That other Pakistan
by HK Burki
An entire generation has grown up in the loving embrace of generals in a country in perpetual crisis of one sort or the other. The younger people may have heard stories about the past, but they would not know that it was another country. A vastly different Pakistan, in fact. The older generations have only hazy notions of it. Mostly, they are far too busy milking this one to have the time or the desire to recall the other. Yet, before examining the wreckers' handiwork of the past 25 years, that country needs to be summoned. It is the only means of
bringing into focus the enormity of the demolition.
A clutch of generals had drawn the dividing line on July 5, 1977. The writer has straddled the divide as a professional observer, and spared thus far the national blight of amnesia, can bear witness to the record of both. Let it be said straight out that a citizen of pre-1977 vintage visiting it would have difficulty recognizing the place. Innocent of the new law and order, he may end up being kidnapped for ransom as his compatriots returning from petro-pastures of the Gulf are at Islamabad airport.
A good way to begin reconstruction of the earlier version is to sketch in what it did not have. It was, for instance, totally unaware of heroin and drug addicts; the migrant hippies apart. Klashnikov, the designer automatic, was not known to many. When a quarrel erupted in a locality it was settled with an exchange of blows, not with automatic
weapons and rocket launchers.
Armed dacoits did not make a habit of shooting their way into houses in the cities and mohallas in broad daylight and then vanish without a trace. Cars were not snatched at gunpoint at traffic lights at rush hours, or at any other time.
There was petty larceny aplenty and corruption in the districts and provincial towns. Hardly ever at the top or amongst the higher echelons of bureaucracy. Load-shedding was not common. Public schools were not run by indifferent teachers or no teachers at all. University degrees were not sold in open market like chicken tikkas. Hospitals were not staffed and managed only by grasping, heartless doctors. There were problems of course. Political, economic, but they were by no means unmanageable.
That Pakistan was never reviled in the world as the land of cheats or a basket case. The government did not have to beg from foreign banks hundreds of millions of dollars at 14 percent interest every few months to service earlier loans. The maulanas made a nuisance of themselves at times. They did not command armed lashkars. The Sunnis
and Shias had brief periods of tension during Muharram, but they did not kill one another or gun down congregations at prayer.
The Pakistan of pre-1977 was no land of milk and honey, of course. It had stumbled badly when another general, trying to perpetuate himself by hook or by crook, had lost its eastern wing. That cataclysmic blow had come close to destroying it altogether. But once Yayha Khan's tottering military regime toppled over and was succeeded by a democratic government, it had made a remarkable comeback.
Fortunately, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the elected President and then Premier, had eight years of actual experience as a minister of Ayub Khan. Leading a team of smart cookies, he had salvaged the ship of state within a matter of months and put it back on an even keel.
The ruling circles do not like to be reminded of Bhutto's contribution. They had given a verdict - Sindhi traitor, dictator, murderer etc - and dispatched him. There is no escaping it, however; especially now that the havoc of past two and a half decades has accumulated into one huge tinderbox and is on a short fuse. The whole
picture needs to be put into perspective for the benefit of a multitude of lesser, much tormented beings.
No matter how hard his enemies try to rubbish the record, some hardfacts sparkle through the garbage. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto presented the nation its first fully democratic constitution, adopted unanimously by duly elected representatives of all the four provinces.
Driven by a deep nationalist urge for moulding the multi-ethnic people into a cohesive whole, Bhutto ventured into areas, which no head of government had ever thought fit for a visit. Risking assassin's bullet, he went to the wildest parts of the Tribal Areas more than once. He flew into every nook and corner of the Northern Areas to
bring succor and hope to people languishing in their mountain fastness.
In Balochistan, that totally neglected province, the Prime Minister loosened the stranglehold of Sardars. He set in place full-fledged district administrations, opening for the tribesmen, virtual serfs, and a means of escape from the tyranny of tribal chiefs. Bhutto thus tried to pull the variegated threads together to weave a national arras.
A balanced and very ambitious national economic development plan was launched to make the country self-reliant in key areas. Defense production received a priority it had never had before. Kamra aircraft complex, heavy mechanical plant, tank rebuild facility and half a dozen ordnance factories were constructed.
A comprehensive nuclear programme of vital strategic importance was set into motion. It gave the generals the bomb to play with and most probably cost Premier Bhutto his life. In a chance encounter in the lobby of the National Assembly six weeks before the coup, the Premier revealed to the writer that he had fallen foul of the Carter Administration not just because of the nuclear programme. The steel mill, eight fertilizer and eight cement factories were also a factor. The projects would free the country of reliance on US loans for buying these essential commodities and thereby loosening Washington's hold.
The rupee was devalued in January, 1972, soon after Bhutto's takeover, and the rate was 10 rupees to a dollar. Five and a half years later, at the time of his ouster, it was still the same in open market. The foreign debt in 1977, stood at about nine billion dollars only and in soft loans.
The Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Libya were opened up by Bhutto's well-directed diplomacy for workers, technicians, and the armed forces. About a million of them sent two to three billion dollars remittances per annum, a fabulous windfall for the Zia Junta, their cronies and a swelling army of swindlers.
The Simla Pact, the vacation of Pakistani territory under Indian occupation, and the honourable release of 90,000 POWs were Bhutto's achievements. A tremendously successful Lahore Islamic Summit was another. The list is long.
Traveling abroad during the pre-Zia period, one felt proud to be a Pakistani. The green passport was respected everywhere and some half a dozen west European countries had abolished visa requirements. Erasing the stigma of the army's barbarities in East Pakistan in 1971, Bhutto had put Pakistan back on the map of the world. It was a country on the road to becoming a progressive, developed state. If this excursion ruffles the feathers of old Bhutto haters, all one can do is to promise them a promenade in Gen Zia's Garden of Eden.
The legendary walkout of ZAB from Security Council at U.N…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYHUJBRRnc4
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
In May 1974 India exploded a nuclear device which it called “peaceful”. Following India’s explosion, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto pledged to press ahead with Pakistan’s nuclear program. “We will eat grass…” was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s referring to financing the Pakistani Nuclear program.
It was the year 1976 and the Henry Kissinger was on a visit to Pakistan, to meet the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The Americans wanted Pakistan to give up their nuclear project, and Henry Kissinger was on a mission to deliver the US President’s message to Bhutto. Mr. Bhutto listened to Kissinger very patiently and then addressed him, “you are my friend, please advise me what I should do.” Kissinger smiled a bit, and said softly, “Mr. Prime Minister! In the game of diplomacy and power, nobody is any one else’s friend. I am only a messenger at this time. You should consult one of your own advisors”. Bhutto smiled and replied in a beautiful tone, “I still consider you my friend despite that and so request your advice.” Henry Kissinger laughed heartily, and looking at Bhutto, said, “You are really a chess master.” Bhutto stared at him silently.
Kissinger waited for a while, and said in a cultured tone, “Basically I have come not to advise, but to warn you. USA has numerous reservations about Pakistan’s atomic programme; therefore you have no way out, except agreeing to what I say”. Bhutto smiled and asked, “Suppose I refuse, then what?” Henry Kissinger became dead serious.
He locked his eyes on Bhutto’s and spewed out deliberately, “Then we will make a horrible example of you!” Bhutto’s face flushed. He stood up, extended his hand towards Kissinger and said, “Pakistan can live without the US President. Now your people will have to find some other ally in this region.” Bhutto then turned and went out.
Within six months there were massive riots in Pakistan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was removed from General Zia ul Haq, a General supported by the USA for more than a decade.
“If anyone in the Kremlin has dreams of power, the road to the Persian Sea has to be a golden road.” Unless the United States makes a stand…., as former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark warned, “the eighth most populous nation in the world could be carved up….by Soviet Union…” As Americans, we must ask ourselves this: Is it possible that a rational military leader under the circumstances in Pakistan could have overthrown a constitutional government, without at least the tacit approval of the United States?”
Ramsey Clark wrote ” Bhutto was removed from power in Pakistan by force on the 5th of July, after the usual party on the 4th at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, with U.S. approval, if not more, by General Zia al-Haq. Bhutto was falsely accused and brutalized for months during proceedings that corrupted the judiciary of Pakistan before being murdered. That Bhutto had run for president of the student body at University of California in Berkeley and helped arrange the opportunity for Nixon to visit China but all that did not help him when he defied the U.S.”
By 10:30 am on April 4th, 1979, Bhutto’s body had been flown to his ancestral village of Ghari Khuda Baksh, near his hometown of Larkana in Sindh Province, and buried in the family cemetery with only a few relatives and friends present. They included his first wife, Shirin Amir.”
The way they did it,” said a foreigner who follows Pakistani politics, “is going to grow into a legend that will some day backfire.”
It was the year 1976 and the Henry Kissinger was on a visit to Pakistan, to meet the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The Americans wanted Pakistan to give up their nuclear project, and Henry Kissinger was on a mission to deliver the US President’s message to Bhutto. Mr. Bhutto listened to Kissinger very patiently and then addressed him, “you are my friend, please advise me what I should do.” Kissinger smiled a bit, and said softly, “Mr. Prime Minister! In the game of diplomacy and power, nobody is any one else’s friend. I am only a messenger at this time. You should consult one of your own advisors”. Bhutto smiled and replied in a beautiful tone, “I still consider you my friend despite that and so request your advice.” Henry Kissinger laughed heartily, and looking at Bhutto, said, “You are really a chess master.” Bhutto stared at him silently.
Kissinger waited for a while, and said in a cultured tone, “Basically I have come not to advise, but to warn you. USA has numerous reservations about Pakistan’s atomic programme; therefore you have no way out, except agreeing to what I say”. Bhutto smiled and asked, “Suppose I refuse, then what?” Henry Kissinger became dead serious.
He locked his eyes on Bhutto’s and spewed out deliberately, “Then we will make a horrible example of you!” Bhutto’s face flushed. He stood up, extended his hand towards Kissinger and said, “Pakistan can live without the US President. Now your people will have to find some other ally in this region.” Bhutto then turned and went out.
Within six months there were massive riots in Pakistan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was removed from General Zia ul Haq, a General supported by the USA for more than a decade.
“If anyone in the Kremlin has dreams of power, the road to the Persian Sea has to be a golden road.” Unless the United States makes a stand…., as former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark warned, “the eighth most populous nation in the world could be carved up….by Soviet Union…” As Americans, we must ask ourselves this: Is it possible that a rational military leader under the circumstances in Pakistan could have overthrown a constitutional government, without at least the tacit approval of the United States?”
Ramsey Clark wrote ” Bhutto was removed from power in Pakistan by force on the 5th of July, after the usual party on the 4th at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, with U.S. approval, if not more, by General Zia al-Haq. Bhutto was falsely accused and brutalized for months during proceedings that corrupted the judiciary of Pakistan before being murdered. That Bhutto had run for president of the student body at University of California in Berkeley and helped arrange the opportunity for Nixon to visit China but all that did not help him when he defied the U.S.”
By 10:30 am on April 4th, 1979, Bhutto’s body had been flown to his ancestral village of Ghari Khuda Baksh, near his hometown of Larkana in Sindh Province, and buried in the family cemetery with only a few relatives and friends present. They included his first wife, Shirin Amir.”
The way they did it,” said a foreigner who follows Pakistani politics, “is going to grow into a legend that will some day backfire.”
“In Western estimation it is preferable to be a communist leader of a communist state, than to be a non-communist leader of a non-communist state having friendly relations with communist states. The anomaly does not cease here. It is even more dangerous to be pro-West. One disagreement in defense of a national cause, and out goes that civilian leader by a coup d’etat. He gets replaced by a tin-pot military dictator who would not dare to disagree about anything, including the vital national interests of his country.”
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto -An excerpt of a letter from his death Cell.
The writings of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto should be mandatory reading for all Pakistanis.
(www.Bhutto.org).
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto -An excerpt of a letter from his death Cell.
The writings of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto should be mandatory reading for all Pakistanis.
(www.Bhutto.org).
Those who have lived in the 1970's in Pakistan often recall the thrilling nightlife of Karachi…liquor shops doing business in broad daylight across the country during those golden years. The era of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is still hailed as the last of the liberal times that people enjoyed...
Then this God’s country was played out at the hands of America and brought closer to Saudi Arabian style radicalization by empowering radical Islamic forces and transforming the country’s traditionally pacifist religious creed with strong Persian/Subcontinental influences into a new, potentially violent Wahhabi culture that has gripped the entire nation since 1979 till now...
Then this God’s country was played out at the hands of America and brought closer to Saudi Arabian style radicalization by empowering radical Islamic forces and transforming the country’s traditionally pacifist religious creed with strong Persian/Subcontinental influences into a new, potentially violent Wahhabi culture that has gripped the entire nation since 1979 till now...