ZA Bhutto Founds the Pakistan People’s Party in Lahore

And still, even today, left of Pakistan cherishes him.

On that note, let us revisit Bhutto’s tenure, for it is often obscured by historical revisionism that whitewashes and glorifies a deeply corrupt, feudal leadership. A 1979 leaked U.S. Embassy cable provides a useful summary of what it describes as an “extraordinary and paradoxical leader”.

Regarded widely outside of Pakistan, and by many of his admiring countrymen, as a statesman of extraordinary ability, it was the same Bhutto who inspired the disastrous 1965 war with India over Kashmir, and who, more than any other political figure in then West Pakistan, made inevitable the1971 Bangladesh debacle.

In both instances, he skillfully evaded responsibility for the consequences and plucked personal victories from his country’s defeats.

In his dealings with the U.S., Bhutto was in the 60’s a demagogic critic in the style of his own heroes, Sukarno and Nkrumah. After assuming power in 1971, Bhutto anchored his foreign policy on a close relationship with the U.S. until internal pressures in the 1977 campaign to unseat him convinced him that the U.S. could be usefully flogged as a foreign devil seeking his overthrow.

Bhutto revolutionized Pakistani politics with his slogan of “freedom, clothing and shelter.” following limited efforts to institutionalize his revolution, Bhutto turned his back on his original constituency and forged a “traditional” Pakistani political alliance of landlords and bureaucrats -supported by a seemingly tamed military.

Bhutto’s constitution, adopted almost unanimously by supporters and opponents alike, was a model of rational federalism for this ethnically and linguistically divided country. but the ink was barely dry, when Bhutto systematically twisted its spirit and ultimately its letter destroy his enemies and to perpetuate his own rule. — ruthless in his politics, he was equally ruthless in personal relationships. 

By 1977, few of his original close supporters remained with him and those who did had lapsed into sycophancy and suffered repeated humiliations. The eerie silence of his supporters in Bhutto’s final months of agony is testimony not only to the efficiency of the martial law regime but to an ambivalence toward their leader among the cadres Bhutto systematically abused when he held power. — and yet — he retains a hold on the masses that the endless catalogue of his crimes and errors can not obliterate. 

For millions of Pakistanis, it was Bhutto alone who symbolized and personified leadership that cared for their welfare. His repeated betrayals of their interests was overwhelmed in the demagoguery, the spectacular showmanship, the performance on a world stage, which Bhutto gave a Pakistan starved for entertainment and leadership…History will undoubtedly treat him harshly, for the evil that he did will certainly live after him. but the Pakistani masses — whose voice is so rarely heard — will remember him as a man who seemed to care when no one else did.

https://theindusroom.com/2025/11/30/pakistans-left-historical-amnesia-part-1/