Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto: 25 Years After Death He Continues to Talk to Pakistan
By
Muhammad-Najm Akbar
PRIDE
WAS Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s most enticing indulgence as long
he lived. It was also his last temptation as he proudly dared
his opponents that the “Chair” he held in the name
of the people of Pakistan was stronger than them. In the end,
he lost.
The
‘Chair” collapsed sooner than he would have anticipated
or apprehended. Power slipped through his fingers and then left
fatal marks on his neck as he proudly gave his life on an April
morning.
A
versatile genius, the sources of his pride were, however, not
limited to his “Chair” alone. The most ingenious wellspring
of his pride was anchored in his unshakeable belief in the most
enduring relationship with a large cross section of the people
of Pakistan in adversity or in power.
Hence the other challenge he had thrown to his adversaries: well,
you might toss me out of power but cannot take my place in the
hearts and souls of the people of Pakistan in their dusty villages
and mud-houses. He lost the power game but his adversaries continue
to face a tough battle with his ghost on the dirt roads of Pakistan.
The question after a quarter century
is what is the legacy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto? What makes him defy
his death? These could be two most controversial and humbling
questions. His antagonists, nonetheless, are at a clear disadvantage
in this controversial debate, as “death the leveler”
has deprived them of several barbed points: In his life after
death he cannot be accused of arrogance, vengefulness, or indifference.
His persona does not evoke fears any more.
For
himself, in a patriarchal, chauvinistic society, Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto has lost both his male heirs in mysterious circumstances.
His younger son died unattended in a foreign land with his wife
indicted in absentia for non-assistance to a person in danger.
His elder son was brutally murdered in front of his late father’s
home while his eldest daughter ruled the country and his son-in-law
has been behind the bars since then as the principal accused.
With both his daughters living abroad, his most personal representative
in the country is his foreign-born, widowed, daughter-in-law,
estranged from the rest of the family whom he had never seen in
his life. His first wife is dead and the second spouse debilitated
by a serious disease. Unlike him, his progeny have attracted serious
charges of corruption and inefficiency.
For politics, the state apparatus
has reverted back to its longtime owners. The FSF stands disbanded.
The “Establishment” has managed to overthrow two genuinely
elected governments of his daughter.
The Bhutto juggernaut thus can no
longer draw allegations of super-size ego, unlimited, Machiavellian
ambition for power, feudal vendetta or unpatriotic conspiracies
to usurp governmental authority and hang onto it by hook or crook.
Every
4th of April tells a different story as Garhi Khuda Bux and Larkana
wear a solemn look to mourn and remember once again their most
distinguished son of the soil. People from all over the country
come together to honor the most cherished voice of their aspirations,
architect of the “new” Pakistan, author of the 1973
constitution, hands-on governance, affirmation of national dignity,
relentless effort for national renaissance and international prestige
and techno-scientific prowess.
Shorn
of all capacity to be an evil genius, it is time to redefine Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto’s legacy for Pakistan and its people.
His
biggest contribution would be the conception of most intimate
and irrevocable equation between the power and the people of Pakistan.
He was the sole inventor of this symbiotic link. The people, he
told them, were the fountainhead of all power.
His
daughter rose to office twice on the strength of this link but
failed to either reinforce it or raise its stature. The people
were the key element, defining principle, and ultimate expression
of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s political journey. They had been
everywhere in his life since the inception of PPP in 1967 and
before that he had been preparing himself to assume and celebrate
that role in their lives.
His
life was a permanent dialogue with the hearts and souls of the
people of Pakistan as nobody else cared so much to look into their
eyes, hear their voices in direct feedback and resonance and act
to retain that rhythm. He would speak to them on all kinds of
issues, difficult and easy, internal and external and during his
trial, temporal and spiritual.
This
conversation never ended and nobody has been able to pick up its
threads afterwards. In large meetings, in personal contacts and
indirect communications, he spoke to their hearts and minds with
an unparalleled command over their dreams, hopes, aspirations,
concerns, problems and difficulties. He would suggest solutions,
often called populist but problems would not exhaust his capacity
to act.
Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto led the most proactive government in our recent history,
brimming with new ideas and resolve to reach out to different
segments of society and address complex issues.
Does
he continue to speak to the people of Pakistan? Apparently, yes,
if you judge by the machinations to muzzle his voice. I apprehend,
however, that he will speak to them no more if his organization
fails to live up to his stature and turn the everlasting marks
of grief on their soul into a source of strength for the prosperity
of the country.
We
do not do much to preserve our national history. Our leaders benefit
neither from US model presidential libraries nor the audio-visual
talent of Hollywood to transform their lives into life-like images.
PPP has been the most wonderful political
movement in this country. Its impregnable electorate of 37-40
percent showed first signs of fatigue and resentment in the elections
of February 1997 when a vast majority of them decided to stay
home with abstentions drastically bringing down the PPP share
of national vote. Its leadership, however, has failed to revive
their spirits and the atmosphere of 2002 was hardly helpful to
improve this downward trend. It took PPP leadership over a year
to expel the defectors who formed PPP Patriots and joined the
Central and provincial governments.
Post
1979, PPP lacks its founder’s charisma, dynamism and energy.
The organization could have compensated for some of these missing
elements by its structural strength but no effort has been made
to streamline it at home or abroad where the number of Pakistani
nationals continues to grow.
In
his life after death, controversies about his character and motives
have become irrelevant. It is the vitality of his message that
would keep him alive.
Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto’s quintessential life is that he quit a military
government and sought to overturn it, taking on the established
power structure in the country. The PPP will never be able to
move out of that equation. It must not even try. It has to persist
in its role with a solid organizational structure and continue
its combat for the supremacy of the people’s voice in Pakistan’s
power structure for as long as it takes.
In
the wake of all setbacks, PPP remains the single largest voting
block in the country but its organizational structure fails to
echo the collective talent of its massive following.
Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto’s death anniversaries are the largest gatherings
of its followers but the intellectual outcome of these reunions
is hardly noticeable. There is no effort to mark the milestones
and reassess national development as compared with people’s
expectations.
Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto was the most eloquent spokesperson of the people of
Pakistan. Many of them want to keep his voice alive. If he stops
talking to the country, it would be an irreparable loss but in
order to enable Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to win his battles from his
grave, his troops have to out-maneuver the state-funded efforts
of his adversaries.
Pakistan
faces huge problems. Military governments end up multiplying them
as they widen the gulf between the people and the government.
In
his life, death and life after death, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto embodies
the strongest desire of Pakistan’s people to narrow the
gaps of this nature. His organization must articulate an infinite
determination to realize this legitimate goal.
