Leader with dust on boots
AS a young school going lad in the early seventies, I have memories of those glorious days that were abound with surging hope and great expectations.
The memories are still fresh of the hedonistic Flower Power, breakdown of old social mores and of course of the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) and his political ideology.
He had laid before us a promise of social and political revolution, an epoch of times. The man behind this show was the indomitable and charismatic ZAB, who perhaps is the most popular, dynamic and controversial leader, Pakistan has ever produced.
He indisputably was a great orator who could mesmerize or arouse the masses to a frenzy, and undoubtedly a great diplomat who negotiated for Pakistan, which it could not ordinarily get, as a small country. A die-hard Pakistani, ZAB was, his patriotism can never be doubted.
In any analysis of Mr. Bhutto’s personality, the verdict will invariably be extreme – adored and loved or hated and disliked.
There is no middle road for any analyst – a die-hard fan or a vitriolic critic. He is to date an enigma.
ZAB took charge of the wheels of the state during days of immense grief and vast hollowness, the year was 1971, we (youth) heard his call, who appeared as our only hope, and said in his inaugural address to the nation, “We will pick up the pieces; we will rebuild, we will create a ‘new Pakistan’; we will steer the ship of the state to the waters of safety’.
Here was a political messiah offering a better tomorrow. The youth loved him; adored him and were willing to do anything for him.
That was ZAB’s Charisma. ZAB to my generation, who were in the very first years of teenage, was no less than a saviour, a beacon of unflinching endurance, who lit a thousand flames of hope.
“My Blood is the blood of Pakistan. I am part of its dust, a part of its aroma. The tears of its people are my tears. A smile on their beautiful faces is a part of my smile . . . . my destiny is in the hands of the people.
Only the people have the right to sever or seal their affinities with me”. These are the words of the man who gave Pakistan a socialist stance and a secular identity. A man whose unrelenting nerve and iron revolution opened the formidable gates of independent nuclear capability.
He is the one who identified and brought Dr. Abbdul Qadeer Khan (Mohsin-e-Pakistan), who delivered on ZAB’s promise of “we will eat grass, but build the Bomb”. He is the same man to whom Kissinger vehemently said, “ we will make an example of you”. That was done too, to the misfortune of the nation.
None can deny that Bhutto worked very hard to resurrect the dying spirit of the nation, inclusive of the then demoralized defence forces. He travelled through the length and breath of the country explaining in simple language his political manifesto and economic ideology.
Again, undeniably in our history he is possibly the only leader who had dust on his boots. He was loved from Karachi to Khyber. He was a hyper- kinetic and mobile leader, who was both a “man and a movement”.
ZAB’s greatest weakness was perhaps his completely autocratic leadership and decision making style which eventually alienated several founding fathers of his political party and paved the way for his debacle.
His style of governance, on many occasions, was repulsive to the institution of democracy. His less than visionary economic policies have had negative pay-off. He completely overlooked the importance of private enterprise and in doing so, he paralyzed the growth of the economy.
The nationalization of key industries, done with good faith backfired. Not all was bad intent. Banks were nationalized, not criminalized as we saw in later years, (Zia’s era) happen; with political loaning and political appointments.
To Bhutto’s credit, he did not promote corruption in the finance industry; all appointments to the five major banks were of highly qualified professional bankers. The rot in the banking industry set primarily during the 1980’s and 1990’s.
A foreign policy architect and maker. ZAB had Richard Nixon to say this, upon his (ZAB’s) arrival in Washington. “The integrity and Independence of Pakistan is a cornerstone of America’s foreign policy”. His personal diplomacy was always at its best.
Mao Zedong the great helmsman of China had stopped receiving foreign dignitaries for many months owing to ill health; and a few weeks before his death, made an exception to meet met Z.A Bhutto. He was also the last foreign dignitary that chou en lai received.
In 1973, he jolted the Muslim Ummah from their slumber by hosting an Islamic Summit (OIC) that had a record representation. He enjoyed close personal links with the leadership in the Middle East and North America. With King Faisal of Saudi Arabia he had a special bonding.
In fact, after Naser of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia and Nehru of India, he was seen as the natural leader of a third world country. He at various international forums spoke of solidarity with the Third World countries. A position that the first and second world leaders were skeptical of ZAB’s wearing that mantle.
Z A Bhutto was a leader of Pakistan; his following was across Pakistan. He was more popular in Punjab than in Sindh. He represented the downtrodden and the oppressed of the country. He was a Federal leader and not a provincial person.
Z A Bhutto never indulged in politics of parochialism or bigotry of linguistics. He never used the Sindh Card, a true patriot, a Pakistani and nothing less. Historians have called his hanging to death as judicial murder. A man of steel, he went to the gallows, chin up.
A brave leader. His political party now reduced to Sindh province must return to his ideals for the greater good of Pakistan. Bhutto’s legacy will either haunt or live, it cannot be obliterated.
—The writer is a contributing columnist, based in Karachi.
