Awakening the People Essay

Awakening

Awakening the
People

the
People

A collection of articles, statements and speeches

1966 – 1969
By
ZULFIKAR ALI BHUTTO
Reproduced by
Sani Panhwar
Member Sindh Council PPP

INTRODUCTION

When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto left the Government, milling crowds turned out to
receive him at Lahore and Karachi. It was an amazing spectacle. With his
departure, the people's last hope of the Government vindicating national honor,
seemed to have vanished. Bhutto had become a symbol of the nation's urge to
regain the pride which Ayub had frittered away at Tashkent in an unequal treaty.
The disillusionment of the people who had stood in brave and magnificent
defiance of a much stronger enemy only months before, was suddenly complete
with Bhutto's exit from a Government which no longer represented the national
will, nor seemed to have the strength or ability to defend Pakistan's territorial
integrity and ideological identity.

For Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, it was the beginning of a long and arduous struggle
which would ultimately lead to the overthrow of a blind and isolated dictator who
had imposed his arbitrary will upon the will of the people against all democratic
norms and in violation of the national interest. The people of Pakistan, now
leaderless and bitter with humiliation, looked for support and guidance. Only
Bhutto could give it. History had chosen him for a unique role. He was to fulfil that
role against heavy odds. Everything was against him: the brute authority of a
repressive Government, the industrial oligarchy, the landed aristocracy and the
colonial-style bureaucracy. But he had the people with him. This he knew and
this is what gave him strength.

It was not to be an easy road. Many have wondered why Bhutto
succeeded in spearheading successfully the movement against Ayub, while the
older and more experienced politicians failed. He succeeded because, unlike
them, he could understand the poetry and the music of the...