Bhutto—harbinger of change

Martyred Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (born on Jan 5, 1928) was globally recognised as one of the most outstanding leaders of his times. Indeed, the more trouble we are in as a nation today the more we lament his absence. He had a towering personality and overwhelming charisma to secure him a permanent niche in the galaxy of the greatest statesmen. As a young civilian minister in Ayub’s cabinet, he showed the generals how to handle challenges that demand tougher decisions. His advent in politics opened floodgates of socio-economic changes of seminal consequences that remain hitherto unmatched.

Bhutto Sahib’s inherent talent got immensely reflected soon after his advent in politics—in his handling of matters related to the formulation of Pakistan’s independent foreign policy, advancement of science and technology, harnessing of nuclear energy-both as a source of cheap power and nuclear bomb. However, what made him a saviour of the nation was the quality of leadership that he responded with to pull out the truncated country from the lowest depths of degradation and disunity it had sunk politically and militarily after the fall of Dhaka.

Notwithstanding his multi-faceted achievements as a nation builder, Bhutto Sahib excelled in mobilising divergent political leadership in a situation where neither the military as a so-called “binding force” nor religion as the sole unifier-could hold the country together. It was his 1973 Constitution unanimously accepted by the elected representatives of the four provinces that salvaged a federal Pakistan and keeps it united to this day.

It was a landmark achievement in the long drawn struggle between the people and the proponents of security state. Although one agrees that extraordinary situations such as ours at this critical juncture demand extraordinary decisions to pull Pakistan’s chestnuts out of fire, one feels the need to dispel some of lethal perceptions that have confounded the nation’s confusion regarding the intent and real purpose behind such moves by powers that be to target the 18th Amendment and NFC Award.

Martyred ZAB--with the support of the elected leadership of the provinces that had earlier raised demand for independence—had resolved that in a democracy military had to act as subservient to Parliament and be accountable to the elected representatives of the people. The Article 6 in the Constitution was to ensure that no Bonapartist played foul with the Constitution. Had General (R) Musharraf not been helped to escape clutches of law and court trial for treason and murders of maryred Benazir Bhutto and Nawab Akbar Bugti, by now he would have been paying for all his sins of omission and commission.

Blowing of hot and cold by their minions threatening a provincial government, are understandably something of pre-emptive pressure to get the constitutional amendment to give extension to the Army Act that authorise the military courts to try terrorists. It came into operation after the APS massacr on Dec 16, 2014 to effectively deal with the curse of terrorism. Since we continue to be in an extraordinary crisis situation— with multi-faceted threats on our borders and continuous blood baths within, logical step would be to re-organise and revamp our security apparatus especially civilian intelligence at the grass root level.

Bhutto Sahib could foresee Pakistan’s growing security needs in a changing world order full of strife. That was the reason he had a crash programme for development of nuclear bomb even if we “have to eat grass”. He revived a rag tag army, rebuild and restructured it, established institutions like Pakistan Steel Mill, Kamra Aeronautical Complex, Heavy Machine Tool factory, Karachi Shipyard for building submarines, Karachi Nuclear Power Plant, KANUPP etc. Even his nemesis usurper General Ziaul Haq who got him executed on false charges paid compliments to him that ZAB had done so much for the armed forces (until 1976) that all the previous governments put together had not.

Relevant to current situation in Pakistan was yet another monumental step by Bhutto Sahib to prepare the nation to defend itself in any eventuality in which its adversary was six times larger than its size with vulnerable borders. He knew that Pakistan could not economically afford to raise the numbers in the standing army to match India. He introduced compulsory military training for the youth of the country in colleges and educational institutions with certain percentage of marks to add to their results at their passing out. It was much like United States, Israel and Switzerland where the young and able bodied are trained and could instantly take up arms in defence of the country.

Bhutto was the first technocrat leader of Pakistan who had a vision that looked beyond ordinary comprehensions. He believed in the preparedness of the entire nation to physically rise to meet any eventuality. According to him standing armies with its “fat and flabby generals” cannot entirely defend a country and this was proved when the erstwhile Soviet Union’s armed forces-largest in the world—and all-powerful KGB—could not keep the country together.

In his vision-numerically small but strong and well trained standing army, equipped with nuclear deterrence and high-tech missile system-a programme that got fruition under martyred Benazir Bhutto—a militarily trained population to carry on guerrilla war if need be— and a sustainable economy that could ensure the greatest good of the largest number-were sure guarantees to a nation’s survival.

One feels that our best defence lies in training our own people. The better their economic condition, the stronger they are, the more is their capacity to defend themselves. We must revert back to Bhutto Sahib’s scheme of training Pakistani people to defend themselves physically and ideologically by reverting back to Quaid’s vision of democratic pluralistic Pakistan with freedom of religion and secular governance for all—irrespective of their caste, creed, colour or gender.

*The writer is former High Commissioner of Pakistan in UK and a veteran journalist.