"An Evil Genius"

Bhutto is in deep, deep trouble

The head of Pakistan's new military government was shocked and saddened. When he saw Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Rawalpindi two weeks ago, General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq confronted the deposed Prime Minister with several charges of crime and misconduct. As Zia told the story later, "I said to him, 'Sir'--I still called him that--'Sir, why have you done all those things, you whom I respected so, who had so much?' He said only that I should wait and he would be cleared. It was very disappointing." So disappointing, in fact, that Zia approved a court order calling for his onetime leader's arrest and transfer to a Lahore jail.

Bhutto, who was unseated by a military coup last July 5, is in deep, deep trouble. The most serious accusation against him is, in effect, murder by proxy. He allegedly ordered his paramilitary Federal Security Force to get rid of a troublesome opposition politician, Ahmed Raza Kasuri. During the second of two attacks on Kasuri in 1974, gunmen sprayed the politician's car with bullets; they missed Kasuri but killed his father. According to government sources, five security-force officials have testified that they were acting on Bhutto's orders at the time.

If convicted on that charge, Bhutto could conceivably be sentenced to death by hanging. As of last week, this was but one of a torrent of serious accusations that were swirling around the former Prime Minister. In a separate case, four policemen confessed that in 1972 they had murdered another opposition member of the National Assembly, Dr. Nazir Ahmed, after the Prime Minister complained to aides that he was losing sleep over Nazir Ahmed's anti-Bhutto speeches.

In addition, Bhutto has been accused of: 1) detaining some of his political enemies illegally, telling one of them, "You will pass your life in a detention camp and will die a slow and miserable death"; 2) instructing the security force to fire on an opposition political rally in 1973, which resulted in the death of 20 people and the injury of 100 more; 3) misappropriating government funds; and 4) ordering the torture of Jalaluddin Abdur Rahim in 1974, after the 71-year-old career diplomat complained that the Prime Minister had insulted his dinner guests by keeping them waiting until midnight for his arrival.

Western observers discount the possibility that the charges against Bhutto, once a national hero, are part of a smear campaign by his opponents. Rumors of official misconduct had circulated widely in Pakistan while Bhutto was in office. Moreover, there is little reason to believe that General Zia, who was named army chief of staff by Bhutto a year ago, has any grudge against his former boss. The diffident general, who now calls Bhutto "an evil genius" and "a 1977 Machiavelli," seems determined to remain impartial and let the law take its course. Before his arrest, Bhutto predicted "a crisis of jurisprudence" if he should be handcuffed or jailed. Zia insisted: "No person can be above the law."

Will the military government proceed with its plan to hold national elections on Oct. 18? "By jingo, yes," declares Zia, "unless the heavens fall." Despite Bhutto's incarceration, his Pakistan People's Party announced last week that it would contest the elections; it called on party members to turn their grief "over the arrest of Party Chairman Bhutto into an enthusiastic campaign." The army still talks as if it expects to go back to the barracks by the end of October. But if the election results are inconclusive, the soldiers may yet decide to delay their departure.

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