Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Quotes

In April [1972], after that fine business in Dacca, Yahya Khan sent for me. He looked satisfied, sure of himself, by now convinced he had the situation in hand. He offered me a drink. "Well, you politicians are really finished," he said. Then he said that not only Mujib but I too was considered an agitator, I too was preaching against the unity of Pakistan. "I'm always under pressure to arrest you, Bhutto" I got so angry I lost all control.

[Tikka Khan] went to East Pakistan with precise orders and came back by precise orders. He did what he was ordered to do, though he wasn't always in agreement, and I picked him because I know he'll follow my orders with the same discipline.

Tear gas, rubber bullets, and I would have arrested all the leaders. Oh, only a disgusting drunkard like ex-President Yahya Khan could have sullied himself with an operation carried out so badly and bloodily.

I am guiding you to seek truth from the facts of the historical conditions of our society and to identify the problems. The correct solutions will come with the correct identification of the problems.

I've known him since 1954 and I've never taken Mujib Rahiman seriously - I understood from the very first moment that there was no depth to him, no preparation, that he was an agitator breathing a lot of fire and with an absolute lack of ideas.

In March [1972] the unity of Pakistan depended on the suppression of the secessionists. But to carry it out with such brutality on the people instead of on those responsible wasn't necessary. That's not the way to convince poor people who've been told that with the Six Points there'll be no more hurricanes, no more floods, no more hunger. I spoke out against such methods more emphatically than anyone else, and when no one dared do so.

That Mujib [Rahiman] had been arrested I found out at eight in the morning, when I left. How did I take it? I was glad he was alive and I thought they might have maltreated him a little. Then I thought that his arrest might help to reach a compromise. They wouldn't keep him in prison more than a month or two, and in the meantime we'd be able to bring back law and order.

We(Pakistan) will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own (Atom bomb).... We have no other choice!

A regime which puts in a bunker the highest law in the land does not have the moral authority to say that nobody is above the law.

The sanction of force stands behind the medley of personal orders and regulations of Martial Law. The sanction of the people's consent stands behind the hierarchy of laws. In one situation, the population is regimented into acquiescence. In the other, the population voluntarily establishes a contract with Parliament.

If things do not change, there will be nothing left to change. Either power must pass to the people or everything will perish.

Mujib [Rahman] talks at random, depending on his mood and the disorders of his sick mind.

[Tikka Khan] made his appeal with loudspeakers, and still he came to know of only four cases. Shall we multiply by ten and make it forty? We're still far from the senseless figures spread around by Mujib [Rahman] and Indra Gandhi.

Do you know that Yahya Khan's first victim was not to have been Mujib [ Rahman] but myself? Many people in my party were in prison, and at the end of 1970, November 5, 1970, to be exact, he had said to Mujib, "Should I arrest Bhutto or not?" Look, the only reason why he reversed his schedule was that in West Pakistan he couldn't control the situation as in East Pakistan. Besides Mujib has never been intelligent - he let himself be backed into a corner.

To conclude, the tragedy of March 25 [1969] caught me by surprise. Yahya Khan fooled even me.

I don't say it in the Indian fashion that is hypocritically. I say it sincerely because, instead of hatred, I feel great compassion for Mujib Rahiman.

What can you say of a leader who starts drinking as soon as he wakes up and doesn't stop until he goes to bed? You've no idea how painful it was to deal with Yahya Khan. He was really Jack the Ripper.

The same goes for the refugees. Mrs.[Indira] Gandhi says ten million. It's obvious she started with that figure in order to legalize her offensive and invade East Pakistan. But when we invited the United Nations to check, the Indians were opposed. Why were they opposed? If the figure were exact, they shouldn't have been afraid of its being verified.

Tikka Khan won't try to stick his nose in politics.

Every government, every country, has the right to exercise force when necessary.

There's only one man really responsible for those events - Yahya Khan. Both he and his advisers were so drunk with power and corruption they'd even forgotten the honor of the army.

I tried to explain that there was a great difference between me and Mujib [Rahiman]: he was a secessionist and I wasn't.

Lets build a monument for the veto. Lets build a monument for impotence and incapacity.

For instance, in the name of unity. You can't build without destroying.

Yes, there are circumstances where a bloody suppression is justifiable and justified.

[Yahya Khan ] I have a big problem on my hands with him. I've set up a war commission to study the responsibilities inherent in the recent conflict.

A dreaded society is not a civilized society. The most progressive and powerful society in the civilized sense, is a society which has recognized its ethos, and come to terms with the past and the present, with religion and science. With modernism and mysticism, with materialism and spirituality; a society free of tension, a society rich in culture. Such a society cannot come with hocus-pocus formulas and with fraud. It has to flow from the depth of a divine search.

Even to get Yahya Khan to reason was an impossible task - it only made you lose your temper.

Tikka Khan was a soldier doing a soldier's job.

I can't destroy the whole army, and anyway [Tikka Khan] bad reputation for the events in Dacca is exaggerated.

Mrs. [Indira] Gandhi can rightly boast of having won a war, but if she won it, she should first of all thank Yahya Khan and his gang of illiterate psychopaths.

If the people wanted my head I would bow without demur. If I had lost the confidence or respect of the people I would not want to live. The tragedy of the drama is that the very opposite is true.

To build a country, [Joseph] Stalin was obliged to use force and kill. Mao Tse-tung was obliged to use force and kill. To mention only two recent cases, without raking over the whole history of the world.

[Yahya Khan ] had given me an appointment for the following day. And, days later, General Mohd Umar revealed to me that he'd resorted to this stratagem so that I'd stay in Dacca and "see the efficiency of the army." I give you my word of honor that all this is true.

The fact is that when you talk about Mujib [Rahiman], everything seems so incredible. I don't understand how the world can take him seriously.

I would not let myself be intimidated by Yahya Khan, his methods had led us to disaster.

[Mujib Rahman] is mad, mad! And they're all mad, the press included, who repeat after him, "Three million dead, three million dead!" The Indians had let out the figure of one million. He came along and doubled it. Then tripled it. It's a characteristic of the man - he'd done the same for the hurricane.

Yahya Khan wasn't interested in the government of the country, he was interested in power for its own sake and nothing else.

We know who left the country. And many were Bengalis from West Bengal, sent from Calcutta. It was she who sent them - Mrs.[Indira] Gandhi.

Pakistan was once called the most allied ally of the United States. We are now the most non-allied.

I felt certain uneasiness, a strange sensation, which had comic to a head. Every evening I went to Yahya to report that Mujib [Rahiman] and I weren't making any progress, and Yahya [Khan] showed no interest. He looked away or complained about the television or grumbled because he couldn't listen to his favorite songs - his records hadn't arrived from Rawalpindi.

Mujib [Rahman], as you've seen, is a congenital liar. He can't help telling lies - it's something stronger than he.

I'm not trying to minimize things; I'm trying to bring them back to reality.

[Yahya Khan] thought of nothing but acquiring beautiful cars, building beautiful homes, making friends with bankers, and sending money abroad.

Let's talk about the other story: the women raped and killed. I don't believe it. Certainly there was no lack of excesses, but General Tikka Khan says that in those months he often invited the population to report abuses to him directly.