The trivial politics of the country sometimes pushed Z.A. Bhutto into a difficult position but he was a shrewd politician who had the will to deal with all kinds of situations. He had planned to replace the governments in the two provinces bordering Afghanistan with his party’s and he began working on it.
To achieve this objective, he first recruited Khan Abdul Qayyum of the Muslim League. This was an intelligent move because Khan Qayyum, the veteran PML leader was an arch rival of Bhutto during the 1970 elections. A barrister by profession, he had served as a member of the Indian National Congress in the pre-independence era. When the freedom movement attained momentum he joined the Muslim League and enjoyed various party positions. At the time of Ayub Khan’s coup in 1958, Qayyum was the chief of PML; he was arrested and disqualified by Ayub Khan for six years under the Elective Bodies Disqualification Order, 1959.
During the 1970 electioneering he used indecent language against Bhutto in his public speeches to which Bhutto and PPP leaders riposted in equal terms. Even during the East Pakistan fiasco, both continued to exchange hot words. When Bhutto finally settled in as president and decided to dislodge the JUI-NAP governments in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, he thought of Qayyum who had a clear record of political animosity against Wali Khan’s family. Bhutto believed that politics had no hard lines and managed to mend fences with Khan Qayyum, pouring salt on Wali Khan’s wounds. Qayyum was appointed federal minister for home and frontier affairs. This was a calculated move which gave Khan Qayyum access to the confidential reports and activities of NAP workers and their future moves.
This position not only extended the political career of Khan Qayyum, who was otherwise a spent force, but also benefited Bhutto the most. He was aware of the nature and workability of Qayyum Khan; this defused Qayyum’s potential for creating a fuss among the government ranks and also neutralising his party’s role as the opposition party with the largest number of seats after PPP (nine members). Qayyum literally became the ‘B team’ of PPP and spokesman for President Bhutto.
At this stage Bhutto sent signals that some opposition parties had also decided to support the government in adopting the constitution and expressed confidence in the PPP government. This created a more convincing atmosphere for Bhutto’s government.
All these actions were aimed at getting the first session of the National Assembly to pass smoothly and adopt the agenda as set in the Tripartite Agreement, which the NAP and JUI had been claiming had been violated. Law Minister Mian Mahmood Ali Kasuri had begun work on the interim constitution and was approaching completion as the deadline of the NA session for April 14, 1972, was drawing close. Many leaders including the PPP stalwarts had doubts about the holding of the session.
On April 14, 1972, the NA session took place where Mian Kasuri presented a 112-page draft of the interim constitution containing seven schedules and 290 clauses. On Bhutto’s insistence the draft proposed that while in the centre presidential form of government will be followed, parliamentary system would be adhered to in the provinces. The draft did not mention the office of the prime minister nor his responsibilities. It was the president who was proposed to be the chief executive as well as head of the state. However, in the provinces the chief ministers were made the chief executives. As many proposals were presented, the ruling party put its foot down saying that the draft had no lacuna and if the necessity arose it could be adopted by a majority vote of 75 members, which Bhutto had.
Perhaps, a good suggestion was put forward that if the president commits an unconstitutional act he could be impeached. It was a good and democratic move but it carried quite a few anomalies which our social setup has bourne for centuries. Although there was no explanation supporting the two diverse systems, i.e. presidential form in the centre and parliamentary in the provinces, it was said that Bhutto wanted the centre to be under his control.
On April 17, 1972, the interim constitution was adopted. Bhutto announced that martial law would be lifted on August 14, 1972, which was a surprise move for the opposition. A new 25-member committee was formed to draft a permanent constitution, again headed by the law minister, Mahmood Ali Kasuri.
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