Read Songs Of Blood And Sword: A Daughter'S Memoir Online
Authors: Fatima Bhutto
Amidst all this madness, all these ghosts and memories of times past, it feels like the world around me is crumbling, slowly flaking away. Sometimes, when it’s this late at night, I feel my chest swell with a familiar anxiety. I think, at these times, that I have no more
place in my heart for Pakistan. I cannot love it any more. I have to get away from it for anything to make sense; nothing here ever does. But then the hours pass, and as I ready myself for sleep as the light filters in through my windows, I hear the sound of those mynah birds. And I know I could never leave.
Acknowledgements
M
any of the Pakistan People’s Party’s founding members and former cabinet members spoke openly and candidly with me. I am indebted to the following for their insights into Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s chairmanship and political career: Abdul Waheed Katpar, Miraj Mohammad Khan, Dr Ghulam Hussain, Aftab Sherpao and Dr Mubashir Hasan, a national treasure among men. Mumtaz Bhutto and Ashiq Bhutto were very helpful in constructing a timeline of the Bhutto family history; many thanks to them and their families. Ilahi Bux Soomro and Sherbaz Khan and Mrs Mazari spoke to me about Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s youth and Yousef Masti Khan and Khair Bux Marri, senior Baloch politicians, spoke to me about Balochistan. I am very grateful to them.
Three years ago I travelled to America to seek out my father’s professors and college friends and I must thank Nancy Sinsabaugh and the Harvard Alumni Association for helping me track down so many helpful friends. Milbry Polk, Bobby Kennedy Jr, Magdalena Guernica Castleman, John Hess, Peter Santin, the late Samuel Huntington, William Graham, Robert Paarlberg, Gudu Shafi, and Bill and Andrea White opened their homes and their memories to me and I am grateful for all their help and kindness. Many friends helped me along the journey across America and I am thankful for all their help.
Tariq Ali, a friend and a forthcoming interviewee, was invaluable with his knowledge, encouragement and support. William Dalrymple suggested that I write this book on the eve of an election in Larkana and I thank him for his help and friendship.
In Karachi there were many who spoke to me with full knowledge
of the danger that came with their participation in this book. I am grateful for their trust and their bravery: Bangul Channa, Hameed Baloch, Maulabux, Shahnawaz Baloch, the Hingoro family, Maqsood Billoo, Qaisar, Mahmood, Asif Jatoi, Ghulam Hasnain, Bashir Daood, Noor Ahmed Nizam, Malik Sarwar Bagh, Ayaz Dayo, Haji Khan Rajpar, Nisar Ahmed Ghakro, Amer Jokhio, Ramzan and Mushtaq Brohi, Abdul Majid Baloch, Siddiqueh Hidaytullah, Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed, and Dr Ghaffar Jatoi. There are many more I cannot name, but without whom I would not have been able to reconstruct the details of my father’s murder.
Zahid and Nuzhat Jatoi, Badrunissa, Anushka, Maheen, Aneed and Sabeen Jatoi all spoke to me about Ashiq Jatoi and his murder. I am deeply appreciative for their recollections. Sassi Bhutto, my cousin, spoke to me about her father Shahnawaz and was instrumental in shedding light on her father’s life and death. In Paris, Jacques Vergès and his staff were accommodating and gracious in my quest to uncover more about Shahnawaz’s mysterious death.
In Greece, Della Rounick opened up a world of information I would never had access to without her. Thank you Della mou, for finding me, and for sharing your life with me. In Syria, Nashaat Sanadiki and his family were a great help and support, as always. Shoaib Billoo and RMZ in Pakistan, thank you for your assistance and support. Omar Sial, a great lawyer but a better friend, deserves many thanks for his assistance in fact-checking and sourcing information. Dennis Dalton, my teacher, mentor and beloved friend reminded me – in between chapter notes – of the importance of the journey. Thanks to Henry Porter for supporting the book and reading early drafts. And to Suhail Sethi, without whose love and support I could not have written this book, thank you.
Thank you Ellah Alfrey – a sensitive and intuitive editor. At Jonathan Cape, enormous appreciation and thanks must go to Dan Franklin, who protected my work, whose instinct was spot on, and whose enthusiasm carried me forward. Many thanks are also owed to Tom Avery and to Amanda Telfer.
At DGA, Charlotte Knight and Sophie Hoult were invaluable and
let me bore them rigid with stray book thoughts during my office visits. Heather Godwin is owed many thanks for the great help and guidance she gave me. David Godwin, my agent and the most patient man I’ve ever tortured with questions and queries and drafts and concerns, deserves the largest thanks here. He should get a separate page of appreciation.
Allegra Donn and Sophie Hackford kept me sane, made me lalf, and universed when I needed it most. Lovie.
To my mother Ghinwa, Zulfi, Mir Ali, Teta, Lulu, Zeina and Racha. My family. I love and adore you all more than you will ever know and more than I will ever be able to say. I can’t say thank you enough. But I’ll keep trying.
Notes and References
Chapter 1
1
. Pakistan’s CIA has no relation to the nasty American CIA. Or so we’re told. For some inexplicably bureaucratic reason, however, they share a name.
2
. Interview with Malik Sarwar Bagh, Karachi, 14 May 2008.
Chapter 2
1
. Interview with Ashiq Bhutto, Karachi, 6 June 2008.
2.
Oriana Fallaci,
Interview with History
, p. 208.
3.
Fallaci, p. 206.
4.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,
My Dearest Daughter
, p. 8.
5.
Fallaci, p. 208.
6.
Fallaci, p. 206.
7.
ZAB letter to Murtaza Bhutto. Camp Gilgit, 12 May 1976.Personal collection.
8
. Ibid.
9
. Interview with Illahi Bux Soomro, Karachi, 6 June 2008.
10
. ZAB,
Treaties of Self-Defence and Regional Arrangement
, p. 47.
11
. Ibid.
12
. ZAB,
The Islamic Heritage
, p. 15.
13
. ZAB,
One World
, p. 5.
14
. ZAB,
The Islamic Heritage
, p. 8
15
. Ibid., p. 7.
16
. Ibid., p. 15.
17
. ZAB, letter to Murtaza Bhutto. Rawalpindi, 8 May 1975.Personal collection.
18
. ZAB letter to Murtaza Bhutto, Camp Gilgit, 12 May 1976. Personal collection.
19
. Interview with Begum Mazari, Karachi, 5 June 2008. 20. Ahmed Shuja Pasha,
Pakistan: A Political Profile
1947
–
1988
, p. 181. 21. ZAB,
Reshaping Foreign Policy
, editors’ note by Hamid Jalal and Khalid Hasan, p. 90.
22
. ZAB,
Pakistan-Soviet Oil Agreement
, p. 131.
23
. Ibid., p. 6.
24
. ZAB,
The Indivisibility of the Human Race
, p. 23.
25
. Sanghat Singh,
Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: An Appraisal
, p. 91.
26
. ZAB,
Regional Cooperation for Development
, p. 67.
27
. ZAB,
Role of Political Parties
, p. 176.
28
. Hugh Trevor-Roper,
Introduction to New Directions
, p. vi.
29
. ZAB,
Phases of Foreign Policy
, p. 17.
30
. Ibid., p. 15.
31
. Mohammad Ehsan Chaudri,
Pakistan and the Great Powers
,p. 43.
32.
China–Pakistan Boundary Agreement, signed at Peking, 2 March 1963.
33
. Chaudri, p. 43.
34
. Ibid., p. 91.
35
. Ibid., p. 95.
36
.
Dawn
, 26 March 1965.
37
. Rafi Ullah Shehab,
50
Years of Pakistan
, p. 406.
38
. Chaudri, p. 95.
39
. Ibid., p. 38.
40
. Ibid., p. 50.
41
.
Daily Telegraph
, 13 September 1965.
42
. Chaudri, p. 96.
43
. Ibid.
44
. Ibid., p. 97.
45
. Ibid.
46
. Tashkent Declaration, signed 4 January 1966.
47
. Pasha, p. 209
48
. Interview with Miraj Mohammad Khan, Karachi, 12 May 2008.
49
. B. N Goswami,
Pakistan and China
, p. 128.
50
. Interview with Abdul Waheed Katpar, Karachi, 4 June 2008.
51
. Pakistan People’s Party,
Foundation and Policy
, p. 4.
52
. Ibid., p. 5.
53
. Ibid., p. 4.
54
. Ibid., p. 6.
55
. Ibid., p. 7.
56
. Ibid., p. 6.
57
. Ibid., p. 14.
58
. Ibid., p. 6.
59
. Ibid., p. 15.
60
. ZAB, Pakistan and the Alliances, p. 50
61
. ZAB,
The Role of Muslim States
, p. 78
62
. Ibid., p. 91
63
. ZAB,
The Imperative of Unity
, p. 17.
64
. Ibid., p. 22.
65
. Ibid.
66
. ZAB,
Regional Cooperation for Development
, p. 67.
Chapter 3
1.
Xtra
magazine, March 1996. Interview with Fifi Haroon.
2
. Ibid.
3
. Ibid.
4
. Ibid.
5
. Ibid.
6
. Ibid.
7
. Ibid.
8
. Interview with Suhail Sethi, Karachi, 13 August 2009.
9
.
Xtra
magazine, March 1996.
10.
Ibid.
11.
Interview with Gudu Shafi, Washington DC, 28 April 2006.
12.
Khurshid Hyder,
The United States and the Indo-Pakistan War of
1971
, p. 10.
13
. Ibid.
14
. Richard F. Nyrop, Beryl Lieff Benderly, Cary Corwin Conn,
Wiliam W. Coer, Melissa J. Cuter and Newton B. Parker,
Area Handbook for Pakistan
, p 57.
15
. Ibid.
16
. Interview with Miraj Mohammad Khan, Karachi, 12 May 2008.
17
. Election manifesto of the PPP, 1970, p. 12.
18
. Ibid., p. 13.
19
. Nyrop et al., p. 59.
20
. Ibid.
21
. Ibid.
22
. Interview with Abdul Waheed Katpar, Karachi, June 4 2008.
23
. Nyrop et al., p. 59.
Chapter 4
1
. Anwar H. Syed,
The Discourse and Politics of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
,p. 158.
2
. Ibid.
3
. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Non Proliferation,
www.ceip.org/programmes/npp/China.htm
.
4
. Syed, p. 159.
5
. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, letter to Murtaza Bhutto. Rawalpindi,25 October 1973.
6
. Rafi Raza,
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Pakistan
1967
–
1977, p. 207.
7
. Ibid., p. 209.
8
. Ibid., p. 229.
9
. Ian Talbot,
Pakistan: A Modern History
, p. 237.
10
. Raza, p. 235.
11
. Ibid., p. 180.
12
. Ibid.
13
. Ibid., p. 185.
14
. Ibid.
15
. Interview with Khair Bux Marri, Karachi, 11 May 2008.
16
. Interview with Yousef Masti Khan, Karachi, 7 May 2008.
17
. Interview with Miraj Mohammad Khan, Karachi,12 May 2008.
Chapter 5
1
. Rafi Raza,
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Pakistan
1967
–
1977
, p. 187
.
2
. Interview with Abdul Waheed Katpar, Karachi, 4 June 2008.
3
. Tariq Ali,
The Duel
, p. 106.
4
. Interview with Katpar, Karachi, 4 June, 2008.
5
. Ali, p. 109.
6
. Interview with Mayor Bill White, Houston, Texas, 7 May 2006.
7
. Interview with Milbry Polk, New York City, 19 April 2006.
8
. Interview with Peter Santin, Phoenix, Arizona, 5 May 2006.
9
. Interview with Madgalena Guernica Castleman, New York City, 18 May 2006.
10
. Interview with Robert Paarlberg, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 26 April 2006.
11
. Interview with William Graham, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 25 April 2006.
12
. Interview with Samuel Huntington, Cambridge, Massachusetts,25 April 2006.
13
. Interview with Bobby Kennedy Jr, Mount Kisco, New York, 15 May 2006.
14. Nusrat Bhutto, letter to Mir Murtaza Bhutto, 18 October 1975.
Chapter 6
1
. Tariq Ali,
The Duel
, p. 114.
2
. Interview with Suhail Sethi, Karachi, 21 March 2008.
3
. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,
If I am Assassinated
, p. 25.
4
. Interview with Della Rounick, Athens, 18 August 2008.
5
. MMB, letter to Della Rounick, 6 June 1978.
6
. MMB, letter to Della Rounick, undated, October 1978.
7
. Interview with Robert Kennedy Jr, Mount Kisco, New York, 15 May 2006.
8
. Ibid.
9
. Ibid.
10
. Ibid.
11
. Interview with Milbry Polk, New York City, 19 April 2006.
12
. Ibid.
Chapter 7
1
. Interview with Suhail Sethi, Karachi, 21 March 2008.
2
. Interview with Della Rounick, Athens, 18 August 2008.
3
. Interview with Della Rounick, Mykonos, 22 August 2008.