Apart from the Prophets of God and some of His most blessed souls, no one can and should be judged in absolute terms.
No one amongst us who qualifies to be ‘a human’ is perfect or flawless. Imperfections and frailties are ingrained in our nature. Similarly those with nearly Satanic reputation should not be regarded as absolutely devoid of goodness.
Even most compulsive and ‘seasoned’ of criminals can, in certain situations, act in a manner worthy of saints.
I have learned this truth over decades of experience built on my contact with hundreds of ‘humans’ of divergent attributes, virtues and vices.
A classical case in this context is my constantly changing evaluation of the late Zulifiqar Ali Bhutto. When I first learnt of him he was no more than a sychophantic minister in the cabinet of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who had once described General Iskandar Mirza a leader of higher stature than Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Till mid 1965, ZAB to me was just another Rahman Malik or Qamaruzaman Kaira-duty-bound to severe his master.
Then came the Operation Gibraltar and the Kashmir episode. And Bhutto’s place in my esteem shot up like a rocket. Till about December 1971, he was to rule my emotions with great authority. The fall of Dacca however turned my emotional chemistry upside down, and a transformation occurred in my way of judging him.
This transformation led me to launch a magazine that challenged Bhutto’s credentials as a patriot, and that led to my authorship of “Jhoot Ka Peghambar” which till was killed by me in October 1977, sold in thousands.
After he was hanged, I went through yet another transformation in the way I had judged ZAB. I was virtually driven into writing “He Was Not Hanged” in the year 1988 which was my apology to history.
Today ZAB is neither a saint, nor a devil to me. He had his vices. And he had his virtues. But what not any of his critics has been able to charge him of, is fiscal corruption.
He didn’t embark upon any mission to steal from the National Treasury, and to rob the Nation of its wealth to make any of his known or unknown bank accounts anywhere in the world swell to astronomical proportions.
Fiscal Corruption was a ‘political virtue’ unknown to ZAB.
It was his daughter who first learnt to taste its fruits under the tutorship of someone she could hardly say No to.
But as a person who knew BB, I can state with conviction that in her conscience, there was always a big No. She succumbed however to the ugliness of our political system and its compulsions.
(This Column was first published on 25-05-2012)
