Strange Similarities: Pakistan 1977 and Iran 2009

By Yasser Latif Hamdani

I am used to shaking my head in disbelief at the popular theory that Americans got rid of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto because Bhutto was pursuing a policy of nuclearisation and Pan-Islamism that threatened American interests in Middle East. Yet the strange similarities between what went on in Pakistan in the early summer of 1977 and the events in Iran this summer has given me reason to pause. As many other people have now begun to say it openly, it will not be out of place to dwell on the similarities between the agitation against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the agitation taking place against Ahmadinejad.

Now at the outset I must make it clear that I would have liked to see Mousavi triumph over Ahmadinejad in this current conflict primarily because Mousavi represents the kind of globalist section in Iran that my own personal views are closest. However we must consider the unshakeable similarities that exist between the Bhutto ouster and this current agitation.

In response to India’s nuclear tests, Pakistan started its own nuclear program on Bhutto’s orders. The same year, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto held the Lahore Islamic Summit Conference which aimed at bringing together the Muslim world on one common platform and to achieve unity on the issue of Palestine. In 1976, Henry Kissinger reportedly told Bhutto that he would be made a horrible example out of on account of Pakistan’s nuclear program. In1977 Bhutto held elections in which he scored an overwhelming victory which was contested by the 9 party opposition alliance. Rioting broke out and the rest, as they say, is history. Sounds familiar?

Of course some would rush to point out that standing in opposition to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the Islamist section, whereas Ahmadinejad himself represents the right wing Islamist section of Iranian society. This is where vocabulary inherited from a European discourse on political organization so badly fails to express fully the political divide in the Muslim world. ZAB and Ahmadinejad may come from very different backgrounds, with the former a landed feudal and the latter a simple citizen, but both got their support from mainly rural constituencies and lower economic classes.

And while the agitation against Ahmadinejad consists of liberal and secular minded folk, it is supported by the same upper middle and capitalist class that had funded the agitation against ZAB in Pakistan. And while Ahmadinejad possesses none of Bhutto’s western education and sophistication, Bhutto was seen, like Ahmadinejad is today, as a dangerous demagogue who could threaten Israel with Nuclear weapons. Of course there are other similarities which are purely co-incidental. For example, this is the immediately after the election of a democratic president in the US as was the case in 1977 as well. And like Obama, Carter too was considered a politician of change. His commitment to civil rights and his opposition to racial segregation made him the candidate of choice for American liberals. Like Obama today, Carter too made an effort in the Middle East and most of his efforts also started from Cairo. It was Anwar Saadat who signed the famous peace deal with Israel and today it is his successor who is being encouraged by President Obama to take the lead in the Arab-Israeli peace process.

I don’t know if these similarities mean anything. It certainly seems all too weird and strange to be true. What I do know is that it might not be possible for US to overthrow Ahmadinejad and the entrenched state structure that backs him. I just hope that the US does not end up undoing all the good will President Obama has scored for it in his latest charm offensive on the Muslims.