Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Recollections and remembrances

A HAPPY MAN ALWAYSAmeer BegumWe passed our childhood clays together and I was engaged at the age of 25 withShaheed Bhutto. Every thing was carried out traditionally in village MirpurBhutto, where my father the cousin of Shaheed Bhutto was dwelling. Later I leftfor Bombay, where Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Saheb was busy studying and I returnedback when Pakistan came into being. I don’t remember the exact date of leavingBombay, but what I remember as the three years tenure I stayed there and mostprobably it was 1944, when I left my village for Bombay. When Shaheed BhuttoSaheb and I were engaged both mine and his fathers were alive and Bhutto Sahebset out for London to take studies. Though my father was thinking about thedifference in our ages but my in-laws did not give more importance to it, sayingthat everything was being done within family and it was purely a family matter.I don’t know exactly when Shaheed Bhutto returned to Pakistan but I could onlysay that as soon as he came back he started teaching Law in Sindh Muslim LawCollege and at that time I was living in nay village and he used to visit Nauderowhile practicing law. Things around me were good enough to speak about hishigh thinking’s. He as always pointing towards the picture of Mr. Jinnah in hisroom and was wishing to become a leader of Mr. Jinnah’s caliber after completingstudies in England. Though my mother-in-law did not favour him going andliving abroad but he was a man who had constantly been pressing upon hisintentions and that speaks of the volume of his determination at that age and time.We shared happiness and sorrows. He respected me. He tried to make cue realizethat we were from same family and sometimes he talked of his mind to marryagain, for which he had formed opinion that I could not company him breakingthe family traditions of purdah. But he always promised for fulfilling thecommitments of remaining with me at any cost he told me he will have anotherwife but after completing education. He respected me a lot and usually asked mefor settling down local problems in Naudero myself. Shaheed Bhutto usuallyvisited Naudero on Eids.Q. Did you ever accompany Bhutto Saheb any where?A. No, I did not, because I preferred to remain inside the home. Once therewas a party in the honour of Bhutto Saheb, his friends expected me to be there,but Mr. Mashooq Bhutto, the brother of Mr. Mumtaz Ali Bhutto told them thatBhutto’s wife would not attend it because she did not like to come in public. “Noone identifies me in Karachi. Even in Larkana I am unknown to people. If I comeout in Larkana without burka people will not recognize me. They have never seenZulfikar Ali Bhutto, Recollections and Remembrances; Copyright © www.bhutto.org 22