Decline and Fall of Pakistan

Decline and Fall of Pakistan


Muslim leadership, at their wit's end in early nineteen thirties sent a delegation comprising the Agha Khan and Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan to beg Jinnah to return from England and take over the Muslim League (ML). He had gone to London after he had been repudiated by the Indian National congress (INC) when he had protested against introduction of religious imagery by Gandhi into politics. He agreed to don the mantle of the savior and shortly after return set about putting the house in order. He was able to cow down the different factions of the party at the national level, though he did not make much headway in organizations in the provinces.
But Pakistan remained a nebulous idea till the formal Lahore resolution in March 1940. It called for independent “STATES”. Unitary concept was adapted much later. Prior to that Allama Iqbal had asked for an entity inside independent India. The name was coined by Choudhury Rahmat Ali who was at the time at Cambridge University and head of a group of Indian Muslim students. It was not taken seriously by the Muslim League, Indian National Congress, or the British and was dismissed as a pipe dream of a well meaning but inconsequential student group.
Even in 1940, when the famous Pakistan resolution was passed the concept was not accepted by a defined majority of Muslims of India. The party advocating creation of Pakistan, the Muslim League, did not command credible support in Muslim majority provinces. The Muslim establishment in the regions, which now constitute the country, disdained Jinnah. Mian Shafi of the Punjab who had reluctantly conceded to Jinnah and agreed to the merger of his faction into Jinnah’s had successfully set Punjab Muslim leadership against the idea. Except for Bengal, the leadership in all other Muslim majority provinces had serious reservations about the idea, though even there Moulvi Fazal Haq and H.S.Suharwardy did not quite relinquish their autonomy.
The top leadership of the party came from Muslim minority provinces, as did the most enthusiastic support. It is a curious quirk of history that people from the regions where they enjoyed privileges far in excess of their numbers vociferously demanded a separate homeland, and those who were in economic and social bondage to the minority did not. In the UP Muslim population was 12% and they held 64% of the jobs for which Indians were eligible. In the Punjab, according to the 1930 census, they were 60% of the population, and non-Muslims controlled 94% of industry and 86% of agriculture. The former were virtually non-existent in education and administration. After partition immigrants from minority provinces were able to take over most of the positions vacated by non-Muslims. This led to serious ethnic ill will and contributed to the eventual demise of United Pakistan.
I have alluded elsewhere to the historic reasons for the apparently inexplicable attitude of the Muslims in majority provinces. They are complex and deserve an independent study. In the 1936 elections, held under the 1935 Act, which, had provided for separate electorates, Muslim League had done very poorly in the seats reserved for Muslims. Jinnah and the party had not yet caught Muslim imagination. It is a marked tribute to Jinnah's resilience and determination that he carried on with renewed vigor. He challenged the given wisdom, and made tireless efforts at making the party a grass roots organization and was able to energize the ordinary Muslim all over the country. But he got support from the Muslim establishment only in the minority provinces and Bengal. Students from all provinces heeded his call, but only those from the minority provinces proved to be effective. The ones from majority provinces bereft of support from the elite did not have the wherewithal to be able to give up their studies and go on tours for membership drives. The party could not provide them sustenance. Notable among the institutions, which proved critical in winning support of Muslim masses, was Aligarh University. Jinnah was able to make some impact on the Muslim mind, but was unable to sway the Indian national Congress or the British Raj. Nehru arrogantly declared that there were only two parties in India, the INC and the British. The rulers simply ignored Jinnah's assertion that there was a third party, the Muslims of India.
The British governors of the provinces did not exercise their reserve powers to rein in the ministers in the provinces where the INC had formed governments. In many recorded instances INC ministers were unfair and unjust. Jinnah formed a committee of enquiry under the Raja of Pirpur. The Pirpur report documented credible evidence of discrimination against Muslims. It fell on deaf ears.
The next phase for struggle for Pakistan is grossly misrepresented and Jinnah is not given due credit for his work. Clouds of impending war were darkening over Europe. Britain was gearing for general conflagration. The only initial advantage they had over the Germans was their vast colonies. And India was the biggest and the richest. They asked the INC for cooperation in war effort. All INC leaders, Pundit Nehru specially, were opposed to the Nazi creed. But they wanted advance payment for their support. They demanded an unequivocal declaration that they will be granted independence after the war. They also wanted to join the war effort as equal partners and insisted on taking charge of the department of defense in the government of India. Churchill, that die-hard imperialist would have none of all that. INC badly miscalculating British resolve and latent strength resigned from the government of India and gave call for non-cooperation with the British administration. The British retaliated by putting nearly all the leading lights of the INC in jail.
Jinnah called for a day of deliverance, which by all accounts was celebrated by a great majority of Muslims of India. He did not have to convince the Muslim masses that INC government would not be good for them. The ministers had done the job for him. Popular belief is that with all the INC leaders in jail, Jinnah had the field to himself. It is true that his work was no longer hampered by the INC establishment. But INC ministers governing the provinces would have been a much bigger incentive for the Muslims to heed Jinnah's call. In fact, if the war had not intervened and INC ministers had stayed in power, they would have in time slaked their thirst for "historic" revenge and dealt with the Muslims in a more equitable fashion. They would have come to realize that they could not do with out Muslim support in their struggle against the still entrenched British rulers. The higher leadership would have made them see reason, if they had not done so themselves. They could have pragmatically decided to bide their time till they had got rid of the colonial masters. The banishment of INC ministers from the scene, in fact made Jinnah's work more difficult. Academia, largely unsympathetic to Jinnah and nationalist politicians-Muslim and Hindu-antagonistic to Pakistan as personified by Jinnah have made a largely successful attempt to deny the latter the credit for turning the tables on INC and the Raj. Moulvi Fazal Haq, later to be known as Sher-e-Bengal, the lion of Bengal, presented Pakistan resolution at the ML meeting in Lahore . The resolution called for independent states of Pakistan in Muslim majority provinces in the North West and East of India.
Jinnah went from strenght to strenght. WWII ended. INC leaders were released from jail. In a remarkable exhibition of political maturity the British electorate handed a resounding defeat to Churchill. The war had been won. They needed social reforms, not exhilarating speeches. Indians were inducted into the central government in India. The viceroy was the head of the cabinet, but Nehru as the leader of the larger party was expected to act as virtual head of he government. Jinnah had opted to keep himself above the fray. ML was hankering after the home ministry, which would give them control over the police and other security agencies. With a monumental lack of political insight, INC elected to concede finance to them. Liaquat head of the ML faction of the ministry exercised such tight control over the exchequer that the hands of INC ministers were virtually tied down. Stealing socialist thunder from the INC, Liaquat with the help of two Muslim finance men, Ghulam Muhammad and Muhammad Ali presented an egalitarian budget. Industry was heavily taxed. That put a cat properly among the pigeons. INC was funded by Hindu capital. They could not sever their lifeline, nor could they openly condemn a populist budget. Muslim capitalist were of little account. One could count Muslim moneymen on the fingers of one hand. ML was funded by the feudals. The budget also put paid to any fond hopes INC may have entertained that they would be able to shape India into their cherished form. That convinced them that they could not co-exist with Jinnah. It was also an early harbinger of shape of things to come in independent Pakistan
INC and the Raj were not yet prepared to concede Pakistan. Master of tactics that he was, and gifted with an unerring instinct of timing, Jinnah gave a call for direct action. Muslims gave an overwhelming response. It all remained peaceful except for Calcutta, which broke out into riots. His detractors jumped on him for the break down of law and order. They conveniently forgot that Gandhi had given many calls for flouting authority, with much larger loss of life and property. This was Jinnah's first and only call for extra legal action. Gandhi had captured international imagination and was forgiven all his aberrations. The difference between the two was that the latter was using esoteric techniques, and the former was using a methodology familiar to the West.
ML won an overwhelming victory in 1946 elections. That ML represented the Muslims of India, as INC spoke for the Hindus could no longer be questioned, though the latter continued to claim an all India character. Jinnah now took a later to be much-debated step . He proposed and won approval of a unified Federal Pakistan. His vision was that of a strong country which could play an effective role in the comity of nations. His intentions cannot be doubted. When Mountbatten ordained partition of the Punjab and Bengal, he allowed Suhrawardy to negotiate for an independent Bengal.
Lest people forget that it was fickle, fate, which had hitherto favored Jinnah, now turned its smile on INC. Nehru, the international and liberal face of INC, had won the affections of Edwina, the new viceroy's wife. She had had innumerable affairs before. Her husband was gay and was only too accommodating. In a memorable offer of putting cause over self, Sirdar Nishtar is widely believed to have proposed to Jinnah that he will set aside his aesthetic scruples and bend Mountbatten in Pakistan's favor. Jinnah would have none of it. He even prohibited publication of the compromising Nehru-Edwina letters. The high principles were to cost Pakistan dearly. But for Mountbatten Pakistan would not have lost Kashmir. The consequent security concerns were to contribute substantially to the failure of Pakistan as a state and according to a growing body of opinion, even as an idea.
Mountbatten had set his heart on leaving a united India as his country's and his own legacy. Thwarted in his desires, asserting that if the country could be divided the provinces could be too, he rejected Jinnah's demand of inclusion of undivided Bengal and Punjab into Pakistan. Aware of the parlous state of his health and lacking confidence in his feudal base of support to continue the struggle with out his leadership, the latter accepted crippling detachment of large portions of the provinces from his cherished goal. He added insult to injury by rejecting Mountbatten's overtures to become the joint Governor General of both countries. From all accounts it would appear that it was not just an egoistical move. He wanted to assert full independence of his creation. He may also have been apprehensive of Nehru's bedroom influence. Mountbatten made no secret of his level of comfort with Gandhi and Nehru and his acute distress during his first meeting with Jinnah .
Jinnah had good reason to fear the intimate relations of the viceroy with congress leaders. He did not know it at the time, but must made an educated guess that Nehru was privy to the inner deliberations at the Viceroy's office. A Hindu civil servant V.P.Menon who was very close to Patel was a member of the kitchen cabinet. Jinnah was to be proved right in his lack of confidence Mountbatten's integrity. Small man that he was- and I am hasten to add that I am not referring to his sexual proclivities lest the Gay rightists get up in arms- the latter went after demolition of Pakistan with a vengeance. Informed opinion now agrees that he deliberately delayed announcement of the boundary commission report till three days after independence and ordered alterations in the award detrimental to Pakistan. The uncertainty resulted in carnage on a much larger scale than it would have; if the people on either side of the new border knew which country their home was in. His version of awards gave India land access to Kashmir. He also played a critical role in persuading the Rajah of Kashmir in acceding to India. He aided and abetted the Indian cabinet in with holding Pakistan's share of assets. In any event India flew its troops to help the Rajah of Kashmir to resist the tribal Jihadists. Jinnah ordered the British commander of Pakistan army, General Gracey to assist the tribal intruders. Gracey demurred, telling Jinnah that he could not commit his forces to take on the Indian army as both were commanded by British officers. He referred the matter to General Auchinleck, the overall commander of Pakistani and Indian forces, who held his hand till the Indians had consolidated their position. It is reasonable to assume that Auchinleck would seek guidance from Mountbatten.
All new states have great security concerns. They owe their existence to confrontation with and defeat of an existing order, which is implacably hostile to it. In Pakistan's case the concerns were immeasurably accentuated by the chaos attendant on its birth. Even a well-established administration would have been stretched to the limit by the intolerable burden of millions of destitute refugees. The infant state had to contend with lack of a credible police or any other law enforcement agency . On top of all the problems, it had to fight a war against a vastly superior, well organized and well equipped force.
The combination of adverse circumstances left a deep scar on the national psyche which the relics of the colonial rule would take advantage of. Jinnah was in charge of a bankrupt and disorganized country. He did not enjoy the advantages inherent in a grass roots political party, which Nehru and Patel did. His base of support consisted in the feudal class. He did the best he could in the time he had left and set the guidelines that it will be democratic country, in which the government will work for the people, all the citizens regardless of race or creed will have equal rights and religion will have nothing to do with the state. He punished Ayub, then in command of the East Pakistan garrison, establishing a precedent that no one was above the law, and army was subordinate to civilian authority.
In another decision, which is attributable to his over riding concern to forge a united nation, Jinnah ordained that Urdu and only Urdu would be the official language of Pakistan. His own mother tongue was Gujarati. He spoke no Indian language with any fluency. Urdu was understood in all regions of the country. But it was not the language of the majority. It was spoken at home by only about ten percent of the population. Bengali, on the other hand though confined to the Eastern wing, was the birth language of 55% of the people. Used as he was to have his words obeyed as gospel, he ignored the cherished wishes of the majority. Though conceded equal status the language riots of 1952 in which several students died left a deep-seated scar. The ensuing distrust was another factor, which hastened the end of Pakistan.
Jinnah died in September 1948, and with it expired all prospect of the evolution of the country into a democratic state . Liaquat, Jinnah's trusted lieutenant and a person of unimpeachable integrity took over. He had the reins of power firmly in his hands. But he was a pale shadow of his mentor. Bengali students, Mujib's spurious claims notwithstanding, could only grumble in undertones that the great leader was not being fair. Liaquat's declaration that Urdu will be the only official language was greeted with loud boos. His motorcade had a black flag reception.
Liaquat had to compromise with the theocratic lobby and supremacy of religion was accepted as an integral part of the Basic principles resolution All moves at drafting a constitution were sacrificed at the alter of West Pakistani feudal intransigence. They did not want to concede East Pakistan their right to a majority of seats in the central assembly. Feudal class in Bengal had been largely Hindu and had fled to India. East Pakistani politicians came from the middle class. Their interest lay in social, industrial and educational development. Their kin did not serve in armed forces. Though more fervently conformist in matters of religion than the West Pakistanis, yet the progressive movement and thought was much more advanced in the region.
Much has been made of the fact that Liaquat did not have a constituency in the country . But the government was firmly under political control. Though the feudal class and its handmaidens the bureaucracy and the army got the essence of power, yet they felt hampered in their quest of unbridled authority. Liaquat stood in the way. He was assassinated .
With Liaquat eliminated Ghulam Muhammad the head of the bureaucratic cabal took over. From 1951 t0 1958 they held sway and made an unholy mess of governance. The army was waiting in the wings and felt that they could serve the interests of the feudal class better than the civil servants could. They had developed extra-territorial links with the emerging American empire. The pretext was the security concern . That conferred neo-colonial status on the country and was entirely compatible with preservation of the feudal privilege in Pakistan. India had abolished the feudal system. Its fast growing capitalist class was on the way to confrontation with international capital. It did not feel threatened by socialist countries. India had thus no compulsion to join such pacts.
Ayub ushered in an era of military regimes in Pakistan. He was initially praised for inducting order in place of chaos created by the civil service-feudal cabal. He introduced land reforms with much fanfare. It turned out to be only cosmetic. In the name of ridding the services of corrupt elements he fired three hundred and three senior civil servants, but they were all immigrants and stood in the way of native bureaucrats. Industrial production went up by one hundred sixty percent, but the distributive aspect was disregarded and wealth was further concentrated in fewer hands . But the could not deliver the goods. About the only positive that came out of his rule were the family laws under which women got a modicum of rights. That infuriated the Mullahs to no end. It not lead to any lasting changes; though still on the books yet it is ignored with impunity.
He tried to stem the tide of history. Introduction of guided democracy was an attempt at turning back the march of progress. It was a thinly disguised form of fascism. His opponents persuaded a relic of Jinnah as the candidate to oppose him. That was the last time disparate elements of society in Pakistan were to unite on one platform . (Miss Jinnah was a formidable opponent. But for massive rigging, Ayub would have lost even under a system designed to ensure victory of the incumbent. Under adult franchise he would have lost his shirt. Though he had managed to stay in office, Ayub lost the aura of invincibility. He backtracked on land redistribution plans. Peasants were denied whatever little gains they had been promised. Clerics, for once having opposed an illegitimate regime found new voice.
Ayub, however, regained poise soon and went back to his old autocratic ways. All dictators have illusions of grandeur. Sycophants are always on hand to reinforce the delusion. Ayub was no exception. He had artists in the art of flattery like Bhutto to inflate his ego further. The latter is believed to have goaded*(personal communication from my Lt General patient) the army into an adventure in the disputed Runn of Kutch swamp on the border of Sindh and Rajhastan . Ayub badly wanted to redeem himself in his own eyes and cherished his image as a warrior in shining armor. He had faith in the judgment of Bhutto in international matters and fell for Bhutto's opinion that Indians would not fight across the International border. The latter convinced his mentor that Kashmiris will rise in rebellion as soon as Jihadists crossed the border. He rejected Chinese advice to wage a people's war in the disputed region . He was cautioned that in the event of reverses they would not stand by international law. He mocked such advisers as old women. He was to rue his faith in the sagacity and integrity of his henchmen *, but it would be too late.
It all came to nothing. Pakistan lost the little progress it had made and it only accentuated the alienation of East Pakistanis . Ayub went down hill. The 1968 student uprising provoked by the ill-considered celebration of Ayub's ten-year rule was the last straw on camel's back. He caved in and in contempt of his own tailor made constitution under which he should have handed over the reigns of government to the speaker of the national assembly, was forced to hand over to the army chief who was nearly always drunk, was very impressionable, could not make up his mind and agreed with contrary arguments simultaneously. The man proceeded to re-impose martial law, but kept to his promise of holding free and fair elections. Bhutto who always had agents in place in the army and was back in the position of eminence grise. He failed to advise the army that Mujib should not be allowed to run on a thinly disguised platform of virtual secession from the federation.
The new dictator was confidently expecting a divided house. But a combination of circumstances I have detailed elsewhere ordained other wise. The evil Quad opted to destroy East Pakistan rather than risk the loss of its privileges. Bhutto won the approval of the Empire in Washington and took the country over. He established a regime on the lines popularized by Hitler, except that the former was not known for chasing women and drunken orgies. He managed to antagonize all sections f the establishment and annoyed the Empire as well. They all got together and hanged him. Zia broke all his pledges of election with in ninety days and introduced a particularly intolerant version of Islam. Public floggings, prosecution of rape victims, blood money and honor killings were legitimized. Even the usually tolerant West-they could not care less if you do not hurt their interests-were forced by their public opinion to impose sanctions.
Russians came to Zia’s rescue. All considerations of Human Rights and democracy went over board. West showered him with financial and military aid. Not to be left behind, Russians gave Afghans technology to convert opium into Heroin. Gangs, which had hitherto fought with ancient guns, now had the latest from American and Soviet armories. Corrupt officials and racketeers who thought they were lucky if they could steal/make a hundred thousand dollars, now raked in scores of millions.
Zia perverted the political process in Pakistan more than all other rulers put together. He empowered the Mullah and brewed the witch’s concoction of ethnic tensions and let the cauldron steam with out let Claiming that Islam did not permit political parties he banned them. Further that under Islamic dispensation candidates did not present themselves for election he organized a referendum in which people were asked they agreed to the teaching of Quran and Sunnah and if they did Zia ul Haq was the President. Under the same pretext he changed the name of the national assembly to “Majlis e Shoora”, consultative assembly and opinionated all the discards and losers to it. That assembly elected the senate. With fanatic zeal he suppressed all progressive thought and irreparably distorted the social fabric.
When the USA and the USSR made a deal to disengage in Afghanistan, he rejected it. In his messianic zeal he took on the Empire, fired his PM and repudiated the agreement. He wanted the Russians to be run out of Afghanistan with Mujhideen on hot chase and taken an oath to pray in the grand mosque in Kabul after destroying the Russian army in the country. Goaded by native shrewdness he became very cautious and took care to take along as many generals on all trips as he could to minimize the risk to his life. That did not save him. He came to his cherished end of death as a martyr in a blazing fire ball that his specially designed and secured C47 transport burst into after he and a dozen senior generals accompanied by the US ambassador had taken off after inspection of a tank Americans wanted Pakistan to buy .
General Baig, the deputy army chief convened a meeting of the Lt general’s committee which decided to follow the letter of law, and let the chairman of the senate Ghulam Ishaq Khan , the designated successor under Zia constitution the country.
But the real power remained in the hands of the army. BB had to seek the blessings of the army chief before she could become the PM. When Nawaz and the President tangled, General Kakar the army chief unceremoniously threw them out of office. And when Nawaz grew too big for his britches, Musharraf put him in jail. The civilians were only allowed their hand in the till as long as they did not tamper with army budget and privileges. All the previous military dictators had at least waited till law and order situation got out of control. The Ghazi of Kargil did not bother with contrived an excuse.
No Pakistani government, civil or military, has ever paid much attention to the problems of ordinary citizens. The ones in late forties and early fifties mortgaged national security to the nascent neo-colonists. All the country got was obsolete WWII weapons and training in waging war on unarmed public. Conditions got from bad to worse. Leaders the country had inherited from the campaign for Pakistan were persons of personal integrity and probity. At his death, Liaquat had three hundred rupees in his account. He had left a huge feudal estate in India for which he did not even ask for any compensation he was legally entitled to. Suharwardy commanded a King's ransom for an appearance in courts of law. He died a pauper in exile in Beirut.
Later leaders had no such scruples. Ayub's son Gauhar became an industrial magnate over night. During Zia's term his fellow generals dealt in arms and drugs for the greater glory of their faith. BB's husband who was deep in debt before his marriage was able to import race horses from Argentina (on a PIA flight. I doubt he paid the freight) and buy a palace with its own heli-pad in Surrey, England. Nawaz Shareef built an estate near Lahore, which boasted of a safari park and a hospital for the family. This was in addition to four, twenty five million pound each, apartments in the swanky Park Lane in London. I have yet to come across a credible report of Musharraf stashing away a fortune. If that be true he is breaking a tradition.
If they just filled up their pockets one could make excuses for them. They did not have job security or a pension plan. But they sold national assets, the future of the country. Industries, commercial houses, public services, mineral deposits, all that had been left after IMF and World bank grab, have been given under control of global corporations . Tribal chiefs are waiting for the army to go away so they can resume their absolute control over their serfs. Sindhi waderas continue to marry off their women folk to the Quran. Other waderas in the same political parties carry the flag of Human rights. There is little hope that things will change. The left is fragmented and impotent. Their slogans have been hijacked by NGO's of all kinds, Human Rights, Civil rights women’s liberation, prison reform, Charities running schools, orphanages, what have you. Global corporations have bought off erstwhile flag bearers of revolution. Mullahs have been energized and empowered. They indulge with impunity, in orgies of killing all who do not subscribe to their version of the faith. Victims are o longer just the Shias. Other Sunnis and even other Wahabis are fair game.
I have endeavored to give a very brief outline of the genesis of Pakistan. Seeds of dissolution were embedded in the body from birth. Muslims had lagged behind Hindus in all walks of life for centuries. They were suffering from national depression and lived in the past. The whole Ummah had been in decline since late fifteenth century. That Jinnah could achieve an independent country was a near miracle, but he could not overcome the combined onslaught of a determined enemy, lack of an organized political party, virtual absence of a capitalist class, noxious influence of feudal lords and its subsidiaries the Mullahs and the army. Nehru with much less control over his government was able to abolish the feudal system. Jinnah's authority in his country was unquestioned. But if he had lived longer he would not have been able to persuade the landowners to commit suicide. They controlled and continue to control all elective and appointive offices of the state. They would have resorted to the convenient expedient of an assassin’s bullet.
Jinnah's legacy was inherently flawed. The two-nation theory died an ignominious death in 1971. Baluchistan has been in a state of active insurgency. Sindh had always been restive. Immigrants in the province who constitute about half the population and control nearly all commerce and finance has kept an insurgency from flaring up. They have an unholy alliance with the feudal/army interest. Only lack of credible foreign interest in the fate of Sindh and Baluchistan has kept them in the federation. The chronic anarchic state in Afghanistan has been a boon for Pakistan. Pathans do not have a credible alternative. People are getting poorer. Mal nutrition is at a higher scale than in sub-Saharan Africa *. Water and electric supply are at best temperamental. Unemployment is rising. Crime is rampant. Corruption has become respectable. Vast number of people have no access to health care. Educational standards are falling.
Infrastructure is failing.
Uncharitable view is that India does not want reunification of Akhand Bharat* as it has enough problems with its own Muslim population. They would not survive an addition of another 300 million to add to its own 150.

Justice, fair play and high ideals, unless backed by strength, be it of numbers, arms or ideology, are not paid a great deal of attention. The higher INC leadership did try to keep tabs but was unable to control the vast middle cadre.
Calling their heroes lion and tiger, is a time hallowed Indian tradition.
Ghulam Muhammad, aided by civil servants was to play an infamous role in the history of the country. He dismissed the PM, dissolved the constituent assembly. The Supreme Court regrettably went along.
But at the time no Muslim leader raised his voice against it. It can be said that they were so frightened of Jinnah that they let him ride roughshod over them. Sharawardy did negotiate for independent united Bengal.
Alec Campbell Johnson in his book Mission with Mountbatten notes that the first words Jinnah uttered in his first meeting with the viceroy were “your excellency I will discuss the situation in India on only one condition that I be accepted the sole spokesman of Muslims of India” Mountbatten countered that it was a get to know and be comfortable with one another meeting with out any conditions. Jinnah did not respond for the next hour except in monosyllables. Mountbatten told his aides that he would rather have several meetings with Gandhi and Nehru than one with Jinnah.
A viceroy whose arrogance was matched only by his ineptitude had brought forward the date of independence by nearly a year so it would coincide with the date the Japanese had surrendered, with out any regard for an orderly transfer of power.
I am using the term in its broadest sense: I mean a dispensation in which the ruling class is capitalist and which in socio-economic terms is on a higher evolutionary rung than a government by and for the feudal class.
The only constitution related document the assembly was able to pass under aegis of Liaquat. It declared Islam as the official religion of the state and paid only lip service to minority rights
He had left his parliamentary seat in India. East Pakistan had given him and Jinnah parliamentary seats. But under a Westminster style democracy only the residents of one constituency elect every member of the parliament. The leader is indirectly elected. He is the most acceptable member of the party. Liaquat did enjoy the perception of general acceptance).
I suspect if he had survived Jinnah would have met the same fate). History is not made by personalities. It uses the more useful of its products for its own purpose. In its inexorable progress it sweeps aside all obstacles. It finds willing agents from the dominant class. Given the class structure of the country he had founded, Jinnah would not have been able to alter its future course in any substantial way. Gandhi was assassinated before Jinnah died. India stayed on the course of bourgeoisie democracy.
The charitable interpretation of entanglements in all the "mutual" defense pacts is that the powers that be thought that they would serve as bulwark against Indian designs. In actual fact all the agreements spelled it clearly that they were meant as forward bases against socialist countries.
Mahaboob ul Haque an acolyte of free trade prophets named twenty-two families, which controlled most of the wealth of the country. This was made much of by ZAB in his later agitation against Ayub
Asserting that the majority of people were not educated enough to make proper choice, Ayub introduced the concept of an electoral college of 80,000 basic democrats who would be elected by adult franchise. These electors would in turn elect the President, central and provincial assemblies. The underlying idea in fact was it would be much easier to coerce and control 80,000 than it would be to manage 400 million voters. Only political nonentities and discards presented themselves as candidates for the office of basic democrats. They voted as the local police and administrative officials wanted them to.
Maulana Maududi, a leading cleric and head of the best organized political party in the country, gave Fatwa- a religious edict- that in situation of emergency a woman could become the head of a state. For a Muslim scholar to regard absence of democracy for which there is no sanction in the creed is incredible.
Taking the Indians by surprise, they were able to push them back. They surprised Ayub too. Coming on the heels of the rout of Indian forces at the hands of Chinese in 1961 that convinced Pakistani military establishment that Indians could not stand and fight. In pre-independence days Muslims used to say that a Banya-petty Hindu shop keeper- cannot fight. Muslims could be Banyas but that was rare. They chose to ignore the warrior class among the Hindus and the Sikhs as well.
Border in Kashmir was called line if control and did not have the sanctity of a regular border.
Bhutto would claim that he actually wanted the army to destroy itself. I have not come across such colossal ingratitude in any other person.
The Eastern wing was cut off from the west with an hour of the start of hostilities. Bhutto claimed that China had promised to defend it. That naturally did not go down well with Bengalis.
For brevity I call the feudal/military/mullah/bureaucrat combine the evil Quad. I have borrowed the concept from Mao’s characterization of his opponents as gang of four.
Americans were pushing Pakistan to buy a tank. Zia had gone to Bahawalpur to observe field tests. It seems that the tank could run only on a paved surface and had been rejected by US army. On the return flight Zia invited his deputy Aslam Beg to join him, but the latter made an excuse and flew on his tiny plane. He observed the mid-air explosion and retuned to make sure that his boss was good and dead, then made his way to army head quarters.
It was later reported that a crate of mangoes from his sacked Prime minister’s farm had been loaded on Zia’s plane. Anthony Perkins in his “Confessions of an Economic Hit man has described how two South American Presidents were blown out of air with similar fruit gift baskets.
An enquiry in which American security agencies assisted did not come to any conclusion.
Ghulam Ishaq Khan, a senior civil servant who was the secretary general to the government under Bhutto and had reportedly kept Zia abreast of the negotiations between Bhutto and the opposition. It was apparently at his instigation that army had intervened the night before a deal was to be signed between the two sides.
I am reminded of a story one of my friends is very fond of telling. In olden times a country lost its king. He did not leave an heir. The notables of the realm could not agree on a successor. They finally decided that the person first to appear at the gates of the capital city the next morning would be anointed the King. As luck would have it, a beggar was the first to arrive. He was offered the crown. He demurred. He just wanted a meal. They gave him a choice. He could keep his head under a crown or lose it altogether. He gave in. Courtiers asked for orders. He told them to cook Halwa. The orders were the same every day. Citizens became fat and flabby like Pakistani police officers.
Anther king in the neighborhood heard of the state of affairs. He sent an army. The ministers of the beggar-king’s country begged him to order war preparations. He rejected the request and ordered that they continue to cook Halwa. The invading army got to the outskirts of the Capital, entered the city, and finally arrived at the palace gates. The King changed into his beggar clothes and advised the court that all he had ever wanted was plenty of Halwa. He had had enough. Now it was up to them to do what they wanted.
Halwa is a very sweet and popular desert.
Ummah is a very esoteric concept that all Muslims regardless of national origin, race, color and language belong to one nation. Purists adhere to it and lament its divides and parlous state.
I came across one UNO report. It was truly shocking