WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are opening 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:05.559 a file that is, without any exaggeration, one 00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:08.320 of the heaviest, most complex, and I'd say arguably 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:11.220 most tragic dossiers in modern political history. 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:16.100 We're looking at a figure who essentially crafted 00:00:16.100 --> 00:00:20.219 the blueprint for a nuclear -armed nation, split 00:00:20.219 --> 00:00:23.039 a country in two, and then ended his own life 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:25.640 on the gallows. Yeah, we're talking about Zulfikar 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:28.679 Ali Bhutto. Exactly. And this is a man who is... 00:00:28.890 --> 00:00:31.070 quite literally the definition of polarization. 00:00:31.469 --> 00:00:34.310 Oh, absolutely. To some, he's a martyr for democracy. 00:00:34.429 --> 00:00:37.009 To others, he's this Machiavellian villain who 00:00:37.009 --> 00:00:39.070 broke Pakistan. There's almost no middle ground. 00:00:39.170 --> 00:00:40.350 There really isn't. And I was reading through 00:00:40.350 --> 00:00:42.390 the source material, this extensive biographical 00:00:42.390 --> 00:00:45.450 record we pulled together, and the contradictions 00:00:45.450 --> 00:00:47.409 are just screaming at you from every single page. 00:00:47.490 --> 00:00:49.469 They really are. I mean, here is a guy who is 00:00:49.469 --> 00:00:52.429 a Western educated aristocrat, studied at Berkeley 00:00:52.429 --> 00:00:54.869 and Oxford, you know, wore several rose suits, 00:00:55.070 --> 00:00:57.689 probably drank scotch. Right. Yet he branded 00:00:57.689 --> 00:01:01.030 himself. The leader of the people. The leader 00:01:01.030 --> 00:01:03.710 of the people. He was a champion of the poor, 00:01:03.869 --> 00:01:08.329 who was also himself a feudal lord. And the contradictions 00:01:08.329 --> 00:01:10.769 don't stop there. I mean, he was a Democrat who 00:01:10.769 --> 00:01:12.989 gave Pakistan its first consensus constitution. 00:01:13.189 --> 00:01:16.450 A huge achievement. A huge deal, yeah. But he 00:01:16.450 --> 00:01:19.010 also ruled for a time as a civilian chief martial 00:01:19.010 --> 00:01:21.969 law administrator. The two things just don't... 00:01:22.379 --> 00:01:24.700 They don't seem to fit together. It plays out 00:01:24.700 --> 00:01:26.819 like a Shakespearean tragedy. It really does. 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:29.239 And what's wild is that this story isn't just 00:01:29.239 --> 00:01:32.879 history. It's not some dusty archive. I saw in 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:36.019 the notes that as recently as March 2024, the 00:01:36.019 --> 00:01:38.239 Supreme Court of Pakistan revisited his trial. 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:40.780 That's right. Just a few months ago. 45 years 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:43.359 after his execution, the highest court in the 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:45.819 land officially gave an opinion that he didn't 00:01:45.819 --> 00:01:48.079 get a fair trial. So they admitted it. They admit 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:49.780 it. So this isn't ancient history at all. It's 00:01:49.780 --> 00:01:52.099 a wound that is still very much open in the political 00:01:52.099 --> 00:01:54.760 psyche of South Asia. The ghost of Budo is still 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:57.819 a very real player in Pakistani politics. OK, 00:01:57.900 --> 00:01:59.719 let's unpack this. We have a massive amount of 00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:02.519 ground to cover. We need to look at his meteoric 00:02:02.519 --> 00:02:07.379 rise, the absolute catastrophe of 1971, the Islamic 00:02:07.379 --> 00:02:09.500 bomb and, of course, the judicial murder. Mm 00:02:09.500 --> 00:02:13.580 hmm. But let's start at the beginning. Who was 00:02:13.580 --> 00:02:16.919 Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto before he became this this 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:19.879 legend? To understand the man, you have to understand 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:23.180 the soil he grew up on. He was born in 1928 in 00:02:23.180 --> 00:02:25.439 Sindh, which was then part of British India. 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:27.719 And he wasn't just born wealthy. He was born 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:31.639 into like feudal royalty. OK. His father. Sir 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:34.319 Shahnawaz Bhutto was a massive figure. He was 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:37.120 the Dewan, or prime minister, of the princely 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:39.900 state of Juniga. So he grows up seeing power 00:02:39.900 --> 00:02:42.319 being wielded at a very, very high level. He's 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:44.240 not learning politics from books. He's seeing 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:46.360 it at the dinner table. Exactly. But he doesn't 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:48.580 stay in that feudal bubble. And this is the first 00:02:48.580 --> 00:02:51.300 pivotal shift. He goes to the United States for 00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:53.400 his education. He lands at the University of 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:55.360 Southern California and then transfers to UC 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:57.599 Berkeley. And this is the late 1940s we're talking 00:02:57.599 --> 00:02:59.840 about. Late 40s. So you can imagine Berkeley 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:03.120 in the late 40s. For a feudal kid from Sindh, 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:04.819 it must have been a completely different planet. 00:03:05.020 --> 00:03:06.520 Oh, it must have changed his entire worldview. 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:08.699 It absolutely did. And at Berkeley, he's not 00:03:08.699 --> 00:03:11.120 just, you know, going to parties. He is devouring 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:13.639 society. socialist theory. He's reading Marx. 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:16.400 He's actually giving lectures on campus debating 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:18.939 whether socialism can be compatible with Islamic 00:03:18.939 --> 00:03:21.819 heritage. He's building this intellectual framework 00:03:21.819 --> 00:03:23.879 that would later define his entire political 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:26.479 career. Right. But there is something else that 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:29.319 happens while he's there that is just it's crucial. 00:03:29.500 --> 00:03:31.479 The notes mention he was in the U .S. when the 00:03:31.479 --> 00:03:33.599 Soviets tested their first nuclear weapon. Yes. 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:37.379 In 1949. Yeah. And he witnessed the reaction 00:03:37.379 --> 00:03:40.060 in the United States firsthand. He saw the fear, 00:03:40.199 --> 00:03:43.020 but he also saw the respect and the sudden shift 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:46.520 in global power dynamics. He realized right then 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:48.539 and there that nuclear capability wasn't just 00:03:48.539 --> 00:03:51.039 about a big explosion. It was about sovereignty. 00:03:51.580 --> 00:03:54.639 It was the currency of power. If you had the 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:57.539 bomb, the world just, it treated you differently. 00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:00.539 That is a fascinating connection. So the seed 00:04:00.539 --> 00:04:03.199 for the Pakistani nuclear program wasn't planted 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:05.860 in some war room in the 70s. Nope. It was planted 00:04:05.860 --> 00:04:09.460 in a dorm room in Berkeley in 1949. Precisely. 00:04:09.819 --> 00:04:12.360 After Berkeley, he goes to Oxford Christ Church 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:14.949 College to study law. Then he gets called to 00:04:14.949 --> 00:04:17.269 the bar at Lincoln's Inn. So by the time he's 00:04:17.269 --> 00:04:19.589 done, he's polished, he's brilliant, he's incredibly 00:04:19.589 --> 00:04:23.170 charismatic, and he is just fiercely ambitious. 00:04:23.610 --> 00:04:25.529 And when he returns to Pakistan, he doesn't just 00:04:25.529 --> 00:04:28.509 want to be a lawyer. Oh, no. He wants to rule. 00:04:28.629 --> 00:04:31.550 And he rises fast. The sources say he became 00:04:31.550 --> 00:04:34.189 a cabinet minister in 1958. He was the youngest 00:04:34.189 --> 00:04:36.509 member of the cabinet. Yeah, first under President 00:04:36.509 --> 00:04:38.910 Iskandar Mirza and then under the military ruler, 00:04:39.069 --> 00:04:42.189 General Ayub Khan. You've got to picture this. 00:04:42.350 --> 00:04:45.329 He's in his early 30s, surrounded by these old 00:04:45.329 --> 00:04:48.329 generals and stuffy bureaucrats, and he is outshining 00:04:48.329 --> 00:04:50.290 every single one of them. But the real turning 00:04:50.290 --> 00:04:52.310 point, the moment Bhutto becomes Bhutto, the 00:04:52.310 --> 00:04:54.709 figure we know, is when he becomes foreign minister 00:04:54.709 --> 00:04:57.629 in 1963. Yes. This is where he starts to really 00:04:57.629 --> 00:04:59.910 steer the ship. This is where he starts shifting 00:04:59.910 --> 00:05:02.610 Pakistan's foreign policy, right? Because up 00:05:02.610 --> 00:05:05.269 until then, Pakistan was... pretty firmly in 00:05:05.269 --> 00:05:07.569 the American camp. Firmly is an understatement. 00:05:07.629 --> 00:05:10.810 Pakistan was known as America's most allied ally 00:05:10.810 --> 00:05:13.990 in Asia. They were part of Seattle and Cento. 00:05:14.009 --> 00:05:15.850 Hold on. Let's just clarify those acronyms for 00:05:15.850 --> 00:05:18.370 everyone. Seattle and Cento. Sure. Think of them 00:05:18.370 --> 00:05:21.069 as the Asian versions of NATO. They were these 00:05:21.069 --> 00:05:24.310 anti -communist military alliances designed to 00:05:24.310 --> 00:05:28.069 contain the Soviet Union and China. Okay. Pakistan 00:05:28.069 --> 00:05:30.730 was a key member, which meant it was officially 00:05:30.730 --> 00:05:34.050 aligned against the entire communist bloc. But 00:05:34.050 --> 00:05:36.310 Budo, he looked at the map and basically said, 00:05:36.410 --> 00:05:39.550 this is insane. Right. You've got this massive 00:05:39.550 --> 00:05:42.189 neighbor right there. Exactly. He's saying we 00:05:42.189 --> 00:05:44.410 share a border with China. We have a hostile 00:05:44.410 --> 00:05:46.670 India next door. Why are we alienating our most 00:05:46.670 --> 00:05:48.810 powerful neighbor to please a superpower that's 00:05:48.810 --> 00:05:50.889 halfway across the world? It just didn't make 00:05:50.889 --> 00:05:53.189 strategic sense to him. So he decides to pivot 00:05:53.189 --> 00:05:56.149 to Beijing. He becomes the architect of the Sino 00:05:56.149 --> 00:05:58.860 -Pakistan relationship. He negotiates and signs 00:05:58.860 --> 00:06:01.800 the Sino -Pakistan Boundary Agreement. He pushes 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:04.699 for trade, for military cooperation. And you 00:06:04.699 --> 00:06:06.279 have to remember the context here. This is the 00:06:06.279 --> 00:06:08.259 height of the Cold War. The U .S. must have been 00:06:08.259 --> 00:06:11.100 furious. They were paranoid about China. So Budo 00:06:11.100 --> 00:06:13.399 is basically poking the American bear right in 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:16.110 the eye. And he's doing it with style. But it 00:06:16.110 --> 00:06:18.370 wasn't just diplomacy. There was a war involved 00:06:18.370 --> 00:06:22.089 here, too. The 1965 war with India. This is where 00:06:22.089 --> 00:06:24.269 we see the hawk side of Budo. He wasn't just 00:06:24.269 --> 00:06:27.149 a diplomat. He was an agitator. He was the primary 00:06:27.149 --> 00:06:30.250 advocate for something called Operation Gibraltar. 00:06:30.750 --> 00:06:33.189 Operation Gibraltar. It sounds like an action 00:06:33.189 --> 00:06:35.490 movie title. What was the plan? The plan was 00:06:35.490 --> 00:06:38.810 to covertly infiltrate Pakistani troops into 00:06:38.810 --> 00:06:41.810 Indian -administered Kashmir to try and incite 00:06:41.810 --> 00:06:45.250 an uprising against Indian rule. And Bhutto convinced 00:06:45.250 --> 00:06:48.189 President Ayub Khan that India would not dare 00:06:48.189 --> 00:06:50.509 to cross the international border in retaliation, 00:06:50.629 --> 00:06:52.990 that the whole conflict would just stay contained 00:06:52.990 --> 00:06:56.389 in Kashmir. That turned out to be a massive miscalculation. 00:06:56.470 --> 00:07:00.410 A colossal miscalculation. India responded by 00:07:00.410 --> 00:07:03.209 launching a full -scale attack on Lahore and 00:07:03.209 --> 00:07:05.930 Sialkot. right across the international border 00:07:05.930 --> 00:07:09.550 it blew up into a full -blown conventional war 00:07:09.550 --> 00:07:12.569 and what was the result well both sides claimed 00:07:12.569 --> 00:07:15.689 victory but really it was a stalemate and that 00:07:15.689 --> 00:07:18.230 stalemate eventually led everyone to the negotiating 00:07:18.230 --> 00:07:22.649 table ayub khan went to tashkent in the soviet 00:07:22.649 --> 00:07:25.629 union of all places to sign a peace treaty with 00:07:25.629 --> 00:07:28.060 india The Tashkent Declaration. Right. And this 00:07:28.060 --> 00:07:30.199 treaty basically just restored the status quo. 00:07:30.379 --> 00:07:33.019 It was seen by the public in Pakistan as a total 00:07:33.019 --> 00:07:35.779 surrender of what had been won on the battlefield. 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:38.459 So people were angry. They were furious. They 00:07:38.459 --> 00:07:40.920 had been told by state media that they were winning. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:43.500 And then suddenly their leader is signing this, 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:46.360 what they saw as a humiliating truce. Budo saw 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:48.459 this public anger and he tapped right into it. 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:50.319 He threw his boss under the bus. He absolutely 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:51.980 did. He resigned from the government and went 00:07:51.980 --> 00:07:54.660 public, accusing Ayub Khan of losing at the negotiating 00:07:54.660 --> 00:07:57.000 table what the army had won on the field. It 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.500 was a masterstroke of populism. He completely 00:07:59.500 --> 00:08:01.980 distanced himself from the failure that he, in 00:08:01.980 --> 00:08:04.480 large part, helped create. And he rode this wave 00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:06.720 of anti -government sentiment. That brings us 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.180 to 1967. He's out of government. He's on the 00:08:09.180 --> 00:08:11.579 streets. And he founds the Pakistan People's 00:08:11.579 --> 00:08:13.680 Party, the PPP. And this is where he changes 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:17.420 the game. Until Budo, politics in Pakistan was 00:08:17.420 --> 00:08:20.379 a drawing room affair. It was for the elite, 00:08:20.540 --> 00:08:23.199 the landlords, the industrialists. Right. Budo 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:25.759 took it to the masses. He came up with a slogan 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:28.819 that is still to this day the most powerful political 00:08:28.819 --> 00:08:32.320 slogan in the country's history. Rodi, Capra, 00:08:32.340 --> 00:08:35.600 or Makan. Food, clothing, and shelter. Simple, 00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:38.100 primal. It connects with everyone. But the full 00:08:38.100 --> 00:08:41.460 manifesto was this potent cocktail. Islam is 00:08:41.460 --> 00:08:44.419 our faith. democracy is our policy socialism 00:08:44.419 --> 00:08:47.519 is our economy all power to the people that is 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:49.840 a fascinating mix you've got religion democracy 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:52.539 and socialism all wrapped up together it literally 00:08:52.539 --> 00:08:55.100 covers every possible base it was revolutionary 00:08:55.100 --> 00:08:57.919 for its time He mobilized the peasants in the 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:00.559 fields, the laborers in the factories, the radical 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:03.240 student unions in the cities. He traveled by 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:05.919 train, stopping at these tiny little stations, 00:09:06.179 --> 00:09:08.779 rolling up his sleeves. I mean, literally unbuttoning 00:09:08.779 --> 00:09:12.960 his collar and screaming himself hoarse. He made 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:14.720 the common man feel like he mattered for the 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:16.600 first time. He was electric. He was completely 00:09:16.600 --> 00:09:19.539 electric. So he builds this massive fervent base 00:09:19.539 --> 00:09:24.450 in West Pakistan. But then we hit 1970. And this, 00:09:24.450 --> 00:09:26.669 this is the pivot point where the story turns 00:09:26.669 --> 00:09:29.250 from a political drama into a national tragedy. 00:09:29.470 --> 00:09:32.210 The 1970 elections are crucial. This was the 00:09:32.210 --> 00:09:34.370 first ever general election held in Pakistan 00:09:34.370 --> 00:09:37.210 on the basis of adult franchise. One person, 00:09:37.269 --> 00:09:40.129 one vote. And the results were just... stark. 00:09:40.210 --> 00:09:42.830 They highlighted the fatal flaw in the country's 00:09:42.830 --> 00:09:44.769 geography. Right. Because Pakistan was two wings 00:09:44.769 --> 00:09:46.950 west and east, separated by a thousand miles 00:09:46.950 --> 00:09:49.330 of India. Exactly. And East Pakistan, what is 00:09:49.330 --> 00:09:52.350 now Bangladesh, had a larger population. So in 00:09:52.350 --> 00:09:54.590 the elections, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami 00:09:54.590 --> 00:09:57.350 League won virtually every single seat in East 00:09:57.350 --> 00:09:59.389 Pakistan. So they gave them an absolute majority 00:09:59.389 --> 00:10:01.899 in the national parliament. A clear, absolute 00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:05.019 majority. So by all democratic rules, Sheikh 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:06.820 Mujib should have been the prime minister of 00:10:06.820 --> 00:10:09.360 the entire country. But the power centers in 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:12.059 West Pakistan, the military, the bureaucracy, 00:10:12.299 --> 00:10:15.679 and of course, Zulfiqar Ali Budo, they were not 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:18.159 ready to hand over power to a Bengali party. 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:21.059 Not at all. This is where Budo's democratic credentials 00:10:21.059 --> 00:10:23.620 take a massive hit in the historical record. 00:10:24.169 --> 00:10:27.090 He refused to sit in the opposition. He did. 00:10:27.190 --> 00:10:30.090 He famously said that the legs of any party member 00:10:30.090 --> 00:10:32.269 who went to the assembly session in Dhaka would 00:10:32.269 --> 00:10:35.049 be broken. It was a direct threat. And he used 00:10:35.049 --> 00:10:36.970 a phrase that has haunted history ever since. 00:10:37.570 --> 00:10:42.490 We rule here, you rule there. Just splitting 00:10:42.490 --> 00:10:44.299 the country down the middle. Now, there is some 00:10:44.299 --> 00:10:46.360 debate about whether he used those exact words 00:10:46.360 --> 00:10:48.600 in a public speech or if it was a headline that 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:51.100 summarized his position. But the sentiment was 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:53.639 undeniable. He was proposing a power showing 00:10:53.639 --> 00:10:56.320 formula that had absolutely no basis in the Constitution. 00:10:56.679 --> 00:10:59.379 He was telling the majority winner, you can't 00:10:59.379 --> 00:11:02.820 rule over us. You have a deadlock, a total political 00:11:02.820 --> 00:11:05.139 stalemate. And while the politicians are arguing, 00:11:05.379 --> 00:11:07.659 the streets in the East are burning. It just 00:11:07.659 --> 00:11:10.340 spirals completely out of control. The military 00:11:10.340 --> 00:11:13.019 regime of Yahya Khan decides to solve this political 00:11:13.019 --> 00:11:16.000 problem with military force. They launch Operation 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:19.120 Searchlight in March 1971. And what was that? 00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:22.820 It was a brutal, horrific military crackdown 00:11:22.820 --> 00:11:25.990 in East Pakistan. Sheikh Mujib is arrested. A 00:11:25.990 --> 00:11:29.230 civil war erupts. Millions of refugees flee into 00:11:29.230 --> 00:11:32.230 India. It's a humanitarian catastrophe. It doesn't 00:11:32.230 --> 00:11:34.429 end well for Pakistan. It ends in total disaster. 00:11:34.750 --> 00:11:36.970 India intervenes in support of the Bengali rebels. 00:11:37.149 --> 00:11:40.610 War breaks out in December 1971. And within two 00:11:40.610 --> 00:11:42.769 weeks, the Pakistan army in the east is surrounded. 00:11:42.990 --> 00:11:47.230 On December 16, 1971, they surrender. 93 ,000 00:11:47.230 --> 00:11:49.950 prisoners of war. Half the country gone. East 00:11:49.950 --> 00:11:52.230 Pakistan becomes the independent nation of Bangladesh. 00:11:52.919 --> 00:11:55.279 It was a psychological trauma that is hard for 00:11:55.279 --> 00:11:57.559 us to overstate. The two -nation theory, the 00:11:57.559 --> 00:12:00.519 very founding idea that Muslims of the subcontinent 00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:02.759 were one nation, it seemed to collapse overnight. 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:05.519 The military was humiliated. Yahya Khan resigned 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:07.820 in disgrace. He had to. And who steps in to pick 00:12:07.820 --> 00:12:10.379 up the pieces? Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He flies 00:12:10.379 --> 00:12:12.279 back from the UN in New York, and on December 00:12:12.279 --> 00:12:15.559 20, 1971, he takes over. And here's that paradox 00:12:15.559 --> 00:12:18.860 again. He becomes president. But because the 00:12:18.860 --> 00:12:21.120 Constitution is suspended, he also becomes the 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:23.379 first and only civilian chief martial law administrator. 00:12:23.620 --> 00:12:26.419 So he's a democratically elected leader, but 00:12:26.419 --> 00:12:29.000 he's wielding the absolute power of a military 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:32.120 dictator to fix the country. That was his argument. 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:34.639 That it was necessary. The country was broken. 00:12:34.820 --> 00:12:36.980 The state itself was on the verge of collapse. 00:12:37.220 --> 00:12:39.379 He had to rebuild it from scratch. So what does 00:12:39.379 --> 00:12:41.220 that rebuilding look like? I mean, where do you 00:12:41.220 --> 00:12:44.539 even begin? He's got 93 ,000 soldiers stuck in 00:12:44.539 --> 00:12:48.139 Indian POW camps. He's lost 5 ,000 square miles 00:12:48.139 --> 00:12:51.379 of territory in the West. The economy is shattered. 00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:54.820 The national morale is at rock bottom. You begin 00:12:54.820 --> 00:12:57.809 with diplomacy. His first big test was the Simmel 00:12:57.809 --> 00:13:01.309 Agreement in 1972. He goes to India to meet with 00:13:01.309 --> 00:13:03.750 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Now, you have to 00:13:03.750 --> 00:13:05.570 think about his negotiating position. He has 00:13:05.570 --> 00:13:08.669 literally zero leverage. None. India holds all 00:13:08.669 --> 00:13:10.529 the cards. They have the land and they have the 00:13:10.529 --> 00:13:12.929 prisoners. He has nothing but a defeated army 00:13:12.929 --> 00:13:15.529 and a demoralized nation behind him. So how did 00:13:15.529 --> 00:13:17.990 he pull it off? Because the notes say he got 00:13:17.990 --> 00:13:20.299 the land back and the prisoners back. He played 00:13:20.299 --> 00:13:23.059 a brilliant psychological game. He knew that 00:13:23.059 --> 00:13:26.080 Indira Gandhi didn't really want a chaotic, collapsing 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:28.720 Pakistan on her border. That would be a security 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:31.259 nightmare for India. Right. A failed state next 00:13:31.259 --> 00:13:34.120 door is bad for everyone. Exactly. So he convinced 00:13:34.120 --> 00:13:36.639 her that if she humiliated him too much, his 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:38.940 fragile new democratic government would fall 00:13:38.940 --> 00:13:41.500 and the crazy generals would come back to power. 00:13:41.700 --> 00:13:44.720 He pleaded, he charmed, he threatened. He used 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:47.360 every tool in his arsenal. He used his own weakness 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:50.720 as leverage. Precisely. And it worked. He managed 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:53.220 to secure the return of the 5 ,000 square miles 00:13:53.220 --> 00:13:55.320 of territory and set the stage for the eventual 00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:59.379 release of all 93 ,000 POWs. And critically, 00:13:59.620 --> 00:14:02.159 he did it without compromising on Pakistan's 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:05.179 core stance on Kashmir. It was, objectively, 00:14:05.460 --> 00:14:08.120 a masterclass in diplomacy. So he secures the 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:10.460 borders. Now he has to secure the state itself. 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:13.019 Yeah. That brings us to the 1973 Constitution. 00:14:13.850 --> 00:14:16.370 This is arguably his most enduring positive legacy. 00:14:16.730 --> 00:14:18.830 Pakistan had been struggling to write a viable 00:14:18.830 --> 00:14:21.350 constitution for 25 years. It had gone through 00:14:21.350 --> 00:14:24.090 multiple versions. Budo managed to get a consensus 00:14:24.090 --> 00:14:26.730 document approved by every single political party. 00:14:26.889 --> 00:14:29.610 Everyone signed on. The religious right, the 00:14:29.610 --> 00:14:32.730 secular left. Everyone. The regional nationalists 00:14:32.730 --> 00:14:34.929 from the smaller provinces. Everyone. It was 00:14:34.929 --> 00:14:37.190 a moment of national unity. And what did it change? 00:14:37.429 --> 00:14:40.409 It established a parliamentary system. which 00:14:40.409 --> 00:14:42.750 meant Budo shifted from being president to the 00:14:42.750 --> 00:14:45.610 more powerful position of prime minister. But 00:14:45.610 --> 00:14:47.710 it also defined the state's religious identity 00:14:47.710 --> 00:14:50.620 more sharply. It officially declared Pakistan 00:14:50.620 --> 00:14:53.320 an Islamic republic and required that the prime 00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:56.000 minister and president must be Muslims. OK. And 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:58.259 then there's the socialism part of his manifesto. 00:14:58.259 --> 00:15:00.279 He started nationalizing everything, didn't he? 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:03.100 He did. And this is where the legacy gets really 00:15:03.100 --> 00:15:05.960 murky. He wanted to break the monopoly of the 00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:08.659 22 families, these wealthy industrial groups 00:15:08.659 --> 00:15:10.820 that controlled the vast majority of Pakistan's 00:15:10.820 --> 00:15:13.820 economy. So he nationalized steel, chemicals 00:15:13.820 --> 00:15:16.389 and cement. Which. You know, for a socialist 00:15:16.389 --> 00:15:19.330 agenda, that makes sense. It does. But then he 00:15:19.330 --> 00:15:22.029 went further, much further, much further. He 00:15:22.029 --> 00:15:23.990 nationalized all the banks, the insurance companies, 00:15:24.110 --> 00:15:26.929 and then he went after the small fish. He nationalized 00:15:26.929 --> 00:15:29.750 flour mills, rice husking units, even cotton 00:15:29.750 --> 00:15:32.269 ginning factories. Wait, wait. So if I owned 00:15:32.269 --> 00:15:34.950 a small family run rice mill in a village somewhere, 00:15:35.070 --> 00:15:38.250 the government just. Took it over. Yes. And the 00:15:38.250 --> 00:15:39.809 government bureaucrats who were sent to run it 00:15:39.809 --> 00:15:42.110 had no idea how to run a rice mill. Efficiency 00:15:42.110 --> 00:15:45.669 just plummeted. Corruption skyrocketed. And critically, 00:15:45.950 --> 00:15:48.789 he alienated the middle class and the small business 00:15:48.789 --> 00:15:51.629 owners, the very backbone of the economy. So 00:15:51.629 --> 00:15:53.629 it completely backfired. It spooked investors 00:15:53.629 --> 00:15:57.049 for decades. It's a policy that many economists 00:15:57.049 --> 00:16:00.009 still point to as a major setback for Pakistan's 00:16:00.009 --> 00:16:03.110 economic development. So mixed results on the 00:16:03.110 --> 00:16:06.279 economy. Put it mildly. But on the global stage, 00:16:06.620 --> 00:16:09.000 he was still trying to position Pakistan as a 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:12.340 major leader. Oh, absolutely. The 1974 Islamic 00:16:12.340 --> 00:16:15.519 summit in Lahore. This was his show. He hosted 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:18.279 leaders from 37 Muslim countries. The Daffy from 00:16:18.279 --> 00:16:20.860 Libya. King Faisal from Saudi Arabia. Yasser 00:16:20.860 --> 00:16:23.440 Arafat from the PLO. It was this huge spectacle. 00:16:23.720 --> 00:16:26.679 It cemented Bhutto's image as a leader of the 00:16:26.679 --> 00:16:29.309 third world and the Islamic bloc. He wanted to 00:16:29.309 --> 00:16:31.389 show everyone that even after losing half the 00:16:31.389 --> 00:16:33.850 country, Pakistan was still a major player on 00:16:33.850 --> 00:16:36.990 the world stage. And to be a major player in 00:16:36.990 --> 00:16:39.409 that Cold War era, you needed one specific thing. 00:16:39.809 --> 00:16:42.309 We have to talk about the Islamic bomb. We will 00:16:42.309 --> 00:16:46.269 eat grass. That quote is just legendary. Pakistan 00:16:46.269 --> 00:16:49.419 will fight. Fight for a thousand years. If India 00:16:49.419 --> 00:16:52.460 builds the atom bomb, Pakistan will eat grass 00:16:52.460 --> 00:16:55.600 or leaves, even go hungry. But we will get one 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:57.759 of our own. It sends shivers down your spine, 00:16:57.879 --> 00:17:00.539 doesn't it? The sheer defiance in that statement. 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:03.799 And it wasn't just rhetoric. Bhutto is, without 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:05.839 a doubt, the father of the Pakistani nuclear 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:08.299 program. The notes mention a secret meeting in 00:17:08.299 --> 00:17:10.940 the city of Multan in 1972, right after the war. 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:13.559 Yes, the Multan conference. It's almost mythical 00:17:13.559 --> 00:17:16.119 now. He gathers the country's top scientists 00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:18.910 and engineers. under a tent, literally, and he 00:17:18.910 --> 00:17:21.329 asks them one question. Can you give me the bomb? 00:17:21.660 --> 00:17:23.859 And what do they say? Well, they hesitate about 00:17:23.859 --> 00:17:25.839 the timeline. They say it will take time. It's 00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:28.880 complex. He pushes them. He demands it. He tells 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:30.900 them money is no object. And he brings in the 00:17:30.900 --> 00:17:34.339 heavy hitters. He brings in Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan 00:17:34.339 --> 00:17:37.559 Aq Khan, who was a metallurgist working in Europe 00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:40.059 at a sensitive nuclear facility called Urengo. 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:42.799 Khan brought the crucial centrifuge technology 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:46.660 designs needed to enrich uranium. Budo gave these 00:17:46.660 --> 00:17:49.200 scientists a blank check and total political 00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:51.180 cover. But this wasn't happening in a vacuum. 00:17:51.529 --> 00:17:53.869 The U .S. was watching. Oh, very closely. The 00:17:53.869 --> 00:17:56.069 U .S. was terrified of nuclear proliferation, 00:17:56.289 --> 00:17:59.309 especially in such an unstable region. There's 00:17:59.309 --> 00:18:01.730 a famous and frankly chilling account of a meeting 00:18:01.730 --> 00:18:04.049 between Budo and the U .S. Secretary of State, 00:18:04.170 --> 00:18:07.049 Henry Kissinger, in Lahore. What happened? Kissinger 00:18:07.049 --> 00:18:09.849 reportedly warned him, point blank, if you do 00:18:09.849 --> 00:18:12.569 not cancel this program, we will make a horrible 00:18:12.569 --> 00:18:15.009 example of you. Make a horrible example of you. 00:18:15.049 --> 00:18:17.329 That sounds like a threat from a mafia don, not 00:18:17.329 --> 00:18:20.490 a diplomat. It shows you the stakes. Budo was 00:18:20.490 --> 00:18:32.660 direct. Yeah, he later used that threat from 00:18:32.660 --> 00:18:35.079 Kissinger, didn't he? He did. He used it as a 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:37.339 badge of honor, claiming his life was in danger 00:18:37.339 --> 00:18:39.799 because he stood up for the Islamic bomb and 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:41.960 for the sovereignty of the Muslim world. So he's 00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:44.400 building the bomb. He's rewritten the constitution. 00:18:44.700 --> 00:18:47.099 He's nationalized the economy. He seems to be 00:18:47.099 --> 00:18:49.839 in total control. But looking at the timeline, 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:52.799 things start to get dark around the mid -70s. 00:18:52.839 --> 00:18:55.519 The man of the people starts acting a lot like 00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:58.220 the autocrats he replaced. Here's where the Democrat 00:18:58.220 --> 00:19:03.619 label starts to seriously fray. streak a mile 00:19:03.619 --> 00:19:07.599 wide. He did not handle dissent well. If you 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:09.359 disagreed with him, you weren't just a political 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:11.599 opponent. You were an enemy of the state. The 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:13.680 notes mention a federal security force. What 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:17.279 was that? The FSF. Theoretically, it was a special 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:19.519 federal force to assist the police with serious 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:23.640 crime. In practice, it was Bhutto's private militia. 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:26.559 They were used to harass, intimidate, and even 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:29.059 physically attack political opponents. They broke 00:19:29.059 --> 00:19:31.539 up opposition rallies. They abducted critics. 00:19:31.819 --> 00:19:34.839 It created a very real climate of fear. And then 00:19:34.839 --> 00:19:37.079 there's the situation in the province of Balochistan. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:39.420 He dismissed the elected provincial government 00:19:39.420 --> 00:19:42.140 there, which led to a full -blown insurgency 00:19:42.140 --> 00:19:46.079 that lasted from 1973 to 1977. He sent in the 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:49.880 army. It was a brutal, bloody conflict with heavy 00:19:49.880 --> 00:19:52.359 casualties on both sides. I have to ask about 00:19:52.359 --> 00:19:54.980 the Iraqi embassy raid. That detail in the notes 00:19:54.980 --> 00:19:57.400 jumped out at me as just totally bizarre. It's 00:19:57.400 --> 00:19:59.619 a fascinating anecdote that really shows his 00:19:59.619 --> 00:20:03.279 ruthlessness. In 1973, Budo ordered a raid on 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:05.599 the Iraqi embassy in Islamabad. Now, you don't 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:07.720 just do that. That's technically sovereign territory. 00:20:07.859 --> 00:20:10.740 It's a major diplomatic incident. Huge. But his 00:20:10.740 --> 00:20:12.940 special forces went in and they found crates 00:20:12.940 --> 00:20:15.700 containing 300 submachine guns and thousands 00:20:15.700 --> 00:20:18.240 of rounds of ammunition, all hidden in diplomatic 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:21.039 bags. Since they were smuggling weapons via diplomatic 00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:23.819 pouch. Yes. The weapons were allegedly destined 00:20:23.819 --> 00:20:26.460 for the Baloch separatists. And Budo used this 00:20:26.460 --> 00:20:28.740 discovery to justify his military crackdown, 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:31.089 claiming there was a foreign conspiracy to break 00:20:31.089 --> 00:20:33.549 up Pakistan. He expelled the Iraqi ambassador 00:20:33.549 --> 00:20:35.670 and really just flexed his muscles on the international 00:20:35.670 --> 00:20:37.990 stage. Okay, so tensions are extremely high. 00:20:38.210 --> 00:20:42.069 We get to 1977. He calls for new elections. He 00:20:42.069 --> 00:20:44.009 was confident. He thought he would sweep them. 00:20:44.130 --> 00:20:47.210 And on paper, the PPP did win a massive majority. 00:20:47.549 --> 00:20:50.210 But the opposition alliance, a coalition called 00:20:50.210 --> 00:20:53.930 the PNA, immediately cried foul. They claimed 00:20:53.930 --> 00:20:56.779 the election was stolen. Was it rigged? Most 00:20:56.779 --> 00:20:58.900 credible historians agree there was significant 00:20:58.900 --> 00:21:01.440 rigging. Budo probably would have won anyway, 00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:04.099 but his local party leaders wanted to ensure 00:21:04.099 --> 00:21:07.200 a clean sweep, so they went overboard. They stuffed 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:10.240 ballot boxes in key constituencies. The scale 00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:12.500 of the victory was just too good to be true. 00:21:12.660 --> 00:21:15.519 And the reaction. An explosion. Street protests 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:18.640 erupted across the country. But here is the critical 00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:21.859 shift. The opposition, which was a mix of parties, 00:21:22.059 --> 00:21:24.900 started using religious language. They united 00:21:24.900 --> 00:21:27.740 under the demand for Nizam -e -Mustafa, the rule 00:21:27.740 --> 00:21:29.619 of the prophet. So they turned it into a religious 00:21:29.619 --> 00:21:32.240 crusade against him. Exactly. They attacked Budo 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:35.059 for his drinking, his Western lifestyle. They 00:21:35.059 --> 00:21:37.279 painted him as un - Islamic as an enemy of the 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:39.299 faith. And Bhutto tries to negotiate, right? 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:43.019 He does. He backpedals. He bans alcohol. He closes 00:21:43.019 --> 00:21:45.539 nightclubs. He declares Friday as the weekly 00:21:45.539 --> 00:21:48.220 holiday instead of Sunday, all in an attempt 00:21:48.220 --> 00:21:50.980 to appease the religious right. But it was too 00:21:50.980 --> 00:21:53.430 little, too late. It was blood in the water. 00:21:53.529 --> 00:21:56.089 The chaos in the streets gave the military the 00:21:56.089 --> 00:21:58.549 perfect pretext they needed to step in. Enter 00:21:58.549 --> 00:22:01.470 General Zia -ul -Haq. The man Budo appointed. 00:22:01.789 --> 00:22:04.450 And this is the great tragic irony. Budo had 00:22:04.450 --> 00:22:07.650 skipped over five, some say seven, senior generals 00:22:07.650 --> 00:22:10.250 to appoint Zia as the chief of army staff. Why 00:22:10.250 --> 00:22:12.799 Zia? What did he see in him? He saw someone who 00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:15.740 appeared to be totally apolitical. Zia was outwardly 00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:18.019 religious. He was humble. He seemed subservient. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:20.960 Budo famously and dismissively called him his 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:23.680 monkey general in private circles, thinking this 00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:25.859 was a man he could easily control. He thought 00:22:25.859 --> 00:22:28.059 Zia was safe. Talk about a miscalculation. A 00:22:28.059 --> 00:22:31.799 fatal one. On July 5, 1977, General Zia launches 00:22:31.799 --> 00:22:34.400 Operation Fair Play. He declares martial law. 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:36.779 Budo is arrested in the middle of the night from 00:22:36.779 --> 00:22:39.200 his residence. But Zia says he's just going to 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:41.200 hold elections in 90 days and leave, right? That 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:43.400 was the initial promise. That was the promise, 00:22:43.579 --> 00:22:46.720 90 days. But Zia quickly realized something that 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:49.539 must have terrified him. The intelligence reports 00:22:49.539 --> 00:22:52.490 were showing that despite all the protests, The 00:22:52.490 --> 00:22:56.269 PPP was still massively popular. If he held free 00:22:56.269 --> 00:22:59.390 and fair elections, Budo might actually win again. 00:22:59.509 --> 00:23:03.109 And if Budo wins? Zia is a dead man. Budo would 00:23:03.109 --> 00:23:05.650 have him tried for treason under Article 6 of 00:23:05.650 --> 00:23:08.250 the Constitution, the very Constitution that 00:23:08.250 --> 00:23:11.150 Budo himself wrote. As the famous saying went 00:23:11.150 --> 00:23:14.130 at the time, There is only one grave for two 00:23:14.130 --> 00:23:16.970 men. Wow. Zia decided it wasn't going to be his 00:23:16.970 --> 00:23:20.009 grave. So Budo has to go. But you can't just 00:23:20.009 --> 00:23:22.309 shoot a former prime minister. You need a legal 00:23:22.309 --> 00:23:25.109 justification. This leads to the murder charge. 00:23:25.559 --> 00:23:28.579 The Ghazouri case. This goes back to 1974. A 00:23:28.579 --> 00:23:31.460 rogue politician and a former Budo ally, a man 00:23:31.460 --> 00:23:33.819 named Ahmed Raza Ghazouri, was ambushed in his 00:23:33.819 --> 00:23:36.700 car in Lahore. Ghazouri himself survived, but 00:23:36.700 --> 00:23:38.980 his father, Noab Mohammed Hamid Khan Ghazouri, 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:40.819 who was in the car with him, was killed in the 00:23:40.819 --> 00:23:43.240 gunfire. And Ghazouri blamed Budo from the start. 00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:46.500 Immediately. He went to the police station and 00:23:46.500 --> 00:23:49.339 filed a report claiming Budo was the mastermind. 00:23:49.609 --> 00:23:51.950 because Kasiri had been a vocal critic of his 00:23:51.950 --> 00:23:54.809 in Parliament. The case had gone cold for years. 00:23:55.210 --> 00:23:58.289 Zia revived it. And how did they pin it on Butoh? 00:23:58.329 --> 00:24:00.970 What was the evidence? The star witness was the 00:24:00.970 --> 00:24:03.529 former director of the FSF, that private militia 00:24:03.529 --> 00:24:06.130 we talked about, a man named Masood Mahmood. 00:24:06.569 --> 00:24:09.309 He was arrested, and he was basically offered 00:24:09.309 --> 00:24:13.609 a deal. Turn state's witness against Butoh, testify 00:24:13.609 --> 00:24:16.529 that Butoh ordered the hit, and we will pardon 00:24:16.529 --> 00:24:18.650 you. And he took the deal. He took the deal. 00:24:19.210 --> 00:24:21.609 His testimony was the cornerstone of the prosecution's 00:24:21.609 --> 00:24:24.750 case. The trial itself. The notes call it a judicial 00:24:24.750 --> 00:24:27.170 murder. That is the term history has settled 00:24:27.170 --> 00:24:29.650 on, and for good reason. It was held in the Lahore 00:24:29.650 --> 00:24:32.609 High Court. The bench was headed by a chief justice, 00:24:32.910 --> 00:24:35.750 Malvi Mushtaq, who was known to have a deep personal 00:24:35.750 --> 00:24:38.190 grudge against Buto Buto, had passed him over 00:24:38.190 --> 00:24:40.430 for a promotion years earlier. So the judge was 00:24:40.430 --> 00:24:42.210 biased from the outset. The whole atmosphere 00:24:42.210 --> 00:24:45.210 was hostile. Buto was insulted in court. He was 00:24:45.210 --> 00:24:47.660 placed in a dock like a common criminal. international 00:24:47.660 --> 00:24:49.779 observers were watching this. Right. Like who? 00:24:49.880 --> 00:24:51.940 The former U .S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark 00:24:51.940 --> 00:24:53.720 witnessed parts of the proceedings and called 00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:56.839 them a complete sham, totally biased. But it 00:24:56.839 --> 00:24:59.180 didn't matter. The verdict came down. Guilty. 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:01.720 Sentenced to death. He appealed to the Supreme 00:25:01.720 --> 00:25:04.200 Court. He did. And this is where it gets just 00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:07.539 agonizingly close. The Supreme Court was deeply, 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:10.660 deeply divided. In the end, the conviction was 00:25:10.660 --> 00:25:13.319 upheld by the narrowest possible margin. Four 00:25:13.319 --> 00:25:17.049 to three. One vote. One single vote decided the 00:25:17.049 --> 00:25:19.730 fate of the country's most popular, most consequential 00:25:19.730 --> 00:25:22.710 leader. That is incredibly heavy. It's staggering 00:25:22.710 --> 00:25:25.329 to think about. Did he ask for mercy? Did he 00:25:25.329 --> 00:25:28.690 plead with Xia? No. Budo was a man of immense 00:25:28.690 --> 00:25:30.910 pride. To him, that would have been the ultimate 00:25:30.910 --> 00:25:33.609 humiliation. He refused to plead for mercy from 00:25:33.609 --> 00:25:36.049 a dictator he considered an illegitimate usurper. 00:25:36.150 --> 00:25:38.710 He spent his final days in a squalid death cell 00:25:38.710 --> 00:25:41.809 in Rawalpindi, writing his final political testament, 00:25:42.009 --> 00:25:44.190 a book called If I Am Assassinated. The world 00:25:44.190 --> 00:25:45.890 must have reacted. I mean, leaders around the 00:25:45.890 --> 00:25:47.990 globe must have been calling for clemency. The 00:25:47.990 --> 00:25:51.160 world begged for his life. Leonid Brezhnev from 00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:53.440 the Soviet Union, the Chinese leadership, the 00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:56.420 Saudi King, the Pope, even U .S. President Jimmy 00:25:56.420 --> 00:25:59.140 Carter appealed directly to Zia for clemency. 00:25:59.299 --> 00:26:02.579 They all said, don't do this, exile him, imprison 00:26:02.579 --> 00:26:05.180 him for life, but don't hang him. But Zia ignored 00:26:05.180 --> 00:26:07.519 them all. He did. He was convinced that if Bhutto 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:10.519 lived, Zia would die. It was that simple for 00:26:10.519 --> 00:26:14.869 him. On the morning of April 4th, 1979, Zulfiqar 00:26:14.869 --> 00:26:17.410 Ali Bhutto was hanged at Rawalpindi District 00:26:17.410 --> 00:26:20.450 Jail. The notes mention his last words. Reportedly, 00:26:20.450 --> 00:26:22.769 as he was led to the gallows, he said, Oh, Lord, 00:26:22.849 --> 00:26:25.730 help me, for I am innocent. They cut him down, 00:26:25.829 --> 00:26:28.369 flew his body to his ancestral village in Sindh, 00:26:28.369 --> 00:26:30.589 and buried him in the family graveyard before 00:26:30.589 --> 00:26:32.750 the country even woke up. It's just such a heavy 00:26:32.750 --> 00:26:34.829 ending. Zia must have thought that by killing 00:26:34.829 --> 00:26:36.750 the man, he would kill the movement. And he could 00:26:36.750 --> 00:26:39.640 not have been more wrong. His death made Bhutto 00:26:39.640 --> 00:26:42.920 a martyr. The ghost of Bhutto haunted Zia for 00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:46.019 his entire 11 -year rule. The PPP remained a 00:26:46.019 --> 00:26:48.920 massive political force. And his daughter, Benazir 00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:51.920 Bhutto, picked up the mantle. She did. She struggled 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:54.440 against the dictatorship, she suffered imprisonment 00:26:54.440 --> 00:26:57.319 and exile, and eventually became the first female 00:26:57.319 --> 00:27:00.880 prime minister of a Muslim country in 1988, right 00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:03.940 after Zia died in a plane crash. And tragically, 00:27:03.940 --> 00:27:06.799 she was assassinated too, years later. The Budo 00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:10.160 family history is just steeped in blood and politics. 00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:12.359 It's often compared to the Kennedys in the U 00:27:12.359 --> 00:27:15.500 .S., the glamour, the power, and what seems like 00:27:15.500 --> 00:27:18.279 a curse. But let's go back to that 2024 Supreme 00:27:18.279 --> 00:27:20.799 Court opinion we mentioned at the start. What 00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:23.519 exactly happened there? Why bring this up 45 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:26.140 years later? It was a presidential reference, 00:27:26.460 --> 00:27:28.779 a legal question filed years ago that finally 00:27:28.779 --> 00:27:31.339 got a proper hearing. And the Supreme Court of 00:27:31.339 --> 00:27:34.220 Pakistan, in a formal opinion, officially acknowledged 00:27:34.220 --> 00:27:37.299 the deep flaws in the judicial process of 1979. 00:27:37.799 --> 00:27:40.519 So they didn't overturn the verdict because you 00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:42.920 can't, but they admitted it was wrong. They essentially 00:27:42.920 --> 00:27:45.259 admitted that the trial was not fair, that due 00:27:45.259 --> 00:27:47.539 process was manipulated and that the judges were 00:27:47.539 --> 00:27:50.380 not acting independently. In spirit, yes, they 00:27:50.380 --> 00:27:52.440 admitted it was a wrongful execution. It's a 00:27:52.440 --> 00:27:55.269 historic correction. It came 45 years too late 00:27:55.269 --> 00:27:57.869 to save his life, but for his family and his 00:27:57.869 --> 00:28:00.549 party, it was a vindication they had been fighting 00:28:00.549 --> 00:28:05.170 for for half a century. So if we zoom out, how 00:28:05.170 --> 00:28:07.589 do we sum up the legacy of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto? 00:28:07.769 --> 00:28:10.009 It's a legacy that is cleaved right down the 00:28:10.009 --> 00:28:13.170 middle, just like the country was in 1971. To 00:28:13.170 --> 00:28:15.970 his supporters, the Jialas, as they're called. 00:28:16.599 --> 00:28:19.519 He is the hero who gave the poor a voice, who 00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:21.700 gave the country its only consensus constitution, 00:28:21.900 --> 00:28:24.519 and who gave the nation the ultimate security 00:28:24.519 --> 00:28:27.440 guarantee, the nuclear bomb. He put Pakistan 00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:30.420 on the map. And to his critics. To his critics, 00:28:30.539 --> 00:28:32.779 he was a feudal autocrat hiding in Democratic 00:28:32.779 --> 00:28:36.200 clothing, a man who was dangerously intolerant 00:28:36.200 --> 00:28:38.599 of opposition, whose economic policies ruined 00:28:38.599 --> 00:28:40.720 the middle class, and whose refusal to share 00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:43.720 power in 1971 was the primary catalyst for the 00:28:43.720 --> 00:28:45.619 breakup of the country. It's amazing how one 00:28:45.619 --> 00:28:47.420 person can be both of those things at the same 00:28:47.420 --> 00:28:49.619 time. That's the nature of these huge transformational 00:28:49.619 --> 00:28:51.400 figures. They don't fit into neat little boxes. 00:28:51.500 --> 00:28:53.880 He was brilliant and he was deeply flawed. He 00:28:53.880 --> 00:28:56.349 built institutions and he undermined them. Here's 00:28:56.349 --> 00:28:58.269 a question that's been nagging me as we've talked. 00:28:58.549 --> 00:29:01.569 We discussed the nuclear program and that famous 00:29:01.569 --> 00:29:05.809 eat grass quote. Do you think South Asian geopolitics 00:29:05.809 --> 00:29:08.829 would look fundamentally different today if he 00:29:08.829 --> 00:29:10.930 hadn't pushed for that bomb? Oh, completely. 00:29:11.049 --> 00:29:13.490 Without that nuclear deterrence, the power dynamic 00:29:13.490 --> 00:29:16.509 between India and Pakistan would be vastly different. 00:29:16.930 --> 00:29:19.349 Pakistan's strategic behavior, its confidence, 00:29:19.650 --> 00:29:23.309 its alliances. All of it hinges on that nuclear 00:29:23.309 --> 00:29:26.029 capability that Budo initiated. Whether you think 00:29:26.029 --> 00:29:27.670 the bomb is a good thing or a bad thing, you 00:29:27.670 --> 00:29:30.250 cannot deny that he fundamentally altered the 00:29:30.250 --> 00:29:33.349 strategic DNA of the entire region. And one final 00:29:33.349 --> 00:29:35.269 thought to leave our listeners with. We talk 00:29:35.269 --> 00:29:38.950 about 1971, the great what if. Yes, the great 00:29:38.950 --> 00:29:41.869 counterfactual of Pakistani history. If Zulfiqar 00:29:41.869 --> 00:29:44.109 Ali Budo had just accepted the results of the 00:29:44.109 --> 00:29:47.009 1970 election, if he had been willing to sit 00:29:47.009 --> 00:29:49.410 on the opposition benches and let Sheikh Majid 00:29:49.410 --> 00:29:51.880 become prime minister. Pakistan might still be 00:29:51.880 --> 00:29:54.160 one united country today. Bangladesh might not 00:29:54.160 --> 00:29:56.140 exist. The map of South Asia would look completely 00:29:56.140 --> 00:29:57.859 different. The lives of hundreds of millions 00:29:57.859 --> 00:30:00.039 of people would be different. And it's a haunting 00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:02.799 question that really highlights the terrible, 00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:05.940 terrible cost of political ambition. Something 00:30:05.940 --> 00:30:08.660 to chew on. We've covered a lot of ground today, 00:30:08.759 --> 00:30:11.279 from the halls of Oxford to the death cell in 00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:14.900 Rawalpindi. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a man who lived 00:30:14.900 --> 00:30:17.819 fast, aimed high, and paid the ultimate price. 00:30:18.329 --> 00:30:21.490 A fascinating and tragic deep dive into a life 00:30:21.490 --> 00:30:23.430 that shaped history. Thanks for listening everyone. 00:30:23.569 --> 00:30:24.390 We'll catch you on the next one.