Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Death Anniversary: What If He Had Not Been Killed?

Posted on April 4, 2011
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Law & Justice, People, Politics
52 Comments
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Adil Najam

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto going to Court for his Murder trialOn the first death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto we had carried a post asking “What if she had not been killed?” Today, on the 22nd death anniversary of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) it may be a good time to ask the same question about him.

On previous anniversaries of ZAB’s death we have asked you to comment on Mr. Bhutto and his legacy and about the rationale and reasoning given for his death by his nemesis, Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. This time let us think a little about what his death meant for Pakistan – and, thereby, for all the rest of us.

Of course, one expects a lot of naara baazi from both his supporters and his detractors. That is merely to be expected. But beyond the black and white slogans there was the man and the legacy of the man that has clearly impacted much of what has happened since his death, especially because of the nature of his removal.

Indeed, one could suggest that there are at least two separate questions here: What might have happened had Zia Ul Haq’s coup not happened and if Bhutto had lived on? And, what might have happened if Bhutto had not been hung after the trial?

How might have the PPP evolved in either of those cases? What would these have meant for Pakistan’s politics as a whole? And Pakistan’s economy and foreign relations? Pakistani institutions?

I am not presupposing any answer, nor am I suggesting that these are questions that can be logically answered precisely. But they may be questions worth thinking about today; not just to speculate about how might have happened, but much more important to think about how our acts of political expediency today can have long and deep shadows – nearly always unintended, quite often consequential, and sometimes historically disastrous even for those who orchestrate them.

52 responses to “Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Death Anniversary: What If He Had Not Been Killed?”

  1. Kamal says:

    Pakistan should apologise to Bangladesh for atrocities unconditionally: Imran Khan

    http://mindovermatter321.blogspot.com/

  2. readinglord says:

    @Sahiba Choudhry

    “Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto has clear vision and ideology”

    Yes, by being a demagogue of the first water, he kept it clean by creating the Frankensteins of the Second Amendment and A.Q. Khan and would have polished it further if alive today. The only good thing he did was that he is not alive today.

  3. Asadullah says:

    Easy answer. Pakistan would have been a better place. If only because I do not think that Benazir and Zardari would have followed. And certainly Zia and Nawaz Sharif would have not. Hopefully Musharraf would also not have followed!

  4. Sahiba Ch. says:

    Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto has clear vision and ideology, but i m not happy from some of his decisions. One such decision had become the major cause of East Pakistan Tragedy. So sad Mr. Bhutto

  5. Waqas Jan says:

    Every person has positives and negatives. Personally I think that ZAB did many good things but I cant help myself in believing that basically he was very selfish, arrogant and proud person. On the other hand he was charismatic, educated, popular, very good orator but that did not help.
    In such a country 30 years are much more to safely guess what if he was alive. It could have gone either way :)

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