Forty-five years ago on this day — i.e. April 4, 1979 — Quaid Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was martyred. It was the dark rule of General Zia who in connivance with the then judiciary orchestrated ZAB’s judicial murder.
Last month on March 6, Supreme Court of Pakistan after hearing a presidential reference admitted that ZAB’s trial was unfair, as it lacked due process both at trial and appeals stage. With this, let’s appreciate the determination with which President Asif Ali Zardari filed a presidential reference to reopen the case 13 years ago, and Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who single-mindedly pursued it.
The nine-member bench of the top court was in consensus that while this case cannot be undone as it had attained finality, the past mistakes can help move forward.
How to move forward for correcting the course of history? Only, an admission of no fair trial is not enough. ZAB must be accorded all possible honour by declaring him a National Democratic Hero, as demanded by PPP.
The PPP’s demand is fully endorsed by the National Assembly and the Senate as well as the provincial assemblies of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan. In their resolutions, all the august houses have urged the federal government to officially declare ZAB as a Shaheed and National Democratic Hero, besides conferring upon him the highest civil award, Nishan-e-Pakistan.
Declaring ZAB a National Democratic Hero on the 45th anniversary of his martyrdom — in the aftermath of Supreme Court’s admission, reflection and course correction — would be a befitting tribute to him.
Homage must also be paid to the struggle of Begum Nusrat Bhutto, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and all the PPP workers who sacrificed their lives to establish this truth. A Nishan-e-Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Award must also be announced for workers and activists who fought and sacrificed their lives for democracy in Pakistan.
Shaheed Bhutto’s top most contribution was that he gave political awareness to people and took politics from power corridors to the streets. His tragic death sentence was a piece of evidence of what happened to an individual who fought for this nation. He was a martyred Messiah, who should be offered this tribute posthumously with one voice.
After Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, if there was any national hero of Pakistan, it was Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He fathered today’s Pakistan under 1973 Constitution and rebuilt a broken country as a nation after the breakup of Pakistan in 1971. He took Pakistan from war zone to the zenith of revival, pioneering the atomic programme which made the country’s deterrence unchallenged in the region.
What he did on the economic front was also outstanding. His was a golden era marked by people-centred development as well as achievements on both domestic and foreign fronts. Roti, Kapra aur Makan was not just his manifesto slogan, but his pro-people agenda, as be believed that all power belonged to the masses.
In his book, Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan, Stanley Walport wrote: “No individual in the history of Pakistan — indeed, few people in modern history — have achieved greater popular power or suffered so ignominious a death as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto’s political rise and fall was so meteoric that his name became a legend in the land he once ruled.” Undoubtedly, ZAB is the legend of this land. He himself had said, “If I’m dead, they’ll write songs and poems about me [which] will pass into a legend.”
Not just that ZAB deserves to be declared a National Democratic Hero, school and college textbooks must be added with a chapter about him, also covering those who struggled for restoring and strengthening democracy in Pakistan. The universities must also be encouraged to open a Centre for Excellence on Democracy with scholastic contributions by both young and seasoned scholars.
The Supreme Court’s decision provides a rare chance to review, reflect and reset the past mistakes for strengthening democracy in Pakistan, as per ZAB’s vision, struggle and sacrifices for us and for the generations to come.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2024.
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