Zulfikar Ali Bhutto still casts a long shadow over Pakistan’s foreign and security policy. His three initiatives in the 1970s were the pursuit of alignment with the Muslim world, the cultivation of China as a counterweight, and the initiation of a nuclear programme. These ideas have become the architecture of statecraft that successive rulers have adapted but never abandoned.

The Lahore Islamic Summit in February 1974, described by Stanley Wolpert as a second independence, drew King Faisal, Muammar Gaddafi, Yasir Arafat, and other leaders to Pakistan. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation record lists it formally as the Second Islamic Summit, hosted in Lahore from 22 to 24 February 1974. The gathering anchored Pakistan firmly within the Arab oil order. The dividends were visible: Saudi financial support, Libyan political cover, and the opening of Gulf labour markets that became a major source of foreign exchange. By the mid-1970s Pakistani military advisers were serving in Riyadh, beginning a security partnership later institutionalised through training missions such as the Al Badr programme and eventually joint exercises like Al Samsam.

30 electric buses arrive in Faisalabad for launch of eco-friendly public transport service

In parallel, Bhutto turned to Beijing. The initiative had begun in Ayub Khan’s time, but it was........

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