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To take credit for restoring democracy, General Ziaul Haq decided to address the first session of the National Assembly that opened on March 23, 1985. The session was important on two counts: Gen Zia in his speech, while outlining his wishes and plans, drew limits for the new parliament with regard to legislation.
He declared in clear terms that this was not a transfer of power from the military government to a civilian government, but was in fact a power-sharing arrangement where some powers of the military government would be shared with the civilian government. He also advised the members to retain their non-party identity.
However Mr Junejo in his speech also did not miss the chance to convey his intentions, saying categorically that martial law and democracy could not co-exist. This again was not liked by Gen Zia, though the National Assembly gave Prime Minister Junejo a unanimous vote of confidence. Junejo fired another salvo in his address to the Senate on July 6, saying that the civilian government cannot work properly under martial law and that it would not become a partner in prolonging martial law.
In the provinces, army-backed politicians were appointed as chief ministers. Mohammad Nawaz Sharif was named as Chief Minister Punjab and the general lent him full support, which led to him being labelled a remnant of martial law by opposition leaders after the complete restoration of democracy. Arbab Jahangir Khan, Ghaus Ali Shah and Mir Ghulam Qadir Alliani were elected as chief ministers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then NWFP), Sindh and Balochistan respectively.
General Zia and Prime Minister Junejo engage in a power struggle
From his actions it was clear that Junejo was not content with ceremonial office and wanted to exercise all powers of the executive. Famed as a thorough gentleman he spent much time on administrative and financial issues and with time learnt how to deal with them without creating any hassles. His prime worry was to remove incompetent people from important positions of the government, improve the output of the administration and to curtail government expenses. To achieve this latter goal he even stopped offering food during cabinet meetings.
There were differences between Gen Zia and Prime Minister Junejo from day one but they were not the talk of the town, though the secretaries often faced an odd situation when they received two opposing orders on one subject from the President and the Prime Minister.
The election of the Speaker of the National Assembly was another occasion where Gen Zia thought he could prove his mettle. Among the members of the National Assembly there appeared to be three groups: one that supported Prime Minister Junejo; the other lending support to Gen Zia’s nominee and the third trying to remain independent. However, despite the house being elected on non-party basis a presence of Muslim League (Pagara, later Functional) could be felt. Junejo was trying to settle and prove that the elected house could act on its own and would never take dictation.
For Speaker, Gen Zia nominated Khwaja Mohammad Safdar who had earlier been nominated as chairman of the handpicked Majils-i-Shura. To gather support for his candidate, Gen Zia himself began meeting the MNAs and pressed them for getting Khwaja Safdar elected.
A small group of independent MNAs did not want Khwaja Safdar to be elected unopposed and began consultations among themselves. In fact, Syeda Abida Hussain was interested in contesting for Speaker but many members did not want to be presided over by a woman; finally they settled on the candidature of her husband Syed Fakhr Imam. The general, through Abdul Ghafoor Hoti, tried to make Syed Fakhr Imam withdraw and when just before the election Hoti made Fakhr Imam talk to Gen Zia on telephone, the general told him to desist from contesting the election and instead be content with some juicy ministry. Fakhr Imam simply refused to oblige.
After a few hours, Syed Fakhr Imam was elected as Speaker of the National Assembly.
This came as a shock to the general; nonetheless, he did not lose hope and decided to bring some kind of discipline in the National Assembly. The man who did not believe in party politics now thought of making some compromises and enter into some kind of political grouping, knowing that this was going to be a very queer experience for him. Journalist-author Azhar Suhail was of the opinion that the general was even prepared to form a kind of political group in consultation with Prime Minister Junejo which would be an official group within the assembly and would be obliged to support the prime minister and his policies, and prove to be a means to facilitate the system to resolve various problems. In actuality, Gen Zia wanted to form a group that was controlled by him, despite having the support of Junejo, the prime minister he disliked.
It was a strange situation; Junejo had to deal with a man who had dug himself deep during the past eight years and was still vying to continue as an unchallenged ruler. At the same time, the general decided to tame the man who entered politics in 1950s with another general, Ayub Khan, who had appointed him as communication minister, and now he was with an army chief who had enjoyed power for the past eight years.
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, August 30th, 2015
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