BORN TO BE HANGED

Pakistan’s former Prime
Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto held the reins of the country from 1971 to 1977.
He was overthrown in 1977 by his Chief of Army Staff, General Zia-ul-Haq and
executed in 1979. Zia-ul-Haq ruled over Pakistan for eleven years with an iron
fist, curbing all dissent until he got blown up in an air crash in 1988. In
almost three decades since, Pakistan’s leadership has changed hands fifteen
times. An extremely controversial and confrontational politics is associated
with the era of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It is therefore not surprising that,
considering his towering stature, not enough has been researched and written
about the tumultuous years of his accession to power culminating in what
today is best described as regicide. Syeda Hameed delves deep into the
politics of Pakistan, meeting Bhutto’s contemporaries, mining information
from archives and letters to bring to the fore a rich yet disturbing life and
times of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.