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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
The new administration formed a committee of deputy and
provincial martial law administrators that functioned
above the
civil machinery of government. The generals held power and
were
no longer the supporting arm of the civilians--elected or
bureaucratic--as they had been throughout much of the
country's
history. In the past, every significant change of
government had
relied, in large part, on the allegiance of the military.
However, Yahya Khan and his military advisers proved no
more
capable of overcoming the nation's problems than their
predecessors. The attempt to establish a military
hierarchy
running parallel to and supplanting the authority of the
civilian
administration inevitably ruptured the
bureaucratic-military
alliance, on which efficiency and stability depended.
Little
effort was made to promote a national program.
These weaknesses were not immediately apparent but
became so
as events moved quickly toward a crisis in East Pakistan.
On
November 28, 1969, Yahya Khan made a nationwide broadcast
announcing his proposals for a return to constitutional
government. General elections for the National Assembly
were set
for October 5, 1970, but were postponed to December as the
result
of a severe cyclone that hit the coast of East Pakistan.
The
National Assembly was obliged within 120 days to draw up a
new
constitution, which would permit maximum provincial
autonomy.
Yahya Khan, however, made it clear that the federal
government
would require powers of taxation well beyond those
contemplated
by the six points of the Awami League. He also reserved
the right
to "authenticate" the constitution. On July 1, 1970, the
One Unit
Plan was dissolved into the four original provinces. Yahya
Khan
also determined that the parity of representation in the
National
Assembly between the East Wing and the West Wing that had
existed
under the 1956 and 1962 constitutions would end and that
representation would be based on population. This
arrangement
gave East Pakistan 162 seats (plus seven reserved for
women)
versus 138 seats (plus six for women) for the new
provinces of
the West Wing.
An intense election campaign took place in 1970 as
restrictions on press, speech, and assembly were removed.
Bhutto
campaigned in the West Wing on a strongly nationalist and
leftist
platform. The slogan of his party was "Islam our Faith,
Democracy
our Policy, Socialism our Economy." He said that the PPP
would
provide "roti, kapra, aur
makhan"
(bread, clothing, and shelter) to all. He also proclaimed
a
"thousand year war with India," although this
pronouncement was
played down later in the campaign. In the East Wing, the
Awami
League gained widespread support for the six-point
program. Its
cause was further strengthened because West Pakistani
politicians
were perceived as callously indifferent to the Bengali
victims of
the October cyclone and slow to come to their aid.
The first general election conducted in Pakistan on the
basis
of one person, one vote, was held on December 7, 1970;
elections
to provincial legislative assemblies followed three days
later.
The voting was heavy. Yahya Khan kept his promise of free
and
fair elections. The Awami League won a colossal victory in
East
Pakistan, for it was directly elected to 160 of the 162
seats in
the east and thus gained a majority of the 300 directly
elected
seats in the National Assembly (plus the thirteen
indirectly
elected seats for women, bringing the total to 313
members)
without winning a seat in the West Wing
(see Yahya Khan, 1969-71
, ch. 4). The PPP won a large majority in the West Wing,
especially
in Punjab and Sindh, but no seats in the East Wing. In the
North-
West Frontier Province and Balochistan, the National Awami
Party
won a plurality of the seats. The Muslim League and the
Islamic
parties did poorly in the west and were not represented in
the
east.
Any constitutional agreement clearly depended on the
consent
of three persons: Mujib of the East Wing, Bhutto of the
West
Wing, and Yahya Khan, as the ultimate authenticator
representing
the military government. In his role as intermediary and
head of
state, Yahya Khan tried to persuade Bhutto and Mujib to
come to
some kind of accommodation. This effort proved
unsuccessful as
Mujib insisted on his right as leader of the majority to
form a
government--a stand at variance with Bhutto, who claimed
there
were "two majorities" in Pakistan. Bhutto declared that
the PPP
would not attend the inaugural session of the assembly,
thereby
making the establishment of civilian government
impossible. On
March 1, 1971, Yahya Khan, who earlier had referred to
Mujib as
the "future prime minister of Pakistan," dissolved his
civilian
cabinet and declared an indefinite postponement of the
National
Assembly. In East Pakistan, the reaction was immediate.
Strikes,
demonstrations, and civil disobedience increased in tempo
until
there was open revolt. Prodded by Mujib, Bengalis declared
they
would pay no taxes and would ignore martial law
regulations on
press and radio censorship. The writ of the central
government
all but ceased to exist in East Pakistan.
Mujib, Bhutto, and Yahya Khan held negotiations in
Dhaka in
late March in a last-ditch attempt to defuse the growing
crisis;
simultaneously, General Tikka Khan, who commanded the
Pakistani
forces in East Pakistan, prepared a contingency plan for a
military takeover and called for troop reinforcements to
be flown
in via Sri Lanka. In an atmosphere of distrust and
suspicion, the
talks broke down, and on March 25 Yahya Khan and Bhutto
flew back
to West Pakistan.
Tikka Khan's emergency plan went into operation.
Roadblocks
and barriers appeared all over Dhaka. Mujib was taken into
custody and flown to the West Wing to stand trial for
treason.
Universities were attacked, and the first of many deaths
occurred. The tempo of violence of the military crackdown
during
these first days soon accelerated into a full-blown and
brutal
civil war
(see The Military Reasserts Itself
, ch. 5).
On March 26, Yahya Khan outlawed the Awami League,
banned
political activity, and reimposed press censorship in both
wings.
Because of these strictures, people in the West Wing
remained
uninformed about the crackdown in the east and tended to
discount
reports appearing in the international press as an Indian
conspiracy.
Major Ziaur Rahman, a political unknown at the time,
proclaimed the independence of Bangladesh from Chittagong,
a city
in the southeast of the new country. He would become
president of
Bangladesh in April 1977. A Bangladeshi government in
exile was
formed in Calcutta.
Ziaur Rahman and others organized Bengali troops to
form the
Mukti Bahini (Liberation Force) to resist the Pakistan
Army. The
East Pakistan Rifles, a paramilitary force, mutinied and
joined
the revolutionary forces. Nevertheless, the Pakistan Army
pressed
its heavy offensive and in early April controlled most of
East
Pakistan. More than 250,000 refugees crossed into India in
the
first few days of the war. The influx continued over the
next six
months and reached a total of about 10 million. No
accurate
estimate can be made of the numbers of people killed or
wounded
or the numbers women of raped, but the assessment of
international human rights organizations is that the
Pakistani
crackdown was particularly alarming in its ferocity.
Relations between Pakistan and India, already tense,
deteriorated sharply as a result of the crisis. On March
31, the
Indian parliament passed a resolution in support of the
"people
of Bengal." The Mukti Bahini, formed around regular and
paramilitary forces, received equipment, training, and
other
assistance from India. Superpower rivalries further
complicated
the situation, impinged on Pakistan's war, and possibly
impeded
its political resolution.
In the fall, military and guerrilla operations
increased, and
Pakistan and India reported escalation of border shelling.
On the
western border of East Pakistan, military preparations
were also
in evidence. On November 21, the Mukti Bahini launched an
offensive on Jessore, southwest of Dhaka. Yahya Khan
declared a
state of emergency in all of Pakistan on November 23 and
asked
his people to prepare for war. In response to Indian
military
movements along and across the Indian-East Pakistani
border, the
Pakistan Air Force attacked military targets in northern
India on
December 3, and on December 4 India began an integrated
ground,
naval, and air invasion of East Pakistan. The Indian army
launched a five-pronged attack and began converging on
Dhaka.
Indian forces closed in around Dhaka and received the
surrender
of Pakistani forces on December 16. Indian prime minister
Indira
Gandhi proclaimed a unilateral cease-fire on December 17.
Violent demonstrations against the military government
soon
broke out at the news of Pakistan's defeat. Yahya Khan
resigned
on December 20. Bhutto assumed power as president and
chief
martial law administrator of a disgraced military, a
shattered
government, and a bewildered and demoralized population.
Formal
relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh were not
established
until 1976.
Data as of April 1994
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