- By Syed Haider Raza Mehdi.
Bhutto was an enigma.
Brilliant and brutal. Part Saint, part Devil. Unfortunately the Devil won!
Inordinate ambition, a massive ego and the betrayal of his own political values got him the end he deserved!
Not for that crime of murder, but for the many unspeakable horrors he committed, especially on his own, like J A Rahim and Mairaj Mohammed Khan, and his political opponents like Mian Tufail, which cannot be repeated here!
He could have turned and moulded this nation into a great power but he couldn’t rise above his own terrible inconsistencies and his personal ambitions!
His politics were schizophrenic. His pendulum swinging from the man of the masses to a ruthless fascist dictator.
A flawed angel and a Devil incarnate, directly responsible for the breakup of Pakistan.
As Pakistan’s only Civilian Chief Martial Administrator, with one stroke of the pen on midnight, 1January 1972, he destroyed Pakistan’s economic engine, it’s educational system and it’s health care, by nationalizing all three.
And then the coup de grace in destroying the bureaucracy, which has since become the handmaiden of all administrations!
He set us back decades including, in my opinion, directly responsible for Zia’s takeover.
He was also cruel, sadistic, vindictive, unforgiving, petty and mean. Never forgot a slight. The last got him the gallows!
Brilliant he was, no doubt.
But not in the mould of great leaders, but that of a charismatic con man!
-Haider Mehdi