When we say “Zinda Hai Bhutto Zinda Hai”, some people make fun of him due to his beloved and narrow mind thinking, oblivious to his own absurd. These people ignore history. They do not know that in political history, there have been several great leaders who have gained a lot of popularity, leading revolutions that altered the course of time. However, history has discredited some of its political ideologies, which makes them politically irrelevant.
These leaders gathered popular support on the basis of extremism and provocation, but the anarchy they created ended up destroying them and their parties and followers. They included right and left politicians, nationalist and religious leaders, and even military opportunists.
There are some political figures in the past whose ideologies continue to thrive and are very relevant today. They included right and left politicians, nationalist and religious leaders, and even military opportunists.
There are some political figures in the past whose ideologies continue to thrive and are very relevant today. It can be said that there are still spatially and temporarily through their political thinking and focus. One of those leaders is Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He possessed a deep understanding of history and shapes his political vision based on historical experiences.
Shaheed Bhutto’s political vision is based on three fundamental principles. The first is that the foreign policy of a nation must always prioritize the interests of its country and people. The second principle emphasizes the resolution of fundamental problems internally by guaranteeing the rights of classes, nationalities and groups disadvantaged and oppressed. This includes recognizing their right to resources, strengthening them economically and giving them all basic human rights, including civil liberties.
The third fundamental principle states that achieving the first two principles requires a long and patient democratic struggle, one that is peaceful, sustainable and that serves as a precursor for gradual progress and victories.
The path of democratic struggle is superior to the path of destructive adventure or chaos. Adventure and chaos serve the interests of imperialist and anti-people forces, since they deprive people of the profits achieved through the peaceful democratic struggle. This is the reason why such forces always fear those who choose the path of peaceful democratic resistance and make them the objective of their oppression.
The incomparable sacrifices of the Bhutto family, together with the leaders and workers of the PPP, are evidence of this fight. PPP’s commitment to democratic democratic resistance and sacrifice continues to this day. If Pakistan today has a federal parliamentary democratic constitution, a democracy in operation and federal units with certain rights, is due to Shaheed Bhutto and the Popular Party of Pakistan, which confirmed their political vision.
According to Shaheed Bhutto’s vision, the PPP remains a representative party of the people and its fight continues. That is why Bhutto remains alive today.
To acquire a full appreciation of Shaheed Bhutto’s ideology and political vision, it is necessary to read his writings, interviews and speeches. These documents defined the key principles of the party: Islam as religion, democracy as a political system, socialism as an economic order and the people as the final authority.
To explain these fundamental principles even more, Shaheed Bhutto wrote a comprehensive program for the Popular Party of Pakistan in April 1968. In this document, he said:
“Pakistan is caught in a whirlpool. When we look back in the last 20 years of our national life, we see a dangerous tendency that has arisen along with international and subcontinental challenges. It would be irrational to assume that this crisis is simply a matter of routine of the present era or result of a natural process. This evil tendency must be reversed.” “
A scholar and political leader like Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was born once in centuries. He saw situations through an international and historical lens with a deep and insightful approach instead of a superficial one. When he founded the Popular Party of Pakistan, the Global Communist Movement was in its peak, and the socialist revolutions were developing. However, Shaheed Bhutto looked beyond the present, provides for the eventual result of these movements.
Instead of advocating a communist dictatorship, democracy firmly declared as its political path, a vision that the socialist declarants themselves would adopt later, but only after enduring great agitation. He placed socialism not as a politician but as an economic system, clarifying this difference in the party program and founding documents.
Shaheed Bhutto had argued that capitalism in Pakistan was clearly different from that of Europe and other developed countries. In all these nations, capitalism existed together with democracy and civil rights, while in Pakistan, wealth lies in the control of only 22 families who used the system for their exploitation purposes. These elites resisted democratic rights, promoted the dictatorship and intentionally verified industrial development. They did not direct their factories to maximum capacity, hindered future industrialization and diverted state capital through loans, and avoided job creation and took the peasants to deep poverty.
The fundamental documents of the PPP did not oppose private investment completely, but established clear conditions: “private investment will be allowed only on the principles of capacity, efficiency and the creation of legitimate profits, not through the sponsorship of elite families or corrupt bureaucratic features. Private investment will be profitable only to the extent that the class is an equal partner in its benefits.”
Shaheed Bhutto was a firm defender of socialism, but rejected the notion that it could be imposed through mere orders or dictatorship. He believed that achieving a class and classless socialist society, free of capitalist exploitation, required a gradual and historically guided process. This transformation, he argued, could only be done through democracy under a political program centered on people.
Another great achievement of Shaheed Bhutto was not only to provide Pakistan with a federal parliamentary democratic system through the 1973 Constitution, but also to address the sense of deprivation by granting maximum autonomy to federal units.
He also established a neutral foreign policy for Pakistan, in which he developed in his book Myth of Independence. He opposed to sacrifice Pakistan’s interests for the good of US policies and constantly defend the strongest ties with China. However, he also emphasized that Pakistan’s national interests should continue to be the priority in their relations with China.
Shaheed Bhutto provided each crisis a historically proven solution by emphasizing that people really have power. Shaheed firmly believed in that, because in times of crisis, it was the only way to use as a panacea to refer to people. This is Bhuttoism’s idea, which other ideologies have not been able to overcome so far.
Unfortunately, Pakistan deviated from Bhutto’s vision. Instead of strengthening democracy, the country was attracted to the power struggles of the global forces, military regimes were imposed and deliberately promoted deliberately to counteract the PPP. Today, Pakistan is once again trapped in the same destructive cycle as Shaheed Bhutto warned in his book if I am killed.
After the judicial murder of Bhutto, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto carried out his political philosophy, sacrificing his life to rescue the country from the crisis. Now, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is moving this philosophy, keeping faithful to the words of Shaheed Bhutto forging connections with people and aligning with their aspirations.
Shaheed Bhutto remains alive and continues to lead because he chose to die at the hands of a dictator instead of at the hands of history. His political philosophy has resisted the test of time, demonstrating its relevance and correction. Given the challenges that Pakistan faces today, it is imperative to resort once again to the vision of Shaheed Bhutto.
The writer is Sindh Minister and Minister of Information and Transportation, government of Sindh
