Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Recollections and remembrances

succeeding summer he took the Aga Khan to visit the area and thus paved theway for the launching of the Aga Khan Foundation a venture designed towardsthe socio-economic betterment of the area. There are numerous and endless otherinstances when he was similarly moved while visiting the other tribal areas.These visits became the forerunners of the launching of a massive socio-economicdevelopment programme discussed earlier.COURAGEOn many occasions I was witness of his courage. In August 1973, thegovernmental writ was extended to the upper Mohaivands and Nawagao area ofBajaur - an area, until the time accepted as an area of Afghan influence and notvisited by any governmental functionary-since 1935. In November 1973 whenproceeding on a tour of the said area, the intelligence Agencies informed theProvincial Governor (Mr. Aslam Khan Khattak) that LMGs had been located onhill-tops so as the shoot down the Prime Minister’s helicopter. Mr. Bhutto notonly decided to continue the tour but, intact, addressed an open public meeting -much to the anxiety of then Governor NWFP. The same story in a differentsetting (i.e. Niaz Ali’s guns) to be repeated in North Waziristan, here, too, the visitwas undertaken and a public meeting addressed by the Shaheed against theadvice of the agencies.The high water mark was, of course, the incident at Lakaro (Upper Mohamand)in 1976. Here he not only walked in procession with armed tribesmen (who out ofsheer joy kept tiring their traditional vollies) but even pulled the firing lanyard ofa country made cannon!The acid test of his courage came in the abject privations of his incarceration. Hemet the privations and squalor with courage and fortitude and did notcompromise on personal dignity as was reflected in his address to the SupremeCourt and met his death with elan like a true revolutionary and became a legend.CONCLUSIONThe revolutionary party that he founded exists and subsists because it was notfounded through artificial insemination or by means of an embryo transplant butwas a response to the conditions obtaining within the society. It was the peoplewho created it. It will exist and survive forever not because of its economic ormaterial power or strength but because of its moral strength and of its ability toinspire the down-trodden masses. The revolution initiated by Shaheed mayadvance or regress or it may, at time, even be frustrated but each succeedinggeneration of revolutionaries (presently Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto) are honourZulfikar Ali Bhutto, Recollections and Remembrances; Copyright © www.bhutto.org 97