Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s execution on April 4, 1979, remains one of Pakistan’s most contentious chapters, a blend of political vendetta, judicial controversy, and international intrigue. The question of whether Bhutto genuinely believed he could escape the noose cuts to the heart of his character, a blend of defiance, fatalism, and strategic foresight. Drawing from his personal writings, family recollections, associate accounts, declassified United States documents, trial records, and additional sources, including Urdu narratives of his final days, such as M.A.K. Chaudhry’s Martial Law Ka Siyasi Andaz, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests a leader who anticipated his demise.

Bhutto did not harbour delusions of survival; he viewed his fate as inevitable under Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, driven by fears of his political resurgence and broader geopolitical pressures. This anticipation transformed his ordeal into a calculated embrace of martyrdom, ensuring his legacy would endure beyond the grave.

Bhutto’s own writings, smuggled from his death cell and published as If I Am Assassinated, lay bare a man attuned to the endgame. He framed his trial as a sham designed to eliminate him, writing of the military’s terror that he might reclaim power if spared. He rejected exile as a betrayal and foresaw unrest, a “conflagration” following his execution. His words drip with resignation: “More than my life is at stake. Make no mistake about it, the future of Pakistan is at stake.” Death was portrayed as a “sweet” sacrifice for equality, amid condemnations of in-camera trials and propaganda.

In diary notes from the death cell, he vividly described his torment: “Since 18th March 1978, I have spent twenty-two to twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four in a congested and suffocating death cell.” He confronted the gallows head-on: “I was not born to wither away in a death cell and to mount the gallows to fulfil the vindictive lust of an ungrateful and treacherous man,” and “If I am assassinated through the gallows, these questions will nevertheless be put very loudly.” Such reflections reveal not surprise but preparation — he even burned pages of his writings, resigned to the possibility that they might never see the light of day.

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Earlier warnings amplified this foreboding. In Parliament in April 1977, he declared, “the bloodhounds are after my blood,” and noted August 1976 threats from a superpower to make a “horrible example” of him over nuclear policy. A May 7 1978, letter from Kot Lakhpat Jail to Chief Justice Anwarul Haq requested recusal, citing the “dark shadow of the Martial Law” over his appeal, implying lethal peril arising from judicial bias and resentment over constitutional changes.

Family insights deepen this portrait of stoicism and foreknowledge. Begum Nusrat Bhutto recalled early premonitions, even during their 1951 engagement, a fortune-teller predicted his end at the age of 48 at the hands of enemies. In jail, he told her starkly: “They are going to hang me. Because Zia knows if he does not hang me, I shall come back to power.” He banned mercy........

© The Friday Times