THIS IS MY STORY—76
MY JOURNEY THROUGH THE ERA OF AYUB KHAN TO THE TIMES OF IMRAN KHAN.
GHULAM AKBAR………
Bhutto’s Sojourn Begins
While the popularity President Ayub Khan had gained in the early days of the 1965 war suffered a swift decline due to the sudden CEASEFIRE, and while the Nation went into a state of traumatic disbelief and shock, there was one man whose joy was simply unbounded. This man had decided that the moment had come for him to break free from the chains of loyalty to the man in command above-—first Iskandar Mirza and then Field Marshal Ayub Khan. He had envisioned his journey towards PERSONEL GLORY probably as early as July 1965 when the Operation Gibraltor leading to the Indo-Pak war was being finalized. It was probably in that phase that ZAB’s behind-the-scenes secret contacts with high military officials had begun,the ‘contracts’ which were to provide him clandestine backing in the pursuit of his ambition. His ambition quite clearly was to rule Pakistan. This ambition did materialize in the years to follow but at a cost that no one had thought of Bhutto fired his first shots of dissent from the man whose patronage had made him what he was.
Even though President Ayub Khan was told by secret sources that ZAB was planning to rock the boat, he chose to take his foreign minister along to Tashkent where the summit to settle the dispute between Pakistan and India took place The Soviet Prime Minister Kosygin brokered an accord between President Ayub Khan of Pakistan and Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri of India which was to be remembered as Tashkent Declaration, and was to play a significant role in Bhutto’s rise.
Quite clearly behind the WORDINGS of the said ‘declaration’ there was a secret understanding between the key figures to negotiate a fair settlement of the Kashmir dispute. This ‘ Secret Understanding’ got unexpectedly blown up due to Shastri’s sudden death the night following the signatures were put on the declaration.
Destiny had served Bhutto well. Shastri’s death provided him a great opportunity to give him a popular excuse to abandon President Ayub Khan’s ship.
“ Oh the beloved people of my beloved country, I am going to reveal soon what happened at Tashkent”, became Bhutto’s standard statement on every occasion he got an opportunity to speak.
The message between the lines was that there had been a sellout or a capitulation at Tashkent.
This message was not wanting in credibility in the people’s eyes because of the shock they had received by the UN-sponsored ceasefire.
During that period Daily Kohistan was going through an economic crisis due to decline in advertisements.
I, as Executive Editor had adopted a very tough stance against President Ayub Khan’s weak stance regarding India and Kashmir. I remembered that it was the first time after I joined journalism that I unsheathed my PEN and wrote some stunning articles—-one of which I remember was titled Munich Declaration Replayed.
In this article I had compared Ayub Khan with the British PM Chamberlane who had capitulated to Adolph Hitler in the Munich talks. By implication I had likened ZAB with Winston Churchill who was a great critic of the Munich Declaration which had given time and excuse to Hitler to invade Czechoslovakia.
