Judicial Murder of a Prime Minister

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2003-daily/29-11-2003/oped/o3.htm

The News, Karachi, Pakistan
Saturday November 29, 2003-- Shawwal 04, 1424 A.H.

This catharsis must happen
By Kamran Shafi
ksha...@yahoo.co.uk

It was delightful seeing Mustafa Khar take the rumoured future federal minister of the Islamic Republic, Ijazul (Baby Zia) Haq (as in Baby Doc son of the quite horrid and unlamented Papa Doc Duvalier of Haiti) apart on one of these new TV channels. The subject of the discussion was the trial and hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. .....

..... Mustafa Khar was absolutely right when he said that the thing for Ijazul Haq to do was to say what had happened had happened, that he had no part in any of his father`s actions, that we must forgive and forget and move on. But do you think the Punjab-led Establishment`s children are willing to give even an inch when it comes to a Sindhi who made himself the most popular leader in the country? While Khar, by far the older of the two was unfailingly polite and courteous, Haq was rude and insolent from the very start, his impudence increasing by the minute, until Khar too took off the gloves and said loudly and for the whole world to hear what many millions of Pakistanis have known for all these years that have passed since the judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a murder that till today, a quarter century later, rouses such passions among the majority of the people of the country.

Yes, the catharsis such as the one that has started to happen must happen. The young people of today must be told of the shoddiness and illegality and downright cruelty in which an elected leader was hanged by a military dictator in a well-thought out operation: to have him convicted by judges of a High Court who were openly inimical to him, specially the Chief Justice Maulvi Mushtaq; to then contrive to bring about changes in the Supreme Court through the most blatant chicanery so that the majority of the bench would consist of Punjabis; and then to murder him even though the verdict of the Supreme Court was four for hanging and three for outright acquittal. It is important for our children to know that the four judges who condemned Bhutto were Punjabis and the three who acquitted him were non-Punjabis. It is important for them to know that never has a death sentence been carried out where there was a split verdict, let alone one with the narrowest possible majority such as in this case. This is most critical, so that our succeeding generations (if what remains of Pakistan survives this latest onslaught by self-same Establishment, mark) are aware that deep provincial divides can occur when the majority province becomes a handmaiden to the completely venal Establishment of the Land of the Pure.

Anyway, let me recount the important parts of the TV confrontation. The first was when Ijaz said that Papa Zia had warned Bhutto a month or so before the coup to ``clean up his act`` or else. Khar immediately said that Zia was a coward of the first water and could never have told Bhutto off, and as an illustration told of the time about a month before Zia`s coup when a dinner was hosted by the Prime Minister for the cabinet and certain other senior officials, Army Chief Ziaul Haq included, who attended in uniform. They were all waiting for the Prime Minister when the ADC announced Bhutto`s arrival. According to Khar (and he swore that what he was saying was nothing but the truth), as Bhutto approached Zia to greet him he noticed that Zia who was a chain smoker at the time, had put his lighted cigarette into his uniform jacket`s pocket to hide it from Bhutto. Bhutto is reported by Khar to have said: ``General take that cigarette out — it will burn your jacket``!

The second (and most poignant) was when the compere asked what Khar thought of the way in which Zia met his Maker. Quite rightly, and in most gentlemanly fashion he said he was not going to speak against the dead, but that it was divine retribution that Zia, who did not let Bhutto`s wife and daughter attend his funeral and pay their last respects to their loved one — what in the sub-continent is called ‘seeing the face` was himself blown to smithereens so that no one could see his face either.

The third and most entertaining was when Ijaz said Khar was used to eating ‘haram` ie, that he was corrupt. The long and the short of that exchange was that Khar said his father left his family 1400 squares of land while Zia`s father was a Maulvi who didn`t own one inch, yet that Ijaz was one of Pakistan`s richest men today. The interesting part was that while Ijaz kept insisting that his family owned no property even today (!) his solid gold Rolex glinted away on his wrist! What, pray, did I say about the IQ of the Establishment`s children just heretofore! .....

September 18, 2000
The World Sindhi Institute (WSI)
605 G Street, SW
Washington, DC 20024

JUSTICE FOR 1971 GENOCIDE VICTIMS OF BANGLADESH

The World Sindhi Institute welcomes Bangladeshi Premier Hasina Wajed`s recent demand for justice for the millions of victims of Pakistani atrocities in1971. We would like to express our solidarity with the Bangladeshi people and we protest the insensitive remarks made by Pakistan`s military dictator suggesting that the crimes are too old to be addressed today. Such crimes against humanity are never too old to prosecute and even less so when victims continue to struggle with the consequences, and the culprits go on living, often in luxury, even more often as honorable people. Not only should the criminals be brought to justice, but also their victims should have an opportunity to face them in an impartial court of law. Pakistan must also apologize on behalf of those citizens who supported the atrocities, actively or otherwise, and on behalf of successive governments that have lied to a whole generation of Pakistan`s citizens about the events surrounding Bangladeshi independence. Perpetrators of this genocide are also answerable to the Pakistani masses in whose name they committed these atrocities, and to whom they brought the humiliation of an enormous military defeat.

Beyond its intrinsic value, justice for victims of the Bangladeshi war of independence will also force Pakistan`s racist military junta, which has a history of committing atrocities against its own citizens, be they the Bangalis in 1971, or the Balochs and Sindhis since, and proudly hailing each adventure as a victory for the Islamic nation, to face the shamefulness of their actions, and just possibly, not repeat them in the future.

WSI appeals to all the democratic nations of the world to bring to trial all war criminals of the 1971 military junta, including General A.M. Yahya Khan (posthumously), General Abdul Hamid Khan, Lt. General Gul Hassan Khan, Lt. General Tikka Khan, Lt. General A.O. Mitha, Lt. General A.A.K. Niazi, Major General Rao Farman Ali Khan, Major General Khadim Hussain Raja and Brigadier Z.A. Khan, for their heinous crimes against humanity.

For more information on the World Sindhi Institute, please contact Munawar Laghari at 202.484.0134 or email at w...@worldsindhi.org

Maqbool K. Aliani
General Secretary
The World Sindhi Institute

In 1971, ZAB was as much a war criminal as the military top brass. In fact, perhaps more!

It was Qaid-e-Awam Z.A. Bhutto who had ordered the suppression of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report. And quite understandably so. Self-preservation, more than his loyalty toward fellow conspirators, drove him to suppress the Report.

It was quite in keeping with Bhutto`s successful mission to scuttle the war-crime trials. He took advantage of cold war politics to ensure American and Chinese opposition to the war crime trials. He was able to convince many an OPEC country that Liberation of Bangladesh was a blow against Islam to ensure its opposition to the war crime trials.

But Bhutto`s trump card was his naked blackmailing. All Bengali soldiers and officials stranded in West Pakistan after 16th December, 1971 were held hostage. Bhutto publicly declared that any war crime trials will be answered by hauling the stranded Bengalis to military courts on charges of treason. In the face of such blackmail, Bangladesh didn`t really have any other option but to stop insisting on war crime trials.


Bhutto`s contempt from the Bengalis came through quite strongly and clearly when an infamous war criminal llike General Tikka Khan was entrusted with pivotal jobs not only in the Bhutto administration but even in Bhutto`s party, the PPP.

The Generals could never have dared to commit the crimes in East Pakistan if they hadn`t been assured of political support by Bhutto. ZAB cannot escape his responsibility for the mass murders even if he didn`t personally pull the trigger on any East Pakistani.

Qaid-e-Awam Bhutto does owe major responsibility not only for the genocide in East Pakistan but also for the fact that the military is continuing to rule the roost in Pakistan and that a particular province has managed to alienate every other province of the country.

He cannot evade responsibility because he had the talents to be truly the Qaid-e-Awam. But arrogance, opportunism and most of all, ambition, turned him in the wrong direction right from the time he was ushered into the corridors of power by Generals Iskandar Mirza and Ayub Khan.

By being more of a Sindhi, he could have helped Pakistan to evove into a federal democracy. But early on he decided to court the diehard chauvinists and the shrill advocates of centralization in his bid to reach the pinnacle of power. He chose, with deliberation, the constituency he wanted to cultivate. It was his personal ambition, and not the good of the nation, that dictated his choice. It was truly sad because Bhutto did have the talents to know what was right and what was not. And yet he made the wrong choice.

It was Bhutto who promised his constituency a thousand year war with India. It was he who declared that ``Punjab is the bastion of power`` when Awami League won an absolute majority in the National Assembly.

It was Bhutto who threatened all non-PPP members of the National Assembly from West Pakistan that he`ll break their legs if they dared to go to Dhaka to attend the Assembly when it convened.

It was Bhutto who made common cause with the Generals by arguing that Awami League would allocate vastly less funds for the army firstly because it wasn`t willing to fund a military confrontation with India and more importantly because the Awami League regarded the army as a West Pakistani institution and had advocated alternate arrangements for national defence under the 6-point program.

Bhutto was so arrogant and so egotistical that he found it demeaning to accept Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as his Prime Minister even though the PPP had won only a quarter of the seats of the National Assembly.

It was Bhutto who egged the Generals on to their genocidal campaign in Bangladesh that cost the lives of 3 million Bengalis.

What is worse, when the genocide was launched, Bhutto came back from Dhaka on 26th March, 1971 to exult, ``Thank Allah, Pakistan has been saved.`` In fact, in the midst of the genocidal campaign, Bhutto had even negotiated with the military with his proposal to expel all Awami League members of the Assembly and to hold bye-elections under ``conditions`` that would enable the PPP to claim majority in the National Assembly.

Yes, Bhutto was willing to go to any length to eliminate Mujibur Rahman from contention for Pakistan`s Prime Ministership.

Bhutto was willing to conspire with the army to that end.

He was willing to sacrifice the lives of millions of Bengalis in his zeal to grab power after coming off second best in the elections.

Bhutto rode a tiger to power. But inevitably the tiger devoured him in the end. Bhutto`s ``If I am Assassinated`` is a poignant admission of his follies. But by then it was too late. It is indeed ironic that he ascended the gallows for a murder that he may not have committed instead of for the 3 million murders in 1971 for which he was directly responsible.

Qaid-e-Awam ZAB is the man who thought he was so much superior to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that it would be beneath his dignity to accept Awami League`s electoral victory. ZAB threatened to break the leg of any non-PPP West Pakistani elected member of the National Assemly that dared to attend the Assembly. Bhutto showed his contempt for Bengalis by declaring, ``Punjab is the bastion of power.`` He did everything he could to scuttle the convening of the National Assembly because his PPP held only a quarter of the seats in it.

He enlisted the military to further his own ambition. And after egging Yahya Khan to launch a genocidal campaign in East Pakistan, Bhutto exulted to reporters on 26th March, 1971(after coming back from Dhaka) with, ``Thank Allah. Pakistan has been saved.``

Bhutto was certainly a talented man. He could have done much for the country. Unfortunately, his arrogance and ambition had always stood on the way. He had tried to coopt the military ever since he was ushered into the corridors of power by Iskandar Mirza and Ayub Khan. It was he who had promised a thousand year old war with India. And it was he who made common cause with the army generals against East Pakistan.

In the end, it was truly ironic that he got hanged for a murder he may not have committed rather than for the 3 million murders in East Pakistan that he had instigated. And it was no less ironic that he got hanged for murder by the very military he had once egged on to murder 3 million civilians in East Pakistan.

Bhutto`s tragedy is that he was never able to make a break with his past. He had been ushered into the corridors of power by Generals Iskandar Mirza and Ayub Khan. He had acted as the voice of the Generals who had a vested interest to perpetuate
confrontation with India. ZAB played to this constituency when he promised a thousand year war with India. And Bhutto was all for an over centralized Pakistan where the Generals will have the last say over the amount of funding for the military. It was his trump card to make common cause with the generals after coming off second best in the 1970 elections that left him in control of only a quarter of the seats in the National Assembly. Worse still, with parties like NAP willing to cooperate with the Awami League in the National Assembly, Bhutto was afraid he would be marginalized even in West Pakistan.

Yes, it was the Generals like Yahya Khan and Tikka Khan who are directly responsible for the genocide in Bangladesh. But they may have never dared to launch the genocide if Bhutto hadn`t offered them political backing. Only a year earlier, ``Field Marshal`` Ayub Khan had retreated in the face of the people`s fury in both wings of Pakistan. The Generals would have never dared to tinker with the convening of the National Assembly if Bhutto hadn`t encouraged them. The Generals would have never dared to launch their genocidal campaign if they thought Bhutto would be against it. And Bhutto, quite shamelessly, had exulted, ``Thank Allah, Pakistan has been saved,`` on 26th March, 1971 after coming back from Dhaka. The Generals thought they could get away with what they did only because they had been assure of full political support from ZAB.

The Army did kill him eventually. And that is the tragedy. Bhutto thought he was so smart that he could ride to power on a tiger. Of course, he was wrong. And he paid the ultimate price for his folly.

Bhutto wrote ``If I am Assassinated`` while he was on death row. His last testimony is all the more poignant becuase Bhutto acknowledges his follies. But by then it was too late for him. He had applauded the army when it embarked on its genocidal campaign. And it is ironic that the very same military sent him to the gallows at the end.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto paid dearly with his life. But it is ironical that he went to the gallows for a murder that he may not have committed rather than for the 3 million for which he bore direct responsibility. And what is even more ironical is that he was sent to the gallows by the very men who shared, with Bhutto, direct responsibility for the murder of 3 million Bengalis.

Bhutto would have achieved much more if he had acted as a responsible leader of the opposition in the National Assembly in 1971. He could have made a significant difference if he had tried to make demcracy work in Pakistan instead of unleashing the Generals to eliminate Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (and ultimately East Pakistan itself) from playing any role in Pakistan`s public life. Pakistan would have been different if Bhutto were just a little less cynical, just a little less opportunistic and just a little less ruthless and power hungry. He had all the talents to make a difference. The tragedy is that he chose not to.

death for death -- exile for exile......Beware mr. `Progressive Musharraf` -- the Divined Little --Devolutionary Dictator -- you are wearing the same crown of thorns and sitting on the same throne of nails -- good that u haven`t killed any politician -- except the expendable Waziris -- hope you can get off the back of the same Pakistani tiger with the intact derrier.....unlike that Mother of all Dictators ``Marde Momin`` -- Siahulhaque.....

CORRECTION

Zia did not murder Bhutto. The then GHQ did, using the then ``superior judiciary`` as a tool.

Siddiqua Haqnawaa

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

EVERY GENERAL`S ZULFIQAR - TILL THE GALLOWS DID THEY PART!!

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm

DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan
25 April 2004 Sunday 04 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

Keeping the record straight
By Ardeshir Cowasjee

---

[Qaid-e-Awam Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as prime minister in August 1976 to his foreign minister, Aziz Ahmed, his cabinet secretary and his army chief of staff]

``I will tell you how Ayub Khan became a field marshal. When he promoted Lt Gen. Mohammad Musa to the rank of general and made him commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army, he told me in Nathiagali in 1959 that he was worried over the quarrel between General Musa and General Habibullah. He told me that he was worried about Habibullah`s intrigues and ambitions. He asked me for my advice on how to place himself head and shoulders above their squabbles. I told him that one way of doing it was to show complete impartiality, fairness and justice, and I made the other suggestion rather cynically. I told him that since it was essential for him to be head and shoulders above the others it would be better if he elevated his own rank from that of general to that of field marshal. He thought it to be a brilliant idea. He was simply overjoyed but as all his reflexes were influenced by monetary consideration, much to my surprise he said, `The idea is brilliant, it will create stability but we will have to persuade Mr Shoaib, the finance minister, to agree to the financial aspects of the proposal.` Of course, Mr Shoaib agreed. Ayub Khan became field marshal in October 1959. At that time I was leading the Pakistan delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The formalities were completed in my absence. The cabinet willingly agreed to the proposal. All members of the cabinet, except Moulvi Ibrahim, the then law minister, agreed. I was informed that Mr Manzoor Qadir tried to give the impression of not being wholly in agreement but that was only for the sake of showing his convenient integrity. After the decision was taken at Karachi, Ayub Khan told his military secretary to phone me in New York and to thank me for making such a sound suggestion. I am therefore the hero of Ayub Khan`s valorous battles. Of course, the object of this note is not to dismantle the man. Some of us can still refer to him with respect. I am only setting the record straight.``

---

It is no surprise that Qaid-e-Awam Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had been just as obliging to General Iskandar Mirza six months before ``Field Marshal`` Ayub Khan launched his ``October Revolution`` in 1958:

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm

DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan
25 April 2004 Sunday 04 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

Keeping the record straight
By Ardeshir Cowasjee

[From a letter sent to President Major-General Iskander Mirza by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in April 1958, from Geneva, where he was leading the Pakistan delegation to the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea]

..... ``I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you of my imperishable and devoted loyalty to you. Exactly four months before the death of my late father, he had advised me to remain steadfastly loyal to you, as you were `not an individual but an institution`. For the greater good of my own country, I feel that your services to Pakistan are indispensable. When the history of our country is written by objective historians, your name will be placed even before that of Mr Jinnah. Sir, I say this because I mean it and not because you are the president of my country.`` .....

---

Qaid-e-Awam Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was too clever by half. He thought he could use the military to advance his ambition without having to pay for the ``privilege.``

He did manage to become the supreme leader of a truncated Pakistan by spurning the opportunity to be the leader of the opposition in the Natiomnal Assembly of a united and democratic Pakistan. He couldn`t have failed to realize his mistake as he stood on the gallows waiting for the trap door to open.

The Qaid-e-Awam betrayed the people who had put so much trust in him. ZAB was the first Pakistani leader to mouth the primacy of the concern for roti, kapra, makan in the life of ordinary citizens. He had the talents to be a great leader and do a lot for dispossessed. Alas, his ambition led him astray.

He sabotaged democracy on his way to power and ultimately paid the price for his Faustian contract with the army Generals. The poor in Pakistan had the right to expect a lot from the ``Qaid-e-Awam.`` It is a pity that blind ambition led him to betray that trust.

according to a high-ranking government official who related the story to my mother, bhutto was already dead before he was hung on the gallows. it sounds like what the writer described in the first couple of paragraphs confirms this.

i don`t recall justice maulvi mushtaq hussein being chief justice of the lahore high court. was he appointed after the former chief justice aslam riaz hussain was made interim governor of the punjab?

Bhutto -- Allah bakhshay! -- was the greatest politician our part of the world has had since Independence (Qaid i Azam excluded). and his death was a tragedy for Pakistan which we have never recovered from. I became a fan of his after reading Wolpert`s biography of him. But I have read a number of biographies/books about him and his era and my view of him is still favourable.

I believe that he was killed on the order of the USA , and explicitly Kissinger who had threatened to make `an example` of him if he did not stop Pakistan`s then fledgling nuclear weapons program. The real architect of Pakistan`s bomb was ZAB. He also understood realpolitik and was trying to develop a third world power bloc before his assasination; he even thought of cutting pakistan away from USA`s apron strings and having a neutral foreign policy with feelers towards the USSR ; he even visited Moscow a short while before he died to discuss defence relations if i am correct. All of this was too much for USA and they used Zia and an old murder charge plus a biased bench of judges to unjustly convict him and have him murdered.

#12 by ana

*****
according to a high-ranking government official who related the story to my mother, bhutto was already dead before he was hung on the gallows.
*****

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/20040124.htm

DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan
24 January 2004 Saturday 01 Zilhaj 1424

Switching channels
By Irfan Husain

..... A few weeks ago, a London-based Urdu channel had Mustafa Khar tell us about Bhutto`s last torments at the hands of his army gaolers. Then he took on Ijazul Haq, Zia`s son, who was also present in the studio, and asked him to identify the source of his healthy bank balance, alleging that the late dictator had lined his pockets during his baneful stint. .....

I, for one, do not deem it fair to hold Bhutto resposible in any way for the debacle of East Pakistan. His greatest sin in the eyes of his `murderers` was the creation of the FSF which was intended to be a counterpoise to the army. The civil armed force which was under the direct command of Bhutto was going to be equiped with arms that could checkmate the armie`s attempt at any coup in future. Mind it, it was the first target of the army after take over in 1977.

I wonder nobody mentioned the real sins of Bhuto against the people, humanity and civilization - these were in my view the subversion of the constitution by converting it into a `Fatwa`, declaring certain citizens of Pakistan as non-Muslim, resulting ultimately in making the faith and the national identity of all the citizens of Pakistan calling them as muslims questionable.

His introduction of national registration scheme was no less a sin which we are now facing in the shape of NADRA`s Nadarshahi.

For all that he paid a `Kuffara`. May God bless him. He, nevertheless, proved to be `great` despite all those sins.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts