Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was born in a prominent landlord family. After completing his education from Oxford he came back to Pakistan with the will for service, initially due to his educational background and vocal strength, President Ayub Khan made him the Foriegn Minister in 1963, later on he lead a populist campaign against the Marshall Law and establish his own political party with the name of PPP (Pakistan Peoples Party).
In the elections of 1970 PPP and Awami league secured most seats with Awami Party emerging as single largest party and were in a position to form the government but due to intervention of President Yahya and ZAB they weren’t able to do so, resulting in a revolt against the state. This was what I believe a big blunder by ZAB because in democracy you have to accept the results and run the country according to the nomination by the people. As Pakistani forces surrendered in 71 war, the cause of the failure was on two people, Yahya and Bhutto. Let me explain why I think so. Gen. Niazi the commander of Pakistani forces in the East Pakistan authored a book (Betrayal of East Pakistan) in which he claimed that he had orders from GHQ to surrender, however Yahya Khan rejected this statement. If Bhutto and Yahya allowed Awami League to form the Government in the centre, I believe Pakistan would have never been split into two parts. During the war he went to UN security council and asked for support from western powers to intervene but no one did so, this shows that Pakistan was very weak on the diplomatic front.
When he became the Prime Minister he made many decisions, some of which were good for Pakistan and some proved to be bad. Like creating the FSF (Federal Security Force) was a para military force directly under the control of interior minister, a portfolio which he kept with himself, which he used to eliminate his political opponents and workers. Many enquiries were opened but using his powers he made sure he wasn’t a man to question.
Another bad decision he made for Pakistan was appointing Gen. Zia as the army chief, for which he surpassed 7 senior Lieutenant Generals to appoint the most junior one, which means not following the merit and sceniority rules. The reason for him to make this decision was that he believed that Gen. Zia was loyal to him. But he didnt think practically what he was doing, as when Gen. Zia was a L.Gen, Bhutto used to call him “Bandar"(Monkey) and used to ask Gen. Tikka Khan who was then army chief that, “(Woh mera bandar kahan ha?) and Gen. Zia would smile and hide his emotions. Once Gen. Zia came to Prime Minister House to meet Bhutto but he was in his bedroom resting, he made Gen. Zia wait for 4 hours and then went to meet him. Gen. Zia offered him a Quran saying that I do Bait on this about my Loyality to you. This happened when he was a L.Gen and Bhutto thought that if he is this loyal to me he is then the most safest one for me. But in the book (My Feudal Lord) by Tehmina Durrani, then wife of Punjab Governor and closest friend of Bhutto, Ghulam Mustafa Khar told Bhutto not to appoint Zia as Army Cheif but Bhutto didnt agree and later paid the price for it.
Another bad decision of Bhutto was the nationalization plan, by which he turned all industrial units under the government, because of which the Free Market Economy collapsed and these industries lost in competition to foriegn companies operating in Pakistan, the banking sector collapsed aswell and many of these industrial units were sold to rich oligarchs, which further burdened the economy as no units were making money.
Now let’s talk about some good decisions Bhutto made in his tenure for Pakistan, he was able to secure investments from Soviets to establish a steel mill in Pakistan which created employment for thousands. This was the biggest steel mill in Pakistan and generated Billions in revenue. A sad part in this story was that during the early 70’s there was a firm with the name of, “Bitara Engineering company for simply knows as (BECO) Company, which at that time was the biggest electrical parts manufacturer in the world. The President of China visited the factory to learn the techniques about the success. The owner of BECO was C.M Latif. When bhutto nationalised the country’s markets, the BECO company also came under government control and within next years it turned from biggest electrical company of the world to a loss making enterprise and was eventually shut down. Bhutto after he reverted the decision of nationalization, he offered the BECO back to C.M Latif but he refused to buy it and left Pakistan and died in small town in Germany, this was how our heroes were treated.
Bhutto made a good decision by giving a new constitution to Pakistan, the 73 constitution was a benchmark in the history of Pakistan and for the first time this constitution mentioned the fundamental rights of people and a 3 pillar system of government, where the Judiciary, legislature and Executive were acting free from collision. This constitution strengthened the federation and gave Pakistan chance to develop its institutions.
To conclude Bhutto was without a doubt the most popular statesman in the history of Pakistan but he made some decisions which made Pakistan suffer on internal and external stages. In my personal opinion I dont see him as a blessing to my country. It was just a bad chapter that went by. I recall some lines from0 the Book, My Feudal lord that once Mustafa Khar asked Bhutto that our education system is suffering as Gov schools offer no quality education for our people. Bhutto replied laughing that, leave this thing man, wese bhe konsa hamara bachon na yahan ka schools ma parhna ha. Everyone in the history , when he is coming to power they act like they can change the country and make it a powerful and developed nation but after coming to power, they forget their instincts and mission due to which we people at the end suffer. Although I accept and respect the sacrifices he and his whole family made for Pakistan. Including him, Benazir Bhutto Murtaza bhutto and workers of PPP.
Good wishes to former Prime Minister and President of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
