Adil Najam
Today, April 4, marks the death anniversary of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
There is probably no other political figure since Mohammad Ali Jinnah who has left as deep and lasting a shaddow on Pakistan politics as Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB). You can love him or hate him, but you cannot possibly ignore him.
Those who love him, love him with a passion that few - if any - other Pakistani leaders evoke. Those who hate him - and many seem to do - do so with equal ferocity. No one I know is indifferent to him.
I use the words “love” and “hate” because the intensity of people’s views on him cannot really be captured by dispassionate terms such as “like” and “dislike” alone. Whatever else we might think of him, no one can deny his intensity, or the intensity with which Pakistanis of all generations - including those who have never even seen him - talk about him.
So today, on his death anniversary, let me not talk about my views on him. Let him talk to us himself. In his own words and in his own unique and passionate style.
“If India builds the bomb we will eat grass or leaves, we will go hungry. But we will get one of our own.“
He deserves that there should be a library build with his name. Z A Bhutto library and this should be the top library of Pakistan?
Please see complete video on Bhutto’s life at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-466998041 3488645928&q=Tariq+by+Bhutto&total=21&start=0&num= 10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Well on social front he was great leader. But on economic front, his nationalization policy demaged our economy for years to come.
One more thing, in 1973 constitution he abolished “constitutional saftey” of civil servants, meaning a civil servant can now be fired by PM or president. It made civil servants subjugated to our rulers.
Overall he was a great awami leader and dont derserve the death sentence given to hum by court.
Despite having his faults and flaws, Z. A. Bhutto was the greatest leader Pakistan had after Jinnah. People loved him and still love him even after 29 years.
NA will pass a resolution declaring his hanging as Judicial Murder but what about punishing those responsible? Can we expect it from a PPP government who is clearly sympathetic towards another military dictator who have caused all the humanly possible damage to Pakistan and has been accused of involved in Benazir’s murder too?
he was a visionary!
A great Awami leader. The only one we ever got. He was truly a leopard, unfortunately we just got too many foxes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL1PfNJyNMI&feature =related
More importantly, it also coincides with the death of Martin Luther King.
Great post! revives so many strong memories. Whatever he was, good or bad, his time was a period of political experimentation with no other example in Pakistan. When I happen to talk to young people who havn’t lived that period, it often appears to me that there is a hole in their education of pakistani political history.
Western media also, who does not know father Bhutto’s time so well is taken aback by the current political development in Pakistan. For other people having witnessed that effervessence, this is a difficult but awaited return to normalcy.
Bhutto’s radio speaches used to last around 2 hours live with listners holding their breath so emotional it used to become sometimes. Watching this collection of extracts, I felt that shiver in my blood again.