Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - The Sword Of Ali, Tribute to a Great Leader Options

[Pine-Apple]

I would like to add that Qaid-azam`s Pakistan vanished in 1971 after the fall of Dhaka. What ever progress we see in Pakistan today is all due to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Its time that he should be declared as a National Hero.
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A GIANT AMONGST GIANTS - ZULFIKAR ALI BHUTTO - THE SWORD OF ALI
by Benazir Bhutto
April 5, 2004

Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is a towering figure of the twentieth century. He commanded the allegiance of millions of people inside Pakistan, across the Muslim world and in the Third World as a hero of the people. His leadership gave pride to his followers, to his Nation and to oppressed people everywhere.
Quaid e Awam Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was born on January 5, 1928 in Larkana at Al Murtaza to Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto and Lady Khursheed Bhutto. He was their first son born in the shadow of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation of Moenjodaro close to Sehwan Sharif renowned for Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's shrine where his Mother offered prayers. The Greek conqueror Alexander the Great had passed through Sehwan centuries earlier. Now was born another conqueror, he who would conquer the hearts of a Nation through supreme qualities of leadership, vision, intellectual breadth, charisma, dauntlessness, bravery, boldness and a program for political redemption of an exploited people.

Half a century later this great leader was murdered at the age of fifty at the hands of petty pygmies and cowards who feared him in life and then feared him from his grave. The brutal murder of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto stained the land with blood, divided and polarised the society, led to political turmoil and chaos with tens of thousands repeatedly arrested, whip lashed, hanged, shot at, tortured. It led to repeated movements against the military dictatorship with young men burning themselves alive in protest and others facing the hangmen's noose shouting Long Live Bhutto. Never was such courage demonstrated or so strong a resistance witnessed in the annals of modern history.

That assassination of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the hands of a military dictator, who seized power in the middle of the night like a thief, set into motion a series of events which culminated in growing threats to the Muslim world.
Today the Muslim world is in crisis. This crisis can be directly linked to the assassination Pakistan's Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a moderniser. In the true spirit of Islam, he came to liberate people from backwardness, illiteracy and poverty. He believed that a people and a country progressed and prospered under scientific political rules. Having studied in the best Universities of the West, he was convinced that the progress of the seething mass of humanity living in bondage, fear and despair lay in the path of enlightenment, in the path of moderation and in the path lit by social progress.

It was to build a modern state that he gave the country an Islamic, Federal, Democratic, Egalitarian and unanimous Constitution. This Constitution of 1973 called military intervention an act of treason. It guaranteed full autonomy to the provinces and protected the human rights of every citizen by introducing habeas corpus for the first time in the history of Pakistan.

Quaid e Awam Zulfikar Ali Bhutto built the foundations of education and industrialisation in the country. By modernising labour laws, he gave labour a greater incentive to work and contribute to the welfare of the country. He liberated the small farmers and peasants from the repression and cruelty of big landlords and banished the jagirdari and sardari system declaring that all citizens are born equal and must live with equal rights.
Quaid e Awam built the Steel Mill, the Karakorum Highway, the Kamra Aeronautical Complex, the Ship building industry, the Nuclear Program and the Simla Agreement which stopped India and Pakistan going to war. More importantly he rebuilt the honour and respect of a Nation that had disintegrated under a previous military rule. He brought back 90,000 prisoners of war with honour from Indian military camps and without threatened military trials. He won back territory lost in the 1971 war and saved Pakistan from the threat of Indian General Manekshaw that residual Pakistan would be broken up too.

However, Quaid e Awam's government was destabilised through a Mullah Military Alliance in 1977. The agenda of progress and modernity was overthrown and replaced with a brutal military dictatorship. That military dictatorship recruited and trained members of the Muslim Brotherhood from all over the world to fight against the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan. While supporting the right of the Afghan people to live in freedom was correct, the decision to recruit members of the Muslim brotherhood was wrong. The result was that the Kalashnikov and drug culture spread in Pakistan, the enlightened forces were considered the enemy and every step was made to keep them out of the corridors of power.

The Taliban, the terrorist groups and the new war against terror are the direct result of the overthrow of the modernizing government of Quaid e Awam and its replacement by a clique of military officers that cynically used the name of religion to promote their own illegal stay in power.
Today as the people of Pakistan pay tribute to a great leader who gave great respect to Pakistan and honour to its people, who lived and died like a hero with courage, determination and devotion to his principles it is important that the new generation of our country read and learn about this giant of giants whose imprints in the politics of Pakistan lives on.

It is by reverting to the Constitutional framework of the Quaid e Awam that we can move forward in the twenty first century as a successful Federation with a vibrant economy and a growing middle class. It is a system of fair laws and the majesty of justice that comes as a breath of pure air liberating men and women, peasants and labourers, young and old without discrimination on race, religion or gender. It is so that we can reconstruct our lives to live in dignity and honour, with peace and with progress.

Quaid e Awam was murdered but his memory lives on in the monuments he built. It lives on in his ideas. And it lives on in the hearts of all men and women who believe that humanity can only progress when there is tolerance, freedom, dignity and equal opportunity for all.

Quaid e Awam was the youngest Federal Cabinet member in the history of Pakistan at the age of 29. He set up a Gas and Mineral Development Corporation in 1961 and Pakistan's first Oil refinery in 1962 at Karachi. In fact Quaid e Awam discovered oil in Pakistan and presented it to an astonished Parliament which was impressed with this notable achievement.

Bhutto emerged on the world stage as Leader of the Pakistan Delegation to the UN in 1959. Bhutto made indelible imprints on world community by his inimitable oratorical skills in United Nation's General Assembly and the Security Council. He had the vision to build a strategic relationship with China at a time when it was isolated. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto believed in an independent Foreign Policy. His opposition to the Tashkent accord between India and Pakistan led to his resignation from the government.

He was a firm believer in economic self reliance and political independence expounded in his famous book "Myth of Independence". Bhutto's finest hour came in the reconstruction of Pakistan after the traumatic dismemberment of Pakistan upon the fall of Dhaka on 16th December, 1971. He successfully put the derailed nation back on the track by rebuilding national institutions.
Quaid e Awam built the most modern schools, colleges, universities, professional colleges, vocational training institutes including Quaid-e-Azam University, Allama Iqbal Open University, Chandka Medical College and many others. He built hospitals to take care of the sick and poor. He introduced peaceful nuclear energy to help treat cancer setting up the first cancer treating institutes in the four provinces of Pakistan. He built roads in the tribal areas and the Northern areas knowing how poor and oppressed people in the distant areas of Pakistan were. Internationally, using his experience as Foreign Minister, He hosted the Islamic Summit Conference in Lahore. It was at this conference that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation was recognised as the authentic voice of the Muslims. He advocated closer relations with the Muslim countries arguing for a common economic bloc with banking and other financial institutions long before regional blocs became identified as the economic way forward. When Syria was attacked, the Quaid sent his fighter planes to defend the Golan heights declaring that the armies of Pakistan were the armies of Islam.
However, this renaissance of Muslim unity and progress of Pakistan, the second largest Muslim country in the world, was soon to descend into darkness with the treachery of ambitious Generals who sacrificed the fate of an Ummah and a people to their lust for power, patronage and self enrichment.

Taking advantage of the elections called in 1977, which the PPP won easily with a large majority, the conspirators joined hands with General Ziaul Haq who destabilised the PPP government to please his foreign masters who feared Bhutto's capacity of uniting the Third World countries and were alienated from him for developing Pakistan's nuclear capacity.
Martial Law was imposed upon the country on 5th July, 1977. Seeing the popularity of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Generals decided to postpone elections and arrested Quaid e Awam. On 18th March, 1978, the great Quaid, in a travesty of justice, was sentenced to death in a politically motivated murder trial by a full bench of the Lahore High Court presided over by a sworn opponent. It was astonishing that although there was no law that provided the death sentence for conspiracy to murder, the death sentence was pronounced.
[I]Recently one of the hanging judges from the Supreme Court confessed that the death sentence was given wrongly because the sentencing judges were "angry" with the defence lawyer. He also confessed that the judges were frightened of the military. He implied that the sentence was given to please the military. General Zia had announced before the sentence that Bhutto would be hanged[/I].

However, no one can hang truth or beauty. By signing the death sentence, the conspirators hanged themselves and were forever condemned at the bar of history. Today no one takes their name other than to curse them for the savage injustice they meted out.The majority of original Court was for acquittal but was whittled down to a 4-3 verdict by the retirement of two judges. Despite appeals of clemency from several world leaders, Bhutto was executed on 4th April, 1979. As nature wept with man, a huge hail storm fell upon the desert sands of Sindh as the great Quaid e Awam's body returned to its eternal resting place.
The falling of hail storms was a sign from the heavens, as though they were weeping themselves, as hailstorms do not fall in the desert lands and specially when the heat of the summer begins in April. Bhutto's first martyrdom anniversary fell on the day that Jesus Christ was crucified which many saw as yet another sign from the heavens. His killers faced one strange death after another. General Zia who did not allow Bhutto's family to bury him and see him for a last time, died in a plane crash that burnt his body so his family could not see it. One judge died on the toilet seat on his daughter's wedding day. Another judge's dead body was attacked by bees and abandoned to rot in the mid day sun. The man who arrested the Quaid e Awam crashed to death during a March Past parade when his parachute refused to open. There were many other such incidents which cannot be explained by reason as the consequences of a most unreasonable act against one of the most beloved of leaders for whose life so many millions prayed.

The great leader of downtrodden masses was killed at the age of fifty. Those who witnessed the most tragic night in history of Pakistan said that the Quaid bravely walked to the gallows and when he was brought down his face was shining with light, luminescent like the moon.


Zulfikar Ali Bhutto earned everlasting fame in the pantheon of leaders from the Third World in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism. He had the privilege of interacting with many of those leaders who played a great role in the epic struggle for national independence in the 20th Century including Mao Tse Tung, Soekarno, Chou-en Lai, Nehru and Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Bhutto's foundation of the PPP in 1967 was a setback for the reactionary forces in a country long dominated by the Right. The slogan of "Food, Shelter and Clothing" shifted the focus of Pakistan politics from theological to economic issues. This focus has never shifted back. His was a period of macro economic stability and economic growth. Quaid e Awam's governance laid the foundations for a professional and middle class to emerge bridging the gap between the very rich and the very poor. Quaid e Awam was a poet and a revolutionary who dedicated his life to the oppressed, suppressed masses, who waged a war against poverty and for human dignity, who stood by the poor and lived and died for them. A man born in mansions and dressed in silks found solace, satisfaction and meaning to life, for himself and all his followers, by dedicating it to the shoeless, shirtless masses who are the true masters of a free nation.

To redress the balance of power, Quaid e Awam created the new institution of the Senate of Pakistan in which the provinces had equal representation. He turned Balauchistan from an agency into a province and gave it its own Balauchistan High Court so that the people did not have to trek to Karachi to get justice. He created the Council of Common Interest to give the provinces greater weight in the federal dispensation. He also created the Council of Islamic Ideology so that the definition of Islamic laws could be discussed with the best Islamic intellectuals and taken out of the hands of those who wished to achieve political ends by exploiting the name of religion to gain power. At the same time the Bhutto Constitution reiterated the basic principle of equality: "from each according to his ability to each according to his work".

Finally, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had the courage of his conviction to decide to lay down his life rather than compromise or seek appeasement. The last chapter of his life is a glorious example of martyrdom for the cause of resurrection of democracy.

Although his life and career were cruelly terminated, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's name will forever shine in history as the proud son of a proud motherland who contributed to the liberation of the Third World from exploitation, discrimination and oppression. He gave hope, respect, dignity, honour to his Nation and to the Muslim Ummah because he believed in the Rule of Law, in a basic framework with which a Nation must live. He believed in freedom and in emancipation. Today more than ever, the principles for which Quaid e Awam lived and died are needed to save Pakistan and the Muslim world from a dangerous scenario where cruel dictators demean the nation by destroying institutions and plunging society into chaos, anarchy, violence, death and destruction.

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For More about the great leader you may find the following link useful http://ppp.org.pk/index.html



This post has been edited by Pine-Apple: Jan 6 2004, 12:42 PM

[DumbledoresArmy]

that is just bulls**t it has been written by Benazir Bhutto, his daughter!!!
He wouldnt have been hanged if he was all that innocent, dont u agree, face it people pk would have been a much better place if he had never been in power!!!!!!11

[Prince Ali]

[DumbledoresArmy]

exactly!!!!!!

[DumbledoresArmy]

oh yeah he wasnt murdered or assasinated, he was hanged!!!!!

What pakistan needs now is a good pm to help bring it back o standards, if u know what i mean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

This post has been edited by DumbledoresArmy: Jan 6 2004, 01:02 PM

[Prince Ali]

Consider these points:

- Bhutto nationalized most industries in his zeal for "Islamic Socialism". It seriously undermined the confidence of investors in their own government. Because an investor worked day and night to make a business successful, and Bhutto orders to confiscate all these businesses in the name of socialism in a single day.
I think this is the biggest blunder Bhutto did. Pakistan was doing very well economically in Ayyub's time, but this step of Bhutto stopped and reversed all that development.

- Bhutto was the one who introduced quota system in Sindh. He had all praise for it. But it is amazing that if he liked it soo much then why didn't he introduce it in other provinces? Why only in Sindh? Is it that other provinces did not have urban/rural divide?
In this way, Bhutto sowed the seeds of discontent in Sindh. I am not sure if anyone knows it, but MQM started their campaign with abolition of quota system as their basic slogan.

- Bhutto was trying to become a leader of Muslim Nation (1974 Islamic conference), but forgot that before doing it we have to put our own house in order. Pakistanis needed to mourn and gather themselves after the fall of Dhaka, yet he was imagining himself to be not just Pakistani but a Muslim leader.

This post has been edited by Prince Ali: Jan 6 2004, 02:44 PM

[Samira Saeed]

Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, no matter how gr8 a man he MAY or Possibly be, in the end he was a felon. And was convicted in the Court of Law and sentenced to Death. And he 'served' his sentence. And last I checked, Felons and convicts were not regarded as Heros and swords / pistols / cannons / daggers / etc of dick and harry.

[RoMi]

^^yeah........

may be he was a good leader of a PARTY not a NATION..........

[Mundapaki786]

Bhutto was a great leader? You got to be kidding with me. he was the worst leader pakistan ever had beside Nawaz sharif and benazer bhutto. He was the reason why bangladesh got seperation from Pakistan. The only people after Quaid e azam who deserve some credit are Liaqut Ali khan who was assasinated beside him Musharraf and Zia Ul Haq.

This post has been edited by Mundapaki786: Jan 6 2004, 08:31 PM

[Pine-Apple]

asalamu alaykum
i was expecting such response because all we see is anti bhutto sentiments in pakistan media right since our birth. u guys need to do some serious study regarding history of pakistan. someone pointed out that bangladesh was created by bhutto. my question is ..who had been in power since 1961?
the answer is the 'brave'army of pakistan. so do u seriously believe that a person single handedly was mightier than the ruling pakistan army?

then someone says that nationalisation was a blow to pakistan economy.
it was a blow to a handful of industrialists but not to nation as a whole. bhutto gave employment to 19 lakh people in the nationalised industrial plants and sent about 22 lakh of pakistani abroad mainly to arab countries.

talking about quota system in sindh. i am not a sindhi nor do i live in sindh but i believe that it was a very right thing to do. since karachi and hyderabad are the most developed cities of sindh but they are mostly occupied by migrants from india. and they are so many in number that the local people in other cities could not compete with them. since they did not have opportunities in terms of good educational institutions. the locals do have rights. dont they? so thats why quota system was introduced. and it still exists. if its so bad why not it is changed now?

i can tell u one thing. bhutto and his family gave their lives for pakistan. but the nation has not honoured them the way they deserved. but sooner or later it will be acknolwdged by the national level .

samira saeed probably didnt bother to read the article. mere mention of bhuttos name made her furious. its written that one of the judges that ordered bhutto to be hanged, ex chief justice of pakistan, naseem hassan shah has recently confessed in a tv interview( channel geo) that bhutto was murdered by the judiciary. he was feeling sorry for what he did. he further said that molvi mushtaq and one of the other judge they were plain enemies of bhutto and they wanted to get him hanged at any cost. most of u are probably abroad and do not know much about your country. so ask those who know.

read this once again. you can call it QUDRAT KA INTIQAM.


His killers faced one strange death after another. General Zia who did not allow Bhutto's family to bury him and see him for a last time, died in a plane crash that burnt his body so his family could not see it. One judge died on the toilet seat on his daughter's wedding day. Another judge's dead body was attacked by bees and abandoned to rot in the mid day sun. The man who arrested the Quaid e Awam crashed to death during a March Past parade when his parachute refused to open. There were many other such incidents which cannot be explained by reason as the consequences of a most unreasonable act against one of the most beloved of leaders for whose life so many millions prayed.



the one whose dirty body was attacked by bees was molvi mushtaq and the one whose parachute did not open was brigader t m zaidi. molvi mushtaq got insane in his last days.

Zulfiqar Ali means the sword of ALI.

This post has been edited by Pine-Apple: Jan 6 2004, 10:24 PM

[Prince Ali]

[Prince Ali]

Khair yaar, we can think whatever we like. He is dead anyway.
Let's concentrate on future now.

bye.

[DumbledoresArmy]

[Samira Saeed]

[Pine-Apple]

asalamu alaykum
The western media portrays hitler as some sort of dracula. so there must be something good in that man. i dont follow the media blindly like most of the people. secondly and most probably most of you have not heard the name of justice retired hamood ur rehman. well search for hamood ur rehman comission report to know the real facts.

[DumbledoresArmy]

cant u post ot for us??????

[DumbledoresArmy]

so u r saying that we follow teh media blindly but didnt u kinda do teh same, its not ur article its Bhuttos, her daughters, u write ur argument for him and we will write against him, but u just give us articles to read, come on i am sure u have ur own opinion!!!

[Pine-Apple]

asalamu alaykum
obviously i agreed to what benazir wrote about her great father and thats why i posted it. as for hamood ur rehman commission report it has been published in all pakistani newspapers in the recent past. no army personell has dared to raise a finger against it. i dont know if its available on net or net. you'll have to find out for yourself.
as for tikka khan. well on geo tv just recently there was an interview of a retired pakistani general who happened to be in command of west pakistan at that time. im sorry i dont remember his name. at one point in his interview he said that had tikka khan not be REPLACED by general niazi then pakistani army would never have surrendered. thats a factual evidence that im talking about not just heresay.

[DumbledoresArmy]

point being.....................

[Samira Saeed]

yeah.. benazirs' gr8 father, who was found guilty in the court of law and was convicted and Hanged. And NO one is above the Law. Justice has been served, the guilty have been punished. And you hoot for the guilty. Ur position to begin with is weak.

[Pine-Apple]

[DumbledoresArmy]

yo pine apple u r the one being stborn and not letting everyone else have there say, just give one good thing bhutoo did \???

u r teh one who started this therad knowing that u will get comments liek thi sos why are u trying to skit Samira , note: trying u arent managing it !!!

[Mundapaki786]

App logon ko malum hai Bhutto aur Mujeeb ur Rehman ney kitney ortoon ka rap kiya tha. Bhutto gave all of his authority over bangladesh to Mujeeb ur Rehman who raped several hundred or thousands of Women. This make me sick. Think what if those women were your mother or sisters.

[DumbledoresArmy]

i know Munda paki, but apparently tahts all crao lies taht teh media has told is!!!

ohh yeah it also payed the women to lie that tehy were raped!!!

yeahh tahts logical PineApple

[samnaur]

Pine-apple, after reading your post I tried really hard to refrain from bitter personal comments. But much like Bhutto, I too failed. So my first words of advice :

PAGING Pine-Apple : Please report to SNIPED .. Please refrain from pointing out and mentioning extremities..
For the love of God, where are you getting these skewed facts from. Prince Ali very clearly outlined just a handful of examples of the abberrant Bhutto regime. I believe it was the Daily Dawn that reported 'The streets of Lahore were flowing with the blood of the youth of Pakistan', after all the violence that ensued during his time in office.

A fitting end for a corrupt individual.

This post has been edited by Samira Saeed: Jan 10 2004, 09:35 AM

[Pine-Apple]

asalamu alaykum

[DumbledoresArmy]

[DumbledoresArmy]

why u not saying anything pine apple, scared?? got no answers??