A thread about some forgotten facts about Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
1/n

When Bhutto was in the cabinet of Ayub Khan, he categorically opposed Mujib's Six points and even challenged him to debate over it. But after he left the cabinet, he supported the Six points. Uturn?
2/n

Bhutto always claimed in his rallies that he knows the "real" truth about Tashkent Agreement and will reveal it to the people, but that day never came till his death.
On 15th December 1971, he made a fiery speech in UN and said he would rather go back to Pakistan and fight.. 3/n

Yet, he stayed in a hotel in New York till 18th December, the day he was called back to Pakistan to take over the government. Why did he stay?
Bhutto was placed in the government by military officers like General Gul Hassan who revolted against Yahya... 4/n

So, in fact, he was installed in the government by the military. Bhutto also became the Cheif Martial Law Administrator, the only civilian to hold that position and he started a series of "reforms" under his autocratic rule and none of which could be challenged in the court 5/n

He seized the passports of members of rich families and started a series of political victimizations. Here are some examples. Industrialist Habib Ullah Khattak, Banker Shakir Ullah Durrani (father of Tehmina Durrani) were imprisoned without any reason or justification. 6/n

In media he got Altaf Gauhar (editor of Dawn) arrested for criticizing him. Altaf Hussain Quraishi, his brother Dr Ijaz Qureshi from monthly Urdu digest, Mujib Ur Rehman Shami from weekly Zindagi, Hussain Naqi Muzaffar Qadir of Punjab Punch met the same fate 7/n

In political arena he had a falling out with his party member Mukhtar Rana, against whom he registered criminal cases. Tehmina Durrani also writes in her book, My Feudal Lord, that after Mustafa Khar came out against him, on his command, PPP workers freed snakes in his jalsa. 8/n

It caused a stampede and killed many people. He did Nationalization under a martial law order. Couldn't be challenged in any court. It destroyed our industries and put them in the hands of inexperienced bureaucrats. Large scale theft of raw materials from industries. 9/n

Land Reforms were done under another martial law order but it never affected the feudal. They made fake entries to the registers transferring land to their family members by bribing land officials. It never affected Bhutto himself. Instead of making new schools, he took over 10/n

established private institutions and naturally they got ruined by bureaucrats. Some notable names are FC college, Kinnaird, Gordon College. Bhutto also withdrew from Commonwealth without any serious justification that had bad implications on UK-Pakistanis 11/n

Mujib Ur Rehman held new elections when he went back to Bangladesh to address the changed political realities but Bhutto held on to power and never held any elections. Instead used the same elected people as the new assembly. Why? Why did a "democratic" leader need 12/n

martial law orders to implement his will on the people? Bhutto also held a series of secret meetings with Mujib before he was released, the minutes of which are still unknown. What did he discuss and agree with him? 13/n

Sources:
1) Constitutional and Political History of Pakistan by Hamid Khan
2) A brief history of Pakistan by James Wynbrandt

Fin

14/n

Previously, I had made a thread about how Bhutto moulded the new constitution through a series of amendments to suit his personal ambitions. Read that too.

15/n https://twitter.com/ChupShaa/status/1247133772950245377