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.
@meengla
30th death anniversary of ZAB
It is sad what happened to ZAB, but then again ZAB or Pakistanis are NOT relatives of Allah.
Today was the 30th death anniversary of ZAB. I can’t believe that, from boyhood time as a Bhutto-hater, I have now so much respect for the man. He certainly had his faults but he was punished far too much for his faults.
As to the ‘judicial murder’, today, no one disputes that ZAB got a ‘judicial murder’ except a few people like Zia ul Haq’s son Aijaz ul Haq.
ZA, was a leader, no body can ever compeete with him, he was intelligent he made some mistakes but he was punished more harder then hi mistakes, i believe if he was alive we would not have been here, where we are today, pakistan would have preogressed and we would must have been included in developped countries its very unfortunate that we lost a leader like him, we didnt give him some time to serve this country and after him we did the same with BB, we alway kills our populaire leaders, we as a nation should be shamefull on what we did, we were not able to save our leaders, to save them form dictators we should have fought for them but we were failed to do that and we are still not able to fight and defend our leaders, now same thing is happenning with NS et SS, i ask u all those who will learn my article that is there anybody who can stop it? who will stop this ? we as a nation should stand, and stand by our leaders not the leaders like AZ but NS ANS SS
Can anyone tell me who is Zulfiqar Bhutto referring to in the second last video, where tells them to go to hell?
Zardari has been bad for the PPP because he has split teh party and it is in leadership crisis, but the fact is that this 10% thing no longer makes sense. Nothing was proved against him even when people had full motive and state instrument to prove things. And this time not a single scandal of corruption has come up despite a very free press.
BB is missed and I think things would have been very different. First all the ISI types who are now launching a campaign against Zaradri bc of his reputation would not have been able to be as effective. The problems of terrorism and economy are the legacy of Musharraf and they would have been the same even if she was alive. But ordinary Pakistanis would have had more hope because she always gave people hope. That was her real magic.
I think that the one area in which Zardari has failed the most is in raising international support and she wold have been perfect for that. Between the defensiveness of the generals and the inexperience of Zardari our international reputation is now at the lowest as we see in this crisis. With her that would be the biggest difference.
Visit
http://www.bhutto.org
to know about Shaheed Z A Bhutto
Bhutto is great,oh you! who oppose him you are biased.Today after 3 decades –when everything has changed–every noble soul who is wellwisher of pakistan and muslims–longs for Bhutto–asking where is Bhutto? We need a Bhutto.Bhutto is born once.
To quote Aitzaz Ahsan, ‘there was not much sympathy vote’ in Feb. 2008 elections; if there was much vote then, like the Congress Party in India of 1984 following Indira’s murder, PPP would have swept to power. But hardly. Yes, there was some sympathy vote but PPP could not even match its previous highest of 37% votes; this time it was only 33%.
And this argument of people being ‘emotional’ is along the same line as people being ‘uneducated’. When somebody from the West praises BB then it is painted as her and her party being a ‘puppet’ of the West. When Pakistanis vote for her party then they are dubbed ‘jahil awam’ etc.
To me PPP remains the best hope for uniting Pakistanis from all parts of Pakistan. If PPP had played the old game it could have its own Chief Minister in all 4 provinces while forming the govt. in the Center. It was not hard to do. Is there any other party which can claim that? MQM, PMLN, ANP, BNP are all basically ethnic-based parties. Look at the leadership of PMLN? Who do you see except politicians from Punjab? What do you think is going to happen if PMLN is voted into power on the back of votes from Punjab only? Do we not know the ethnic faultlines of Pakistan?
Today Pakistan faces grave internal and external dangers. The way to confront the dangers is to face them as a united country. It should be a matter of grave concern to all Pakistanis that Iran–a prime target of Western wrath since 1979–is far more peaceful than Pakistan which has been a ‘trusted ally’ for decades. Why is that so? It is because Iranians, while not perfect, are far more united in their nationhood. And if Pakistanis miss this chance given to them by the voters on Feb. 18th and let military and its henchmen rule then the consequences can be very harmful for Pakistan’s unity.
ZAB’s PPP is now a much weaker force in Pakistan thanks to relentless propaganda and repression spanning most of last 3 decades. But the party is still the most powerful uniting force in Pakistan. Weakening it and painting it as merely the party of Bhutto-clan is not going to help the cause of Pakistan.