred and polarisation his approach created in his opponents.

Mr. Alam, Thanks for bringing this dark chapter of our history up for another hot discussion. Here are my two cents.

Bhutto was a terrible copycat of other show-shaw-lists (socialist for appearance sakes) like Gamal Abul Nasir, Hawari Bu Madian, and the likes of Nehru. He was also a bad imitation of other losers like Eedi Amin, Gaddafi, Saddam, and Kim (of North Korean variety).

His biggest achievement of sorts was also the downfall of Pakistan. He connected well with the show-shaw-list undertones of both our Mullahs on one hand, and leftie-liberals from newspapers and universities.

His leftie-communist policies that he himself called Islamic-show-shaw-lism, were a hodgepodge of religion and ill-advised shenanigans thanks to Drs. Mubashhar and Mehbub ulhaq.

His 5 years reign left behind utterly destroyed Banks, schools, and factories and created a rust-belt overburdened by government baboos.

West Pakistan had premier institutions that were poised to become the IITs, Tatas, and infosys. Thanks to this commie Bhutto, everything went back to the stone age of sorts.

Pakistanis can forgive Bhutto for all the ills including Duali torture camp, the Pakistani-Sawak called FSF, killing and torture of opponents, and breakup of Pakistan. However we can never forgive him for what he did with our hard-built institutions. Had he been around for another 10 years, we`d surely be part of the industrial-nations like North Korea and Iran.

May Allah forgive him for his mistakes!
May Allah keep us safe from other mistakes by lefties like BB!

p.s. Nehru couldn’t do that much damage because Hindu Industrialists were too strong for him. Indira did try to revive her Daddy’s show-shaw-lism, doing great harm to Hindustan.

``He was the biggest hurdle to Sheikh Mujeeb coming to power in a United Pakistan in which his Party would perhaps rule in just two provinces ie Punjab and Sindh. ``

What a brilliant insight ... and Pakistan Army then launched a heroic operation to save the federation by helping Mujeeb, the legitimately elected leader of the country become the prime minister of pakistan. The operation went on for 9 months in larkana to teach bhutto and his minions a lesson to learn to respect the will of the people.

AlephNull:
that is soo accurate and concise!

Just like many other Leaders that include Nawaz Sharif, he had a problem digesting populism. The majority that he commanded in West Pakistan got into his head. He had his own perceptions about Pakistan and felt that only he could deliver. He was the biggest hurdle to Sheikh Mujeeb coming to power in a United Pakistan in which his Party would perhaps rule in just two provinces ie Punjab and Sindh. He treated Bangali Mandate as alien. A student of politics and history that he was, he should have well understood what pressures of domestic political economy could do; and that with his attitude, all roads led to seperation.

But then, he did come to power and become a civilian Martial Law Administrator. Once the tenure of his popular government ran out he tried to rig elections and remain in power. In between, his socialist economic policies handed over Pakistan to thieves, thugs and unsuitable governmnet servants backrolling the economy. He raised the FSF, established Dalai Camp and had his critics beaten up. He ruined the education system and diverted the labour movements to Bhatta System and Blackmailing.

But these ae somethings that we did not like.

To the contary, he was the architect of the China Policy, Pakistan Steel Mill, Agriculture Reforms, Elite education institutions like the National Defence College and QAU, Pakistan`s Nuclear Program and mobilisation of masses. Perhaps he felt that with Awami League in power, Pakistan would be dessimated into a loose confederation and break up at the seams. Perhaps he also felt strongly that rapid industrialisation had enrichened the coffers of too few and they would become a cartel exercising great political clout. Perhaps in earnest he tried to break the clout of those notorious elites that controlled Pakistan. In the end, he could never bypass the system he set to change and became the victim of the very law he reinstituted ie the Death Penalty.

So was he an enigma?

I feel that with all said and done, he was the best thing that happened to Pakistan after Jinnah.

Cheerios

ZA Bhutto, another corrupt idiot of Pakistan who didn`t had a clue which way to direct the nation.

ZA Bhutto is the main reason for today`s worst outcome for Pakistan.

ZA Bhutto is the main reason bengladesh is not Pakistan anymore.

This idiot was hanged once. No not enough. He would be hanged million times in front of all Pakistani nation and even then that would never been enough.

Thanks for this collection of quotes by and about ZAB. Ever since I read Wolpert`s biography on him, I have liked the guy--before reading that book I used to dislike him based only on hearsay from maulvis! He was a brilliant politician, a clever man but a megalomaniac nevertheless--and a great womaniser (which most great men have been!)

A quote I remember from Wolpert`s book: ``Just because I am sleeping with his wife, he thinks he can take liberties with me!`` -- my jaw dropped when I read that about Bhutto sahib.

If he had stayed alive, I think Pakistan would have been more like Malaysia by now.

,,,contd...#7

But thanks for attempting to understand the phenomenon of ZAB through what he said himself and what others said about him. That`s a very unbiased way of putting it.

Author,

You did not give your source for the following statement:

``He was the only one who appealed for clemency for his life ``

Correction: ZAB never appealed for clemency to Zia. There were however worldwide appeals for clemency which Zia rejected.

Bhutto`s vision as well as his methods were controversial even during his time, as he emphasised repeatedly his concern over `polarization` in a 1977 speech. So he was well aware of the controversies surrounding him. However, no one, including his enemies, deny he was the only person after/since MAJ who had effectively mobilized an entire nation.

ZABs judicial murder was the biggest tragedy to befall Pakistan, and the spectre will remain to haunt the collective conscience of this nation for a very long time.