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Thank you to all of you who have come on what is a very important death anniversary for both Pakistan and the world. Thank you especially to Lord Owen, you provide a vital link between then and now. Thank you also to George Galloway, a friend of democracy and a friend of Pakistan for many years; and to Professor Ian Talbot, a historian and scholar who has made studying Pakistan part of his life’s work.
We are here today to commemorate the life of a man, who was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Pakistan – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, an international leader on the world stage. He was also my grandfather.
When I try to think of my first recollection of his existence, I realise that I can’t. I never had the privilege of meeting him, I never experienced the joy of being held by him or of holding his hand, but I have grown up with his constant presence around me – I knew the story of his life without ever having been told it and I have had the honour of studying at Christ Church, Oxford where he also studied – that period of his education which he described as having given him his ‘western mind’ while retaining his ‘eastern soul.’
Like my mother, his life was cut cruelly short. At the age of 51, after lengthy and biased court proceedings he was judicially murdered on 4 April 1979. Thirty-six years ago today.
But I don’t just want to look back, I also want to look forward – to focus on some of the things that I have learnt about him which I believe are as relevant today in Pakistan as they were then.
His vision, his dream to make Pakistan a better place not just for the wealthy few but for the millions; not just for the men but also for the women; not just for Muslims but also for the religious minorities.
To appreciate his life, we also have to cast our minds back to how Pakistan was in the 1970s. Pakistan was still a young country – independent for barely 20 years it had just lost its eastern wing, which had become the independent country of Bangladesh – it had just fought and lost a war with India.
But instead of allowing Pakistanis to give up hope my grandfather revitalised the country. He negotiated a peace with India, brought back 90,000 prisoners of war and regained 5,000 square miles of territory, which had been lost. He restored a faltering country’s pride and set Pakistan on the path to democracy.
Where all had previously failed, he created the consensus to unanimously pass the 1973 Constitution. In a country with different linguistic and ethnic origins this achievement cannot be underestimated. It remains the bedrock of our constitutional stability.
He took politics out of the drawing room – to the man on the street – into the villages, towns and cities across the country. That was the message of the foundation of the Pakistan Peoples Party in 1967.
Under his leadership he formed the Pakistan Peoples Party into a truly national party so that the common man and woman really did feel they had a stake in their country.
Years later, I heard how a political opponent of my grandfather had wept at his death. When asked why he was weeping when he was not even a supporter of the Pakistan Peoples Party, his answer was:
‘No I am not a Pakistan Peoples Party supporter, but it was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who gave me the right to vote; without him, I would never have been able to vote against him.’
Standing here in Britain where many take one man one vote for granted, you cannot underestimate this achievement. Yes, the system may still be flawed but we have a system to build on and that is what is important – and that is the legacy of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
His name remains synonymous with a host of international and domestic accomplishments – from historic agreements at Simla and Tashkent, to his diplomatic rapprochement with China and the Islamic Summit of 1974 held in Lahore.
He was a genius on the international stage, a most consummate diplomat who stood tall at the United Nations, the OIC, and the non-Aligned Movement. Judging by his record, one cannot but feel that he was one of the most brilliant statesmen of his generation.
His passionate belief in an Islamic renaissance had nothing to do with the religious fascism we see today.
As early as 1948, as a young student, he presented a paper on Islamic Heritage in which he wrote and I quote:
‘Many westerners believe that Islam was a danger to Christianity, but this notion is unfounded. At the peak of Islam’s strength, the Christians were treated kindly everywhere and given full liberty to worship according to their ways. The Prophet (PBUH) had frequently stated that the lives, properties and laws of the Christians and Jews were under the protection of God and he said, “If anyone infringes their rights I myself will be his enemy and, in the presence of God, I will bring a charge against him”.’
The Muslim world today is beset by conflict and strife. Fanaticism, intolerance and sectarianism are impeding the march of Muslims into the 21st century. If his alternative vision for the Muslim world, if his work towards peace and cooperation had been allowed to continue, and had been built upon by progressive individuals such as my grandfather and my mother, who knows how different the situation in the world might look today?
While he governed for only four and a half years, during his premiership Pakistan underwent far-reaching reforms. He gave the poor hope with Roti, Kapra aur Makan. His revolutions in healthcare, in education, and with the rights and opportunities he granted to labourers, farmers, industrial workers and women gave birth to the Awami era.
He believed in a strong Pakistan, not reliant on others but self-sufficient and non-aligned. His Research Centres in defence and agriculture, and the drive towards mechanisation laid the basis for a modern, industrial state.
From the Karakoram Highway in the north to the development of Bin Qasim Port in the south, he cast his shadow, opening the country to its neighbours.
Tragically, his assassination in 1979 cut short his achievements. Under the rule of General Zia ul Haq the state fell victim to the beginnings of that religious fascism which we see today when many of the advances made under my grandfather were reversed. During the Zia regime Pakistan had the dubious distinction of being the first country to actually take away rights which had been granted to women.
In order to unravel the democratic process, in the erroneous name of Islamisation Zia introduced a system of behaviour alien to our culture, our history, our laws, our society and our lives.
For those who lived through it, the images of people being flogged and hanged in public were horrific. He institutionalised repression of all political dissent – the period now universally acknowledged as the darkest decade in our history.
It was against General Zia ul Haq’s backdrop of political repression and societal destruction that my mother began her own political struggle – she took up my grandfather’s mantle. Again her life was cut short, by the same religious fanatics spawned by Zia’s regime.
During her last years her constant refrain was against the forces of religious extremism, which she realized – well before others – would threaten the peace and stability of not only our country but also the region and the world.
Today as we are gathered here to remember my grandfather I also wish to remind you of his vision for Pakistan (in his own words):
‘…of a Pakistan whose social standards are comparable to those in parts of Europe. This means a war against illiteracy and ignorance. It means fighting prejudice and obscurantism. It involves the equality of men and women. It demands the mobilisation of the people’s collective energies. It dictates the restoration to the human person, the citizen of Pakistan, of the dignity which is his due. It requires a check on the growth of population and easy access to education and medical care throughout the country. It contemplates better towns and cities and cleaner villages. It poses a hundred challenges. It is a long haul. We have braced ourselves for it.’
Today in 2015, we would like to build on that vision – of a Pakistan working in cooperation to further the democratic process, so that Pakistan has the opportunity of becoming a peaceful, prosperous and progressive state.
It is incumbent on us to reclaim the ideological ground and cultural space ceded to the extremists, where religion provides spiritual solace and does not serve as the basis for violence or division. Pakistan’s original identity is as a people of South Asia, the descendants of the noble Indus civilisation, and the followers of a Sufi tradition who were tolerant of religious diversity and imbued with a love for humanity.
To create a Pakistan which is a pluralistic society – united yet diverse – where people can work, live and travel freely, with dignity and respect we need to confront the challenges – the polarisation – the terrorism – the growing population – the energy and water shortages – and the economic hardships which millions face.
While General Zia ul Haq tried not only to bury my grandfather’s body but also every memory of him, I have been fortunate enough to have found my grandfather in the loving embrace of the poor, the disenfranchised and the less fortunate. Even though General Zia tried to silence him, I hear his voice echo from the majestic Himalayas to the delta of the mighty Indus. I hear his voice in the cries of the mother who has to bury her child, brutally murdered by the Taliban. I hear Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s voice in every anguished cry of the persecuted, and I see him in every Pakistani that still wants Pakistan to be a pluralistic, democratic and modern country.
The face of Pakistan is not General Zia ul Haq or Osama Bin Laden. Pakistan is not the most dangerous state on earth. It is the most courageous. For the true faces of Pakistan are SZAB and all the innocent victims of terrorism; my mother SMBB, the first female Prime Minister of the Muslim world, who sacrificed her life fighting for democracy and the peaceful message of Islam; Shaheed Salman Taseer who spoke in defence of the persecuted minorities; Pakistan’s first Christian federal minister Shaheed Shabaz Bhatti; the more than 150 school children massacred in Peshawar; the heroic schoolboy Atizaz Hasan who embraced a suicide bomber to save the lives of his classmates; our courageous Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousufzai, who did not let a bullet to the head silence her campaign for equality in education.
It is the vast majority of us who are prepared to die fighting these religious fanatics rather than bow before them who are the true faces of Pakistan.
Jeeay Bhutto. Jeeay Pakistan.
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