Bhutto re-visited

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the first elected prime minister of what was left of Pakistan after 1971, led a chequered life. I had heard many times that his mother had been a Hindu dancing girl, but today I got confirmation from an article in DAWN. It seems that he was mentally challenged because his mother had never been accepted as a family member and his father had never given him much time when he was growing up. 

It was obvious that he was suicidal. He was also an autocrat and not very confident of himself. Which is why he always suspected that others were out to get him. 

It also explains why he was a sycophant. He told Iskander Mirza that posterity would say he (Mirza) was the greatest Pakistani who ever lived, greater even than Jinnah (who created the country). He was the youngest minister to be appointed until that time (1954). 

There is something I know which is not well-known. Bhutto had a rice mill which he had rented out to a Hindu. One day Bhutto (as prime minister) asked the tenant (through an emissary) to buy the factory as he needed the money. The man almost collapsed. He said he could never think of doing such a thing. But the emissary told him to collect the money and pay it as the prime minister was a poor man who wanted money badly. The tenant purchased the factory, and a week later, Bhutto nationalized it. I know this story is true because it was related to me by a close relative of the Hindu tenant. But the strangest thing is, despite Bhutto's treachery, the Hindu tenant continued voting for the PPP, even after Bhutto was executed.