4/4/2017 A leaf from history: The prime minister is hanged ­ Pakistan ­ DAWN.

COM

A leaf from history: The prime

minister is hanged
―

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Nusrat Bhutto reacts at her husband's execution.

It was time. In the evening of April 3, a team of four officers

entered Rawalpindi Jail to end a chapter in Pakistan’s history.

Jail Superintendent Yar Mohammad, Magistrate Bashir Ahmad

Khan, jail doctor Sagheer Hussain Shah, and Security Battalion
Commander and Security Officer Lieutenant-Colonel Rafiuddin
had all arrived to carry out court orders.

As narrated by Col Rafiuddin in his book Bhutto Kay Aakhri 323

Din (The last 323 days of Bhutto), the jail superintendent visited
Bhutto at 6.30pm in his cell, along with a witness. He found
Bhutto lying on the floor. He first called Bhutto’s name to draw
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Bhutto lying on the floor. He first called Bhutto’s name to draw
his attention, and then read out the execution order.

“According to the March 18, 1978 order of the Lahore High Court,
you, Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, are to be hanged for the murder of
Nawab Mohammad Ahmad Khan,” read the order. “Your appeal
in the Supreme Court was rejected on February 6, 1979 and the
review petition was turned down on March 24, 1979. The
president of Pakistan has decided not to interfere in this matter.
So it has been decided to hang you.”

After months of litigation and appeals for

clemency, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is finally silenced

‹ Col Rafiuddin was standing besides the jail superintendent.

›
“I did not see any sign of panic on Mr Bhutto’s face while the jail
superintendent was reading out the order. Instead, I could see
that he was quite calm, relaxed, and had a smile on his face,”
observed the colonel.

After listening to the jail superintendent, Bhutto retorted that he

should have been informed about the execution 24 hours before
but that had not been done. On the contrary, he argued, when his
daughter and wife met him at 11.30am, they were not sure about
the day or time either. Bhutto was told that the required order for
execution was with the jailer.

Without any hesitation, the jail superintendent then asked

Bhutto whether he would like to write his will, since he was to be
hanged in a few hours. Bhutto nodded and asked for some writing
materials. He also asked the jailer to show him the black
warrants, to which the jailer replied that as per the law, that
could not be done.

At 8.00pm, Bhutto drank a cup of coffee. He also called for Abdur

Rahman, his jail attendant, and asked Abdur Rahman to forgive
him. Around 10.00pm, he asked Rahman to bring some warm
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him. Around 10.00pm, he asked Rahman to bring some warm
water so that he could shave.

Bhutto then turned to Col Rafi.

“Rafi, what is this drama that is being staged?”

The question went unanswered.

Bhutto then brushed his teeth.

For some time, he sat on his bed and began writing something.
He asked the warden about how much time was left till his
execution. He was told the time. He then burned all pieces of
papers he had tried to write on.

At 11.25pm, Bhutto told his attendant that he would try to sleep

for a while because he had not been able to sleep properly last
‹ night, but asked to be woken up at midnight. ›
But soon, the assistant jail superintendent and other staff arrived
at his cell. They wanted to wake Bhutto up from the outside.
When they did not get any response, they were told to enter the
cell and try to wake him up.

The officials complied, only to find that Bhutto had opened his
eyes. Again, Bhutto did not respond to the doctor’s call. On the
insistence of Col Rafiuddin, Bhutto was medically checked for a
third time; the doctor said that he was fine.

Around 1.35am, the officials’ team entered the cell and saw
Bhutto resting on a mattress. The magistrate, Bashir Ahmad
Khan, asked him whether he had written a will. Bhutto replied in
a low voice that he had tried, but his thoughts were so disturbed
that he could not do it and instead he burnt the paper. He was
then asked whether he wanted to walk to the gallows or whether
he would prefer to be carried, to which Bhutto remained silent.

After a few seconds, the jail superintendent called his men, who
lifted Bhutto by his limbs and put him on a stretcher. As Bhutto
lay motionless on the stretcher, he was handcuffed.
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Once they reached the scaffold, two wardens helped him to the
hanging board. His handcuffs were then readjusted; once his
hands were taken behind his back, Bhutto was placed in chains
again.

All present there stood in silence.

Tara Masih, the executioner, was already there and ready to

perform his task. He put a mask over Bhutto’s face.

When the clock struck four minutes past two in the morning, the
executioner whispered something into Bhutto’s ear and pressed
the lever. Bhutto’s body fell about five feet; it remained in that
position for half an hour. A doctor then checked Bhutto and
pronounced him dead.

‹ Tara Masih then brought Bhutto’s corpse down, and began

massaging his hands and legs. It was said that the executioner
›
wanted to straighten his limbs, which might have twisted owing
to the impact of the hanging.

Half an hour later, the doctor handed over the death certificate to
the jail superintendent. His body was handed over to jail officials,
who bathed his body.

His body was placed in a coffin, and taken to Chaklala air base
where a C-130 plane was ready to fly to Jacobabad. The plane took
off, but after an hour’s flight, it returned since it had developed
some fault. Another plane then took off with the body and the
officials accompanying it.

At a distance, Benazir Bhutto spent the night in insufferable grief

and distress, lonely and confined. As she sunk in grief, someone
in the wilderness hummed a 1968 French song titled Comment Te
Dire Adieu? (How to say goodbye to you?) — composed in the
same year that Bhutto began his political struggle against Ayub
Khan. But in the wee hours of April 4, 1979, it was time to bid
farewell to the prime minister. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was no more.

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