Zulfikar Ali Bhutto would have turned 94 this year if his life had not been decisively and irrevocably snuffed out of him. After 42 years of his death, there is still a question mark on the transparency and fairness of the trial in which he got the death sentence from Lahore High Court and that decision was upheld by the apex court of the country. That trial now has been widely recognized as judicial murder. If we had learnt from that trial and the tragic death of Mr. Bhutto his family would not have met the same fate.
But only we can feel as a nation that what we had lost on 4 April 1979 it would be wrong to call Bhutto only a political leader; he was an intellectual, with marvelous command over international law and international affairs of his time, besides that he was perhaps one of the greatest diplomats Pakistan has ever had
Bhutto was an internationally recognized political leader who took efforts for rebuilding Pakistan after the tragedy of the Dakkah Fall. It was just because of his intellectual brilliance and Political Insight that Pakistan crawled back on the path of development.
Bhutto,s grasp over international law and international affairs of his time can be gauged from his books Myth of independence and peacekeeping by UNO in those books he had formulated the ways of ruling a newly formed country and the actual essence of independence.
As a leader of an underdeveloped country, he was never satisfied with the role of UNO in maintaining peace across the world. In his book “peacekeeping by UNO ” Bhutto had contended that the organization was formed to appease those forces which anticipated to rule over this world. And the doctrine of veto power had proved Bhutto right.
His speech after the Indo-Pak war of 1965 in the UN Security Council over the Kashmir issue manifested his stance over Kashmir. He also vowed to continue his struggle for Kashmir in that speech. After India had launched an attack on Pakistan in 1971 he led the Pakistans delegation to the Security Council and apprised the world of Indian aggression he urged the security council and the member countries to play their part in ceasefire and reconciliation. But here again, Bhutto proved himself right.
The motive of Bhutto behind the formation of OIC {Organization of Islamic Countries} was to unite Muslim countries and make them a force. The way it is working today is contradictory to its true objective. The visionary leader was also the pioneer of the Pak-China tie-in, he believed that China would guarantee Pakistan,s prosperity and will extend its assistance in hard times
The credit for inaugurating democracy in Pakistan goes to Mr. Bhutto who made people realize their importance in forming the government. He told them that they were the headstream of power in the country and no ruler can rule them without their will. His charismatic personality attracted the masses and made him the most illustrious politician of the country after Quaid-e-Azam. But on the other hand, his political blunders projected him as the most controversial leader of this country and his adherents are still defending him for that.
Over the years, Bhutto’s idealism has partly faded but has not entirely disappeared. In every decade, it has been revived. His daughter, Benazir Bhutto, the first woman prime minister of the Muslim world, marked the political rebirth of her father’s ideals. After she was assassinated in Rawalpindi, her young son seized the reins of that legacy and is struggling to revive and reform his grandfather’s vision amid harsher political realities.
Mr. Bhutto, like other leaders, made mistakes to attain his political aims and objectives but could not get the opportunity to correct those mistakes. The current leadership of PPP must revisit Bhutto,s vision to rekindle his party
KAMRAN KHAMISO KHOWAJA
Sujawal
