One Grave for Two Men

Pakistan

The Supreme Court approves a death sentence

With weary patience, the seven justices of Pakistan's Supreme Court have been primarily engaged since last May in hearing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's appeal against his death sentence. Last week, in a narrow 4-to-3 verdict, the justices confirmed the sentence imposed on the former Prime Minister by the Lahore high court for ordering the 1974 assassination of a political enemy by the feared Federal Security Force.

The judges divided mainly over the credibility and motives of Masood Mahmood, former chief of the now disbanded F.S.F., who had turned state's evidence. But the court also split along ominous lines for a country torn by regional rivalries. The three dissenting judges who voted to free Bhutto came from his native province of Sind and two provinces bordering troubled Afghanistan and Iran. The four judges in the majority are from Punjab, where middle-class revulsion against Bhutto's autocratic rule was strongest.

A message by Bhutto, smuggled out of prison before the Supreme Court ruling, warned that "my sons will not be my sons if they do not drink the blood of those who shed my blood." In fact, popular reaction to the verdict was muted, and is likely to remain so as long as hundreds of Bhutto district leaders and party officials remain under arrest and barred from organizing demonstrations. Appeals for commutation of the sentence came from President Carter, British Prime Minister James Callaghan, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and Pope John Paul II. Another petitioner was Premier Bulent Ecevit of Turkey, the only country in modern times to have hanged its own Prime Minister by judicial process.* Ecevit offered Bhutto asylum if his life was spared.

Although couched in humanitarian terms, most foreign appeals seemed motivated by concern for Pakistan's stability. Since the country was carved out of British India as a Muslim "land of the pure" 32 years ago, Pakistan has had three constitutions and suffered through three military coups, plus repeated doses of martial law. In July 1977 General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, the army Chief of Staff, seized power after aggrieved mullahs and members of the middle class took to the streets to protest Bhutto's political corruption. Zia has moved cautiously to cleanse politics and restructure the nation's criminal and financial codes along Islamic lines.

Before Bhutto goes to the gallows, his lawyers can ask the Supreme Court to review the case for possible legal errors. The family of the former Prime Minister may also appeal to Zia for executive clemency. Domestic political considerations are likely to weigh more heavily than foreign opinion as Zia makes his final decision on whether or not to apply a stiff dose of Islamic justice and carry out his threat to "hang the blighter."

Political wits have devised a succinct bit of gallows humor in Urdu: Ek qabr, do admi--one grave, two men. No one in Pakistan needs a translation. By hanging Bhutto, Zia could also be digging his own political grave. Many of the country's feuding politicians want Zia to bear the brunt of dispatching Bhutto, an act that would drastically hurt the President's chances of influencing national elections due later this year. Also eager for the double funeral are several ambitious generals who despise Bhutto and would not give Zia a second chance if civilians once again fail to provide Pakistan with a stable, legitimate government.

* Ousted in a military coup in 1960, former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was found guilty of corruption and misuse of public funds. He was sentenced to death by a court consisting of both civilian and military judges.

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