Larkana became famous because of
Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto and his descendants who made history by their charismatic
personalities, unmatched bravery, and supreme sacrifices. The family of Bhutto
is a symbol of sacrifices and the graveyard of Ghari Khuda Bakhsh demonstrates
the love of the Shuhada for their beloved country, Pakistan.
Starting from Sir Shah Nawaz
Bhutto, the father of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was born in Sindh and
got his early education at Sindh Madrassah in Karachi and later at St. Patrick's
High School in Karachi.
He had also received the honors
of Cambridge Assessment International Education (CIE) followed by knighthood.
In 1921, at the age of 33, he started his career as a politician and entered
the Legislative Council of the Bombay Province.
In 1931 he attended the Round
Table Conference as a leader of Sindhi Muslims demanding separation of Sindh
from the Bombay province and in 1934 he became a minister. Due to his tireless
efforts and political wisdom under the Government of India Act, 1935, Sindh was
granted the status of a separate province on April 1st, 1936 and Sir Shah Nawaz
Bhutto became the Chief Adviser to the Governor of Sindh. He also led the Sindh
United Party and because of his effective campaign in 1937 Elections, the Sindh
United Party emerged as the largest party by winning 21 out of 60 seats. It
must be mentioned here that early in 1947, Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto joined the
council of ministers of Muhammad Mahabat Khan–III, the Nawab of Junagadh in the
modern-day province of Gujarat, as Dewan – Prime Minister. Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto
had a great role in accession of Junagadh (Gujrat) to Pakistan as Dewan and on
15th August 1947 announced the accession of Junagadh to Pakistan. The
Government of Pakistan accepted the accession on September 13th, 1947. However,
the Hindu citizens of the State revolted, leading to several events and also a
plebiscite, resulting in the integration of Junagadh into India. Pakistan
Postal Services had issued a commemorative postage stamp in his honor in its
'Pioneers of Freedom' series.
The second personality born in
the Bhutto dynasty was Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was born on January 5,
1928 in Larkana and jolted the world both by his life and tragic judicial
murder. He ruled the hearts of people of Pakistan and was admired
internationally for his vision, wisdom and charismatic personality. He was a
great statesman, a democratically elected Prime Minister, a popular leader, a
President, and an architect of the Constitution of Pakistan and history.
Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the founder of Pakistan's Nuclear Programme and
because of his administrative and aggressive leadership to lead this nuclear
deterrence Programme he is the great benefactor of this nation and known as
Father of Nuclear Deterrence Programme. By empowering the country as Nuclear
Power, he changed the fate of Pakistan and made our defence as invincible. He
had said “We (Pakistan) will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of
our own (Atom bomb). We have no other choice!” and by his tireless efforts and
brave actions, he proved his words.
In his prophetic letter to the
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on April 26, 1945, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
wrote “You, Sir, have brought us on one platform, less than one flag, and the
cry of every Muslim should be onward to Pakistan. Our destiny is Pakistan. Our
aim is Pakistan. Nobody can stop us. We are a nation by ourselves and India is
a subcontinent. You have inspired us and we are proud of you. Being still in
school, I am unable to help the establishment of our sacred land. But the time
will come when I will even sacrifice my life for Pakistan."
Shaheed ZA Bhutto was handed over
the country in 1971 when it was fractured and people were demoralized and had
lost their faith in rulers. He struggled day and night to heal the wounds of
the nation and to restore their faith and hopes. With unmatched visionary
leadership, he restored confidence in the people of Pakistan which is a source
of inspiration for the well-being of the country and source of strength for the
people. On July 5, 1977, General Ziaul Haq imposed martial law, the first
democratically elected Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and all his cabinet
ministers were arrested and all assemblies were dissolved. The Constitution of
Pakistan was abrogated and the civil rights were set aside and the country was
left lawless. The military coup, unfortunately, was endorsed by none but the
Supreme Court of Pakistan and a dictator was given free hand to rule the
country who later cultivated the seeds of terrorism, extremism, sectarianism
and begun a culture of Kalashnikovs and heroin which later took a thousand lives
till today.
On the fake charge of murder, ZA
Bhutto Shaheed was judicially murdered by sold judges of the High Court and the
then-Supreme Court. When Justice KMA Samdani of the Lahore High Court found the
evidence against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Shaheed as contradictory and incomplete
and released him on September 13, 1977, General Zia sacked Justice KMA Samdani
from his post. Three days later on the night of September 16, 1977, army
commandos climbed the walls of Al-Murtaza in Larkana and arrested him again.
Ironically, the trial of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto started on October 24,
1977 in the High Court of Lahore, instead of the lower court to deprive him of
one level of appeal. Through a pre-planned conspiracy, five new judges headed
by acting Chief Justice of LHC Molvi Mushtaq Hussain who was Zia’s family
friend were appointed.
It was in mid-1989, while sitting
on the 4th floor of the FIA HQ in my office where I happened to see the murder
case file where Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was implicated. Let me refer here
the note portion of the then Director Law of FIA who had the moral courage to
pen down the reality that the bullets shown to have been used in the murder of
Mohammad Ahmad Khan Kasuri did not match with the weapon in question allegedly
used by FSF official who was declared as the killer. Director/Law had killed
the fabricated abetment theory against ZAB by the prosecution under pressure.
The file is full of shocking criminal and intellectual dishonesties of
replacement of the first 164 statement of Masood Mahmood recorded by Agha
Ghazanfar, with another statement of Masood Mahmood recorded by another
magistrate. Qureshi from Lahore falsely implicated ZAB in return of his
migration to the USA under enough pressure. President Asif Ali Zardari in April
2011 sent a Presidential Reference to Supreme Court seeking to reopen the case
of former Prime Minister and PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Shaheed but no
justice was ever delivered to PPP.
Bhutto family is unarguably a
paradigm of tragedies and sacrifices. They have sacrificed their lives but did
not bow, starting from the youngest son of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the
Shahnawaz Bhutto. He being the youngest son sacrificed his life fighting the
tyrannical regime of Zia against his father’s imprisonment and execution. When
his father Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was put under house arrest, Shah Nawaz
Bhutto left for Lahore where he delivered the first ever-political speech of
his life and increased the morale of party workers. He was the most
intelligent, aggressive and a ditto copy of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It was
understood that General Ziaul Haq will not spare Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
and will do utmost efforts to eliminate him.
During this period, Shaheed
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto remained in jail and Shahnawaz Bhutto also went to
Afghanistan where he got married to the daughter of Afghan-American diplomat
and finally both brothers shifted to Cannes city of France. He was continuously
chased by General Ziaul Haq being very scared of him because of his very
aggressive nature. Finally, he was killed in very mysterious circumstances in
1985, when he was just 26. His murder was done in a highly suspicious manner where
he died without medical aid in his flat in Cannes, France. I in the capacity of
Director FIA along with my team, on the directions of then Prime Minister
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir investigated this murder case with the help of the French
police. My report on this murder was submitted to the then PM in my capacity as
Director FIA and it has the full background and details who did it and how the
war poison was used to kill him. The investigation proved that he was murdered
by design and the suspects were allowed to fly away to the USA pending the
investigations and trial. Justice is awaited by the family for the beloved
Shaheed Shahnawaz Bhutto. The details of the investigations will be made public
very soon in my forthcoming book.
Shaheed Murtaza Bhutto the elder
son of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and brother of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto went into exile before the trial of his father. Both brother and sister
tried their best and lobbied in Europe and the Middle East to save their
father. Shaheed Murtaza Bhutto, in the beginning, stayed in Afghanistan where a
PIA plane was hijacked through a planned conspiracy where Salamullah Tipu
played the role against the two brothers, who was later on also eliminated. At
the same time, Shaheed Murtaza Bhutto and Shaheed Shahnawaz Bhutto got married
and migrated to Syria.
After the hanging of Shaheed
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, both the brothers went to Cannes, France and both remained
there for a longer period. He eventually decided to return to Pakistan where he
started his aggressive politics and he was murdered in very suspicious
circumstances near his residence at 70 Clifton, Karachi on 20 September 1996.
The investigations were carried out followed by findings of Supreme Court Judge
Justice Aslam Zahid and it was declared goof-up by the police but the murder of
SHO Haq Nawaz Sial created suspicion and let’s not forget that the then
President Farooq Leghari used Murtaza Bhutto’s murder as an excuse to oust
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto which explained the reasons behind this
cold-blooded murder.
Coming towards Shaheed Benazir
Bhutto, I must say that it was a misunderstanding of General Ziaul Haq that he
will vanish PPP and the legacy of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto by his judicial
murder as there was another Bhutto – Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto - who led
the party and nation in very right directions and worked for subjugated
sections of this society and wellbeing of the country till she sacrificed her
life in this struggle. One by one, each Bhutto was murdered through pre-planned
international conspiracies duly abetted by local handlers but Bhuttos still
rule on the heart.
The sun will rise every morning
on 27th December and life will continue, but we will never be able to see
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. It was an early morning of 17th October when
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was giving goodbye kisses to Bakhtawar and Aseefa in
the outer lounge of her house in Dubai. She hugged the kids again and again and
walked her usual elegant style and sat in the car. She opened her car window
and kept on waving her hands till out of sight. It was July 2007, when a
Central Executive Committee meeting of PPP was held at my house in London where
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto decided to return to Pakistan against all the
odds. Everyone advised her about life threats and security issues, but she
remained firm about her decision without any fear despite having a clear
understanding of the severe risks she was going to face. She believed that
General Musharraf was using the security issue as a ploy to keep her out of
Pakistan and away from her workers whom she loved the most, as Musharraf feared
that it would diminish his power and raising the chances of her victory in the
elections.
Finally, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto announced her return on 14th September 2007 and it ultimately distressed
General Musharraf and his political colleagues who kept emphasizing the life
threats against her by extremist groups during election campaigns. They also
made several offers to her to finalize a power-sharing agreement, but she
always denied it. Several discrete meetings in 2005 and 2006 in Dubai followed
between Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, General Musharraf, and his close
associates but they never produced a concrete agreement leading to the
restoration of democracy in the country. Finally, two one-on-one meetings
between Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and General Musharraf were held on 24th
January 2007 and 27th July 2007 in Abu Dhabi. Few of the advisers of Musharraf
and I myself arranged these meetings. They met again in August and September of
2007 when Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto expressed her concerns on many things
including free and fair elections and lifting of 3rd time ban on the
premiership.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto
frustrated all efforts of General Musharraf to block her return to Pakistan and
despite all threats and security concerns she landed at Karachi on 18th October
2007. She was moved to see the enormous crowd of people waiting at the airport
to welcome her but her excitement to see her people and land vanished by twin
blasts which took the lives of 149 of her devotees while injuring 402 jiyalas.
It was a miracle that Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto remained safe in this
massive attack but even then I found her fearless who continued her political
struggle.
The police even refused to
register the case after Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto attempted to file a
complaint of the Karsaz Incident. The evidence was hosed away within one hour
without securing the vital evidence and the case never advanced as the evidence
was already destroyed through hosing off the crime scene. Surprisingly, the
suspected mastermind of October 18 assassination attempt namely Qari Saifullah
Akhtar, along with his two sons and other suspects, were arrested but released
after few days claiming lack of evidence against them. He along with his sons
subsequently fled to Afghanistan, where he had been running a training camp for
al-Qaeda.
Under the PPP government, the
dormant investigation of the case was activated, but DSP Nawaz Ranjha of Karachi
police who was entrusted to investigate the case was mysteriously killed when
he was close to arresting the attackers. However, being undeterred of the previous
attempt on her life and continuously pouring in security threats, Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto decided to keep on leading the election campaign. On 26th December 2007, we along with Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto reached the airport on
the way to Peshawar for addressing an election rally where she addressed a massive crowd of people. She was quite happy to have such a successful public
gathering at Peshawar. There too, we faced an unsuccessful and foiled murder
attempt.
On the dark evening of 27th
December 2007, our nation was bereaved of the great loss of Shaheed Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto at the hands of those who never wanted Pakistan to progress by a
devoted leader like her. On 27th December 2007, the Interior Ministry issued a number of warnings concerning the possible terrorist attacks on the campaign event
of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto at Liaqat Bagh, Rawalpindi. The government
was demanded to take foolproof security measures against the threats, yet it
did not take any proper measures or issued specific instructions to the
provincial authorities to ensure her protection. The federal government failed
to execute the responsibility to protect her by not detailing full and
comprehensive security as per the Blue Book. Due to lack of security of Shaheed
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the terrorists finally managed to reach the proximity
of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and assassinated her through a suicide bomber while
she was leaving from Liaqat Bagh after having addressed the public meeting.
There is no doubt about who killed her, who conspired and executed the
conspiracy and who facilitated their conspiracy. The police under the
instructions of the government hosed off the scene after one hour and 20
minutes, which action helped the destruction of vital evidence. After her
martyrdom, a golden chapter of Pakistani politics was closed forever; however,
none can put her legacy to death. The 27th December shall always be marked as
the Black Day in the history of Pakistan refreshing our sad memories associated
with Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
The Article was publsihed in The News on December 27, 2019 and the link to the article is https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/589464-larkana-soil-of-shuhadas-of-bhutto-family-father-daughter-and-two-sons
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