The Mirage of Power: An Inquiry into the Bhutto Years

By Dr Mubashir Hasan

Published in 2000

Not much to say about this one. As one of the leaders of the PPP and a member of Zulfi's cabinet one would think he'd have a lot of insight into those years but really it was almost entirely devoid of anything that could remotely resemble an inquiry. It was a cross between a poorly written biography and a half-hearted scholarly rebuttal of charges against his failings as the finance minister.

There are some interesting insights into the transformation in Bhutto's character over his term in power but by and large Hasan steers clear of the bigger picture. Instead he studiously chronicles his own experience in office, refusing to comment on the PPP government as a whole, its failings, the difficulties it faced, the mistakes it made. In fact he even avoids a serious defense of PPP's nationalisation policy, which he oversaw. He does not discuss its logic in much depth, assess his success, explain his shortcomings or question the policy. Overall, it's a dull plodding read meant mostly for unfortunate historians who will have to pore over these unreadable pages scouring for some scrap of real information that might just have slipped through Hasan's recollections.