‘Miracles’ attributed to executed Bhutto

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 18

‘Miracles’ attributed to executed Bhutto

By

PETER NIESEWAND

in Islamabad for

the ‘‘Guardian,” London

If Pakistan’s military rulers ever hoped that by hanging the former Prime Minister, Zulfikar AH Bhutto, they would purge the nation of his influence, that hope must be gone. Bhutto’s ghost dominates the land and grows stronger. For millions, he became a martyr when he died at the end of a rope in Rawalpindi jail early in April. The four others condemned with him for conspiracy to murder still remain alive, with no t ord of when, or indeed if, their executions will take place.

It was the case of E-utto’s defence counsel that the charges against the deposed premier were false, and that the co-defendants were simply “hired accused” who would eventually be reprieved and rewarded. The Supreme Court dismissed his contention, but ordinary Pakistanis are now v. .iting to see if the military ruler, General Zia Ul-Haq ever carries out the sentence of the court as he vowed p blicly he would do. The official explanation for the delay is that the men are being questioned in connection with “other cases.”

Meanwhile, Bhutto the martyr is becoming Bhutto the saint, and the talk sweeping villages and towns i. Pakistan is of the “miracles” he has performed since his death. Mr Bhutto was buried secretly in a small, remote, walled graveyard outside the village of Naudero in his home province of Sind. The r a has become a place of

pilgrimage, with hundreds visiting it every day. In May, 40 days after the exec. tion and at the end of the traditional mourning period, crowds of thousands gathered to watch the final ceremonies. Among them was a pickpocket.

According to the story, the pickpocket moved among the people packed into the graveyard,' relieving them of wallets and watches. As he was pushing his way to the gate to make his escape, he suddenly cried out. in panic — he had gone blind. When people came to his aid, the pickpocket confessed his crimes. Religious leaders called on those in the crowd to check their belongings. When the last watch and wallet had been returned to its owner, the pickpocket's sight was miraculously restored.

“Miracle” number two is claimed to have happened when a woman took a rose which had been lying on Bhutto’s grave and carried it back to her home in Larkana, the dead politician’s former constituency. The woman’s daughter had been sick for months, and no doctor had been able to help her. The woman gave her daughter the rose petals to eat, and when she had finished them, she was cured. The third “miracle” is reported to have taken place in June, after Bhutto’s wife, the Begum Nusrat, and his daughter, Benazir, were released from detention by General Zia. Benazir Bhutto and members of the central executive

of the Pakistan People's Party were holding an informal meeting in Larkana. it was the night of a full moon. During the meeting, the sister-in-law of Pakistan's former Finance Minister, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, telephoned and urged them all to go out and look at the moon. The central executive went immediately into the garden and there, imposed on the moon, they say they saw the features of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

In political terms, it reallv d oes not matter a jot whether the stories are true or not. Flowers are laid on the grave by some visitors, and are taken away by others to perform their “miraculous” work of healing.

Bhutto is as powerful a force now as he ever was, and if General Zia fulfils his promise of holding free elections on November 1”, there is little doubt that Bhutto’s .People's Party will sweep to victory. Three months after his death, the Government still finds it necessary to run reports in the controlled press underlining Bhutto’s many failings, and reminding people what life was like in Pakistan at the time of the army coup. In one edition of the “Pakistan Times” recently, almost a full page was devoted to articles criticising Bhutto. In Pakistan, the good he did lives after him: it is the evil which is interred with his bones. General Zia might wish it otherwise, but a martyr and a saint is a hard

act to follow, and an even harder one to combat at the polls.

At Bhutto's command, the presidency of the Pakistan People’s Party has been passed on to his widow, the Begum Nusrat, but it is far from certain that she will be

permitted to contest the elections. Begum Bhutto has been temporarily disqualified

from politics by the military, pending the outcome of a tribunal which might order her disqualification for several years. The torch is meanwhile in

the hands of his daughter. Benazir, the former president of the Oxford Union, and she is organising the coming political battle. Miss Bhutto’s trump card for the campaign is the “last message” given to her by her father in the death cell, only hours before his execution. She plans to deliver this message to the people of Pakistan at a mass election rally — unless the military stop her. But as a senior People’s Party worker said: “Even if Benazir is in gaol again all we will have to do is to play Mr Bhutto’s old speeches to the crowds* We'll still win.” In fact, an industry has been set up transferring Bhutto’s speeches on to cassette tapes for sale at up to 150 rupees, about sls.

Pakistan’s other political parties are clearly uneasy about the popularity of the People's Party, and in their statements and speeches, dwell at length on the harm done to the country during Mr Bhutto's administration. The President of the Pakistan National Alliance, Maulana Mufti Mahmud, has even reacted to the possibility of either the Begum or Benazir becoming Prime Minister, by saying that rule ; by women is strictly prohibited in Islam, and that an election victory by the People’s Party is therefore “out of the question.” However, Pakistan's con- ; stitution does not debar a woman citizen from any public office, and the feeling here is that if anything stops either of the Bhutto women from assuming the 1 leadership of Pakistan, it is : unlikely to be popular senti- | ment.