THE Supreme Court’s March 6 judgement gives valid legal reasons why the trial that led to the verdict ordering Z.A. Bhutto’s execution in 1979 did not meet the requirements of the “fundamental right to a fair trial and due process …”

Decades earlier, Dorab Patel, one of Pakistan’s most illustrious legal minds, called Bhutto’s hanging “a judicial murder”. However, for the people of Pakistan, especially those belonging to the generation that lived through the traumatic 1970s, Bhutto’s murder was the aim of the general — and his flunkies — who seized power through a coup on a date that is part of our national memory: July 5, 1977.

Gen Ziaul Haq seized power in the wake of a countrywide movement launched by a nine-party alliance called the Pakistan National Alliance against the alleged rigging of the general election — something de rigueur in Pakistan if you lose the polls.

Zia promised to the people of Pakistan he would “inshallah” hold elections within 90 days and went on to rule until his death 11 years later.

Initially he showed some sincerity, kept in detention an equal number of leaders from both Bhutto’s PPP and the PNA, and then released them. He had assumed that the PNA’s nationwide agitation and its ability to bring the country to a halt had proved Bhutto had lost his popularity, and a fresh election would give the PNA a sweeping victory.

After his release, Bhutto made a brilliant tactical move and decided to travel to Karachi by train. Huge crowds greeted him at railway stations, making Zia and his PNA supporters realise Bhutto still had his charisma. I was there at Karachi’s Cantonment Station to judge whether the reports about the former prime minister getting huge receptions were true. I perched myself on the steps of a railway bridge and waited, wondering if this was the right perch. And lo and behold, Bhutto’s carriage stopped right in front of me. He was wearing a cream-coloured shalwar kameez, and he had a cold for there was a handkerchief in his hand.

Something told me it was the last time I was looking at him. The next day was perhaps the first of Ramazan, and just to prove that my feelings were wrong I went to his residence, 70 Clifton. There were security people outside, besides many VIPs who wanted to see him, but Bhutto was in conference with the top PPP leadership and no one was allowed in.

What happened at the crucial conference became known much later. Bhutto was clear in his mind and guessed how his enemies would react. He pleaded for an election boycott. The majority opposed him, saying the PNA would be delighted and would claim Bhutto was running away from elections. Bhutto argued that an election without the PPP would mean a sweeping PNA victory, and he would tackle the civilian government once the military was gone.

When the clamour for election continued, Bhutto said one thing repeatedly in Urdu: “Elections hongay? Elections hongay? (Will elections be held? Will elections be held?)

He had read his opponents’ minds correctly, and knew they wanted his blood, because the tycoons whose industrial empires he had nationalised had bankrolled the PNA movement.

Zia and his PNA allies were panicky and wanted the polls ditched. Much later, when Bhutto was dead and the PNA unity had broken up, the former allies went public with how PNA leaders kowtowed to Zia for calling off the elections — a drama Zia was enjoying, pretending to be indecisive about calling off the elections but keen to develop a consensus. Finally, he relented to the joy of his PNA allies, and said he would call off the polls. One leader, according to a PNA veteran, prostrated himself,when the mi­­litary dictator said he would oblige them.

I was there at Karachi’s Nishtar Park, where PPP leader Maulana Kausar Niazi made a brilliant speech full of humour and sarcasm. Then he confirmed what until then was a rumour. “This is the last public meeting and elections are going to be postponed.” An ongoing election campaign was called off!

Bhutto was arrested, and Zia had the audacity to declare what has become a shibboleth repeated ad nauseam and as a holy grail — ‘pehlay ehtesab, phir intikhab’ (accountability first, election later). Ehtesab is the criminal legacy Zia left for subsequent governments, military and civilian, to brazenly persecute the opposition.

Bhutto was buried without his family being shown his face the last time. On Aug 17, 1988, Zia’s plane, C-130, Pak-One, crashed a few miles from the Bahawalpur airfield nose first in the mud close to the Sutlej river.

Bhutto’s widow, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, said in Urdu something that can be condensed thus: “God, I have seen

Thy justice.”

The writer is Dawn’s External Ombudsman and an author.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2024