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As the release of POWs issue remained at the top of Pakistan’s policy, Z. A. Bhutto faced some thorny issues like provincial governments and sailing smoothly with Wali Khan’s National Awami Party (NAP), Mufti Mahmood’s Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of Khan Qayyum and Mumtaz Daultana, besides forming an interim constitution. In March 1972, Mian Mahmood Ali Kasuri, the Law and Parliamentary Minister, was asked to undertake the task of forming the interim constitution. Kasuri was a noted lawyer and very liberal man who often argued with Bhutto over the democratic process and sometimes differed with him.
Bhutto’s PPP had majority in two provinces (119 members in Punjab Assembly’s 186-member house and 36 seats in Sindh Assembly’s 62-member house). But in Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa (then NWFP), and Balochistan Wali Khan and Mufti Mahmood’s parties were in the position of forming governments. The PPP discussed with the two leaders in detail and finally a Tripartite Agreement was reached among the three parties on March 6, 1972. The 10-clause agreement set the agenda for Bhutto and a ground for forming a constitution for the country. It read:
(i) The National Assembly would be convened on April 14 for a limited purpose lasting for three days. (ii) The governance of the country would be carried out on the basis of an interim constitution while a committee of the National Assembly would draft a permanent one. (iii) Martial law would be lifted with effect from August 14, the day when the National Assembly would be convened to consider the draft constitution.
(iv) The limited purpose session of the National Assembly to be held on April 14, would have three items on the agenda: a) to vote on a motion of confidence in President Bhutto’s government, b) to vote on a proposal that the interim constitution be passed on the basis of the Government of India Act, 1935, and the Indian Independence Act, 1947, “with consequential amendments”, and c) to vote on a proposal that martial law would continue till August 14.
(v) Those elected as members of more than one assembly would be permitted to retain their seats in both the houses till the constitution was finally adopted. (vi) The President, the Vice-President, governors, ministers and advisers, both at the Centre and in the provinces, would remain members of the assemblies to which they were elected. (vii) Until the permanent constitution was framed by the National Assembly, the Central government would continue to have the right to appoint governors in the provinces. As a compromise, however, the Centre would appoint governors in consultation with the majority party in the two provinces of NWFP and Balochistan.
(viii) The governments at the centre and provinces would be formed on the basis of parliamentary majorities. The three parties settled for PPP rule at the Centre, in Punjab and Sindh, and NAP-JUI rule in the NWFP and Balochistan. (ix) These state assemblies would be convened on April 21, a week after the meeting of the National Assembly. (x) The constitution drafting committee would present its report on August 1, and the National Assembly wouldreconvened on August 14, the day on which martial law would be lifted.
On the face of it, the agreement ensured creation of harmony in the matters of running all the five governments but some steps taken by Bhutto created misunderstandings in the minds of JUI and NAP leadership. Both the parties were better off with getting power to run the affairs of the two provinces. But inordinate delay in the appointment of two governors created disagreement, as they were to be appointed in consultation with the majority party in the provinces.
On April 29, 1972, Bhutto appointed Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, a NAP member and a diehard Baloch leader who had been tried for treason in the famous Hyderabad case, as Governor of Balochistan and Arbab Sikandar Khan Khalil, a NAP leader as Governor of Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa. JUI chief Mufti Mahmood formed a coalition government in Khyber-Pukhtankhwa while Attaullah Khan Mengal, the noted NAP leader, became the head of the coalition government in Balochistan.
As JUI and NAP leadership raised a voice for the violation of the Tripartite Agreement, Bhutto changed his strategy to go without the support of these parties — a very difficult proposition at a time when Bhutto needed the support of all the parties to overcome the problems the country faced. In fact, he wanted to break the PPP-JUI-NAP axis and replace the JUI-NAP governments with PPP governments.
