Karachi: A close aide of executed former
Pakistan prime minister Zulfiqr Ali Bhutto Sunday claimed that
a group of military generals had offered to save the leader
from getting hanged by breaking him from his jail cell in
Rawalpindi and flying him safely to Afghanistan.
On the occasion of the 31st death anniversary of
Bhutto, Mustafa Khar, a close aide of the executed leader and
a former Governor of the Punjab province said on a talk show
on Geo TV that the group of Generals wanted to rescue Bhutto
and fly him out of the country.
Bhutto was hanged on April 4 on the orders of a
Supreme Court bench after his government was dismissed and he
was jailed by late military dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq.
The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and many other
political and civil rights groups and organisations Sunday
marked the death anniversary of Z A Bhutto who was the founder
Chairman of the PPP.
Mustafa Khar said on the show that the group of
Generals had met him and Benazir Bhutto in Dubai and offered
to break out Bhutto from his jail cell in Rawalpindi and fly
him safely to Afghanistan.
"These Generals were not happy with what Zia-ul-Haq
was doing and his insistence on seeing Bhutto hanged.
They felt such a action would bring a bad name to the
Army and the country," Khar claimed.
He said despite the offer from the Generals, Benazir
Bhutto had turned down the offer as she didn’t trust the
military after her father was arrested and jailed.
"They were many sympathisers of Z A Bhutto in the
military as they saw him as a smart, forward looking leader
who had the ability to turn Pakistan into a super power," Khar
said.
After the Supreme Court bench upheld the decision of
the Lahore High Court that Bhutto should be hanged in a murder
case, many world leaders sent messages to Zia urging him to
spare Bhutto`s life using his powers of Presidential pardon
but he turned down their requests.
He made the stunning disclosure that a group of
military generals had made an offer to save Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto from getting hanged.
However, Benazir Bhutto had rejected the offer at
that time.
Thousands of people visited Garhi Khuda Baksh in
Larkana, the ancestral graveyard of the Bhutto family to lay
floral wreaths and hold prayers for him.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister, Yousuf
Raza Gillani and other senior PPP leaders also visited
Larkana.
PTI
