Ides of March through the history of Pakistan

marwatone · #1 Thursday, March 13, 2008

by Wajahat Masood

“This is month of March and I ask you to March on.” That is how the founder of the nation addressed a group of his student followers in the fateful days before the partition of India and the subsequent emergence of Pakistan. Ominously, the month of March has continued to unravel events of cataclysmic dimension through out the 60 year history of this country and the commentators, analysts and media men have been drawing upon the Shakespearean metaphor of Ides of March ad finitum to encapsulate the enormity of such events.

Currently, Pakistan is undergoing an unusually sanguine phase of its collective psyche. The nation has just exercised its right to vote and for the first time has voted out a sitting government. The conduct of the general elections, at the ostensible end of a nine year autocratic rule by a military man, has been largely transparent and the election results, though pretty evenly divided among the major political forces, are deemed to reflect the public opinion in a more or less fair fashion. However, the developments since the election, some three weeks ago have not been completely devoid of inauspicious connotations. The president of the country, much given to test the acoustic patience of the nation on occasions of lesser import, has still to appear on the TV screens to inform the public about the contours of the emerging model of governance. While the president is not reported to have spoken to any of the leaders of the victorious political parties, he has held a number of meetings with the outgoing clique of politicians. As yet, there is no news regarding the convening of the session of the newly-elected national assembly. As the election results are being widely regarded as the defeat of the perennial and entrenched establishment, the ambiance in the corridors of power appears to be less than transparent. This is the month of March and the ides of March are here again. While one hopes that the national leadership succeeds in devising ways to ensure a smooth transfer of power, this may be the occasion to look over the shoulder and recapitulate some of the fateful events that have befallen this nation during the month of March over the years.

Objectives Resolution:

March 12, 1949

After carefully concealed discussions between Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan and a pro-government religious figure, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani in the cooler environs of the Muree hill station in February, the government placed a resolution before the constituent assembly as the blueprint of the future constitution of the country. The resolution was duly adopted amid the resolute though ungainly opposition of the members on the wrong side of the chairman. Ominously, while the resolution clearly laid down a religious character for the state, almost all the members of the assembly, opposing the resolution, happened to be non-Muslims. While the government hailed the Objectives Resolution, passed by the Constituent Assembly, the impartial observers had grave reservations. It is true that the document mentioned democracy and tolerance to be the guiding principles of future constitution making but the vague and unexplainable insertion of Islam as ‘Religion of State’ raised questions. How did it stand in relation to the ‘spiritual democracy’ Iqbal had envisaged for the Muslim homeland a year before his Allahabad Address, or the guidelines given to the Constituent Assembly by founder of the nation on Aug 11, 1947?

Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case:

March 08, 1951

Four years into the independent existence, the nation was bracing to go to polls in the province of Punjab for the first time. The ruling Muslim League was not only facing tough opposition from rival political parties, it was divided amongst itself as well. The prime minister was openly supporting Mian Mumtaz Daultana against Nawab Mamdot, whom Quaid-e-Azam had chosen to lead the provincial Muslim League. Two days before the provincial election, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan revealed a conspiracy, allegedly aimed at creating anarchy and destroying the solidarity of army. He demanded support from the people but stated that the details of the conspiracy could not be revealed due to national considerations.

Maj. Gen Akbar Khan & Brig. M A Lateef, accused, were summarily dismissed. The list of prisoners included Sajjad zaheer, secretary general of the Communist Party and Faiz Ahmad Faiz, editor Pakistan Times. The inquiries were carried out under special supervision of Gen. Ayub Khan and Defence Secretary Iskander Mirza who were to play the role of king-makers in the years ahead. The Muslim League won the election amid the frenzy created by the disclosure of the conspiracy. Mumtaz Daultana took oath as Chief Minister, Punjab, amid allegations of rigging. Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case was a clever use of the communist menace to garner political dividends.

Martial Law in Lahore:

March 6-14, 1953

Following large scale riots in the Anti-Ahmadiyya movement, launched by a conglomeration of religious parties, demanding that Ahmadiyya community be declared non-Muslim, martial law was imposed in Lahore on March 6. The official version of the eventuality was that the civil administration had failed to contain the anti-Ahmadi violence, instigated by certain religious leaders. This was the first time in the short history of the country that the military had been required to take over the administration of an entire city and the garrison continued to rule the roost in the city till March 14. As the camouflaged features of the conspiracy emerged, Chief Minister Daultana resigned on March 24. The Enquiry Commission, instituted to probe the events that led to the imposition of martial law, held the political leadership, the administration, the media and the religious leadership responsible for igniting the public sentiments for their parochial interests.

Elections in East Bengal

March 12, 1954

Polling for the first post-independence elections to the provincial assembly of East Bengal was held on March 12, 1954. There were a total of about 20 million voters, listed on the basis of adult franchise and separate electorates. 1,284 candidates appeared for the 309 seats of the assembly (228 Muslims, 9 Muslim women, 30 Caste Hindus, 1 Caste Hindu woman, 36 Scheduled Caste, 2 Scheduled Caste women, 1 Christian and 2 Buddhists). Polling in the Muslim constituencies was held on March 8, in the Muslim women’s constituencies (both ordinary and special) on March 9 and 10, while the non-Muslims voted on March 10 and 12. To cater an enthusiastic multitude of voters, there were 6,000 polling stations (and as many presiding officers) and about 20,000 polling booths (with a corresponding number of polling officers). A total of 1,50,000 ballot boxes and 1,82,05,878 ballot papers were distributed.

The Muslim League, which ruled the centre, had been given a tough competition by the United Front - a combination of several political parties who had agreed on a 21-Point Manifesto to replace the Muslim League government in the province, which had been getting increasingly unpopular since 1947 for economic and political reasons. As expected by the political commentators, the United front under the leadership of veteran leader Fazal ul Haq swept away the ruling Muslim League by pocketing as many as 301 seats out of a total 309 seats up for the grabs. The sitting Muslim League Chief Minister Nooral Amin was disdainfully defeated by a student leader.

First constitution promulgated:

March 23, 1956

After nine years of dithering and many upheavals, the country was finally able to boast of having a constitution on March 23, 1956. The Constitution renamed the country as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Legislature would consist of 310 seats (10 for women) equally divided between the two wings under the controversial principle of parity. Elections were promised to be held in February 1959, while the quota system for government jobs was allowed to continue for 10 years.

Pakistan stayed in the Commonwealth of Nations, but other norms of allegiance to the Queen of England came to an end as Pakistan declared itself a republic. It was an ill-fated constitution as no elections could ever be held under this document. Less than two years later, General Ayub Khan, head of the armed forces abrogated the constitution and set to rule the country by decree for the next 10 years.

Family Laws Ordinance:

March 2, 1961

In a queer twist of political expediency, what could have been a great leap forward in terms of institutional sanction for social transformation, turned out to be the Achilles’ heel for successive governments. General Ayub Khan promulgated Family Laws Ordinance on March 2, 1961. The law, sanctioning women’s rights, was based on the Rasheed Commission Report, shelved due to religious resistance in 1955. Salient features of the ordinance included restrictions on polygamy, wife’s authority to divorce and provisions about inheritance. In due course of time, the law would become a tool in the hands of the retrogressive clergy to flog successive government on the pretext of Family Laws Ordinance being allegedly un-Islamic.

Ayub’s Constitution:

March 1, 1962

The nation had a new constitution in March 1962, its second in less than six years. Three men emerged as the protagonists in this unprecedented exercise in constitution making - Law Minister, Manzur Qadir who single-handedly drafted the constitution; Ayub Khan who became a modern-day law-giver by declaring, I, Ayub Khan… confer this constitution upon the nation and inimitable Habib Jalib who became a celebrity overnight by defiantly announcing, Mien Nahi Maanta… I do not accept this constitution.

The new Constitution ensured Presidential System with basic democracy and non-party politics. The country was named the Republic of Pakistan. Fundamental rights are listed but the courts were denied jurisdiction over them. The ill-fated constitution continued to govern the lives of 100 million Pakistanis for eight years, till it was abrogated by another military general named Yahya Khan in 1969.

Ayub resigns

March 25, 1969

Field Marshal Ayub Khan met political leaders at Round Table Conference on March 10-12, 1969. The agreements included Ayub’s removal from next presidential elections, restoration of federal parliamentary system, regional autonomy, adult franchise and the retention of parity between East and West. Bhutto and Bhashani stayed out out of the parleys, demanding immediate resignation from Ayub.

On March 24, President Ayub wrote to Gen. Yahya Kahan, stating his decision to step down and abrogate the Constitution, according to which power had to be handed down to the Speaker of the National Assembly. Rumour had it that Yahya Khan forced Ayub Khan to transfer power. On

March 25. Ayub Khan addressed the nation today for the last time, to announce his abdication. His statement, “I cannot preside over the destruction of my country”, continued to resonate during the stormy years ahead when the country actually went through a painful disintegration.

On March 26, martial law was once again imposed as General Yahya Khan assumed the mantle of the supreme command of the armed forces as well as the rest of the country. The constitution was suspended, political activities (but not political parties) were banned, the national and provincial assemblies were dissolved, along with the central and provincial cabinets. In his address to the nation, Yahya claimed that he had no political ambitions.

Legal Framework Order

March 28, 1970

Martial Law regime, under the command of General Yahya Khan , issued the Legal Framework Order, outlining election procedures as well as considerations for future government and constitution. The country’s name Islamic Republic of Pakistan was restored while One-Unit was to be dissolved from July 1 to restore five provinces. The National Assembly would consist of 319 seats: 169 from East wing, 144 from West Pakistan and 13 reserved seats for women.

Military action in East Pakistan

March 25, 1971

Following a stalemate in the political negotiation over the transfer of power, Yahya Khan announced on March 1, 1971 the postponement of the national assembly session to ‘a later date’. Leader of the majority party in the national assembly, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared six-day strike from March 3, to protest against postponement of national assembly session. On March 3, a week-long strike commenced in East Pakistan in response to Mujib’s call issued two days earlier. On the first day of the strike, two men were killed as several unarmed young men at Farm Gate were fired upon. On March 6, an estimated one million Bengalis flocked at Race Course Maidan to listen to Mujib on the President’s new announcement. “There is still time for us to live like brothers if things are settled peacefully. No one can stop us from realising our rights when we are prepared to lay down our lives.” He thundered.

From Mar 15 to 24, Yahya Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Sheikh Mujib held talks at Dacca without much success. Mujib demanded transfer of power as a pre-requisite to attend the assembly session. On March 25, the Pakistan Army launched an offensive against Bengalis, beginning with the late night killing of students at the Dacca University campus. The US Consul-General Arthur Blood cabled Washington to report “mass killing of unarmed civilians, the systematic elimination of the intelligentsia, and the annihilation of the Hindu population.” The foreign press reported the beginning of genocide, involving the rape and slaughter of innocent civilians, while the Pakistan government claimed it was fighting against the militant Mukti Bahini separatists, who had committed atrocities against non-Bengalis. This was the beginning of the end of Jinnah’s Pakistan. The denouement of the high-octane drama came nine months later at Paltan Ground, Dhakka where Pakistani Commander of the Eastern theatre, Lt. General A A K Niazi surrendered to the Indian army.

The Promised Land

March 1, 1972

On March 1, 1972, President Bhutto announced land reforms, a major plank of his election campaign. Maximum land-holding for a single person was delimited to 150 acres irrigated or 300 acres non-irrigated while maximum produce index units permitted were 12,000 with permission to additional units for tractor and tube well. One million acres were resumed by the government to be distributed among landless peasants. However, the produce index unit was defined the way it had been 20 years ago in 1952. Further, the land-holding was again defined for the individual and not the family, leaving the option of huge miscarriage of reform. Those familiar with Bhutto’s politics, assumed that the largely cosmetic land reforms were a prelude to something bigger and altogether different. And it did not take long before Bhutto delivered a more decisive hand while the nation revelled in the euphoria of land reforms.

On March 3, President Bhutto announced the decision to replace Lieutenant General Gul Hasan with Lieutenant General Tikka Khan and Air Marshal Rahim Khan with Air Marshal Zafar Chaudhary. The post of Commander in Chief (C-in-C) was abolished with each wing of the Armed Forces to be headed by a Chief of Staff. It was a major shuffle and widely believed to be an attempt by the civilian government to establish its supremacy over the powerful military. In the same vein, government dismissed around 2,000 government servants as part of Bhutto’s campaign to “root out corruption in the same month.

Liaquat Bagh Firing:

March 23, 1973

On March 14, 1973, the opposition partied announced to form United Democratic Front (UDF) as a combined opposition platform to resist the autocratic ways of Bhutto government. With Pir Saheb Pagara as its head, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan and Mufti Mahmood were designated as the vice presidents and Professor Ghafoor Ahmed was appointed the general secretary of the Front.

On March 23, UDF held its first public rally at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi which was disrupted with firing by anonymous persons. The indiscriminate firing left nine dead and 75 injured. The leadership of the UDF blamed PPP workers for the firing. Next day, UDF boycotted the national assembly session in protest against the Liaquat Bagh shooting. The government responded by banning all political activities in Punjab until the new constitution was adopted by the national assembly. This was the beginning of outright opposition to Bhutto regime after the relative calm in the years immediately after the Dhakka debacle.

Hitting the road again:

March 1977

On January 7, 1977, the government announced that the General Elections would be held for national assembly on March 7 and for provincial assemblies on March 10. The Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) took up Nizam-e-Mustafa as its election slogan. Their manifesto promised to enforce Islamic law, the Shariah, and to put an end to absentee landlordism, among other things. The movement was an eclectic combination of nine political and religious parties and was committed to a number of contradictory causes, such as Asghar Khan’s secularism versus Maulana Maududi’s hardline Islamism. Even though religion has been a political commodity for some time, this was the first occasion in the country’s history that Islam had become the launching pad for a mass political movement. The PNA seemed to have successfully roused a considerable section of society in the name of bringing back the social justice of the early days of Islam. However, the ulterior motives of its leaders raised doubts.

No candidates filed papers against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and several other PPP members from Sindh, including Jatoi, Mumtaz Bhutto and Hafeez Pirzada. The PNA insisted that potential rivals in these constituencies had been either forced to withdraw or detained by the police until the deadline for filing papers had passed. On March 7, the PPP claimed 155 of the 200 seats in the National Assembly. The PNA alleged massive rigging and called for fresh elections. It also demanded the removal of both the chief election commissioner and Bhutto, urging people to boycott provincial assembly elections scheduled for March 10. The empty polling booths on March 10 greatly enhanced the confidence of the opposition and the countrywide strike on

March 11, marked the beginning of a violent mass movement aimed at nothing less than toppling the PPP regime. Throughout the country, public life ground to a halt, while some cities saw charged political rallies, ending in skirmishes between the supporters of the PPP and the PNA.

By the end of March, thousands of PNA supporters had been arrested along with entire spectrum of opposition leadership and the country appeared to be slipping towards a deeper turmoil that culminated in the imposition of martial law on July 5.

Bhutto sentenced to death

March 18, 1978

The Lahore High Court concluded the hearing of Kasuri murder case and reserved its judgement on March 2, 1978. On March 18, the court sentenced Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and other defendants in the Kasuri murder case to death, under section 120-b and 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The judgement has been drafted by Justice Aftab Hussain.

Bhutto’s appeal dismissed

March 24, 1979

On March 24, 1979, The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals filed by former premier Z A Bhutto and the co-accused. While the whole country held its breath, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged on April 4. His body was taken to his ancestral village, Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, Larkana and buried under strict army supervision.

PIA plane hijacked

March 2, 1981

In February 1981, the opposition parties formed Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) and demanded withdrawal of martial law and immediate elections. As the movement began to elicit support of lawyers and journalists, a PIA plane was hijacked under dubious circumstances and taken to Kabul on March 2. Pakistan International’s flight PK-326 was on its routine domestic hop from Karachi to Peshawar when three heavily armed men seized the plane and demanded the release of 92 political prisoners from the Pakistani jails. On March 7, twenty nine hostages including women, children and sick men were released in Kabul. When Pakistan government refused to give in, the hijackers shot a Pakistani diplomat, Tariq Rahim.

The Zia regime accused Murtaza Bhutto and the Al-Zulfikar Organisation (AZO) of engineering the plot. The government also accused the MRD of involvement in the conspiracy. While thousands of opposition political activists were rounded up across the country, General Zia promulgated Provisional Constitutional Order and subordinated the judiciary to martial law. Justice Dorab Patel, widely expected to become Chief Justice of Pakistan, refuses to comply and resigned in protest.

Waziristan operation launched

March 2004

After months of dithering while the storm gathered steam, gunship helicopters finaly appeared over the small town of Wana in Waziristan for the military operation against al Qaeda and Taliban elements.

The 12-day long battle was concentrated in about a 50-square kilometre area near Wana. Officials said that some 400-500 foreign terrorists were engaged in the fighting. Local tribal sources added that here were some 2,000-2,500 al Qaeda local tribesmen, trained and recruited by the foreign militants. Pakistan army was reported to have lost as many as 700 soldiers in the month of March.

Chief Justice dismissed

March 9, 2007

Fearful of the court’s verdict against his candidacy for the next presidential tenure, President Musharraf decided to strike first against the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry on March 9, 2007. The move, while well planned, backfired. The Chief Justice accused of wrong-doing, refused to budge and had to be placed under house arrest. Within days, the lawyer community and civil society rose against the brash move. In an unprecedented show of solidarity, common people stood with the Chief Justice who had dared defy a regime, bent upon bulldozing the state institutions.

The crisis which triggered off at Army Camp Office Rawalpindi on March 9, 2007, was far from over, as the next year, 2008, entered the month of March. The ides of March are here and as the seer told Caesar, they have not passed yet.

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