Bhutto and
POWs
By Col. Riaz Jafri
(Retd.)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
This article was prompted by
the following question from a friend. “You
disapprove Bhutto’s 'Udhar Tum Idhar Ham.'
Sir, if I am not mistaken, you were a POW in 1971.
True, isn’t it? Laud Bhutto’s effort,
otherwise who knows ‘aap kidhar?’”
Implying that it was ZAB who got the POWs freed
and where would have I been without him? Nothing
could be farther from the truth. It was not ZAB
who got the POWs repatriated but the circumstances
and the political events of the time made it possible.
Please do read the following patiently without
which you will not be able to comprehend the real
role of ZAB and the actual frame of his mind.
ZAB was no doubt a shrewd person and knew the
art of handling a situation well. In the early
1965 at Karachi Beach Luxury hotel bar a young
Major – (late) Shams-uz-Zaman Akhuandzada
- had ordered a drink when walked in ZAB the Foreign
Minister with a sizeable retinue in attendance.
The waiter, ignoring the Major, jumped to serve
the VIP first. Shams known for his flamboyance
throughout the army could not accept to be outdone
and shouted at the waiter to serve him first instead.
ZAB ordered the waiter to do likewise. Shams jerked
the waiter spilling the drinks being carried for
ZAB and company, which infuriated him and he made
for Shams with a menacing look. Lo and behold,
to the utmost bewilderment of all present Major
Shams landed a full-blooded punch at the face
of the Foreign Minister of Pakistan!
Now here comes into play the Machiavellian side
of ZAB. Instead of reacting sharply, he just swallowed
his pride and smiling peevishly took Shams by
the arm and brought him to his own table. No one
heard of the incident and they remained good friends
for quite some time. Those who knew ZAB well say
that it was the fear of negative publicity in
the media that made him act so and not any compassion
for a Major of the army, which he hated.
’65 War
Ever since the unsavoury stalemate of the 1965
war, of which he was the main architect and had
assured Ayub and his cabinet that India would
never cross the international borders and the
Operation Gibraltar will remain only confined
to Kashmir, which did not and he failed miserably
in his foreign policy, ZAB had developed a morbid
fear of the armed forces apprehending a backlash
from them. Tashkent was to be his Waterloo and
he cunningly made the nation believe not to be
part of it. During the parleys, when an aid informed
him of Shastri's unexpected sudden death by saying,"
Sir, the bastard is dead", he had retorted,
"Which one?” Soon after Tashkent he
started befooling the nation by promising to ‘pull
the cat out of the bag’, which he never
did till his death.
’71 War
Leaving aside whatever the causes of war and reasons
for the humiliating defeat, the Polish Resolution
at the UN provided Pakistan with an opportunity
to pull out the army from East Pakistan. Most
surprisingly for all Bhutto lay indisposed for
THREE days in his hotel Waldrof-Astoria UN Plaza
Park suite with the COMMON COLD when the most
crucial resolution for Pakistan was being debated!
On the last day he stalked into the UN Security
Council and tore the resolution waving the paper
to the astonished assemblage and making an emotionally
charged speech that Pakistan would wage the for
a thousand years – blah blah blah. He made
sure by losing every precious moment so that the
army surrendered in East Pakistan.
Soon after taking over of whatever of Pakistan
was left, he started working methodically to destroy
the army by denigrating it in the eyes of the
masses. Army was to him his most dreaded and potent
adversary. In that :
• First was the TV display of the ‘surrender
at Dacca’. To his surprise the masses rose
against it and it was hastily withdrawn the very
next day.
• Next was the Hamood-ur-Rahman Commission,
which was strangely given the task of finding
out the causes of “The Defeat of the Pakistan
Army in East Pakistan”, and NOT the causes
of “The Separation of East Pakistan”.
Naturally a commission assigned the task of probing
into the defeat of the army, had to find faults
within the army only for its defeat. It should
not be difficult for any one to imagine what would
have been the Commission Report had it been assigned
the task of finding out the Causes for the Separation
of East Pakistan. ZAB’s role of rejecting
the 1970 polls would have been the very FIRST
cause.
• Creation of “Peoples’ Army”
was the most dangerous design conceived by him
against the Pakistan army and Pakistan itself.
Maulana Kausar Niazi was given the task for the
formulation of its concept and subsequent implementation.
Very briefly, it was to do away with the direct
intake of the officers through the PMA and instead
promote the lower ranks of the army to the higher
echelons, who he thought would be more loyal to
him. Pseudo-intellectuals were commissioned in
plenty to write about the disparities between
the other ranks and the officers’ pays,
accommodation, living standards etc. Injecting
of sinister thoughts in the minds of the Other
Ranks of the army, such as, the ‘absurdity’
of a Subedar Major with 32 years service saluting
a newly minted Second Lieutenant of only two months
service, etc. Luckily, it was no one other than
General Tikka Khan himself – a loyal supporter
of Bhutto - who put his foot down against this
scheme.
• Treatment of POWS: Again in a shrewd stroke
and ostensible concern for the POWs, and to win
over the sympathies of their families, full pays,
allowances and accommodation etc. were allowed
to the families, which is not done anywhere in
the world. In most armies of the world, the day
a soldier surrenders his pay and allowances are
stopped. In a few armies, only half of the pay
and no allowances, accommodation etc. is given
to the families. This is done to discourage surrender.
If a soldier knows that as a POW he will be treated
according to the Geneva Conventions and his family
will keep getting his full salary, why the hell
should he fight and get killed in the process?
Why not surrender and be safe and happy? What
would the nation think of such surrendering soldiers
whose families keep enjoying all the benefits
when the ‘brave’ soldier had surrendered?
Could there be anything more contemptuous for
the army by the nation and ZAB was successful
in creating that hatred which prevails even today.
On top of it the returning POWS were accorded
a ‘Heroes’ welcome at Wahga almost
daily by some VIP in turn to the accompaniment
of band and all the fanfare! That ridiculed army
further in the eyes of the masses.
• He tried to impose partial martial law
in the cities of Lahore, Gujranwala and Sialkot,
and expected army to crush the agitation against
him by firing on the masses. Brigadiers Ashraf
Gondal, Ishtiaq Ali Khan and Niaz assigned the
task could not refuse the orders under the army
discipline but at the same time had no heart to
kill their own people. They took the easy way
out and proceeded on leave. This was viewed by
the army as disobeying the orders and the three
were sent home. Another commander was prevailed
upon and the troops under his command fired 47
round at a crowd in Anarkali from a distance of
about 50 yards but only two persons were hit below
the knee! s! Was Pakistan army that bad a shot
to miss its target from that close quarters? Bhutto
had again failed in its nefarious designs of pitching
the masses against the army.
• Getting disappointed from the army, ZAB
created the infamous FSF and armed it with the
APCs, automatics, mortars and even light artillery
guns as a parallel force against the army. During
the last days of the Tehrik-e-Nizam-e-Mustafa
when Zia in a round about manner told him that
it will not be possible for him to oblige Bhutto
by calling in the troops to crush the Tehrik rallies,
General Chishti writes in his book – The
Betrayal of Another Kind - that Bhutto said, “General
Sahib, do not worry, this time I am not going
to trouble you. I have already arranged for the
needful’. Zia visibly shaken by Bhutto’s
design of launching FSF against the unarmed civilians,
called General Chishti and said,” Murshed
all is lost. Launch Operation Fair Play tonight”!
This way the nation was saved a bloody civil war.
• Coming back to his efforts for the release
of the POWs. First of all let me clarify a commonly
held belief and a big propaganda slander by ZAB
against the army that there were 95,000 army personnel
held as POWs by India. The army men including
the Civil Armed Forces were about 45000 in number
only. Rest were all West Pakistani civilians from
various public and private organisations. Piloo
Modi, an Indian Parsi, and his school and college
days’ friend and his Berkley roommate, writes
in his book “Zulfi – My Friend”,
that he was asked by the Indian government to
be around during the Simla Conference. He was
a member of the Parliament but was part of the
Indian government team for the parleys with Bhutto.
He has many an interesting anecdote to narrate
about ZAB’s early life and his complex character
bordering on multi-personality traits. During
Simla though they met daily over a drink or so
but he kept himself scrupulously aloof from the
political happenings. He writes that Zulfi had
all along given the impression to media and all
that he was there to get the POWs released. So
much so that one day a room waiter rushed to Piloo
Modi and alarmingly informed him that ZAB had
during the night fallen from the bed. Piloo hurried
to his room to find him lying on floor fully and
formally dressed. Piloo immediately sensed that
ZAB had had a drink too many and had fallen from
bed. They helped him rise and asked him as to
what had happened. ZAB’s Machiavellian instinct
instantly revived, and he said that how could
he sleep in the bed when his 95,000 compatriots
were sleeping on the floor?
• The parleys had almost come to a dead
end. During the last dinner Indra said to ZAB
that the eyes of the entire world were focussed
on them. ZAB said that he had come for some agreement
but her govt. was not prepared to yield. Indra
pleaded, “Let’s agree on some issue,
how about withdrawing forces to pre-November 21
line?” ZAB agreed ‘reluctantly’.
The agreement was hastily drawn up. As Pakistani
staff had left Simla with the official stationery
and the govt. seal, it was written on Hotel Obrei
stationery and signed. Piloo writes that he noticed
a distinct shine and a twinkle in Bhutto’s
eyes when the latter came to his room late that
night. He tossed the agreement to him and said,
“Piloo, your people are too simple to deal
with. I have got what I came for”. “But
there is release of the POWS in it,” Piloo
questioned. “Oh, who wants them? And for
how long one can hold the human beings? Ten years,
twenty years, they will die. You can’t hold
them forever. It is the territory that once lost
cannot be regained”, ZAB poured his mind
out.
So my dear friend that's the role Bhutto played
in the release of the POWs and you want me to
laud him? For what?
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