We require the Hamoodur Rehman kind of report to know the names of the persons who engineered the One Unit, the united front of West Pakistani politicians against East Pakistan

THE Second World War, though won by the allied forces, left many participating countries, including Great Britain, economically drained and shattered. It gradually became impossible for Great Britain to maintain a hold on far-flung countries and territories under their domain. They commenced withdrawing from the countries that appeared politically and economically unmanageable to them.

The British decided to grant independence to India and depart honourably. But before India could be granted independence, the most vociferous minority in India, the Muslims, made their existence felt. Under the leadership of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Muslims of India made it clear to the British that they just couldn’t leave without settling the dispute between the Muslims and Hindus of India.

Ignoring the resistance from the Hindus and their leaders, the British partitioned India. As advised by the Muslim leaders, the British identified Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan as Muslim majority provinces of India. The Punjab and Bengal provinces had almost 50 per cent Hindu and 50pc Muslim population. The provinces of Punjab and Bengal were halved between India and Pakistan. Thus, Pakistan came into being in such a puzzling formation that its Eastern wing called East Pakistan, consisting half of the Indian Bengal, was situated 2,000 miles away from the Western wing called West Pakistan and consisting of Sindh, Balochistan, NWFP and half of the Indian Punjab.

The complexities of the constituent parts of Pakistan left its founding leaders agape soon after its formation. East Pakistan outweighed cumulative population of four provinces of West Pakistan. It came to the fore when the Constituent Assembly was evolved. The Constituent Assembly became the first Federal Legislature set up in accordance with the British Government’s plan of June 3, 1947, which finally implemented partitioning of India and setting up of two independent dominions. The distribution of seats among the different units of the Federation was:
 

East Pakistan	44
Punjab	22
Sindh	05
NWFP	03
Balochistan	01
Balochistan States	01
Bahawalpur	01
Khairpur	01
NWFP States	01
Total	79

Religion is not the only factor that keeps people together. Social, cultural and economic background of the people can’t be ignored or set-aside while evolving a viable, conducive and harmonious political atmosphere in a country. Social, cultural, and economic disharmony between the members from East Pakistan and those from West Pakistan in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan soon surfaced in the corridors of power. The members from East Pakistan were drawn from lower and the lower-middle class. They were enlightened and educated. Whereas, most of the members from West Pakistan came from the aristocratic background. Invariably, they were rich jagirdars and landlords, the entrepreneurs of the fabulous agricultural wealth in the country.

The natural dominance of the members from East Pakistan in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was not acceptable to the West Pakistani members. From 1947 to 1956, the West Pakistan members connived with the bureaucracy and the establishment to undermine the dominance of Bengalis in the Constituent Assembly. East Pakistanis were angered when Urdu was declared the national language, and Bengali the language of the majority was relegated. Bengali writers, poets, teachers, professors, intellectuals, and artists took to the streets in protest. It was followed by one of the most lamentable episodes in the history of Pakistan. The agitating Bengali intelligentsia was subjected to brutal State onslaught in which countless students, teachers, writers and scholars died. The savage action yielded nothing for the State except ignominy. The Bengalis won back the legitimate status for Bengali language with their blood. Bengali, together with Urdu, became the national languages of Pakistan.

There is a long list of atrocious events that infuriated the Bengalis. But the most heinous and the unpardonable ploy was the merger of the four provinces, Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and the NWFP into One Unit in 1956. In fact, it was devised as the united front of West Pakistani jagirdars and zamindars to subdue Bengalis in the Constituent Assembly. It was foolishly contrived by short-sighted politicians with evil assistance of the establishment, without realizing what kind of repercussions it would have on Pakistan in future.

The people of East Pakistan and Sindh revolted against the One Unit. The scholars of Sindh rejected the word ‘former province’ prefixed to Sindh by the government. As a counter reaction, Sindh echoed with the much debated slogan of “Jiye Sindh” (long live Sindh), conveying to the authorities that Sindh was alive and that it wasn’t ‘former’ or ‘sabiq’. Later on, people’s revolt against One Unit was joined by Balochistan and NWFP. When intellectuals, writers and scholars of Punjab joined the revolt, the survival of One Unit appeared improbable.

When One Unit was on the verge of being dissolved, General Ayub Khan, Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army, in a surprise move, took over the country from the civilians and imposed martial law in Pakistan. Many observers opined it was the armed forces’ intervention to save the One Unit from dissolution. If it is true, one wonders what interest the army had in safeguarding the One Unit, the stumbling block in patching up differences with East Pakistan!

After twelve years, in 1971, it was the army that had to engage itself in an embarrassing civil war in East Pakistan. Analysts wonder till today why the army took the risk of protecting the One Unit, purely a political blunder of the wealthy politicians of West Pakistan. From day one the notorious One Unit was created, it was generally thought of that it would dismember Pakistan someday. And it did. We require the Hamoodur Rehman kind of report to know the names of the persons who engineered the One Unit, the united front of West Pakistani politicians against East Pakistan.