President Asif Ali Zardari, true to his salt, time and again has declared his commitment to protect, preserve and promote philosophy of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. All PPP’s gatherings start with incantations of ‘Jeay Bhutto’ ‘Long Live Bhutto’ Kal be Bhutto Zinda Tha, Aaj be Bhutto Zinda Hey,’ ‘Bhutto was alive yesterday and he is living today as well’, and end with the same invoking blessings for the Bhutto family.

There is no harm in doing so; however, to believe in a non existing
philosophy of life is something that worries a lot of thinking Pakistanis. No body can deny the fact that Bhutto’s was a meteoric rise and equally tragic fall and that was not due to his pursuance of some ideology of life, it was due to his acts of omissions and commissions as politician over a period of time that won him many a friends but at the same time earned him his unpalatable detractors who would not settle down less than his blood.

He rode over the ambitions of his electorates and exploited every
opportunity that came his way to aggrandize his political powers. He
embraced and abandoned every ideology that suited his cause. To be fair with Bhutto there is no denying the fact that he was a patriotic citizen with high political aims. His aims, however, were hindered by his psychology that is typical of any landed aristocracy.

He certainly was wronged against a crime he had not committed, which brought an element of tragedy in Pakistan politics and which expanded diametrically further resulting in the deaths of all Bhuttos of his family whoever entered in Pakistan politics. With every death people’s feelings for Bhutto intensified so that the current PPP, led by Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto, represents the emotional side of Pakistan politics rather than intellectual or programme, policies and issues oriented principled stance of party politics.

At the same time the impact of Bhutto’s politics on Pakistan is deep-seated, indelible and highly entertaining for a student of history: a philosopher politician though he was not. His role as politician without the suffix of ‘philosophy’ is great enough to stand him in good stead in the annals of Pakistan history.

Pakistan must move on and should not relive Bhutto senior’s period again. He did many great things we can emulate but he also committed many blunders that we must avoid. He gave voice to the poor and the downtrodden of our society. He faced up to India at a time when India had our 90000 war prisoners along with a big chunk of our land. He was a great orator of par excellence and articulated the cause of Pakistan at all international forums with great acumen, agility and wisdom that can rarely be matched by many international leaders.

Under him Pakistan established profound relations with other Islamic countries. He made it easier for Pakistanis to make passport and go abroad to earn foreign exchange. He undoubtedly is the father of Pakistan ’s nuclear programme which even can’t be denied by the most myopic of his detractors. Wah Ordnance Factory, Heavy mechanical complex, Texla and Karachi  steel mills are the product of his vision seeing Pakistan an independent, self reliant and progressive nation.

Then there are his downfalls. The same unanimous constitution Bhutto made and the PPP is proud of, he amended six times in quick succession distorting its unanimous spirits. The most part of his rule basic rights granted by the constitution remained suspended. Profusely he spoke about the rule of the people by the people but, in fact, he as well as his acolytes, the landed aristocracy, distanced themselves from the people when a chance for the real change came. He was a revolutionary sans revolution.

He, like other popular leaders in Pakistan , was the product of a dictator. He was initially a great proponent of Gen. Ayub Khan and was secretary general of his party.

He was Ayub’s covering candidate in the presidential race against Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah. He nationalised industry, insurance companies, banks and educational institutions and ruined them. His own daughter undid what Bhutto had considered the best for the country.

Bhutto was not entirely different from Gen Musharraf if taken as a
democrat. Bhutto was intolerant to dissention within and outside the party which was his great undoing. He sacked two provincial governments, sent army into Baluchistan, crushed all political dissent with brute force, created Federal Security Force with ulterior motives that finally could not save him, arrested poets like Habib Jalib, politicians like Abdul Wali Khan and other Balochistan leaders and initiated high treason cases against them.

He was a secular demagogue. He started off with ‘socialism’ as his polity and under duress ended up with ‘Muhammadan Equality.’ He made Friday holiday and declared Quadianis non-Muslim and banned drinking, betting and horse races and other similar non-Islamic acts which no earlier leader could do in Pakistan . He was a visionary of special kind.

He was interested in leading the people by serving them in his own way. There is no doubt that had he been given a chance he would have changed the destiny of Pakistan . Bhutto’s political successors need his political vision and strength to act, avoid his pitfalls and build upon his passion for the poor and the have-nots of the country. They should not grope for his philosophy of life or create one. People of Pakistan need their leaders translate slogans into tangible realities: Roti, Kapra aur Makan. Call it  Bhutto’s philosophy or his mission.

He was a visionary to realise what really beset people of Pakistan and inflamed their passion to realise those objectives: basic human needs. The inheritors of Bhutto’s political legacy have his vision; they only need to  direct their energies towards realising those goals instead of creating a non-existing philosophy for political propaganda. A US cartoonist has rightly  said, ‘There’s a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.’

Information 

impact of Bhutto’s politics on Pakistan is deep-seated, indelible and highly entertaining for a student of history: a philosopher  politician though he was not. His role as politician without the suffix of ‘philosophy’ is great enough to stand him in good stead in the annals of Pakistan history.

First appeared in Pakistan Observer, Islamabad on 10-08-2009