Benazir Bhutto
Episode 33 The New Pakistan
A History of India
Michael Fisher (2016)
Film Review
Zfikar Ali Bhutto
Following the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan, the populist socialist Zfikar Ali Butto became its first civilian martial law administrator after setting aside General Yahya Kahn (disgraced after losing one third of his army in Bangladesh – see East and West Pakistan Following Partition from India. Butto would set up his own paramilitary Federal Security Force to help keep the Army in check.
Calling his program Islamic Socialism, he nationalized numerous industries, utilities and hospitals and broke up large landed estates (except for his own family estates), clamped down on burgeoning trade unions and strengthened Pakistan’s alliance with Maoist China. He also launched Pakistan’s first nuclear weapons program.
After forming the Pakistan People’s Party, he organized Pakistan’s second national election in 1977. The PPP’s phenomenal electoral success (95% of the legislative seats) led to accusations of electoral fraud (including assassination of Bhutto’s opponents) and another military coup. The coup leader General Zia Mahajir had Bhutto arrested, tried for murder and other crimes and ultimately executed.
The Regime of General Zia Mahajir
The 1979 the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan significantly empowered Mahajir’s regime after the CIA involved him in recruiting the Muslim freedom fighters for the Mujhahadeen,* routing arms and supply shipments to the freedom fighters and starting Madrasa (strict Wahabi Islamic schools) to train future Islamic terrorist.**
Zia’s regime is also known for instituting a federal Shariat Court with the power to overrule un-Islamic laws and court rulings and for creating Islamic business banks following Islamic anti-usury principles.***
In 1979, Zia also adopted the Hudood Ordinances, establishing Sharia punishments, such as whipping, stoning for adultery and amputation of the right hand.
The Rise of Benazir Bhutto
Zfikar Ali Butto’s daughter Benazir Bhutto (who had been educated at Radcliffe and Oxford) was imprisoned along with her father prior her to her 1984 release to receive medical treatment in Britain.
After working at a distance for two years to revive the Pakistan Peoples Party, in 1986 she returned to Pakistan and was greeted by massive crowds wherever she went. In 1988 General Zia’s death in a suspicious plane crash led to a power vacuum, leading to Benazir’s election as prime minister later that year.
The Rise and Overthrow of Nawaz Shariff
In 1990, Pakistan president Ghulam Ishaq Khan invoked the 8th amendment removing her from office. Nawaz Shariff would replace her as prime minister until he himself was removed from office (via the 8th amendment) for incompetence and corruption. See Hidden History of the Coup Against Imran Khan.
Starting in 1993, Ghulam Ishaq Khan ran the country as president for four years, resigning favor o Sharrif in 1993. In 1999, Sharif was overthrown in a military coup led by army commander General Pervez Musharraf. In 2000, the latter had Sharrif tried on charges of murder, hijacking and terrorism (for refusing to allow Musharraf’s plane to land). Sentenced to life imprisonment, Sharif’s sentence was commuted after he agreed to leave Pakistan (for Saudi Arabia) for 10 years.
Musharraf’s Military Coup
In 1999, Musharraf launched his own military coup, receiving major US support after 9-11, as Pakistan once again became a major conduit for delivering arms and supplies to US troops in Afghanistan. In 2007 Musharraf declared a state of emergency and suspend the constitution. After head Supreme Court justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry proclaimed Musharraf’s actions illegal, the military leader alternatively suspended, restored and suspended him, resulting in massive lawyer protests across Pakistan.
Asif Ali Zadari and The Return of Navaz Shariff
At great risk to herself, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan the same year. Following multiple assassination attempts, was finally killed in December 2007. A wave a sympathy following her murder led to Musharraf’s impeachment and the election of her husband Asif Ali Zardari as president in 2008. After the Supreme Court ordered Zardari prosecuted, Shariff was given leave to stand for office and was re-elected prime minister in 2013.
*Many of the CIA-recruited Mujahadeen were Pakhtun Afghans who fled war-torn Afganistan for refugee camps in Pakistan.
**Employing textbooks printed in Pashto (with CIA funding) at University of Nebraska. See https://www.jstor.org/stable/29768089 and Afghan Freedom Fighter Cherish Old American Textbooks
***When an Islamic bank grants a loan, they acquire shares in the business rather than charging interest. LIkewise instead of interest, bank depositors receive shares in the bank. Islamic banking was never universally adopted in Pakistan.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
, https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/366254/366235
The Most Revolutionary Act 