The Curious Case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Indian Citizenship and Property Battle (1947–1958) Most people know Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as a towering figure in Pakistani politics, a fierce critic of India and the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). However, a closer examination of legal archives and historical records reveals a lesser known chapter of his life. More than a decade after Partition, Bhutto was still pursuing legal proceedings in Indian courts to defend his claims of Indian citizenship and recover his family’s valuable properties in Bombay. Here is the story of how a future Prime Minister of Pakistan fought a lengthy legal battle in India, maintaining that he remained an Indian citizen well into the late 1950s. 1. The Bombay Properties Left Behind Before Partition, the Bhutto family owned several valuable properties in Bombay (now Mumbai), including: • The Astoria Hotel near Churchgate. • My Nest, the family residence at the Worli Estate, held on a perpetual lease from the Bombay Municipal Corporation. Following Partition in August 1947, Bhutto left Bombay for the United States on 8 September 1947 to pursue his education, initially at the University of California, Berkeley and subsequently at Oxford University and Lincoln’s Inn. 2. Claiming Indian Citizenship to Protect His Properties Following Partition, the Indian government began taking control of properties belonging to those classified as evacuees under the relevant legislation. The Bhutto family’s properties also came under scrutiny. The Astoria Hotel was eventually auctioned as evacuee property in December 1955. Bhutto challenged these proceedings through the Indian legal system. • He submitted affidavits and legal claims arguing that his departure from Bombay in 1947 was temporary and solely for educational purposes. • He maintained that he had not abandoned his Indian domicile and disputed his classification as an evacuee. • After his claims were rejected by the lower authorities, he pursued the matter through the judicial system, eventually taking his case to the Supreme Court of India. 3. Pursuing Property Claims in Both Countries While challenging the Custodian of Evacuee Property in India, Bhutto was also pursuing compensation claims in Pakistan under the Registration of Claims Act, 1955 in relation to his family’s properties in Bombay. Records indicate that he pursued these claims before Pakistani authorities and obtained substantial revisions in the compensation assessed in his favour. Thus, Bhutto was simultaneously contesting the classification of his family’s properties in India while pursuing compensation claims in Pakistan. 4. 1958: The Withdrawal of His Supreme Court Appeal Bhutto’s political fortunes changed when he attracted the attention of President Iskander Mirza and subsequently joined Ayub Khan’s federal cabinet as Minister of Commerce in 1958. Meanwhile, his legal proceedings in India were still pending. On 13 August 1958, Bhutto submitted an application to the Supreme Court of India seeking permission to withdraw his appeal, stating: “The petitioner is, however, now settled in Karachi and does not propose to prosecute Appeal No. 489 of 1957.” The Supreme Court formally permitted the withdrawal on 3 November 1958. By then, Bhutto had already joined the Pakistani government as a federal minister. Continued…..

5. Ayub Khan’s Reaction: What the Diaries Reveal The matter resurfaced during the political fallout between Bhutto and Field Marshal Ayub Khan. In his diaries, Diaries of Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, 1966–1972, edited by American historian Craig Baxter and published in 2007, Ayub recorded his reaction to documents concerning Bhutto’s Indian citizenship claims. In his entry dated 3 March 1967, President Ayub wrote: “Certain documents from India came into my hands, stating that Mr Bhutto had been, till 1958, claiming that he was an Indian citizen and that he was staying in Karachi only temporarily. I have asked for further confirmation. It shows how unscrupulous and soulless this man is.” President Ayub also returned to the subject in a separate diary entry dated 30 June 1967. “An awkward question was asked in the National Assembly. Up to the time he became a minister in 1958, Bhutto had been declaring before the Indian courts that he was an Indian citizen residing in Karachi. The object was to get some compensation for the property left by his parents in India. In fact, he was selling his soul for about one lakh fifty thousand rupees. All this was not known to us till recently when the matter was discussed in the Indian parliament and came out in that press.” These records offer an interesting insight into a largely overlooked chapter of Bhutto’s political and legal history. History is often considerably more complicated than the political identities and narratives that leaders present to the public. #ZulfiqarAliBhutto #Bhutto