Bhutto and Zia: The 'mistakes' of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto that formed the basis of the military coup

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 As soon as Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto took over as President of Pakistan, he locked President Yahya Khan in his house and asked General Gul Hassan to lead the army.

He then fired 44 senior officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force, saying "they have become obese and their stomachs have come out."

The defeat in East Pakistan brought the Pakistani army back on its feet and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto took full advantage of it.

A few days later, General Gul Hassan also fell out of his heart and he needed a chief who would blindly obey his every command.

Owen Bennett Jones writes in his book, The Bhutto Dynasty Struggle for Power in Pakistan, that "Bhutto ordered Gul Hassan's dismissal from a senior colleague instead of his stenographer." Following the dismissal order of General Gul Hassan, he asked his trusted colleague Ghulam Mustafa Khar to go to Lahore with General Gul Hassan so that he would not have any contact with Gul Hassan until the order for the appointment of his successor was issued. Don't be

Potential officials opposed to the decision were summoned for a mock meeting and kept there until Gul Hassan's resignation was accepted. Police were deployed on radio and TV stations and the PPP held a public meeting in Rawalpindi with the aim of preventing President Bhutto from gaining public support.

After Gul Hassan, Bhutto appointed his trusted general Tika Khan as the head of the Pakistani army.

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Beating of Jalaluddin Rahim

Within a few months, Bhutto's grave became so large that he began insulting senior party members.

In Bhutto's autobiography, Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan, Stanley Wolpert wrote: 'On July 2, 1974, Bhutto invited Minister for Presidential Affairs Jalaluddin Abdul Rahim or J. Rahim and several senior colleagues to dinner. Dinner was at eight o'clock, but host Bhutto himself did not arrive.

When it was twelve o'clock at night, Rahim placed his glass on the table and shouted, "All of you wait for the Maharaja of Larkana as long as you want. I am going to my house." When Bhutto arrived at the banquet, Hafeez Pirzada told him about Rahim's treatment.

Late last night, the prime minister's security chief went to Rahim's house and beat him so badly that he fainted. When Rahim's son Sikandar tried to intervene in the matter, he too was beaten.

Zia prefers Tika Khan's opinion

When Tikka Khan's tenure ended, he sent Bhutto a list of seven possible successors.

He deliberately did not name General Zia-ul-Haq because he was recently promoted to lieutenant general. But Bhutto stamped his name.

Perhaps the reason was that Zia had left no stone unturned in flattering Bhutto. Owen Bennett Jones writes: 'Many times General Zia offered the sword to Bhutto in return for his services to his country and army. He once called Bhutto not only the unpaid chief commander of the Armored Corps but also sewed a special army uniform for him.

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In Bhutto's autobiography, Stanley Wolpert writes: "Zia never gave the impression that he could stage a military coup. Bhutto never took them seriously. He often made fun of their teeth.

"There was a famous story about him that once Zia was smoking a cigarette, at that moment Bhutto entered the room. Fearing that Bhutto would not feel bad seeing him smoking in front of him, he immediately put the burning cigarette in his pocket. After a while, the smell of burning clothes spread in the room. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto wondered how anyone who was so afraid of him could revolt against him.

Meanwhile, protests against the Bhutto government began across the country. Despite Bhutto's best efforts, law and order did not seem to be restored.

In Lahore, three brigadiers refused to open fire on people. At one point, the soldiers obeyed the order to shoot, but they opened fire on the crowd.

Owen Bennett Jones writes: "Bhutto's biggest mistake was to include Army Corps commanders in negotiations with his opponents."

He writes: 'From Bhutto's point of view, he was trying to accompany the army. But military officers looked at them differently. In his view, Bhutto's move showed that he was weak and not in a position to run the government.

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'Mess' in elections

Despite all the opposition, Bhutto called a general election on March 7, 1977. Ordinary Pakistanis did not believe in the forthcoming election results.
Bhutto's PPP won 155 of the 200 seats in the National Assembly, while the opposition People's National Alliance won only 36 seats despite such publicity.
In the 1970 elections, when the PPP was at its peak of popularity, it received only 39 percent of the vote, compared to 55 percent in the previous election.
Despite a major opposition campaign against Bhutto, he received only 39 percent of the vote.
Referring to the post-election environment, Kausar Niazi writes in his book 'Last Days of Premier Bhutto': 'Bhutto was sitting at the PM's residence with Hafeez Pirzada, Rafi Raza and two of his friends. Looking at Pirzada, he asked: "How many seats will Hafeez have been rigged?" His answer was 'head 30 or 40'.
"Can't we ask the opposition to run for re-election in these seats?" Bhutto said. We will not field a candidate against them in these seats.
Bhutto wanted him to be elected unopposed from Larkana, while his adviser Rafi Raza was strongly opposed. The PNA candidate contesting against Bhutto was offered another seat and was told that he would win unopposed. He did not accept the offer.
As a result, they were abducted so that they could not file their nomination papers. Owen Bennett Jones writes that Hafeez Pirzada had told him that the election mess had started with this incident. Seeing Bhutto, 18 PPP candidates also wanted assurance that no candidate would stand against him.

On the evening of April 1, 1979, General Zia wrote three words in red ink: 'Petition rejected'.

Bhutto could not reach Zia till the end

Leading Pakistani journalist Khalid Hassan wrote in his book 'Rear View Mirror: Four Memoirs':' Niraja Anwar, an adviser to Bhutto, saw a meeting between Bhutto and General Tika Khan shortly before the military coup.

Bhutto said to Tika Khan: 'General, you remember that you opposed making Zia the army chief, now you have to admit that I made the right decision. If there was another army chief, he would have taken over this power by making an excuse of law and order. Seven hours later, Zia did the same.

'Judge reconciles old account'

After his arrest, Bhutto was accused of killing his political rival Muhammad Ahmad Khan Kasuri.

Official witness Mahmood Masood testified that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had ordered him to kill Kasuri.

Victoria Schofield writes in her book Bhutto: Trials and Executions: 'Maulvi Mushtaq Hussain was the head of a five-judge bench. There was an old enmity with Bhutto. When Bhutto was in power, he twice promoted junior judges before him.

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During the hearing, when Bhutto expressed frustration over the order to sit in a specially constructed bench in the court, Mushtaq Hussain said in a sarcastic tone, "We know that you have become accustomed to living a comfortable life.

With this in mind, we have arranged a chair for you in the cage, otherwise you would have sat on the bench like ordinary criminals.

Zia did not listen to the whole world

Mushtaq sentenced Bhutto to death. Bhutto appealed against it in the Supreme Court. In February 1979, the Supreme Court also upheld the High Court's decision by a margin of four to three.

Owen Bennett Jones writes: Never before has a death sentence been handed down in a conspiracy to commit murder, nor have Supreme Court judges agreed on the culprit's sentence and guilt. The sentence also raised questions about whether the accused was still convicted of murder even though he was not present at the scene.

Bhutto also filed a review petition against the decision but it was rejected on the grounds that it did not argue that the decision of the last two stages violated the law.
Several world leaders, including Russian President Brezhnev, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Saudi Arabia's King Khalid, have called for Bhutto's sentence to be commuted.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, James Cleland, wrote three letters to General Zia at the end of which he wrote: Never.' (Pakistan: The Case of Mr. Bhutto, National Archives of the UK, FCO 37/2195)
But Zia had intended to hang Bhutto. Eventually the matter reached the mercy petition.

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In Pakistan, it is not necessary for the culprit or his family to beg for mercy from the President, but still under the pretext that Zia should not hang Bhutto on the pretext that his family has killed him. Immunity, one of Bhutto's sisters, appealed for mercy.

On the evening of April 1, 1979, General Zia wrote three words in red ink: "Petition rejected".