HE WAS A LOVING HUSBAND: Begum Nusrat Bhutto

A niece of mine would also go to college with me and she was very clever. She would leave her home wearing “Burka” but on her way, she would take it off in the car, and then while coming back home, she would put it on again. Her father thought his daughter was very obedient. But I was the simpleton and I did not want to fool my parents.

So, these were my olden days. I was treated fondly by everyone. My elder sisters were much older than me, the first was 14 years and the second was 13 years elder to me. They had married very early and they had children of my age or a little younger than me. Fakhri is one of them. She is the daughter of my eldest sister, Safia Khanum, Fakhri and I grew up together.

Q. Coming from a conservative family, you and Fakhri Begum were two liberated women.

A. My father was not so conservative, he always encouraged us. My mother was a little old-fashioned, who would ask me to wear “Burka”. In fact, in those days, generally women wore Burka. When I got married, my husband’s family wanted me to wear Burka, at least in Larkana. So, every time I went to Larkana, I would wear Burka. It was much later when my husband became a Minister and my father-in-law had died that I discarded it. Once my husband said it (Burka) was a big farce, and that I should forget it and take it off. One day when I was traveling with him in a plane to Larkana, he said, “Don’t wear it any more.” So, I threw it away.

Q. How did you meet Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto?

A. It was very strange. During my childhood, when we still lived in Bombay, we used to visit Khandala, a hill resort near Bombay. We had a small summer house there sometimes we used to go to Lonavala near Khandala. I saw him in Lonavala for the first time. I remember so vividly, I was 11-years old. We were walking around and his family was also there and walking. Somehow our parents got together and started talking. There were three girls and this boy. So, we kid also began talking. They said they were from Sindh. So, we knew Karachi but did not know Sind, so we asked where was Sindh. They told us where it was. These were the things that our parents talked about. I think we just met twice. I don’t remember the details.

And then we shifted to Karachi. His sister, Manna, (Begum Munawwar Islam) was a friend of mine and when she was getting married, she invited me also. So, I went to the bank to get my jewellery from my locker. I saw him standing there. He was grown-up by now and I did not know it the first instance as to who he was. But his mother was also there and she knew that I was friendly with Manna. So, she said:

“Oh… Nusrat, this is my son, just came from America, his name is Zulfi. “

Now, I had heard from another friend of mine, now she is Mrs. Habibullah, that Manna had a brother who was very handsome and tall. I had seen him in the childhood and I had actually forgotten how he looked. While standing in that bank, I saw him. Perhaps it was a little dark inside the bank, or whatever, but somehow, I thought that he was not so good-looking. This was our first meeting as grown-ups.

Anyway, we went to Mehndi and wedding ceremony and he was always there. There I thought he was charming. He liked me and I liked him. He was so dignified. I had met many other people in parties and picnics. There were many boys and girls around and there was much misbehaving and rubbish-talking. But he was so dignified.

Q. How old were you at that time?

A. I was 20.

Q. Then what happened? Did he propose?

A. No, he did not. I had joined Pakistan National Guards and was a Captain in the Army. My friend, who is now Mrs. Habibullah, was in the Navy, so after a few days of Manna’s wedding, both of us went to her to congratulate her and see how she was doing after marriage. Both of us were in our uniforms. He was there and we met. But I think he did not like us in uniform because afterwards he said to his sister, “What are these two girls up to?”

Then again, he went to America to study. Then…. Well, I cannot tell you all my secrets… Or should I? Okay, I tell. After some time, a friend of his who was also studying in America, came and met me and said Zulfi had sent his love for me. Now I could not place the name at that moment and I asked which Zulfi? So, when he went back, he told him that she does not know who you are and you are sending love to her. After two years, he came back. Now he was studying in Oxford. We saw each other at a friend’s birthday party. He came and spoke.

“Shall I introduce myself to you. Do you know who I am?”

I said “No.” I had realized what he was talking about and I was feeling guilty. He asked: “Shall I bring an ice cream for you?”

I said “Yes”. Then he went and brought me an ice cream.

Later, he would ask his married friends to throw a party and invite me there. So, we met at such parties, but never met alone. Then he proposed.

Q. Do you remember exactly when?

A. Manna got married in 1949. He proposed me in 1951. And we got married. The wedding was in Karachi. I left with him on our honeymoon. At that time, his family lived in a house under the Clifton Bridge, at McNeil Road. I lived with them in that house after the marriage, and Benazir was born there. But soon after the marriage, I went with him to Oxford. It was his first year there, and under the rules, he could not live outside hostel. Therefore, I had to live in a hotel and he would in the hostel. We would stay together during the day. Once he did not go to his hostel in the night, and next day, he told his dean: “Sorry. I stayed with my wife.”

But he was so young that the Dean did not believe him. So, he took me to him and then the Dean said he felt sorry that could not live together and did not punish him for staying out that night.

Q. How was Sir Shah Nawaz like?

A. He was very old by that time. He was a very good person.  When we were in Oxford, he would keep writing that I come back. Finally, I came back to live with my in-laws, and I was not very happy about it because by that time I was in love with my husband and I wanted to live with him. But my in-laws thought their son would not study properly if I was with him. So, we would talk on telephone and I would cry for not being with him. After sometime, my father purchased my tickets and I went back to Oxford to live with him. It was in 1952 that I got pregnant then I told him we were going to have a child. He was so happy to hear it, that he shouted on the street joy “Oh… I am going to be a father.” Then in 1953, I gave birth to Benazir.

Q. Somebody told me that Mr. Bhutto had a sister whose name was Benazir and she died at a young age and he named his daughter after her, is that true?

A Yes. It was much earlier, before Independence. She studied in Poona and lived in the school hostel. We later saw her diary in which she wrote about her keenness to finish the school and come back to her home. But there she got meningitis and died at a young age. She was buried in Poona. It was after her that my mother-in-law named our daughter Benazir. She was only 15 years old.

Q. How was your mother-in-law like? It is said that she belonged to a poor family.

A. There has been much talk about my mother-in-law, and I think that has to be settled once and for all. My mother-in-law was Begum Khurshid whose mother was a new Muslim. Mr. Hidayatullah, who was not a Sir at that time, had married that lady after she had converted from being a Hindu to be a Muslim. Two daughters were born out of that marriage, Begum Khurshid being one of them. Later Hidayatullah divorced that lady and married another woman. Now Begum Khurshid’s elder sister is married to a person, whose name, I think, was Mir Maqbool Ahmad Khan. Now this Maqbool Ahmad Khan was a close friend of Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto. Sir Shah Nawaz’s first wife was very old and he wanted to marry again. So, this Maqbool Ahmad Khan suggested to him that he could marry his wife’s sister, Khurshid, and so they got married.

Q. Mr. Bhutto was the only son from that lady?

A Yes. The other two brothers and four sisters were from the first wife and one son and three sisters from the second wife, Khurshid Begum. She was conservative lady and a religious person. I accompanied her to Ziaraat, to Najaf-e-Ashraf, Karbala, Baghdad. She was a good Muslim. She used to wear “Burka” and she asked me to wear it whenever I visited Larkana.

Anyway, after completing his studies in Oxford. Mr Bhutto got a job in the University but his parents did not like the idea that their son should live in England so they compelled him to come back. In Karachi, he would some time go to deliver lectures in the Sindh Muslim Law College. But he wanted to join Foreign Office.

Q. When you met him for the first time, could you imagine what he would do in life later?

A. No. He was simply a student then. I could only see that he was a dignified person.

Q. What else did you notice at that time?

A. He was charming. You cannot explain what is charm.

Q. What was his source of inspiration?

A. I can’t say. He was brought up very well. May be his mother was his source of inspiration. His father used to encourage him. His uncle, Ahmad Khan Bhutto, whose daughter his first wife, was in politics. I tell you an interesting incident. When we got married, his uncle, who was also his father-in-law, gave a dinner party for us in Karachi Club. Because marrying again was nothing strange in Sindh.

Q. Did you know he was already married?

A. I did not know it in the beginning. What happened was that I conveyed his proposal to my parents through my elder sister. First, they rejected it. They said how could an Irani family agree to a proposal from a Sindhi man, whom we did not know. My mother had died by that time and my grandmother and my elder sisters were there. Some days later, I think some people from Haroon family visited us and the subject came up. There, the Haroons broke the news that this man was already married. Oh my God… My parents gave me hell. They scolded me and said how could I marry a man who was already married, and break his family. After some time, he came to see my family and then I said to him: “You are a married man. You cheated me.  Why didn’t you tell me before you were already married.”

Then he told me in what circumstances he had been married. Later he brought his mother along and she explained to my family as to how he was made to marry his cousin when he was just 14 and they asked him to sit in the wedding if he wanted to get his favourite cricket bat set.

Q. What kind of a man he was?

A. He had very few friends. What nobody knows about him is that he was a very shy person, very shy. He read a lot. He educated me too. He gave me books to read and made me read a lot of books. When I was having children, he gave me books on psychology, so that I could understand my children. He used to say that our children should not do anything which could bring bad name to the family.

Q. Where did you go for honeymoon?

A. Paris and Rome. Interestingly, my mother-in-law accompanied us during our honeymoon. In fact, her daughter, Mumtaz, had been married to Col. Mustafa who was posted in Turkey at that time. She wanted to see her daughter. So, we took her along. We went to Paris, Rome and then to Turkey where she stayed with her daughter and we went to London.

Q. How did he get into Ayub Khan’s cabinet?

A. I think his parents knew Iskandar Mirza, who would visit them frequently. One day Iskandar Mirza said he wanted their son to be a Minister. Before that, he had written a pamphlet, titled: “Federal or Unitary Government,” and the government was angry with him. Later, he was sent as a delegate to international conferences on behalf of the government and he became the commerce minister. Then Iskandar Mirza was thrown out. We were in Larkana at that time. We had no plans to go to Karachi, which was the Capital at that time. But he received phone calls after phone calls. Ayub Khan wanted to keep him as a Minister. Then we had discussions on whether we should go or not. His father had died by then. His mother and I suggested he should agree. So, he accepted it.

Q. Would he discuss politics with you?

Quite often. I never forced my opinion on him. I just said what I genuinely felt. Some time he would accept my advice and some times he would reject it.

Q. What kind of a husband he was?

A. He was a very caring husband. Very caring. I would some times get angry on little things but he would not mind. He was a very loving person. He had a lot of patience. People would come and talk long winded rubbish and give advice to him. He would just sit and listen. Then he would say whatever he believed. He never ever scolded his children. He would talk to them very nicely. He never ever beat his children. When he became a Barrister, he contested a murder charge against an old man who came to him and said he had not committed the murder. This was Mr. Bhutto’s first case. He gave it to me and I kept this money with me for a very long time. He won his second case and his client brought his little daughter in place of money. Mr. Bhutto brought that girl to me and said: “Look. Nusrat. This is my payment for winning the case. Do you want to keep it?” She was a very small and skinny girl. He returned her to her parents.

Q. In what manner did he express his happiness over a success?

A. He remained quiet. I don’t know he had a feeling that he was going to die young. He said it even when he proposed me. He said: “We must get married quickly because I have a very short life” I said: “Why do you have a short life?”

He said he could not say exactly why, but he had this feeling. He explained to me that his family had a lot of enemies who could kill him. Then there was this fortune-teller who had told his father, when he was a child, the details of his future. About his early education, college days, how he would become famous. But that story ended at the age of 48. He was exactly 48 when the PNA started agitation against him.

I remember the first elections in 1970. I got up early in the morning. I said we had to go out early. He asked, why. Why I was in such a hurry. Then I made him get up. I said we should go out and look around. He was very worried about the results.

He kept listening to radio and television. He was very quiet until the last reports came. He was very happy but he was too shy to express his happiness even in front of me. He was very serious and very sedate. 

He used to read, read and read. When he was a Minister, he would see his files till three in the morning. He would work in the bed room and I had to hear him turning the papers and I could not sleep. Once I said I could go to another room if he wanted to work but he did not allow me. He was never tired of reading and working. He would work till three in the morning and then up at eight in the morning and go to office. He slept very little.

Q. You say he was a very shy person. But the whole world knows him as a very daring, brave and bold person.

A. I suppose psychologically, if you are shy, you try to hide your shyness and you act to be bold and brave. I do the same thing. Basically, I am a very shy person but I always try to hide my shyness by being bold and acting as if I am not afraid of anything.

There was a fantastic thing about him also. He could sleep for 5 or 10 minutes, if he wanted to. He would enjoy a deep sleep and then wake up. Very often, he would tell me he had 10 minutes and he wanted to sleep for these 10 minutes after which I should wake him up. The moment he finished telling this to me, he would start snoring. Just believe me, I am not exaggerating. He would have a deep sleep for 10 minutes and after I woke him up, he would be very fresh. I asked him how could he sleep like that. He said: “My conscience is clear. That is why I can go to sleep like that.”

He used to do it quite often because he used to work all the time, so in between his engagements, he got tired and then slept for a few minutes.

Q. Oriana Fallacci wrote in her interview with Mr. Bhutto that he was a man full of contradictions. He was a rich man who cared for the poor. He was a feudal but a socialist. He was an orthodox Muslim but a liberal man at the same time. How do you comment on that?

A. His background was feudal, but he was an educated man. He had been educated in countries like America and England. His father first sent him to America which is very modern, then to Oxford to create a balance. So, he was a very balanced man. He had a very kind heart but when it came to taking a decision, he would think from his head. He did not act as many mindless people do, who say whatever they feel like saying. He would plan exactly what he really wanted to do. He used to say why the poor in our country have to remain poor while the poor in other countries have become rich. He was the first one who introduced nuclear energy in Pakistan, when he was the Minister for Science and Technology. He was the first one who set an educated person belonging to sweeper community as an ambassador. He was the first one who appointed a woman, Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan, as the first woman Governor in the country (Sindh). He did so many things for the first time that no other person had done.

He was a forgiving person. He forgave many had been nasty to him. He never forgot someone who had done something good to him. When he was a Law Minister, he would always go and see Iskandar Mirza when in London because Iskandar Mirza had been kind to him. At that time he was a Minister in Ayub Khan’s cabinet but he didn’t care about Ayub Khan’s anger. When Iskandar Mirza died, we both went to see his wife to offer condolence. Ayub Khan was another person who had been once kind to him and he never forgot him too. He always kept a painting of Ayub Khan done by Guljee hanging in his drawing room in Larkana. He was never taking that painting out to throw it in the store room. Still, it is hanging on the wall in the drawing room of Al-Murtaza for everyone to see Mr. Bhutto was that kind of a person.

Q. Much has been said about Mr. Bhutto’s role during 1971 tragedy, when Pakistan was dismembered. What is your comment on that?

A. When a newspaper accused him of planning to divide the country, he denied it there and then. When they wanted to kill Mujibur Rahman, he pleaded for his life and said it would be worse. He went to see Mujib in jail and talked to him. He said to him that he was going to release him and that he should not become an enemy in future. That conversation was taped but Mujib was very clever and he knew that the discussion was being taped, so he kept knocking the table with his pipe to disturb the taping. Mr. Bhutto tried his best to save the country. He flew to Dhakka but it was too late. You know that Hamoodur Rehman Commission had put the blame on the generals. I had a copy of the report of that Commission but they came and broke my cupboard and took it. We knew that they were coming to get it. Mr. Bhutto told me in jail that they would be coming to get the report, so I should keep it in open. I put in a cupboard which was lying in a corridor.

Q. His critics say that he was such a big landlord that four railway stations touched his lands.

A. It was true. But not any more. It was so during his father’s time. During the land reforms, he surrendered 40,000 acres of land. There was one very beautiful house at his lands in Jacobabad. He could have kept his house, but he did not. He gave that house also to the harees. He never bothered about money.

Q. It is also alleged that during his days in jail, he was playing his whole game on the false hope that Zia would never dare execute him.

A. That is not true. When he was first put into jail, he told me: “They are going to hang me. Because, Zia knows if he does not hang me. I shall come back to power.”

I said still I wanted to try to save his life. He allowed me but said it was no use. Zia was not going to let him live. After the court announced death sentence for him, I said I wanted to file clemency petition. He said: “If you do that, and Zia releases me, I will have no face to show to my people. I swear I will have to kill myself.”

Q. What did he say in your last meeting with him in the death cell?

A. When he saw myself and Benazir together, he said: “Achha… Both of you have come. “

Because previously they allowed us to visit him separately. He asked one of the guards to call Jail Superintendent. When he arrived, Mr. Bhutto said, and these are his exact words: “So the black book has arrived?” The Superintendent said. “Yes, Sir.” Mr. Bhutto said. “Oh… Then I have to shave. I have to have a bath. I have to change.”

Then he asked the Superintendent about the time (of the execution), who said five in the morning. He talked like that in front of us but we did not want us to cry in front of the jail staff we controlled ourselves.

Q. What did he like to eat the most?

A. His favorite food Qeema, Daal, Pickle and Chatni.

Q. What did he dislike the most?

A. If anybody humiliated or made fun of his family, he felt hurt.

Q. Was he a moody person?

A. No he was a very serious person.

Q. How did you get into politics?

A. Women used to come and see him, but he did not have enough time to see them. So, he asked me to see them, then he asked if I could organize the women wing of the Party. So, I became head of the women wing.

Q. You have been very close to one of the best persons in contemporary history. What do you think is the best thing in a man?

A. The best thing in a man is: Kindness, truthfulness and straightforwardness. That is what he taught our children.

Q. Whom did he like the most among the children?

A. Sanam. He loved her the most. She was very pretty. But unlike our other children, she was not tall. She was a bit small. Her eye sight was weak from the beginning. So, he felt a little protective towards her. She was also very cute as a child and she also loved him very much.

Q. Did he give you a lot of presents?

A. He loved giving me gifts. First, he used to buy me perfume. Once he brought a whole set of perfume bottles, worth thousands of rupees. I said he should have rather bought me jewellery with so much money. Then he started buying jewellery and watches for me. He always remembered birthdays of the children and myself. He never forgot calling us on such occasions even if he was abroad. He would always bring lots of personal things for children and myself from abroad.

Q. How about himself?

A. He loved wearing nice clothes. He was very careful about his silk shirts and socks and shoes. He wore lovely suits. But he never got them stitched from a foreign country. He did not like their style. He buy some cloth from outside, but would always get it stitched by Hamid Tailor. Once I suggested to him to buy a suit. He bought it but then got it redone by Hamid. His favourite colours were dark grey and navy blue. His favourite perfume was “Shalimar”.

Q. Every wife has some complaints against her husband. Did you too have any?

A. Not any more. I had some at that time. Once was that he was always busy, working. Then of course, girls would fall for him because he was so good-looking and handsome. We spent such a long time together, from 1951 to 1977. We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary just before they arrested him and they killed him. He gave me a lovely diamond ring.

Q. It is said that he did not discuss Zia with many people before promoting him as Chief of Army Staff.

A. That is wrong. He discussed Zia with many persons. Gen. Tikka Khan opposed Zia and said the man an actor. He said Zia had always been pretending. Intelligence Chief Gen. Jillani said Zia suited the slot the best. He said Zia had no political ambitions and Mr. Bhutto heard Jillani’s advice.

Q. What was the last thing that Mr. Bhutto said to you?

A. He said: “I have done my best. I have no regrets. No matter what they do to me. I shall go to God with a clear conscience.”

Then they killed him. I know they did not hang him. They murdered him. I don’t agree with those, no matter who they are, who say that he was hanged. Somebody from the jail whispered into my ears that he had been murdered.

Q. How would Mr. Bhutto call you?

A. He would say Nusratam (my Nusrat) in Persian.