A Diamond in a Coal Mine: The Story of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
This article aims to highlight the political life of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and shun discussing his personal career. The sole reason for this is that the world identifies him as a politician as well as a noble statesman.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, commonly known as Bhutto, was a Pakistani Politician, who formed his own party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in 1967 and contested the 1970 elections. His party experienced a considerable triumph in it and later he took charge as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
At that time, the maiden compromise, with respect to elections, amid the two wings of Pakistan, had taken place and the East wing had been a part of the electoral process. The West wing, from where the whole of Pakistan was ruled, had first time agreed to allocate a major proportion of the seats to the other wing.
Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, who was the Head of Awami League, the chief party which contested elections from the East wing, presented such a magical six points, that the people of the eastern wing, who felt that they have been treated as underdogs since Pakistan’s creation, created history and helped Awami League win a mammoth triumph, with 160 of 162 seats in hand. This proved to be jaw-dropping for the entire of Pakistan, as now this unanticipated victory could bring the whole of Pakistan, under Mujeeb’s rule
The West Pakistanis, who loathed the foremost aftermath of the unprecedented event, toiled as to evade being ruled by the so-called incompetent Bengalis and preferred the dissection of Pakistan. It would be prejudicial to blame the entire west Pakistan for the division, but some leaders therein, who presided the catastrophe, stand guilty of the crime. Yahya Khan and Ayub Khan were responsible. The former was the president during the breakup and the latter is mentioned in the book of Justice Munir Ahmad, “From Jinnah To Zia”, stating that, ‘When I joined Ayub’s cabinet for a short time, I found that no constructive work was being done by the assembly. Every day was spent in listening to the long speeches of East Pakistan, members of the exploitation of East Pakistan and the step-motherly treatment of that province. Ayub used to listen to these speeches on the radio and was bored with what was happening as none of the ministers or members of Assembly, whether from East Pakistan or West Pakistan, rose to rebut these allegations. I spoke to Ayub and suggested that there could be no fusion between the two provinces and asked him whether it would not be better that instead of putting up this nonsense, to ask East Pakistan to take their affairs in their own hands. He suggested to m that I should talk about it ti some influential leader in East Pakistan.One day, I was talking to Mr. Ramizuddin who had been a minister of Bengal or East Pakistan, I broached the matter to him. His reply was prompt and straight. He asked me whether I was suggesting secession. I said yes or something like it as a confederation or more autonomy. He said, “look, here we are the majority province and it is for the minority province to secede because we are Pakistan”’
It would seem bewildering that the mention of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has been skipped here, but indeed the truth is rare. It is no greater than an allegation against him, as during the fall of Dhaka, the final decision taker was Yahya Khan, not Bhutto and Ayub Khan’s statement in his tome confirms that it was a pre-planned conspiracy and therefore inevitable. It is the so called biased historians who declare Bhutto’s involvement in the separation of East Pakistan, not the history.
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