Jan. 5, 1993
Ameer Begum
We passed our childhood days together and I was engaged at the age of 25 with Shaheed Bhutto. Every thing carried out traditionally in village Mirpur Bhutto, where my father the cousin of Shaheed Bhutto was dwelling. Later I left for Bombay, where Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Saheb busy studying and I returned back when Pakistan came into being. I don’t remember the exact date of leaving Bombay, but what I remember was the three years tenure I stayed there and most probably it was 1944. When I left my village for Bombay. When Shaheed Bhutto Saheb and I engaged both mine and his fathers were alive and Bhutto Saheb set out for London to take studies. Though my father was thinking about the difference in our ages but my in-laws did not give more importance to it, saying that everything was being done within family and it was purely a family matter.
I don’t know exactly Shaheed Bhutto returned to Pakistan but I could only say that as soon as he came back, he started teaching Law in Sindh Muslim Law College and at that time I was living in my village and he used to visit Naudero while practicing law. Things around me were good enough to speak about his high thinkings. He was always pointing towards the picture of Mr. Jinnah in his room and was wishing to become a leader of Mr. Jinnah’s calibre after completing studies in England. Though my mother-in-law did not favour him going and living abroad but he was a man who had constantly been pressing upon his intentions and that speaks of the volume of his determination at that age and time.
We shared happiness and sorrows. He respected me. He tried to make me realize that we were from same family and sometimes he talked of his mind to marry again, for which he had formed opinion that I could not company him breaking the family traditions of purdah. But he promised for fulfilling the commitments of remaining with me at any cost. He told me he will have another wife but after completing education. He respected me a lot and usually asked me for settling down local problems in Naudero myself. Shaheed Bhutto usually visited Naudero on Eids.
Q Did you ever accompany Bhutto Saheb any where?
A No, I did not. because I preferred to remain inside the home. Once there was a party in the honor of Bhutto Saheb, his friends expected me to be there, but Mr. Mashooq Bhutto, the brother of Mr. Mumtaz Ali Bhutto told them that Bhutto’s wife would not attend it because she did not like to come in public. “No one identifies me in Karachi. Even in Larkana I am unknown to people. If I come out in Larkana without burka people will not recognize me. They have never seen me before.”
Q Did Bhutto Saheb tell you he would marry again?
A. Yes.
Q. Did he inform you when he married Begum Nusrat Bhutto?
A. No.
Q Then how did you come to know about it?
A. It is a long story which could only be covered in many books. To put it in short, we went to Karachi to meet my Iranian friend. When we reached her house, she was not there. We were told that she had gone to attend an engagement ceremony of an Iranian girl with a Sindhi boy. And that boy was no one else but Bhutto Sahib. At that time my sister and my foster mother were also present. My father-in-law came there to meet my father but he was out. When he came back, we told him about it, so he went to meet him where my uncle informed my father about the engagement of Bhutto Saheb. Bhutto Saheb came to me in the night and in the next evening he got engaged.
Q. Did you not fight on it?
A. No. My father asked if Zulfikar told me about his marriage. I replied in negative. Then my father apprised me about Bhutto’s engagement with an Iranian girl. Later my father invited Zulfikar and Nusrat to dinner at Karachi Club.
Q. Who is dearer to you amongst Bhutto Saheb’s children?
A. All of them were dear to me. Bhutto Saheb would bring them to village on every Eid. We had many horses. They would enjoy riding on them. I would prepare sweets for them. Zulfikar, Ali Bhutto used to tell them that I was their first mother and they ought to respect me. Benazir and other children respected and loved me very much.
Q. What were Bhutto Saheb’s activities in Bombay?
A. He would go to school regularly and took great interest in cricket. Once famous cricketer Mushtaq Ali was his close friend with whom he played cricket. He loved to play cricket. He had also tied a ball in his room with the ceiling fan and used to hit it with the bat to practice.
Q. Was Bhutto Saheb an angry man?
A. No. Most certainly not.
Q. Was he well dressed?
A. Yes, he was too much fond of fine clothes.
Q What was his other interest?
A. He wanted to be a great man. He preferred BOSKEY (double gorha silk). He hailed from a rich family and his grand mother used to send him BOSKEY from Bombay. In Summer he ate Falsa and in Winter Anar with great interest.
Q. Did you see Bhutto’s mother?
A. Yes. I lived with her for three years in Bombay. Before our marriage we would visit each other, and Bhutto Sahib would come to our home.
Q. When did she pass away?
A. After our marriage.
Q. How was she, people say she was from a poor family?
A. I don’t know. I did not dare ask my mother-in-law of her life.
Q. So Bhutto Saheb wanted to be a great man.
A. Yes. He would tell me that I was a wife of a great man.
Q. Do you guess, from whom did he get inspiration to be a great man?
A. He didn’t tell me. We did try to stop him from the involvement in politics. He came in tussle with President Ayub. He used to say “I have not got education only to rest in bungalows and have a chit chat with naukars. I shall serve the people through politics”. He would say great enthusiasm, pointing to the picture of Mr. Jinnah placed on the wall in his bedroom: “I would become like this man and work for the betterment of the people.”
Q. So you remained in the village when he became President/Prime Minister?
A. Yes, I lived in village.
Q. Didn’t you go to President’s house or anywhere with him?
A. He insisted me to go with him but I refused. I thought that I would feel alone there.
Q. What about those three years you remained with Bhutto Sahib in Bombay?
A. Yes, I remained in Bombay for three years after that I lived in my father’s house. Bhutto Sahib visited me there occasionally. we had lived together for only three years.
Q. Where were you at the time when Bhutto Saheb was arrested?
A. I was in Larkana. He also arrested from there. Then I went to Karachi and sometimes later news came that he (Bhutto Saheb) was released on bail. He came to me on Eid. Both the sisters and my foster mother also met him. People were chanting slogans but Bhutto Saheb stopped them.
Q Did he talk to you?
A. Not that much. He looked occupied in some thoughts.
Q. Did he debar you from politics?
A Yes. He refrained me from appealing for his release from the jail.
Q. How many times did you meet him in jail?
A. Four times.
Q What do you talk to him?
A. I can’t tell you about that.
Q. How did you find Bhutto Saheb in jail?
A. Bhutto Saheb faced it bravely and courageously. When I wept there, he solaced me and spoke. “Don’t weep. Look to your family. Don’t weep. If they will see you weeping, they will laugh at and say that they saw Bhutto’s wife weeping.” Zia had secretly installed bug devices in the room to listen to us. That is why we did not talk too much.
Q What happened during your last meeting in Rawalpindi jail?
A. We got there under great surveillance. We were made to stand, outside the door and Bhutto Sahib stood behind the bars. He was put in a small cell. His bed was on the floor. He had one blanket only, a wooden commode and a plastic bucket of water. His sister who brought him up and his nephew were also present there to meet him but the time of meeting was very short. We met him last on the 30th or 31st of March. They searched us thoroughly before the meeting. From there I went to Rohri, from where my vehicle picked me up. Enroute to Naudero my driver told me that Police and Military had raided and searched our houses in Naudero. Four days after our last meeting they hanged him.
Q. What did they search in your home?
A. I don’t know. They had got hold of box containing documents of our land.
Q. Did they take anything with them?
A No. They didn’t take anything with them. Since nothing was there, what would they take.
Q. How did you find Bhutto Saheb?
A. He was a great man, I never saw him angry. Sometimes I used to get annoyed and would criticize him. He would laugh and speak. “I am what I am.” He was the best man. I would say to him, “You may be Prime Minister of your people but for us you are only same Zulfikar.” He always respected elders. He would respect and welcome my foster mother, too.
Q. Did you two quarrel?
A. No. Never. Why should I lie. I fought with him sometimes. I used to tell him, “You have come clandestinely to me.” He would reply, “You are my wife, don’t fight with me.”
Q. Didn’t you ever appear before his friends?
A. No. Never. We observe strict Purdah.
Q. Is polygamy allowed in your family?
A. Yes. For want of children. Bhutto Sahab joined politics. He needed educated life partner who may go accompany him everywhere. In our family girls were not allowed to go to school. We got only Quranic education. Now girls are getting educated.
Q. Didn’t you ever go to school?
A. No.
Q. Did they call you when the body of Bhutto Saheb was brought home on 4th April?
A. Yes. Zia had given them instructions to allow first wife of Bhutto to have his (Bhutto’s) last glimpse in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto (In tears). That whole night from dusk to dawn read Holy Quran and Durood. All of a sudden son of Munshi Nazir Muhammad came and lamented calling “YA HUSSAIN. YA HUSSAIN”. At first, I thought that there might be some sort of fighting outside, then I asked that what had happened. My mother weepingly asked for “Kafan” for Bhutto Sahib. It seemed as if mountain had fallen upon me. I couldn’t control myself and asked them to take me there. I went there. Four hundred armymen were present there. We were without purdah, barefooted and bareheaded. That moment was like ‘KARBALA’ for us. We had reached in ‘AUTAQ’ to see Bhutto’s body there in the presence of heavy contingents of army. They didn’t allow us to see him fully. Even we were not permitted to give him ‘ghusal or kafin’. Zia got killed all those ‘MULLAS’, who had given ghusal to Bhutto’s body even. JALAD was also killed.
Q. You were allowed to see his face only?
A. I was not in my senses at that time. I saw him upto the chest. My sister Akhtar saw his body and said it had torture marks.
Q. When did you see Bhutto Saheb happier?
A. He always remained in good mood and happy.