Now that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s death anniversary has passed, let us consider his life dispassionately. The following thread will outline the opportunism that he displayed all his life as a politician.

Bhutto was inducted into the annals of power by Iskandar Mirza. He famously told Iskandar Mirza that Mirza’s name in history will be written even before that of Mr Jinnah.

After Ayub got rid of Iskandar Mirza Bhutto joined the Cabinet of Ayub Khan first as minister of science and then as foreign minister. Here he was regime’s Goebbels and helped rig the elections against Fatima Jinnah.

He was one of the main architects of the Operation Gibraltar which led Pakistan into a war with India. Later after Tashkent he parted ways with his mentor Ayub Khan who he called daddy. People should read Wolpert’s Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan.

As for 1970 elections Rafi Raza claims that Bhutto told him that the regime helped him win in West Pakistan and that this was how elections were won in Pakistan. Bhutto was regime’s blue eyed boy even in 1971.

Even though Bhutto was ostensibly a secular minded politician, he got Maududi to vet the 1973 constitution to make it more Islamic. Bhutto wanted consensus at all costs.

He then organised that needless Summit conference allowing King Faisal to dictate domestic policy and create sectarian dissension in Pakistan.

The state’s responsibility in 1974 was to put down any violent protests and mobs but instead Bhutto abdicated all responsibility and threw the question to the National Assembly.

During the NA proceedings several PPP MNAs were forced to vote for the 2nd Amendment at Bhutto’s behest. Bhutto wanted to get the religious reactionaries on his side. Ahmadis were dispensable to him.

In 1977 instead of persisting with his own manifesto Bhutto caved in further and banned places of entertainment, made Friday the holiday, banned alcohol, and began to put sectarianism above state’s neutrality.

Despite all this Bhutto could not save himself. After his death General Zia the monster that Bhutto created had Bhutto checked for circumcision because he suspected Bhutto was a Hindu.