Wahid Baksh Bhutto

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Sardar Wahid Baksh Bhutto was born in 1900 in the village Pir Baksh Bhutto, the original and ancestral home of the Bhutto family, in Sindh. Wahid Baksh's father, Illahi Baksh Bhutto, a Magistrate of the British Raj, died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 28. Illahi Baksh was the youngest son of Doda Khan Bhutto, brother of Khuda Baksh Bhutto and the uncle of Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto (Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto's father).

Wahid Baksh Bhutto was educated at the Sindh Madressah, with the likes of Mohammed Ayub Khuhro, Omar Bin Mohammed Daudpoto and Khan Sahib Kehar.

The Morley-Minto Reforms, followed by the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919 paved the way for increasing native participation in the politics of the subcontinent. Indians could now be elected to the Legislative Assembly of India, the law-making body of the British Raj. 1927 saw the first ever election in Sindh, a constituency of the Bombay Presidency. Wahid Baksh Bhutto, aged 27, was the first elected representative from Sindh to the Legislative Assembly of India. From 1927, until his untimely death in 1933, Wahid Baksh would gain the highest number of votes in Sindh, while Abdullah Haroon would gain the second highest number of votes.

Popular in Sindh and amongst his tribesfolk, and seen as an up and coming man, Wahid Baksh was made a Sardar by the people of the Bhutto tribe from all over India. Although the more elderly members of his family objected to this initially due to the young age of the contender, he was still made Sardar. Since nobody in the family was sardar before Wahid Baksh, the process of selection was egalitarian in nature, and a essentially a matter of who would head the tribe, make decisions on behalf of it, and settle disputes within it. Wahid Baksh Bhutto was also the first individual from the Bhutto family to be elected to government by the people, in 1927.

Sardar Wahid Baksh Bhutto died in 1933, immediately upon his return from the sessions of the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi. He was alleged to have died of pneumonia. However, members of his family and friends at the time were convinced that he was poisoned by political opponents or even distant family members, who saw him as a threat to their own advancement. They believed that it was these same individuals who were responsible for poisoning his father. After his death, his younger brother, Nawab Nabi Baksh Bhutto, father of Mumtaz Bhutto was the elected representative of Sindh in the Legislative Assembly from 1935 until Partition. Nawab Nabi Baksh Bhutto then gave this constituency (NA 207) to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he first entered politics.

[edit] Sources

http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/august-2006/24/columns1.php
BBC Interview and Documentary on Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, Day of a Feudal Lord (1994).
List of members the Legislative Assemblies of 1927 and 1935.
Stanley Wolpert, Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan, Chapter 1: 'Sindhi Roots'.
Salman Taseer, Bhutto, Chapter 1: 'The Bhuttos of Larkana'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratodero_Taluka#Village_Pir_Bakhsh_Bhutto