ABSTRACT
There is an often-recounted story that, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto met President J. F. Kennedy in Washington in 1963, the American President said to Bhutto, ‘If you were American you would be in my cabinet.’ In retort, Bhutto said, ‘Be careful Mr President, if I were American you would be in my cabinet.’1 Bhutto’s ambition, coupled with his huge ego, is renowned, and it is no surprise that his role model was Napoleon Bonaparte. His party, the PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) promised much, but delivered little. It put forward a populist agenda, which has been described as a mix of socialist and Islamic idealism.2 Bhutto’s style was autocratic and he demanded complete loyalty from his party officials, with those who disagreed with him being thrown into prison.3 Turning to the civil service, Bhutto got rid of legal provisions that gave civil servants job security and he effectively politicized the civil service under the auspices that he wished to make the bureaucracy more responsive to government.4 The result was greater power for the bureaucracy and state bourgeoisie, but not that of the labour force. As a result, the PPP lost its populist appeal, benefiting instead politicians and civil servants rather than the people. Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Bhutto rejected demands for greater provincial autonomy. Within just months of assuming power, Bhutto clashed with the provinces by installing a PPP administration in Balochistan and deploying an army of 80,000 troops there with orders to open fire on any ‘miscreants’ who resisted this authority. Although reliant upon the army, Bhutto only caused resentment among the military elite by creating his own personal army called the Federal Security Force (FSF). Bhutto was little more than a bully with control of the reins of power and little in the way of political checks. The FSF would act as his henchmen, harassing and probably killing opponents.5 In 1972, when he announced the nationalization of major industries, he reacted to the protests of industrialists by imprisoning them.6
