By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS
London : Despite negotiating with his back to the wall, former Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto managed to notch up “quite a triumph” in the Simla Accord he signed with India in 1972, his daughter says in an autobiography published posthumously Tuesday.
“I was present when my father negotiated the Simla Accord with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1972 to return Pakistani territory lost in the western wing, repatriate the 90,000 prisoners of war, and save 5,000 people threatened with trial by a war crimes tribunal as well as see a peaceful resolution of disputes between India and Pakistan,” Benazir Bhutto wrote in her book, “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West”.
“Actually, it was quite a triumph for Prime Minister Bhutto because he was dealing with an extremely weak hand, yet managed to negotiate peace without having to recognise Bangladesh or accept a no-war clause with India,” she wrote in comments that could fuel an old debate in India about the legacy of the Simla Accord.
Benazir, who was killed in a bomb attack at Rawalpindi Dec 27, said the Simla Agreement also established the Line of Control in Kashmir, which she described as “a de facto border”, and made possible the immediate return of lost territory to West Pakistan.
The situation was markedly different in December 1971, according to the book.
Benazir said not just East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), but “all of Pakistan would have been threatened” if the US had not come out militarily in favour of West Pakistan.
“My father did succeed… in convincing Washington to save West Pakistan,” she wrote.
“President Nixon ordered the Seventh Fleet to Pakistan in the famous ’tilt to Pakistan’. Without that famous ’tilt’ all of Pakistan would have been threatened in 1971,” she added.