Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

President of Pakistan (1971-1973)

• Born: January 5, 1928
• Birthplace: Near Larkana, Sindh, India (now Pakistan)
• Died: April 4, 1979
• Place of death: Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Bhutto founded the left-center Pakistan People’s Party, concerned with the lives of women, the poor, and the dispossessed peoples of Pakistan. His tenure as president and then prime minister inaugurated a short-lived but still influential political dynasty in Pakistan. His legacy continued with his daughter Benazir Bhutto, who succeeded him as prime minister and as party leader before her exile in 1999.

Early Life

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZEWL-fih-kahr ah-LEE BEW-toh) was born in a tribal society near Larkana in Sindh, India (now Pakistan). He was the son of a wealthy wadero, or landowner, and politician named Shah Nawaz Bhutto. Nawaz’s second wife, Kakhi Bai, was a Hindu who converted to Islam and changed her name to Khurshid. Their first son died in childhood and the second died at age thirty-nine. Bhutto was the couple’s third son.

Bhutto was schooled at the elite Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay and then at St. Xavier’s College. In 1943 he married one of his cousins, Shireen Amir. In September, 1947, he enrolled at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In 1949 he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in political science. He was fascinated by the life and career of Napoleon Bonaparte, who became his role model, and he amassed a large collection of books on his life.

On a trip home from California, Bhutto met Nusrat Ispahani. On September 8, 1951, they married in Karachi and then traveled to England, where Bhutto enrolled at Christ Church College, Oxford. He also enrolled at Lincoln’s Inn, London, and was called to the bar in 1953. On June 21 of that year his daughter, Benazir, was born in Karachi. She was followed by a son named Murtaza in 1954, a daughter named Sanam in 1957, and a son named Shahnawaz in 1958. Bhutto taught law at Sindh Muslim College and briefly practiced law in Karachi. He quickly abandoned his legal practice for politics but continued to manage his family’s business and landed interests after the death of his father.

Life’s Work

In 1957, Bhutto was appointed to Pakistan’s delegation to the United Nations and appointed the minister of energy in Ayub Khan’s government. He then served as head of the ministries of commerce, information, and industries, helping to negotiate the Indus Waters Treaty with India in 1960 and an oil exploration contract with the Soviet Union in 1961. He was appointed foreign minister in 1963.

Bhutto transformed Pakistan’s foreign policy into one that was more pro-Islamic and nonaligned. He also established closer relations with the People’s Republic of China by visiting Peking (Beijing) and negotiating military and trade agreements; on March 2, 1963, he signed the Sino-Pakistan Boundary Agreement. He took a belligerent stance toward India and encouraged Ayub Khan to launch operations Gibraltar and Grand Slam in 1965, an invasion of Indian-held territory in Kashmir. In response India attacked Pakistan, leading Bhutto to travel to the United Nations to condemn India. The war lasted two weeks before both sides agreed to a cease-fire and the Tashkent Declaration of January 10, 1966.

The Tashkent Declaration was very unpopular, and Ayub’s popularity plummeted as a result. Bhutto opportunistically criticized Ayub for the final treaty, resigned as foreign minister in June, 1967, and founded the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on November 30. Riots and demonstrations led to the breakdown of law and order, and Bhutto was arrested on November 12, 1968. He was released but continued to demand Ayub’s resignation. Finally, Ayub resigned on March 25, 1969, and the army chief Yahya Khan became president. He called for general elections for December 7, 1970.

During the election campaign the charismatic and popular Bhutto campaigned on the slogan Roti, Kapra aur Makan (bread, clothing, and shelter). The PPP won a majority of the seats for West Pakistan, but in the more populous East Pakistan the Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won an overwhelming victory. Bhutto refused to accept the Bengali Mujibur’s victory and his prime ministry of Pakistan. This outraged East Pakistanis, leading them to declare East Pakistan independent on March 26, 1971, as the new state of Bangladesh . A vicious civil war ensued. India invaded East Pakistan, and the Pakistani army surrendered on December 16. Yahya resigned on December 20, handing power to Bhutto as president, commander in chief, and chief martial law administrator of Pakistan.

Bhutto served as president of Pakistan from 1970 until 1973. He appointed a new chief of the army and released Mujibur from prison. (Mujibur returned to Bangladesh to become its prime minister.) On January 2, 1972, Bhutto announced the nationalization of all the major industries of Pakistan and a new industrial policy that favored labor unions. He fired more than two thousand civil servants who had been accused of corruption. In addition, he instituted land reforms limiting the size of landholdings and distributed more than one million acres to landless farmers. He dismissed the heads of the army when they refused to discipline the police, who had gone on strike. These measures were very controversial, and most of them met with failure.

Bhutto was a powerful leader who attracted ardent followers but equally vehement and powerful enemies. On April 14, 1972, he convened the national assembly. One week later, he rescinded martial law and ordered the development of a new constitution. On July 2, he signed the Simla Agreement with Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, which secured the release of the ninety-three thousand Pakistani prisoners of war held by India and established the so-called Line of Control between India and Pakistan in Kashmir. On November 28, he inaugurated Pakistan’s first atomic reactor.

On April 12, 1973, Bhutto signed the new constitution into law, and he officially recognized Bangladesh in July. In October he gave up the presidency of Pakistan and became its prime minister. Pakistan became an Islamic republic, and between February 22 and 24, he hosted the Second Islamic Summit. Bowing to orthodox pressure, he declared the Ahmadiyya sect to be non-Muslim. He accelerated his economic reform program and built Port Qasim near Karachi. The performance of the economy, however, declined.

As opposition increased, Bhutto turned on his opponents, especially those from the leftist National Awami Party (NAP), founded in 1957 and headed by Abdul Wali Khan. Bhutto soon banned the party. Adding to pressures, Bhutto was accused of ordering the killing of the father of Ahmed Khan Kasuri, a dissident PPP member. On January 11, 1977, the main opposition parties formed the Pakistan National Alliance, although they boycotted the general elections held in March. Bhutto’s overwhelming victory led to cries of electoral fraud.

Following increased opposition and the breakdown of law and order, the chief of army staff, Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq , whom Bhutto had appointed in 1976, staged a military coup on July 4, 1977. A few months later Bhutto was charged with the murder of Kasuri’s father, found guilty, and sentenced to death. Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979.

Significance

Bhutto, one of Pakistan’s most charismatic and colorful leaders, returned Pakistan to civilian rule and reintroduced a parliamentary system of government, which led to a period of democracy. He also created the Pakistan People’s Party, which focused on the concerns of women, the poor, and other politically and socially dispossessed peoples. Bhutto’s death by hanging affected the country immensely, making his memory one of the most controversial in the nation’s history. He was hailed by his supporters as a shaheed, a martyr, and his legacy remains long after his death.

Bibliography

Bhutto, Benazir. Daughter of the East: An Autobiography. London: Hamilton, 1988. Although an account of Benazir Bhutto’s early life, this work is essential for an understanding of the Bhutto family.

Burki, Shahid Javed. Pakistan Under Bhutto, 1971-1977. London: Macmillan, 1988. Burki, a Pakistani economist who served with the World Bank and advised the Pakistan government on the economy, covers all facets of Bhutto’s government. His analysis, however, is particularly useful and authoritative on Bhutto’s controversial economic policies.

Talbot, Ian. Pakistan: A Modern History. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. Britain’s leading historian of Pakistan places Bhutto’s term of office in historical perspective (pages 215-244). A reliable and clearly written guide to “the outstanding political figure of his generation.”

Wolpert, Stanley. Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan: His Life and Times. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. With more than a dozen books to his credit, Wolpert is the most distinguished American historian of India and Pakistan. He is a household name in Pakistan because of his biographies of the country’s founders Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Vividly written and based on primary sources and interviews with Benazir Bhutto and with acquaintances. Recommended.