The contradictions of Bhutto's Islamization drive

"#62 Posted by teshah on January 4, 2008 5:23:22 pm
It was indeed ZAB who broke Pakistan as envisioned by Quaide Azam by making an earth-shaking amendment in the constitution to convert it into a 'Fatwa' which made the very faith of Paki Muslims questionable, requiring every Paki citizen to submit a disgraceful, absurd and humiliating affidavit (Half Nama) about his faith whenever he claims to be a Muslim. This is the crux of the matter which Mubarka dare not highlight. She (?) is of course excusable as even Fouji usurpers who could though rape the constitution in whatever manner they liked could not touch this 'Fatwa'. "


I personally have never understood why a man like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who despite his flaws was perhaps the most powerful and popular politician in Pakistan after Jinnah and Fatima, would do this. A less popular politician (and more religious one at that) like Khawaja Nazimuddin preferred to be booted out of the Premiership than give in on the Mullah demands against the Ahmadis - whose contributions to Pakistan and the Pakistan movement were above and beyond any of these damn mullahs.


Zulfikar Ali Bhutto himself had castigated the Jamaat-e-Islami for raising these demands during his election campaign in the 1960s. Then why did ZAB ultimately resort to such fascist measures.

I wrote an article on this http://www.chowk.com/site/articles/index.php?id=12085 called "Rest in Peace Pakistan" ... which is arguably the single most widely read article on this website with close to 60, 000 hits.

My late father who was paradoxically both a staunch Ahmadi and a Bhutto fan always felt deeply hurt but this. My father was appointed by the Ahmaddiya Jamaat in 1970 to assist Mr. Bhutto's election campaign and had become very close to Mr. Bhutto.

At the end of the day ... perhaps there is something to Asghar Khan's claim that Bhutto's agenda was to fool the people. But more than that... Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was dictated in many ways by the Saudis who had significance influence on him.

In other words... Bhutto made a scapegoat out of Pakistan's most patriotic community and his staunchest allies to please his Saudi Masters. This is why I think Benazir Bhutto was head and shoulders above Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ... because she was a true secular liberal who did try and undo many of the wrongs committed by her father

Another oddity of history is that, in spirit, the constitution (of 1973) made by the Pakistan People's Party's government under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was more doggedly religiously exclusive, dogmatic and divisive than any other constitution or proposed constitution or interim constitution in the history of Pakistan... be it the GOIA 1935 adopted as Pakistan's first interim constitution, Muslim League government's constitution under Nazimuddin of 1954 which was about to be passed before the government was sent packing by Ghulam Muhammad, Ch. Muhammad Ali's 1956 constitution which very definitively refused to make Islam a state religion calling the Islamic nature of the state merely symbolic and about which A K Brohi declared: "a state cannot have a religion", 1962 constitution of Ayub Khan drafted by Manzur Qadir which again had no state religion and the LFO. None of these constitutions had a state religion and none of these constitutions envisaged Quran and Sunnah as binding legal principles... though atleast two of them said that laws repugnant to Islam would not be allowed but left the interpretation to courts of law... and under all these constitutions the office of the Prime Minister as Head of Government was open to all citizens of Pakistan.. and in one of these constitutions (Muslim League's 1954) there was no bar on the head of state either.

The constitution of 1973 went further than all of these. It introduced Islam as the state religion and Quran and Sunnah as binding principles of law-making. It called for Islamization of the state and the step wise banning of alcohol and gambling. It introduced half namas for premier and president, both of whom had to be Muslims. The idea that the Prime Minister of the parliamentary democracy would have to be a Muslim was the biggest departure from earlier constitution tradition.


ZAB's use of theology and his attempt to infuse the role of Islamic clergy in the Constitution of Pakistan does not make any sense when one considers that ZAB's Pakistan People's Party was elected primarily on the slogan of "Roti Kapra Makan" and not on some promise of Islamic sharia rule. Perhaps he realized that it was difficult to deliver on the promise of roti kapra and makan and sought cheap popularity by using Ahmadis as a punching bag. Or perhaps he got scared.

In sharp contrast the first Muslim League government consisting of people like Nazimuddin and Nishtar - far less popular and far more religious than Bhutto, and which had come to power on the slogan of Pakistan and Muslim Nationalism, resisted tooth and nail the attempt to declare Ahmadis Non-muslims and did not make Islam the state religion of Pakistan.