Karachi, April 05: 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