Loss of faith: The man who would have died for Bhutto

Ibrahim wrote a letter to Ziaul Haq offering his and his family’s lives in exchange for ZAB’s.

PESHAWAR:

They don’t make Jiyalas like Mohammad Ibrahim anymore. While many claim they would shed their blood for the Bhuttos and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Ibrahim was one of those who truly meant it. 

In July 1978, he wrote a letter to then president General Ziaul Haq asking to hang him and his family but to spare the life of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The letter, however, did not save any lives.  Instead, Ibrahim had to face flogging, torture and finally the ignominy of being ignored by the PPP itself. Nearly 35 years later, he still carries a copy of the letter that changed his life.

Written in incomplete Urdu sentences, it reads: “You imprisoned Bhutto and now the Supreme Court has awarded him a death sentence. My family and I earnestly request you to spare Bhutto’s life and hang us instead.”

He also sent a copy of the letter to the PPP’s newspaper Musawaat. It was endorsed by then PPP president of Malakand, Haji Mohammad Zaman. Ibrahim, who also belonged to Malakand, had joined the PPP in 1972.

He requested the presidential staff to forward the letter to the president. “Otherwise, you will be answerable to God in the hereafter,” he wrote. The letter also included the names of his wife and four daughters.

While admiring his bravery, a senior PPP member told him “you are mad for writing a letter to Zia.”

His passionate appeal came at a high cost. A few days after he sent the letter, an army major who identified himself as Zulfiqar, approached Ibrahim and asked him to deny writing it. He refused, and the price he paid for his conviction was to be flogged at the Grassy Ground in Mingora. It took him 18 days in hospital to only partially recover from this punishment.

Ibrahim was then jailed for three months and never fully recovered from the torture he was subjected to by Zia’s enforcers. Now of an advanced age and working as a cobbler in Shaheen Gali, Batkhela, Ibrahim’s health deteriorating because of a lack of proper medical care.

He suffers from arthritis and doctors say he may also have problems with his kidneys and lungs. They can’t be sure because Ibrahim doesn’t even have the money to pay for proper tests, let alone treatment.

“A single test costs Rs18,000 and a poor person like me cannot afford that,” he said.

He says he has written “thousands of letters” to the PPP leadership since it first came into power in 1988, but has received little or no help.

Ibrahim’s clothes are worn, his beard unkempt and the expression in his eyes is that of a man who has been beaten. But it wasn’t the torture that broke him; it was the neglect of those for whom he offered his very life. “I was hoping the party I once served could take care of its workers, like me, who suffered for Bhutto.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2013.