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.