5
With politicking allowed from Sept 18, the ladies of the Bhutto family entered the political fray. Both Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto addressed people in various cities, employing incisive and hard-hitting rhetoric to castigate the coup led by General Ziaul Haq and the subsequent arrest of deposed prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
However, there were questions from certain quarters about why Benazir — a young woman who had just stepped into politics — was being thrust into the leadership of the PPP. Benazir found it appropriate to tackle the matter on Sept 24, when she addressed party workers at Farooq Leghari’s Lahore residence. She told her followers that she had assumed the party’s reins at the wish of party chief Z.A. Bhutto — perhaps because they wanted to quell moves within the party that promoted a conciliatory approach, or maybe, because the Bhutto ladies wanted to display the PPP’s street power.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) was caught in limbo. Despite various efforts, its leaders had been unable to meet till now. Everybody was waiting, perhaps in the hope that they’d receive some hints from the establishment or related quarters about what political course the regime was planning to take.
On Sept 25, the PNA leaders finally convened in Quetta. The moot was attended by all leaders, including Asghar Khan. At the core of discussions was the question of whether elections could be held in the prevailing conditions. Asghar Khan, Maulana Noorani, Mian Tufail Mohammad, and Begum Nasim Wali all wanted to press the military to complete the accountability process before holding elections and for this purpose, they argued that elections could be postponed.
With the PPP hot on the heels of the martial law regime and a divided opposition in play, the CMLA suspends all politicking
This position caused quite a stir because it amounted to U-turn from the meeting’s basic objective of forming an electoral alliance. Mufti Mahmood and Nasrullah Khan took a firm stand at this stage, arguing that that there should be no demand for polls’ postponement. Instead, they said, the military should be asked to restore law and order for holding peaceful elections.
Finally, the PNA resolved that accountability be held first and during that process, if the military government postponed elections, the alliance would not express any reaction.
General Chishti later claimed that on Sept 28, Khar, Jatoi, Kausar Niazi and Hamid Raza Gilani met him at Election Cell, and pressed for elections to be postponed and a new date to be announced. Apparently this kind of move was being fed through various means.
On Sept 29, Gen Zia summoned a meeting of the Military Council. There was no particular agenda but a brief conversation: participants of the meeting were informed that the situation in the country was not conducive to holding elections. The fear was that the prevalent situation could ignite a civil war, leaving the integrity of the country at stake. This sparked a debate, whose final resolution was that if the situation was indeed deemed this dangerous, elections could be postponed till March 1978.
In the meantime, a seemingly trivial news item received unprecedented publicity by the official media. Some fish plates of the Kotri-Quetta railway line, near Lakki Shah in Dadu, were found unscrewed. A red flag as well as an anti-martial law pamphlet was also found nearby, but before any accident could occur, the “terrorist” act was discovered. Repairs were immediately carried out. As the news item was released, telephone calls from the information department were made to newspaper offices, requesting “proper display” for the news item.
Much had happened in the past three months and Gen Zia was now being counselled extensively. The Election Cell members insisted that elections should not be postponed, as it would “lead to the destruction of the morale of the Army, despondency, despair and uncertainty.” Any delay in elections would lead the citizenry to become anti-martial law, went the argument.
But perhaps the General had already decided. He had his reasons and wanted to make his intention public as quickly as possible. Even at the Military Council meeting, he had discussed the matter but did not express his will about putting off the elections or not. He did so on October 1, when he appeared on radio and television:
“Political parties have not submitted their manifestos. A personality cult has replaced programmes and policies. Character assassination is taking place. There is a cry from the country that accountability should take place before elections. Holding elections under the present set of circumstances will be inviting a new crisis. Therefore, elections are postponed till further announcement. I assure my countrymen that there will not be a single day’s unnecessary delay in handing over power to people ‘s elected representatives.”
Explaining his rationale, Gen Zia alleged that recent terrorist activities were the result of a very serious situation that certain politicians wanted to create. He said that he held the electoral process in high esteem, but he would not allow the country to plunge into a situation from which the armed forces had to previously take it out on July 5. He argued that his regime was there to create conditions that would deter such ghastly conditions arising ever again.
Gen Zia claimed that he now had some objectives while he stayed in power, including elimination of “anti-state” elements, implementation of an Islamic system, reforms for growers and labourers, and improving the state of the national economy. He said that all those with political affiliations would be accountable. He had also a word of caution for newspapers: be more careful and follow martial law orders.
Immediately after the speech, Martial Law Regulation No 24 was promulgated, banning all kinds of political activities. A violation of the law would be a punishment by five years rigorous imprisonment and 15 lashes.
Zia was well and truly in charge.
Next week: Asghar Khan wants a shadow government
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, June 22nd, 2014
