Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Madhubala

(A forward on WhatsApp) 

Very few Indians and Pakistanis know that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto lived both in India and Pakistan. He also owned a sprawling Mansion named ‘My Nest’ at Bandra, Bombay, which was later confiscated by the Indian Government along with his other assets in Bombay during the 1965 Indo-Pak War.

 

In the 1950s, Bhutto visited the sets of Mughal-e-Azam in the Bombay studios when the song ‘Mohe Panghat Pe Nandlal Ched Gayo Re’ was being used picturized. Bhutto was completely mesmerized by the song composition and the picturization. Bhutto was considered a special guest of Madhubala. Madhubala liked Bhutto’s charm. Sometimes they used to have lunch together, and Bhutto used to make her laugh with his wit. During those days, Bhutto lived in Bombay and used to practice law as a barrister in the Bombay High Court.

 

Bhutto was obsessed with Madhubala's beauty. But Bhutto had already wed Shirin Begum, daughter of a rich landlord of Larkana, Sind, and was also married to Nusrat, an attractive young Kurdish/Irani girl. Bhutto used to shuttle between Larkana and Karachi. And now, with Madhubala in mind, he started a three-way shuttle to Larkana, Karachi, and Bombay.

 

In the meantime, he had decided to plunge into Pakistani politics and left Bombay for good to settle down permanently in Sindh, Pakistan.

 

The exact relationship between Madhubala and Z. A. Bhutto remains shrouded in mystery. Only Madhubala's diary could have thrown some light on this subject. Unfortunately, Madhubala’s diary was buried with her. However, her grave, along with those of Rafi, Naseem Bano, Sahir, Naushad, Ali Sardar Jafri, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Talat Mahmood, and Parveen Babi, have all been demolished to make room for new bodies. So, what she wrote in her diary will never be known.