LONDON: Pakistani dictator General Zia in 1985 had used his influence over
Margaret Thatcher government to stop BBC from airing a serial on the
circumstances leading to the overthrow, trial and execution of Zulifkar Ali
Bhutto in 1977. The serial was part of BBC TV’s "The Assassination Quartet"
which dealt with the deaths of Solomon Bandarnaike, ZA Bhutto, Indira Gandhi
and Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman.
This has been revealed in "The Leopard and Fox—The Pakistani Tragedy," a
book authored by Tariq Ali, a writer, filmmaker, long-time political
activist and campaigner. The book published from London and Delhi at the
dawn of 2007 might embarrass both the British government and followers of
General Zia in Pakistan and trigger a new controversy about the role of
Western countries in supporting military dictators in Pakistan and the
compromises BBC management has been secretly making despite its tall claims
of editorial independence.
The book reveals that under pressure from British Foreign Office that could
not afford to displease General Zia in those days when he was being used in
Afghanistan against the Russians, BBC had used an excuse to scrap the whole
project that if "hard hitting and provocative serial" was aired, General Zia
and all those judges of High Court and Supreme Court of Pakistan who had
awarded death penalty to Bhutto might file defamation cases.
The serial highlighted American role in Bhutto's hanging while establishing
that Bhutto was beaten to death before being taken to gallows and even Tara
Maseeh had refused to hang a dead man. BBC had also strong reservations
about the one scene dealing with the issue of "Two men, one coffin".
Tariq Ali has now claimed that the BBC had yielded to the pressure of the UK
foreign Office and stopped airing of the serial. Tariq has disclosed that
even the services of BBC correspondent Mark Tully were hired to convince him
to edit some portions of the script, which were against Americans and
established the fact that there was one coffin for two bodies.
In the preface of the book Tariq Ali writes that in September 1985, he was
approached by Robin Midgley, head of drama at BBC and commissioned to write
a three-part drama series "The Leopard and The Fox", on the trial and
execution of Z A Bhutto that followed the military coup by General Ziaul Haq
in 1977. The three episodes were completed by January 1986 and even the cast
was finalised when all of sudden all the proceedings were halted. The drama
had become controversial within BBC hierarchy.
In an unusual move Director-General Alasdair Milne asked to read the
scripts. In those days, BBC heads of department had amazing degree of
freedom and were rarely questioned despite the presence of intelligence
operative within the corporation. The fact that Milne had demanded reading
the script was a sign that he was being "nobbled from above."
This because at the time, General Zia, the most brutal military dictator in
Pakistan history was considered a vital and valuable ally of the West in the
"struggle for freedom" in Afghanistan. He was the godfather of Omsa bin
Laden and the Jihadis and the Pakistani irregulars then fighting the
Russians in the mountains of Afghanistan. It was Zia who funded, armed and
organised the armed religious groups that are still wreaking havoc in the
region. But he was a tried, tested and trusted person. It was he who had led
Pakistani troops and Bedouins to crush the Palestinians in Jordan in 1970.
He was now considered essential for the Afghan operation, backed to the hilt
by Margaret Thatcher".
"It was hardly surprising that the State Department and the British Foreign
office would frown on my attempt to destabilise Zia dictatorship. That is
why, DG BBC had asked to read the scripts.
"A week later Mark Tully, the veteran BBC journalist based in Delhi rang me
up. He too had read the scripts and wanted to discuss it over a drink. I was
advised by Robin Midgley to take this meeting very seriously and not be to
provocative."
Tariq writes that Mark Tully and he met and Tully came straight to the
point. He had been asked by Alasdir Milne to read the scripts. But Tully
said that here was one problem. "Tully said that in the third episode " Two
men, one coffin" I had alleged that the USA had given green signal for
Bhutto's hanging. He said that he was in Rawalpindi at that time "and I
could find no evidence of US involvement".
Tariq says, "I explained that the US embassy and its Saudi surrogate were
all powerful in Zia's Pakistan and any senior military officer would confirm
that Zia consulted them before hanging Bhutto." Tully disagreed. Finally, he
said, "What if I tell you that if you took that section out of the series
the BBC would definitely go ahead." Tariq says that he decided to tell BBC
that he would scorn the idea and that was the end. BBC took the serial off
air "because of libel risk."
"Do you think a British judge would award damages to a squalid, third-rate
military dictator with blood on his hand?" Tariq asked. Tariq Ali writes
that he had left the final version of the script unchanged. As a result,
there is an event described here which had been subsequently denied. At the
time of writing, rumours were rife that Bhutto had died before he was
hanged. Subsequently, most of the people involved have denied that this was
the case. Apart from that, the script remains fairly accurate reminder of
the two tragedies: Bhutto's failure to transform the country and Zia's well
planned brutalisation of Pakistani political culture, the effects of which
are visible even today.