ZA Bhutto eulogised at pictorial show

Karachi
The late ZA Bhutto galvanised the whole nation and united all political parties on a single platform to grapple with the country’s problems. It was his vision to make the Islamic bloc a power to reckon with — and was punished for that.
These views were expressed by Sharmila Faruqui, adviser to the Sindh chief minister on culture and tourism, while inaugurating a pictorial exhibition depicting the life and times of ZA Bhutto on the eve of his 36th death anniversary at the Arts Council on Friday evening.
The exhibition was arranged by the Department of Culture and Tourism, Government of Sindh.
Faruqui said, “Had Bhutto been alive today, Pakistan would not have embroiled itself in the crucial Yemen crisis.”
“The purpose of this pictorial exhibition is to convey Bhutto’s message of sagacity and harmony and in keeping with his legacy, we’ve resolved to keep all factions, all people united.”
Faruqui said the Pakistan People’s Party was always ready to make any sacrifice to achieve the Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan
She said a salient feature of the PPP’s vision was that people of all religions, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and others should live together in love and harmony and totally shun animosity and bickering.
Earlier, she inaugurated the exhibition, based on 189 black-and-white photographs of the life and times of ZA Bhutto, by cutting the tape.
The exhibition begins with a family photograph showing Bhutto as a lad of around 10 along with his parents Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto and his mother Lady Bhutto.
Other pictures depict him at various stages of his life, as a student in Bombay, later at Harvard, and other places. Then there’s Bhutto with his party folk, notably Kamal Azfar.
There’s another section showing Bhutto with international political personalities, notably Indira Gandhi, Sardar Swaran Singh and Henry Kissinger, the man who threatened to make a “horrible example” of him —and he really did.
There are a number of his pictures with ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Both of them seemed to have a great affinity with each other and both met with an ignominious end, Gaddafi just three decades later.
A lot many photographs were shot by veteran press photographer of yesteryear Zafar Ahmed. They were very professional.
However, what somewhat marred the exhibition was the incomplete nature of the way it was organised. Most photographs did not carry captions leaving viewers in a quandary as to what it was all about. More than that, whoever wrote the captions urgently needs to undergo a refresher’s course in basic English. He seemed to have a natural aversion to running verbs.
One of the captions read, “Hakim Ali Zardari ‘shake hand’ with Mr Bhutto”. Another one read, “Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah ‘explain’ the first typewriter of Sindh to Mr Bhutto”.
Apart from other things, this is reflective of the rapid rot in the standard of English and through that, in the overall standard of education.