About the Book: The Leopard and the Fox
The BBC commissioned Tariq Ali to write a three-part TV series on the
circumstances leading to the overthrow, trial and execution of Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto, the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. As rehearsals were about
to begin, the BBC hierarchy - under pressure from the Foreign Office - decided
to cancel the project. Why? General Zia ul Haq, the dictator at the time, was
leading the jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He was backed by the
USA. According to expert legal opinion, there was a possibility of a whole range
of defamation suits from the