Zia Ul Haq - The forgotten culprit: Part I

Today, I will be talking about an issue which is something related to the past; Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. I just saw the interview of a man who has seen the events surrounding Bhutto's last days in jail. He is no one other than (Retd.) Colonel Rafiuddin Ahmed. He was the military personnel in charge of Bhutto's monitoring during his last days before execution, or should I say his assassination. This person has written a book called 'Bhutto kay akhri 323 din', which I would highly recommend to everyone.

It seems like General Zia Ul Haq was a ruthless leader who did not realize that he was shedding one of this nation's most valued blood. The blood which was simply priceless. After watching the programme 'Jawab De' on Geo TV, in which Iftikhar Ahmed(host) takes an interview of (Retd.) Colonel Rafi, I am obliged to write a blog about the forgotten culprit.

In his interview he states that in the 'khotri' (cell), in which Bhutto was kept, was first installed with all sorts of bugging devices to monitor every activity of his. The complexity of the devices was so high that even the scrapping of papers was to be heard at the control room. Even till today, none of those recordings have come out and the public is still not aware of their whereabouts. Anyhow, what does this tell us? It tells us that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto created such an intense enigma around the dictator that he was obliged to monitor him 24/7. How great was this Bhutto? How great was this leader? The answer is very simple. He was the greatest after, ofcourse, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. No one can doubt that Bhutto was an extraordinary person. Even though, Colonel Rafi is not supposed to have positive feelings for his prisoner he still states that he was the most intelligent person he had ever met. Then why was this blood wasted? Why have people forgotten that General Zia Ul Haq was by far the most ruthless leader? In fact, Pakistan had its darkest times during his rule. The General died in a plane crash some time back but he should not be forgotten. We need to realize that this man has taken away our national treasure by executing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. And any person who takes away the national treasure of our country does not deserve sympathy. That is because no one person is above our country; Pakistan.

In the interview Colonel Rafi is asked when did Bhutto realize that the people in the jail, who were in charge of monitoring, where from the Army. The Colonel moves forward in the urge to state the obvious. Bhutto realized from day one that Colonel Rafi was from the Army, even though they were disguised as a normal jail superintendent. No matter how smart General Zia Ul Haq may have perceived himself to be, he was not even worth a comparison to the great leader. In fact, Bhutto had so much ability of creating an aura of his control around him that the doctor who used to visit him for his medical checkups had also started to support him. The doctor was Major Khattak from the Army itself. When the bugging devices tapped some disliked conversation between the prisoner and the doctor General Zia ordered a notice saying that no doctor from the army personnel will be assigned to check Bhutto. Now, what does this say to us? The man by the name of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was not against the Army. In fact he was the true representative of the people of Pakistan. The people who consist of poor people, armed forces, lawyers, doctors and all those whose hearts motion at the same moments; the Pakistanis. Why was such a great leader executed? Because, if he was not then he would have come to power again. Not through elections but by the peoples' choice and will.

Bhutto may have committed countless sins in his life but in a country where all sorts of corruption is so widespread, they may be of small significance. I believe that if a leader in Pakistan is not financially corrupt then he is a great leader of our country. No matter how many allegations General Zia's government may have put against him but no one has stated that he was financially corrupt. And, this to me is a great achievement for any leader.

I believe that April 4, 1979, was one of the darkest days in our history. In fact, it was the darkest night of our history as the dawn never came that time. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was definitely the greatest leader of our country after our founder, Quaid-e-Azam. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was truly the Quaid-e-Awam as stated by many. He may have short-lived according to many, but he lived a lion's life for our country; for our people. To sum it all 'a day's life of a lion is better than a 100 days life of a jackal.' May Allah rest his soul in peace and forgive him of his sins. Ameen.