Daily Times

Mark Antony, the Roman politician and general is best known for his oration on the body of the assassinated Emperor Julius Caesar. A few years later whilst being a strong ruler, Antony burst out passionately: “Let Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch of the ranged empire fall.” The Tiber is a long river passing through Rome. A point comes in the life of most leaders when they let go of the stoicism required of them while holding high offices and speaking out their minds during rare moments of self-realization.

In Pakistan, almost all of our leaders have had their “Let Rome in Tiber melt” moments, however, as we approach the 4th of April, we are seized by the grave injustice that took away the life of one of our foremost politicians. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto may have had many weaknesses, but in his short tenure, he gave the people of Pakistan their voice and the country honour after the 1971 debacle, a constitution and a nuclear deterrent. The latter enables us to sleep peacefully without the fear of any adversary wanting to vanquish us but let me pause here.

Bhutto’s 1979 assassination came 2,023 years after Caesar. Like Caesar in 44 BC, Bhutto too could not get a decent burial. The space of over two millennia had made no difference to the human psyche. Bhutto himself alluded to the French Revolution of 1789 and remarked, “The French are a civilized nation; they stopped hanging their prime ministers two centuries ago.” He went on to predict that the people of Pakistan would have their Day of Bastille in 1989. Coincidentally, his daughter Benazir Bhutto ruled Pakistan in 1989. Then while Bhutto was assassinated 2023 years after Caesar, two months after 2023 AD, the highest court in Pakistan ruled that he was denied a fair trial at any level. While Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, the opinion of our learned Supreme Court came 44 years, 11 months and two days after Bhutto’s burial.

Like Brutus or Cassius, Bhutto could not claim that the fault was not in his stars as it very much was and he knew it – which explains why he was a man in a hurry.

Similarly, while Caesar was warned to beware of the Ides of March falling on 15th March 44 BC, another soothsayer had warned Sir Shahnawaz and Lady Bhutto in similar terms. When Zulfikar was born, Sir Shahnawaz threw a huge party to celebrate the occasion. A Brahmin soothsayer was invited to see the newborn’s hand. The gentleman let out a loud exclamation on seeing the tiny hand and asserted, ‘Sir Shahnawaz your son will be the ruler but ….” and then he paused. But what asked the knight? “But he will be hanged,” was the reply. Stanley Wolpert claims that after the pause, the soothsayer told Lady Shahnawaz that he could not see what would happen after the child was fifty. Much later, a palmist MA Malik saw Bhutto’s handprint and told Maulana Kausar Niazi, ‘This man’s head will lead him to the gallows.’ Like Brutus or Cassius – the conspirators against Caesar – Bhutto could not claim that the fault was not in his stars as it very much was and he knew it – which explains why he was a man in a hurry.

When Bhutto was deposed and arrested in a conspiracy to murder case, he assigned Mohammad Hayat Junejo as his lawyer and soon Justice KMA Samdani granted him bail. Later Mr Junejo withdrew as Bhutto wanted the case to be argued along political lines while he insisted he would argue it as a criminal case. His father also advised him not to take up the case, as he had been at the dinner given by Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto. He told his son that Mr Bhutto would be wrongly executed and he would get blamed for it.

When the case came before the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice was S. Anwarul Haq, who should never have been there. Haq had joined the Indian Civil Service in 1940, opted for the executive and was Deputy Secretary of Defence when sent for training at the Imperial Defence College in London in 1955. He returned in 1956 and after his promotion as Joint Secretary of Defence curiously opted for the judiciary. He even agreed to a demotion and was appointed District and Sessions Judge Karachi. His stratagem worked as the British trained defence expert was Judge, Lahore High Court by 1959. Bhutto appointed him to the Hamoodur Rehman Commission and the Supreme Court in 1972 and later as Chairman Pay and Services Commission in 1976. He served as acting President as well.

Bhutto who had remained relatively stoic throughout his two trials sent the final blow to Haq after getting news of the narrow split judgment. His ‘let Rome melt in Tiber’ moment had arrived. According to Victoria Schofield, he told Haq, ‘This earth has no place to bury the document you have drafted’ and predicted that the Chief Justice would be ‘haunted and tormented until the last breath’ of his ‘pitiable life’.

Meanwhile, three acquitting judges Dorab Framroze Patel, Muhammad Haleem and Ghulam Safdar Shah emerged as shining stars for resisting immense pressure in the sordid process. April 4 being a public holiday in Sindh, the High Court of Sindh declares Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Shaheed (martyr) in the holiday notice.

When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto married, he had told his wife Nusrat, ‘I want to go up in the sky like a shooting star, light up the sky for a while and then disappear forever.’ He was only 43 when he became president and 49 when he was deposed and incarcerated. He was executed when he was 51 years old on April 4, 1979. The soothsayer’s prediction had come true. The American Human Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the same date in 1968 while former Iranian Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda was assassinated three days after him on April 7, 1979. Bhutto’s last words were, ‘finish it’ while Hoveyda’s last words were, ‘it wasn’t supposed to end like this.’ King’s last words had been, “Be sure to sing Blessed Lord tonight – and sing it well,” May they all rest in eternal peace!

The writer is a senior global health and public policy specialist.