At the beginning of February 1978, General Ziaul Haq came up with the idea of making the enforcement of Islamic code a part of his political philosophy. He also needed political allies, but since he didn’t want any leftist party to join him he thought of bringing the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) in the fold.

For this purpose he convened a meeting of the PNA leaders on Feb 4, which was attended by Mufti Mahmood and Prof Ghafoor Ahmed. However, during this meeting the General only discussed the economic condition of the country; probably not considering it proper to discuss elections and return to democracy.

On the same day the military government announced that the tribunal scrutinising the politicians’ declarations of assets had found that declarations submitted by 89 politicians were wrong.

The tribunal was formed on Sept 4, 1977 by Martial Law Regulation No 21, under which any politician elected as member of any provincial or national assembly between December 1970 and July 5, 1977 would have to file declarations of their assets.

Now these cases were to be sent to another such tribunal that was empowered to use its discretion to punish or even declare those politicians disqualified.

With the case against Bhutto coming to a close, Zia steps up repression while also seeking political allies

While politicians’ cases were being sent to special tribunals aimed at seeking disqualification, Gen Zia kept up the rhetoric that elections would be held as soon as the accountability process was completed.

Speaking to tribal chiefs at Sibbi on Feb 22, he said that the elections would be held when he was sure of positive results, although he did not elaborate what those ‘positive results’ meant.

The PPP activists had been protesting against the dissolution of the PPP government and army takeover; however, this had divided the party in two groups. One group wanted to enhance the protests, while the other wanted to create an atmosphere wherein some attempts for conciliation could be made.

For agitating, party activists were being punished. To create a sense of dreadfulness the regime enhanced public flogging.

The leaders favouring cooling the atmosphere — Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and Maulana Niazi — were also active in their in their own way.

For example, Maulana Niazi and Jatoi met the Election Cell headed by General Chishti. They wanted to stay calm as if waiting for some miracle.

Later, Jatoi came out in the open. On Feb 23, 1978, at a press conference he said that though the date of election had not been announced — which had created disappointment among the people — he had confidence in Gen Zia’s intention of holding elections. However, he did not reveal the source of his knowledge about Gen Zia’s intentions.

Referring to Nusrat Bhutto’s proposal of naming Benazir Bhutto as party chief, he said that though her father, Z.A. Bhutto, was the founder of the party, it did not mean that the party belonged to the Bhutto family. Apparently, he wanted to convey that after Bhutto he should head the party. The next day Kausar Niazi also came up with a statement opposing Benazir’s entry into politics and heading the PPP.

From the beginning of the Kasuri murder case Bhutto had expressed lack of confidence in the bench hearing him and had moved the court for transferring the hearing to some high court bench other than the one headed by Justice Mushtaq Hussain; but his plea was rejected on Feb 27.

As the case proceedings were coming to a close, in order to prevent any uprising on the announcement of the verdict, on Feb 28 Martial Law Regulation No 33 was issued banning all political activities for one month. Two days later, the Lahore High Court completed the proceedings and reserved the verdict.

Anticipating violent protests, especially in Sindh, the Martial Law authorities asked the provincial governments to take extra security measures. On March 8, 1978 the Punjab police in a sweeping raid arrested PPP leaders Shaikh Rafiq Ahmad, Ashfaq Ahmad, Mubarak Haider, S.M. Yaqoob, Rauf Ahmad Khan, Mir Ahmad Hussain, Nadeem Aslam, Mian Mohammad Rafi, Begum Abida Malik, Begum Qayyum Naheed, Begum Ishtiaq Bukhari, Begum Nusrat Perveen and Aziz Begum. Three days later more arrests were made including S.M. Masood, the former law minister. Besides the leaders, hundreds of PPP workers had been arrested.

Begum Nusrat Bhutto, who had camped at her Lahore residence, was put under house arrest for 15 days. Benzair was already confined at her house in Karachi. She had been released on Feb 14 after which she had proceeded on a tour of Sindh, but on Feb 18 was stopped from addressing a public rally in Nawabshah and sent back to Karachi.

Amid the speculations about the verdict in Bhutto case and fearing possible reaction, a military court in Lahore handed down one year’s rigorous imprisonment to a former senator and MNA Mian Ahsanul Haq for delivering a ‘violent’ speech.

Politicians were not the only ones to face persecution. The publisher of daily Musawat, Lahore Jamilur Rahman, its editor Baduruddin and officer on special duty Zaheer Kashmiri were awarded one year’s rigorous imprisonment each for publishing objectionable material, by a Lahore military court.

While the country was in the grip of wild rumours, the General continued talking about his agenda of introducing an Islamic system, accountability and elections. While talking to notables in Kohat on March 15 he announced that on Pakistan Day, March 23, he would announce the programme of such a system. The next day he said that earlier he had planned to hold the elections after accountability, but now the priority was the introduction of an Islamic system.

On March 18, when the verdict in the Bhutto case was to be announced, the PNA leaders Mufti Mahmood, Chaudhry Zahoor Illahi, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan and Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilore held a meeting with Gen Chishti, Gen Jamal and Gen Rao Farman Ali at the Election Cell. Gen Chishti told them that till an election date was announced political parties should cooperate with the military regime. He invited the PNA to join the government and assured them that this set-up would be functional and every member would be a federal minister. He sought their approval by March 23.

Next week: Death sentence awarded to Bhutto

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Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, August 31, 2014