Pakistan Sentences Bhutto to Death For

Murder Plot.

Former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan was convicted of

murder today and sentenced to death before a firing squad,

Mr. Bhutto, who was deposed in a coup led by Gen. Zia ul‐Haq last July,
was convicted by the High Court in Lahore. He has seven days in which to
appeal.

The 50‐year‐old former Prime Minister was convicted of killing Nawab

Mohammad Ahmed Khan, father of one of his most strident critics. The
prosecution said Mr. Bhutto had ordered the political assassination in 1974.
The murdered man was machine‐gunned in an ambush.
Four other men were founded guilty of conspiracy and of actually carrying
out the murder. They too were sentenced to death.
All five men were in court when the chief justice, Molvi Mushtaq Hussain,
announced the verdict. Mr. Bhutto had boycotted the trial during its early
stages, claiming it was unfair. Hundreds of Mr. Bhutto's supporters have
been arrested in recent weeks in what apparently was an attempt by
General Zia to head off any violent reaction to the verdict.
Mr. Bhutto, who was Prime Minister for five and a half years. pleaded not
guilty. He is also being tried on charges of rigging an election and of
misappropriating government funds. Those cases were adjourned until
after the announcement of the verdict in the murder trial.
Although Mr. Bhutto has been in jail since September, he still has a large
number of followers around the country, particularly in the Punjab
Province.
He stood a good chance of being returned to power in elections last
October, but General Zia postponed the election, saying it would not be
held until after Mr. Bhutto's trial.
The murder case arose from an ambush of Ahmed Raza Kasuri, a member
of Parliament and a vociferous opponent of Mr. Bhutto. Mr. Kasuri's father
died in the ambush, but his son escaped unhurt.
The elections last March swept Mr. Bhutto's Pakistani People's Party back
to power, prolonged anti‐Government agitation followed the election as
the opposition Pakistan National Alliance alleged that it had been Then
came the army coup last July.

Simla Accord
The immediate outcome of the War of 1971 between India and Pakistan was the
change of government in Pakistan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the majority party
leader of West Pakistan assumed power on December 20, 1971. The War of 1971
resulted in the dismemberment of East Pakistan. Pakistan had lost almost 54% of
its population and 93,000 of its soldiers and civilians were in Indian possession.
Therefore, the new government’s initial challenges were to come out the state of
emergency and resolve the matter of POW’s as soon as possible. India and
Pakistan were in direct contact with each other through diplomatic channels after
the War and both had realized the need to enter into the negotiations. From
January 12, 1972 to April 30, 1972 both countries showed their inclination for
dialogue through press statements and talks were opened at initial level. Finally, it
was agreed that the talks between Pakistani President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and
Indian Prime Minister Indra Gandhi would open on June 28, 1972. The summit
conference between Bhutto and Indra Gandhi opened in Simla on the decided
time. The summit conference was held from June 28 to July 2, 1972. The
agreement sought to lay down the envisaged steps to be taken for the
normalization of bilateral relations and to settle mutual disputes through peaceful
means and bilateral negotiations. India wanted to settle all the problems in one
package, so it proposed a treaty of friendship pledging the two countries to abjure
the use of force in setting disputes, to refrain from interference in each other’s
personal internal affairs, to desist from seeking third-party intervention in the
settlement of their differences and to renounce military alliances directed against
each other. Pakistan wished to concentrate on such immediate issues as the
release of POW’s, the disengagement of troops, and the resumption of diplomatic
relations. It objected to the Indian proposal on the ground that it would involve
permanent acceptance of the division of Kashmir and the withdrawal of Kashmir
dispute from the United Nations.

On July 2, 1972 both countries reached an agreement. Main clauses of Simla

Agreement are:

 Both countries would put an end to conflict and confrontation and would
work for promotion of friendly relations and peace. They agreed to follow
United Nations Charter to govern their relations and affirmed to respect
each other’s national unity, political independence and territorial integrity.
 Both Governments agreed to avert hostile propaganda against each other.
 For the restoration of normal relations both the governments agreed to
resume communications and promote travel facilities. Both agreed for
cooperation in economic and cultural activities.
 Both agreed to respect the line of control between Jammu and Kashmir
resulting from the ceasefire of December 17, 1971.
 The withdrawal of forces of both countries would come into effect within
the 30 days of agreement’s enforcement.

Pakistan ratified the Simla Agreement was ratified on July 15, 1972 and India on
August 3, same year therefore, it came into effect on August 4, 1972. Simla
Agreement secured withdrawals of forces from territories occupied by both sides
during war except for Kashmir. In the coming two years all the POW’s had
returned home as well.

Fall of Bhutto
The fall of the Z.A. Bhutto regime in 1977 is one of the most misrepresented and
misunderstood events in Pakistan history. For PPP Jiyalas, General Zia’s coup
d’etat was one of the greatest injustices and travesties of human history. Even for
many of Bhutto’s opponents, hatred of Zia’s Islamist rule means that Bhutto’s
deposition is viewed as an act of militaristic aggression. However, analysis of
contemporary source material leads me to disagree with both of these
conclusions: Bhutto nearly brought Pakistan to a state of civil war through his
intransigence (as Bhutto did during the 1971 secession of East Pakistan) and Zia
was compelled to step in before the situation deteriorated beyond control. Zia’s
removal of Bhutto from power had widespread support in Pakistan.
Deadly chaos followed Bhutto’s rigged March 1977 election. After more than 350
deaths of anti-PPP protestors, General Zia had no option but to impose Martial
Law on July 6th. Even after Zia’s intervention, Bhutto was released on July 28th
and given another chance to calmly proceed to elections. When Bhutto blew this
opportunity by trying to ratchet up domestic instability, as well as various of
Bhutto’s victims launching legal cases against him, General Zia had no option
remaining but to allow the legal process to prosecute Bhutto for crimes
committed in office.
Zia should have imposed Martial Law even earlier, very soon after the rigged
election. This could have prevented hundreds of anti-PPP protestor deaths,
thousands of injuries, and tens of thousands of arrests from March to July 1977.
This does not imply any support on my part for General Zia, or the Islamisation
that characterised his rule. Women’s rights, in particular, were severely damaged
during Zia’s rule. Despite my distaste for Zia’s policies, an objective and
dispassionate analysis suggests that Pakistan Army (led by General Zia) had no
option in late 1977 except to depose Bhutto. Zia’s imposition of harsh sharia laws
was greeted favourably by many Punjabis, with support from most Punjabi
newspapers.
After years of Bhutto’s tyranny and suppression of rival political parties, there
was no credible alternative civilian government to govern in place of the PPP. The
only remaining option for Pakistan was Army rule. Naturally, and based on Ayub’s
precedent, this followed the character of COAS General Zia (well-known as a
supporter of Jamaat-e-Islami). Zia was Bhutto’s handpicked choice as COAS, and
superseded several senior generals when he was appointed.
In fairness to General Zia, he did at least tolerate APMSO/MQM to be founded in
1978 as an expression of the democratic will of the Muhajir people. MQM grew
into a major political party during his dictatorship. There is no doubt that Bhutto
would have used all available measures to utterly destroy MQM if he had been in
power.
Bhutto had governed Pakistan as a tyrant from December 1971 to mid-1977. He
created his own personal paramilitary force for use against political opponents
(called the Federal Security Force, FSF), a concentration campin Dalai
(AJK), muzzled the press, banned numerous political parties (especially the
NAP/ANP), assumed powers of arbitrary arrest, and also banned political
gatherings of more than 10 people. Virtually the entire private sector (including
banking, textiles, heavy industry, insurance, shipping, education) was all
nationalised and placed in the hands of Bhutto’s cronies, driving Pakistan’s
wealthiest Muhajir businessmen out of the country. Private sector investment in
factories, banks, media etc came to a complete halt. State media was controlled
by Bhutto and minimal airtime was given to opponents.
During Bhutto’s regime, it was widely feared that he was using state apparatus to
enforce a one party rule system. Throughout his rule, Bhutto governed with
special emergency powers which allowed arbitratry arrest and detention. Any PPP
Ministers who turned against Bhutto were arrested, with countless instances of
senior PPP leaders being tortured or kidnapped. This could only have happened
on the personal instruction of Bhutto.
Bhutto rigged the March 1977 election to such a massive extent that even his
most optimistic supporters were shocked. The PPP won 155 out of 200
seats. Bhutto even had his Larkana constituency opponent kidnapped, so Bhutto
himself was elected unopposed. His cousin, Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, rigged his own
constituency in the same way. A week after the rigged results were announced,
Bhutto imprisoned all of the PNA (Pakistan National Alliance) opposition
leaders and refused to hold new elections.
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Yahya Khan
Yahya was made commander in chief in 1966.Yahya khan after ayub khan
resignation came on 25 march, 1969 and declared martial law.
General elections: He announced that elections would be held on 1970 as he
seemed not interested in politics due to the conditions.
Ordinance: In 1970, through ordinance he gave an interim constitution which
was to tell how elections were going to be held. . Yahya was a drinker which the
parties used as a tool to put negative thoughts about him and in elections of 1970
jamiat did really bad but the real thing which caused yahya to step down was the
war in 1970 which led to losing east Pakistan and thus the riots broke out and civil
rebels and yahya in 1971 gave power to Bhutto and stepped down. Also in 1970
election PPP was the clear victor.

Reasons of this Martial Law

The Tashkent declaration signed by Indian PM and ayub was not accepted by the
public and rather thought of as submission towards India and Bhutto blew the
situation out of proportion and made his own party after resigning form the office
of foreign minister. Ayub khan tried to control the situation by releasing prisoners
and 17 holding a round table conference in 1969 but things got out of control and
he was forced to give power to yahya who seeing the civil disobedience and the
riots and the failed political condition especially after the 1965 war applied
martial law and announced elections in 1970.