April 4, 1979 was a day doomed to grief,
Several helicopters slowly landed near the Lakhana cemetery, and an ambulance was parked not far away, only to see a coffin being carried off the plane, hurriedly carried to the ambulance, and then driven all the way to the cemetery, where there were tombs that had been dug long ago, waiting for the arrival of the remains.
Inside the coffin was the former prime minister of Pakistan, Ali Bhutto, who was sent to the gallows.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > abandoned business and entered politics and founded the People's Party</h1>
Ali Bhutto came from a prominent background, the Bhutto family is a well-known and prestigious family in Pakistan, his father was involved in politics very early, so at a young age, Bhutto paid great attention to cultivating his interest in politics.
His father would often instill and share his political ideas with him, which planted a seed of yearning for politics in Little Bhutto's heart, and continued to sprout and grow.
Bhutto's education was also unusual, he grew up to study at the University of California, the United States, majoring in law, in his spare time, but also immersed in the study of politics, often participate in some Western political rallies and parades.
Bhutto achieved remarkable results during his further studies abroad, earning a Master of Laws degree from the London Law School and being hired as a professor at the University of Southampton.
But in 1953, Bhutto resolutely gave up the preferential treatment abroad and returned to Pakistan, where he had always dreamed of his hometown.
After returning to China, Bhutto became a lawyer, but he was often seen active in some political activities.
However, as an aristocrat, Bhutto attached more importance to contact with the intellectual youth and other classes than to the long-sleeved dancers among high-ranking officials and masters, so he had great appeal and influence among intellectuals such as young students and the bourgeoisie.
Bhutto, who worked as a lawyer for four years, was appreciated by Pakistan's then-President Mirza with his outstanding talents and unique political insights, and in 1957 Bhutto was appointed Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations.
In October 1958, when there was a change of power in Pakistan, Ayyub Khan, then the commander of the army, launched a military coup d'état, overthrew Mirza, made himself the new president, and established a military government and a cabinet.
Compared with Mirza, who was ousted from power, Bhutto did not suffer any negative impact on the change of regime.
On the contrary, because of his outstanding political skills, Ayyub Khan also included him in the cabinet and reused him, and then Bhutto rose through the Ayyub government, from minister of commerce to leader of parliament and then to minister of foreign affairs.
In 1963, Bhutto visited China for the first time, signed the China-Pakistan Boundary Treaty with China on behalf of Pakistan, and settled the Sino-Pakistani boundary issue with China in friendship.
Bhutto's political path suffered a setback in 1966.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Second Indo-Pakistani War, President Ayyub Khan accepted a request for mediation and took Bhutto to Tashkent, where he reached a ceasefire agreement with the Indian Prime Minister and signed the Tashkent Declaration.
However, in Bhutto's view, this declaration is very "sloppy" and in the name of peace, but it does not mention that India has taken the initiative to provoke war, its acts of aggression against Pakistan, and its protection of the kashmiri people's right to self-determination.
Bhutto felt that the agreement was very unfriendly to Pakistan and had a disagreement with Ayyub Khan.
After returning to China, Bhutto felt extremely disappointed and decided to leave the government of unknown origin, so he used the excuse of going abroad for medical treatment, resigned from the post of foreign minister, returned to his old profession, and returned to work as a lawyer.
A year later, Bhutto returned to politics.
At that time, the regime of Ayyub Khan was no longer stable, and after Ayyub Khan came to power, he did not take real measures to solve the domestic economic problems, agriculture was very backward, and he had to rely on imports every year to obtain a large amount of grain, which for a long time seriously aroused the dissatisfaction of the people of all walks of life in Pakistan.
Something seems to be on the verge of erupting, and Bhutto is the needle that punctures it.
In November 1967, the returning Bhutto announced the formation of the People's Party, opposed the government of Ayyub Khan, advocated "socialism", reformed the economic system, and strongly demanded general elections.
Bhutto was already beloved by pakistan's petty bourgeoisie and young intellectuals, and his actions and ideas catered to the strong wishes of the people, so he responded to every call, and the People's Party grew rapidly.
The growing popularity of the People's Party poses a serious threat to the regime of Ayyub Khan, and Ayyub Khan is naturally unlikely to sit still.
In November 1968, Ayyub Khan ordered Bhutto's arrest and imprisonment him in a Concentration Camp in Lahore.
This move undoubtedly angered Bhutto's supporters, and the anti-Ayyub Khan government activities not only did not suppress Bhutto's arrest, but intensified, the BJP became more emboldened, and the general public held demonstrations and rallies to demand the government's release.
Under pressure, Ayyub Khan had to release Bhutto in February 1969 and in March handed over power to Army Commander Yahya Khan, who himself hastily stepped down and took refuge.
Yahya Khan, who came to power temporarily, was helpless in the face of a huge anti-government situation, and he had to agree to hold a general election under the voice of the people.
There is no doubt that Bhutto's People's Party became the second largest party in Pakistan.
The Yahya Khan regime did not last long, and in 1971 the Third Indo-Pakistani War broke out, which resulted in the independence of East Pakistan and the establishment of Bangladesh under India's intervention, and the collapse of the defeated Yahya Khan government.
At this critical juncture, Bhutto officially took over the Pakistani government and became the new leader.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" > outstanding political achievements and good relations with China throughout his life</h1>
In order to resolve the legacy of the war, Bhutto actively sought negotiations with India as soon as he came to power, and in order to show his sincerity, he first announced the unconditional release of the East Pakistani leaders who had previously been detained by the Government of Yahya Khan, and then personally traveled to the Indian city of Shimla in June 1972 to hold talks with Indian Female Prime Minister Ing Gandhi.
Although the negotiation process was difficult and the British Gandhi was also aggressive, Bhutto was always humble and unobtrusive, adhered to the principle of safeguarding Pakistan's interests, and finally reached a consensus with the British Gandhi, signed the "Simla Agreement", peacefully resolved a series of problems between the two countries, and declared the end of the Indian-Pakistani war state.
In the same year, the Bhutto government and the Chinese government agreed to continue to cooperate in the construction and extension of the Karakoram Highway connecting the two countries to further strengthen the ties between the two countries, also known as the China-Pakistan Friendship Road.
In terms of diplomacy, Bhutto has pursued the principle of friendship with China all his life and made great contributions to the friendly and cooperative relations between China and Pakistan.
As early as the outbreak of the Third Indo-Pakistani War, Bhutto rushed to the United Nations for help, and only China explicitly expressed its support for Pakistan, which also became an opportunity for the two countries to make good friends.
Bhutto visited China nine times in his lifetime, and he was also the last foreign leader Chairman Mao received during his lifetime.
Bhutto lived up to expectations and demonstrated his excellent ability to govern in internal affairs, introducing a new constitution in 1973, abolishing the presidential system and electing him as Prime Minister through parliamentary elections.
Since the government of Ayyub Khan failed to meet the real needs of the people, Bhutto was determined to grasp the root causes of the problem, reform the socio-economic system, implement land reform to promote agricultural development, and vigorously promote the policy of "nationalization" in order to change the monopoly of the industrial and commercial economy by large families and suppress it.
These policies, which were enthusiastically supported by the petty and middle bourgeoisie and peasantry, drew hatred from the landlord class, which was suppressed by these policies.
It also laid the foundation for Bhutto's future.
The prejudiced classes began to unite against the Bhutto regime, and the opposition of the capitalists grew louder, and Bhutto, considering that the regime had been somewhat strengthened, in order to stabilize the people's minds, Bhutto announced the early organization of a general election in March 1977.
The results of the election were also as Bhutto expected, and the People's Party won again.
However, Bhutto's opponents did not stop there, and they began to accuse Bhutto of taking advantage of his position to cheat in the election.
Not only that, but they began to riot everywhere, bringing socio-economic life to a standstill.
Bhutto was very worried that someone would take the opportunity to launch a military coup, and once it happened, the result would be irreparable, and he would need absolute control over the military.
So Bhutto overtook his confidant, Zia Haq, and he promoted Zia Haq, then commander of the Third Army, to chief of the Army General Staff, hoping that he would become his right arm and secure the power for himself.
What Bhutto did not expect was that his heart-heeled confidant was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > betrayed by his henchmen, a generation of prime ministers killed on the gallows</h1>
In the early morning of July 5, 1977, when everyone was still asleep, a large number of tanks rumbled through the streets, and columns of heavily armed soldiers quickly and orderly occupied and blocked important areas such as radio stations and airports.
A policeman who got the news in advance risked being killed and quietly informed Bhutto's guards of the bad news.
The guards were so shocked that they rushed to wake up Bhutto, who was asleep, told him of Zia Hack's rebellion, and advised Bhutto to flee quickly.
Bhutto fell silent after hearing this, and it was obvious that he did not expect the most trusted person around him to betray him, and in the face of the guard's request, he only shook his head slightly and said lightly: "Since they betrayed me and want to get rid of me, let them come."
Bhutto seemed to have realized that something was happening irreversibly, so he did not run away, but waited quietly, and the rebels quickly invaded and arrested Bhutto.
Power was completely in the hands of Zia Haq, who terminated the new constitution, dissolved parliament, and restored the presidential system, but declared that the military regime would last only three months to maintain the basis for fair elections in the future.
Zia Haq released Bhutto on 28 July, but arrested Bhutto from his home again two months later, citing accusations that Bhutto had ordered political murder and kidnapping.
Bhutto's case was heard for six months until March 1978, when the government put Mrs. Bhutto under house arrest, barred her from organizing demonstrations, and making inflammatory speeches.
What all this foreshadows is self-evident.
On March 18, 1978, all the judges of Pakistan's Supreme Court appeared, and the Chief Justice announced that former Prime Minister Bhutto had been sentenced to death by hanging for ordering political murder in 1974.
The government "graciously" gave Bhutto the right to appeal, and in December, Bhutto appeared in court to defend himself, dressed in a loose gray prison uniform, with a gaunt pale face and tears in his eyes.
This lawyer-turned-politician, who has spoken at the United Nations many times, in the process of defending himself, with tears in his eyes, choked up several times, and could not even speak, he repeatedly defended the judges that those things were fabricated, and he had never done anything to harm the country.
Bhutto's mental state was poor, and his long imprisonment exhausted him, and he was imprisoned on a cramped death row with no sunlight in sight.
Finally Bhutto got tired, and he said, "I want justice, not mercy."
In February 1979, the Supreme Court rejected Bhutto's appeal and announced its final verdict: uphold the original sentence and remain the death penalty.
Bhutto was sentenced to death, zia Haq did everything in his power to prevent the population from being provoked into riots, imprisoned hundreds of BJP members in addition to house arrest, censored the press and various public speeches, and prevented mentions of the outcome of Bhutto's trial.
At the same time, the police and army are stationed throughout the city, and in the event of riots, they are always ordered to suppress them severely.
The turmoil within Pakistan has been watched by the entire United Nations, Bhutto has a great reputation internationally, and it is shocking to hear that Bhutto has been sentenced to death, and many countries have tried to rescue him.
Many heads of state have written or sent telegrams to the government of Zia Haq to intercede for Bhutto and try to protect Bhutto, and China has also conveyed messages through the United Nations and the ambassador to Pakistan, hoping that the Pakistani government can release Bhutto.
None of these moves, however, spared Bhutto.
On April 3, 1979, the government allowed Bhutto's family to meet with Bhutto for the last time, and Bhutto's wife and daughter were in tears at the first sight of him.
The prison gave Bhutto a piece of paper and a pen and asked him to write a suicide note, which Bhutto wrote and then destroyed, and he quietly bathed, shaved, ate a meal, and read the Quran.
In the early hours of April 4, the guards opened the door, Bhutto walked out of the prison with his hands tied behind his back, and as he passed the cells of other prisoners, the prisoners recited the Quran aloud together to send Bhutto off.
The moment the gaunt and pale Bhutto stood on the gallows and the rope was put around his neck, Bhutto closed his eyes and left behind the last words of despair in his life: "Oh my God, save me, because I am a sinless man."
Then he was hung high, his feet twitching desperately a few times, and soon he did not move, and everything was calm again.
His body hung high on the gallows for 30 minutes before being taken off and sent to the Lakhana cemetery for burial, where people who heard the wind gathered early and could not hold back when they saw the coffins delivered, and the endless tears almost drowned out the People of Pakistan.
Ali Bhutto died at the age of 51, a short five-year reign that has been remembered by Pakistani people for a lifetime.
He was eager to show his talents to lead the people to the light, but in the end he could not withstand the defeat of the king, the political intrigue, the sword and the shadow, and the career of a generation of great people ended forever.
However, the story of the Bhutto family in politics does not end there, behind the back of Bhutto's departure, a beautiful "iron butterfly" is slowly opening its bright wings, waiting to flap its wings and fly.