ZA
Bhutto with Henry Kissinger and Mrs Bhutto
ZA Bhutto's
Powerful Political Legacy Cannot be Eliminated
By
Wajid Shamsul Hasan
LONDON:
Life in Pakistan has never been the same again following the judicial
murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto by General Ziaul Haq in April 1979.
It could be described as a quarter century of unease, disruption,
dislocation, ethnicity, divisiveness, sectarianism, ongoing trauma
and unending war between the military establishment and the unarmed
people—the former defending its right to rule with the barrel
of the gun and the latter seeking the supremacy of the vote as
the sole and sovereign arbiter of power.
How
long this struggle shall continue is difficult to forecast especially
when it is not only the Pakistani generals who have pitched themselves
against the people of their country. By offering their services
and men in uniform as human condoms in the services of Pax Americana—they
have acquired the unqualified support of the American administration
in the war against their own people besides becoming executioners
of Bush’s grand design "to enhancing uncertainties
abroad".
It
was Pakistan’s first military dictator—Ayub Khan--
who had allowed a foothold to the American soldiers on the Pakistani
soil when Washington was busy in its Cold War with the Soviet
Union. The second military ruler—General Yahya-- lost half
of the country waiting for the American flotilla “Enterprise”
to rescue him.
The
third—General Ziaul Haq—waged the American Jihad in
Afghanistan. He earned for himself and his associates truck loads
of dollars and left heroin and kalashnikov culture as his legacy.
The fourth—General Musharraf—however, has outdone
all of them. He has rendered Pakistan into an American fiefdom—rather
into its largest military base since the entire country lies at
Washington’s feet to serve the master.
This
despicable situation demands a serious reflection on the state
of affairs following the total failure of Islamabad's foreign
policy. Musharraf has come to be everything that the United States
needs to achieve its geopolitical and free-market objectives in
the region.
This
obviously brings us to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his eye-opening
book "Myth of Independence" — a treatise on Pakistan’s
foreign policy that was as relevant in the 60s as it is now. Indeed,
Bhutto's in-depth observations should awaken those opiated minds
who have removed the fig leaf covering Pakistan's myth of independence.
Musharraf
surrendered Pakistan's sovereignty to be infringed by the FBI
agents following 9/11. Taliban, Al-Qaeda and those whom he had
supped and trained to fight his proxy wars were betrayed. While
he has compromised the future of Kashmir, his surrender most foul
than that of East Pakistan - came about when, to save himself
and his generals from sins of omission and commission, he made
a scapegoat of Dr AQ Khan and others who had translated ZAB's
dream nurtured by his blood to make Pakistan a nuclear power.
If Dr AQ Khan had set up a nuclear supermarket, he had done it
as part of the state policy imposed by the successive generals
in power.
There
have been protests over the recent invasion of Pakistan Army in
South Waziristan to please the external masters. A day of national
shame it definitely was when General Musharraf had looked at President
Bush at Camp David and told him proudly in so many words: Pakistan
Army had never put its foot in the Northern Areas. It is for the
first time in our history that our military has been sent there.
I
am sure in the rich solitude of Camp David, President Musharraf
must have over enthusiastically confided to Bush that those tribal
areas were so loyal to Pakistan that Islamabad never felt the
need to send its troops there. Rather, it were these brave tribesmen
who have remained a bulwark against invasion or disruption from
Afghanistan that did not recognize Durand Line and raised the
bogey of Pashtunistan in the past.
Besides,
we owe to the proud Pashtun the area known as Azad Kashmir and
Pakistan's claim to Indian Occupied Kashmir since it was their
physical support to the Kashmiris under attack from Dogra and
Indian troops in 1947 that made Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru to rush to the United Nations to seek a ceasefire and offer
right of self-determination to the people under the auspices of
the UN.
Analysts
claim that President Musharraf's invasion of South Waziristan,
decisive steps towards folding of Pakistan's nuclear program,
giving up Islamabad's traditional stand on plebiscite, besides
of course, his frontline role in Washington's war against terrorism,
have earned for him rich dividends.
The
United States has lifted all its democracy-related restrictions
on the man who was a pariah military dictator prior to 9/11 and
rewarded him the special status of a NATO member without giving
Pakistan membership of NATO. Not only that, an American spokesman
has regretted that imposition of sanctions on Pakistan had harmed
Washington's interests.
People
at large are critical of Pakistani generals and their professional
performance. They accuse them of being castrated when defending
Pakistan against an external enemy. According to them they are
only at home in conquering their own countrymen. Their track record
speaks of "successful" operations in Balochistan, Sindh,
Karachi and now Northern Areas. They have killed more Pakistanis
than the Indian soldiers in all the wars that the two countries
have so far fought.
And
surely many would have faced either firing squads or been still
rotting in Indian or Bangladeshi prisons for committing acts of
genocide against hundreds of thousands of East Pakistanis had
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto surrendered to the demand of Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the international
public opinion to subject what the world media called "Butchers
of East Pakistan" to a war crimes trial.
Despite
the fact that Islamabad has been given a most favored nation status
by the United States and President Musharraf has become highly
value added Pakistani in the eyes of the American administration,
there are firmer indications that he is still considered a suspect.
Only
a man of his skill could have manipulated elections (October 2002)
in such a way that the perpetually rejected Islamic parties could
have emerged as the major power contender. Later events, the adoption
of dictatorial LFO as part of 1973 Constitution and endorsement
of Musharraf both as President and Army Chief, let the cat out
of the bag that MMA was nothing but his "B" team.
Impression
that he is a suspect finds weight in articles in the American
press. Not only that, a big question mark still shrouds future
of Pakistan, a country according to the New York Times' Barry
Bearak, that has become "a great hub of duplicity and a nation
of confounding murkiness."
Observations such as that about Musharraf's Pakistan are definitely
more charitable than the one tagged onto General Yahya Khan when
he was described by the western media as a 'country run by pimps
and prostitutes'. Barry Bearark description of Pakistan "where
every kind of deception, collusion and outright sham are recurring
motifs in the political theatre" is a further manifestation
of the view that Pakistan is a failed state on the verge of becoming
Yugoslavia.
Besides,
Musharraf has inflicted, in collaboration with MMA, a crippling
blow to the 1973 Constitution - a Bhutto gift that has proved
to be a stronger nation unifier than religion. It has opened floodgates
for ominous developments as aired by the leaders of the smaller
provinces who now want a new constitution. Obviously Musharraf's
amendments in 1973 document could lead to much serious consequences
than those of 1971 when only half of the country was lost and
we had a towering leader like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to pick up the
pieces.
Bhutto
had crash-landed in Pakistan’s politics in 1958 as the youngest
minister in the government of Ayub Khan. He was all together a
different person in a cabinet that had generals and senior bureaucrats
who had been in cahoots with each other to put their claim to
power as the legal heirs to the British Raj. As opposed to them
Bhutto was driven by his romance with democracy and freedom for
the people as envisaged by his leader Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali
Jinnah. Having found a place for himself on a platform that was
not favorable to politicians, Bhutto chartered himself on a course
that would give a new sense of direction to the country and a
fresh meaning to politics.
In
no time Bhutto had made a tremendous impact all around. As Minister
for Fuel and Power, he had diverse explorers tapping into Pakistan’s
underground hidden energy resources. For the first time Russians
were involved in oil and gas exploration. His time as Minister
for Science and Technology was well spent. He could measure the
advancements made by India in the atomic field.
He
gave a proper sense of direction to the Pakistan Atomic Energy
Commission, set it on the mission to have a sound infrastructure
and to educate and train a whole army of nuclear scientists and
engineers. It was he who had convinced Ayub to seek enriched uranium
course for acquiring nuclear wherewithal. Had not the American
lobby in the government subverted his scheme of things, Pakistan
would have acquired the nuclear capability much before India tested
its atomic bomb in 1974.
Bhutto
was known for an extra-ordinary penchant for international politics.
And when he joined the government in 1958, the situation Pakistan
found itself was such that every decision of any importance, even
regarding matters that ought to have been purely of internal concern,
was affected by some aspect, real or imaginary, of international
relations especially of commitment to the US.
Pakistan
at that time—as now-- had become a collaborator in the American
grand design to the extent that in 1961 President Ayub Khan had
proudly claimed that it was the only country 'East of Suez' where
American forces could land at any moment for the 'defence of the
free world'. Ayub had also stretched his loyalty to the US beyond
national interests when he offered to India joint defence against
what he called common enemy from the north. This gesture was made
during Sino-Indian conflict and it coincided when Chinese Premier
Zhou En-Lai had proffered Kashmir on a plate to Pakistan.
From
his death cell he wrote to his "dearest daughter" Benazir
Bhutto, "There is personal bitterness no doubt [against Zia
regime] but the impersonal hurt predominates over my personal
feelings. These [ruling] individuals have taken Pakistan back
to 1947. In the process they have robbed the nation of the high
ideals and spirit of fraternity the people shared and demonstrated
in 1947". He reflects further in the letter: "It is
worst than saying we are back to square one or that we are right
back to where we started from. Nations do not fall back to square
one, nations progress or they deteriorate explosively or decompose
silently".
Bhutto
had believed that the country's sound defence was dependent on
a solid industrial base. Pakistan owes not only its nuclear arsenal
- now inching towards a fold up - to Bhutto but to him goes the
credit of establishing Pakistan Steel Mills, aeronautical and
heavy machine tool complexes, shipyard, Karachi Nuclear Power
Plant and its automobile industry. His daughter Benazir Bhutto
picked up from where her father had left and the combined efforts
of the two made Pakistan cover a long way in becoming self-sufficient
in missile technology and arms manufacturing including exports.
For
Pakistan Bhutto was the harbinger of colossal changes. He harnessed
socio-economic forces for challenging the status quo, unshackling
the masses and their empowerment. His sense of direction not only
gave him the strength but also a popular support to consolidate
the edifice of the state on an egalitarian program seeking for
his people roti, kapra and makkan. Besides, he awakened
the masses, making them realised they were the legitimate fountainhead
of political power. He deeply cherished democracy and viewed military
rule as a negation of the very genesis of the country that came
into being as a result of a democratic process and a vote.
Bhutto
had believed that the army could only protect its professional
competence as an institution by keeping out of politics. He said
clearly: "The Pakistan Armed Forces cannot afford a moment's
deviation from their real responsibility. For the sake of Pakistan's
integrity, they simply cannot afford to get involved or absorbed
in the political life of the country. Those soldiers who leave
barracks and move into Government mansions lose wars and become
prisoners of war as happened in 1971."
Bhutto
had established Pakistan People's Party to serve democracy and
for the empowerment of the masses to the grass-root level. Not
only PPP catapulted him into power, it has remained his richest
legacy to the democratic polity of Pakistan. Even to this day,
despite all pressures, PPP workers are standing by Benazir Bhutto
and have showed their commitment to her father's legacy by casting
largest number of votes in the overly rigged elections in October
2002.
There have been some gunpoint defections from the party - part
of ongoing conspiracy by the generals to destroy the only populist
threat to their hold on power. It should not deter either the
leadership or the supporters of PPP. Bhutto had showed them the
way. According to him, it is the cause that make people great.
They are heir to one of the most powerful political legacies in
sub-continental politics that cannot be eliminated by any tin
pot general or his team of sunshine politicians.
The
writer is a former Pakistan High Commissioner to UK and a close
aide of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He is based in London.This
article was written on Bhutto's 25th death anniversary falling
on April 4, 2004
