Bhutto’s Mumbai legacy comes under spotlight as Bilawal visits Goa

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s maiden Goa visit to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conference highlighted his grandfather’s legacy in India’s financial capital, Mumbai.

Late former prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, grandfather of Bilawal, moved to Bombay (now called Mumbai) at a very young age, according to a report published by The Indian Express Thursday.

Bhutto would live in Bombay’s Worli area and studied at Cathedral and John Connon School and St Xavier’s College before he joined the Pakistan Movement.

On October 6, 1948, the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) allotted a 1,226 square metre plot to Bhutto in Mumbai’s business district, Worli.

The land is one of the last imprints of Bhutto’s legacy in the Indian financial capital.

Bhutto was allotted a bungalow along with the plot for which he was charged an annual rent of Re1 for the property and Rs25,343 for getting a perpetual lease on the property.

Civic sources were quoted as saying that the Bombay Town Planning Act was still in force after the colonial era, during which land parcels and properties were given on lease to owners. The period of lease was dependent on the contractual agreement and officials said the primary objective behind this was to promote housing and development in Mumbai, the report added.

However, the property’s ownership was changed multiple times. In 1963 the Morarji Family Trust bought it and sold it to the Lodha group and Kheni Estate Private Limited for 120 million Indian rupees in 2005.

While local residents are still unaware of the legacy of this property, Mumbai’s civic officials say that it was handed over for commercial use to another private leaseholder after redevelopment.

SCO meeting

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office, FM Bilawal is attending the SCO moot at the invitation of the current chair, Minister for External Affairs of India Dr S Jaishankar.

“Our participation in the meeting reflects Pakistan’s commitment to the SCO charter and processes and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities,” the FO spokesperson had said.

Sources in the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that the foreign minister, accompanied by a delegation, will depart for Goa from Karachi via a chartered flight.

The sources privy to the development said that the Indian civil aviation authorities contacted the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCCA) and finalised the route for the special plane.

In addition to deliberating upon important regional and international issues and signing some of the institutional documents, the council will finalise the agenda and decisions to be adopted by the 17th SCO Council of Heads of State Meeting scheduled to take place in New Delhi on July 3-4, 2023.

The meeting will also witness the signing of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with five countries namely Bahrain, Kuwait Maldives, Myanmar and UAE to become Dialogue Partners of SCO.

On the sidelines of the SCO, FM Bilawal will also meet his counterparts from friendly countries.

Besides Pakistan, SCO member states include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and India.

SCO’s major objectives include promoting mutual confidence and good, neighbourly relations among member states, strengthening regional peace, security and stability, and creating a framework for effective cooperation in the fields of politics, trade and economy, culture, science and technology, education, energy, transportation, tourism, and environmental protection etc.

Since becoming a member in 2017, Pakistan has been actively and constructively contributing to all SCO activities to realise its multi-sectoral aims and objectives in a mutually beneficial manner.