Some of the photographs displayed at the exhibition in the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Museum.—Saeed Memon

LARKANA: Dejected Agha Feroz Akhtar, who claims to be the personal photographer of the Bhutto family, said Begum Nusrat Bhutto in 1977 had asked him to take away photographs from 70 Clifton after the arrest of Z.A Bhutto, otherwise they would be damaged.

Talking to Dawn here at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Museum, which Ms Sassui Palijo inaugurated on March 1, 2013 and where Agha Feroz had put on display hundreds of photographs, he said it was quite painful that people of Larkana thronged to see the exhibition, but the Sindh chief minister who presided over a programme in Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto Memorial Library, adjacent to the museum, did not spare a few minutes to visit the exhibition.

“I took between 3,000 and 4,000 pictures clandestinely and shifted them to my Manghopir residence where no one could even think of keeping photos,” he said, adding that still those photos were with him and had been preserved.

“I voluntarily want to donate all 10,000 pictures and an equal number of negatives, which are a pictorial history of the Bhuttos, to Asif Ali Zardari with the sole aim of preserving it. I am a man of advanced years, so who would after me keep this record,” chewing paan he said.

He had the collection of 4,000 photos of Z.A Bhutto, 4,000 of Benazir Bhutto and 2,000 of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Asif Zaradri since 1973, he said.

“I became the interpreter of Begum Nusrat Bhutto for knowing the Persian language after I was cleared in an interview held following an advertisement placed by Ibrahim Jalees,” he said. “I was in chappals when appeared in the interview and Begum Sahiba said,’ go and buy new shoes and a pair of trousers to come tomorrow on duty’,” he said.

“Just with Rs400 salary, I started the job,” he said.

While explaining about the pictures, their history, he more often refers to his closeness with the Bhutto family, but becomes gloomy for not a single son of his was given government job by the PPP. “My two sons run a shop of a photographer in Saddar Karachi while two are in private job,” he said with tears welling in his eyes.

In reply to a question, he admitted that all pictures displayed were not taken by him and he had collected them from different sources.

He said that in Benazir Bhutto’s era helicopters were not allowed to take off till he [Agha Feroz] came and joined her. And now he had no bicycle to move around; its a tragedy, he said.

Seventy gunny bags were not enough to pack the photographs he had, he said and took this correspondent to a nearby room of the Benazir Bhutto Museum where ‘important’ photos were just stuffed in sacks.

He claimed that Benazir Bhutto had tasked him to remain in touch with Asif Ali Zardari when he was behind bars in Landhi and Central Prison and “I did Zardari’s duty for 11 years by taking snaps of his movements”. With a deep sigh, he said that for seven years, he had not met him [Mr Zardari].

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2015

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