THE general elections of December 1970, held by General Yahya Khan, were the second to be held in Pakistan. The first elections were held by Ayub Khan in 1964, 17 years after Pakistan was born. The 1970 elections were undoubtedly fair, but did not lead to the restoration of democracy, rather to the break-up of the country and the emergence of Bangladesh.
Was this grievous outcome due to some miscalculation? Or was it part of a design? It is for the people to judge. Here, the general elections are being presented in its context and the sequel.
The Ayub constitution stipulated that power was to be handed over to the speaker of the National Assembly, if the President was incapacitated. But Gen Ayub handed over power to Gen Yahya Khan, one may presume, on his insistence.
The Pakistan Gen Yahya inherited was insurgent. Students, workers, peasants, nationalities, middle classes, indeed, the entire civil society was up in arms. They wanted Gen Ayub to go and democracy to be restored. Yahya replaced the hated Ayub Shahi and went on to take measures to pacify the masses, of course, all the time giving the impression that democracy would be restored. Insurgency was all over the country, but its intensity in the then East Pakistan was much more than in the Western wing. Citizens had raided the court where Sheikh Mujib was being tried for the Agartala conspiracy. The trying judges had to escape for their lives, and Mujib could neither be tried nor held. The difference in the level of insurgency in the two wings called for a differentiated approach.
Yahya Khan announced the dismantlement of the One Unit and the restoration of the provinces of West Pakistan, including the new province of Balochistan. They had been merged (with some arm- twisting) in the One Unit to present a common front to East Pakistan after the massive victory of the Jagtu Mohaz (United Front) in East Bengal in 1954. A formula of parity between the two wings had been evolved to enhance the bargaining position of West-Pakistani elites.
While dismantling One Unit, a long-standing demand of the concerned, the general was significantly mum about the six points of Sheikh Mujib for the Eastern wing. The points envisaged a confederal structure on the basis of the 1940 Lahore Resolution. As usual, the legal framework order was promulgated in which the CMLA had veto power over the assembly. The real power was to remain in the hands of the military. The army elite had developed the concept that elected governments may govern, but security and foreign policy were to remain in the domain of the GHQ, the security forces.
General elections were announced in Nov 1969 and held in Dec 1970. In the monsoon season, a massive cyclone flooded East Pakistan. Many voices were raised for postponing the elections, but the military government and Sheikh Mujib wanted the declared schedule to be maintained. In the elections, Awami League bagged 160 of 162 NA seats in East Pakistan. It got none in the Western wing. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s PPP won 81 of the 138 West Pakistan seats, all from Sindh and Punjab. The NAP and JUI shared the seats of NWFP and Balochistan.
The people of Pakistan polled for their respective provincial/national parties on the different regions of the country, the Awami League, PPP and NAP. The vote for Jinnah’s Pakistani nation was conspicuous by its absence. The convening of the National Assembly after the elections was postponed indefinitely. The pretext was provided by Z.A. Bhutto’s insistence that the six points should be debated first. Gen Yahya travelled to Dacca with Bhutto, Abdul Wali Khan, Mir Ghous Bux Bizenjo, Shah Ahmed Noorani, etc, in tow for talks with Mujib. The actual talks are shrouded in mystery. But Gen Yahya did tell the West Pakistani contingent of politicians that since they have witnessed that talks with Mujib had failed; they should not oppose the military crackdown when back home. Mujib, it seems, refused to surrender defence and foreign affairs to the GHQ.
Gen Ayub had preempted the first general elections scheduled for 1959 by imposing Martial Law in 1958. A Jagto Mahaz type of mass assertion was not acceptable. Ironically, Ayub Khan was toppled by the middle class created by his own decade of development. After the 1970 elections, the civil society of East Bengal could not be tamed, so they were shot out. In West Pakistan, the situation was not much different. But they could not be shot out for obvious reasons, and a different response was required.
After the Tashkant Declaration of 1966, a populist platform was forged. It attracted the masses by its slogan of roti, kapra aur makan. But its potential was neutralized by locating these slogans in anti-Indianism and the Kashmir issue. Bhutto, representing the military regime in the UN, had torn the Polish resolution and declared that Pakistan will fight with India for Kashmir for a thousand years. It was their populism that would keep the masses at bay until Martial rule reasserted itself in 1977.
Gen Zia’s regime was also fearful of the middle class. His information minister, Gen Mujibur Rahman, an expert (PhD) in psychological warfare, sparked up an ethnic middle-class organization and launched it on a collision course with Pashtoons, Punjabis and Sindhis. From being a threat, the said middle class became an asset to military regimes. Stranger still were the 2002 elections were no issues were debated. Candidates and mangled parties were there. Weak-ended mainstream parties were de-institutionalized. Unemployment, price hike, welfarism, division of resources are non-issues. The almost total apathy seems to be ominous. Is it the lull before the storm?
The elections of 1970 and its foul results begs a last question: Who dismembered Pakistan. Was it India with Soviet support? Was it Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman? His platform was the six points and not independence. Was it the Yahya regime? If so, how cutely patriotic are military regimes. The 1970 elections were fair with foul results. Let’s hope the 2002 elections do not open a Pandora’s box.
