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Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Pakistan 1967-1977

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Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Pakistan 1967-1977 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Pakistan 1967-1977 Reproduced by Sani H. Panhwar Member Sindh Council, PPP ZULFIKAR ALI BHUTTO AND PAKISTAN 1967-1977 RAFI RAZA 1997 Reproduced in PDF Format by Sani H. Panhwar Member Sindh Council, PPP CONTENTS page Author's Note i Abbreviations ii Introduction iii 1. Origin and Growth of the PPP: 1967-9 1 2. 1970 General Elections 18 3. Post-Elections to Military Action 31 4. Civil War to Transfer of Power 66 5. Civilian Martial Law 104 6. Constitution-Making and the 1973 Constitution 120 7. Foreign Affairs 139 8. Domestic Affairs 187 9. Fateful 1977 General Elections 228 10. With Hindsight 272 Appendix A 278 Appendix B 281 AUTHOR'S NOTE I am grateful to numerous friends, particularly Mubashir Hasan, Mumtaz Ali Bhutto and Sardar Sherbaz Mazari, for encouraging me to publish this narrative. They have generously given their time and counsel, while providing me with additional insight on some important issues. I must also thank my wife for her help in editing the manuscript, and for her unfailing support over many years. My one regret is that my father is not alive to read this book; he encouraged me throughout my life in all my endeavours—though strongly advising me against politics. I would like to draw the attention of the reader to the Notes to each Chapter. In several cases important and revealing facts have been confined to the Notes to ensure an uninterrupted flow in the narrative. I should also point out that the spellings of places and names are as officially in use today. Thus, it is Dhaka and not Dacca, Sindh rather than Sind, and similarly with Balochistan, Beijing, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. They have been changed accordingly even in quoted passages. 24 October 1995 Karachi i ABBREVIATIONS BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BD Basic Democracy BPC Basic Principles Committee CEC Chief Election Commissioner CENTO Central Treaty Organization CML Council Muslim League CMLA Chief Martial Law Administrator DAC Democratic Action Committee DG, ISI Director General, Inter Services Intelligence DIB Director, Intelligence Bureau FSF Federal Security Force GHQ General Headquarters (of the army) GOP Government of Pakistan IAF Indian Air Force IMF International Monetary Fund JI Jamaat-i-Islami JUI Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam JUP Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan LFO Legal Framework Order ML(Q) Muslim League (Qayyum) MNA Member of the National Assembly MPA Member of the Provincial Assembly NAM Non-Aligned Movement NAP National Awami Party NWFP North-West Frontier Province OIC Organization of the Islamic Conference PAF Pakistan Air Force PLD Pakistan Legal Decisions PLO Palestine Liberation Organization PNA Pakistan National Alliance PPP Pakistan People's Party RCD Regional Cooperation for Development RTC Round Table Conference SEATO South-East Asia Treaty Organization UAE United Arab Emirates UDF United Democratic Front UN United Nations VOA Voice of America ZAB Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ii INTRODUCTION The Quaid-i-Azam1 broke a country to wear three hats—that of Governor-General, President of the Muslim League and President of the first Constituent Assembly—so Time magazine wrote in 1947; I wonder what Time will say about me now that I have four hats—President of Pakistan, Chief Martial Law Administrator, Chairman of the PPP and President of the Constituent Assembly. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto told me this half- jokingly in his chamber in the National Assembly after his election as President of the Assembly on 14 April 1972. This narrative sets out how ZAB2 came to wear those four hats after founding the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in December 1967, and traces his Government from December 1971 till his downfall in July 1977, all within a period of ten years. This is not a biography, already undertaken by his childhood friend and admirer from Bombay, Piloo Mody, and an American academic, Stanley Wolpert. They and others have touched on the complexities and formative elements of his earlier life. He was born on 5 January 1928 to a Sindhi feudal and a Hindu lady of humble origin at a time when Hindu-Muslim differences were coming to the political fore. In contrast with his feudal background in rural Sindh, his boyhood was spent in Bombay where he experienced a cosmopolitan, urban life with his father, Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto, a senior official in British India. Higher education in California and at Oxford exposed him to further Westernizing influences. Another formative element was his involvement in politics on returning to Pakistan, when the dominance of the military under Ayub Khan convinced him of their inescapable role. In October 1958, at the age of thirty, he was selected as a Federal Minister under Martial Law, subsequently serving for eight years under President Ayub Khan, finally as Foreign Minister. I do not intend to examine these aspects of his life further unless they bear specifically on events and decisions covered in this narrative. I have also avoided comment on his private life; this would be unbecoming in one who worked closely with him. The ten-year period from 1967 to 1977 is of sufficient significance to merit undiluted attention from a political perspective. It witnessed the creation of the first political party 1 Quaid-i-Azam means 'Great Leader', by which appellation the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, is generally addressed. 2 After Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became Chairman of the Pakistan People's Party, and then President and Prime Minister of Pakistan, he was not called 'Zulfi'; even his wife, Nusrat, referred to him formally. In this narrative, he is designated either by his title as Chairman, President or Prime Minister, or by the term 'ZAB', which came to be adopted by his colleagues iii with mass support in West Pakistan since 1947, the first ever general election based on adult franchise in Pakistan in 1970, civil war and the dismemberment of the country in 1971; the first democratically elected Government and its overthrow by Martial Law. These years are illumined largely through the writings, words and actions of ZAB. Every event and aspect cannot be covered and there is an unavoidable element of selectivity; but nothing significant has been omitted. If frequent references are made to my role, this is both inevitable and justifiable. I participated in much that happened over those ten years. I kept copious notes, and have looked back countless times over a period which was important not only in the life of Pakistan but my own. I have in the past hesitated to write because ZAB is now dead. His name lives on, but he cannot speak for himself. Any criticism could be misunderstood and attributed to poor taste on the part of a former colleague and lieutenant. I remain grateful for the opportunity he gave me to serve my country. On the other hand, merely writing a paean of praise would be a pointless exercise. To maintain a proper balance is difficult; nearer the event of his tragic execution it would have been almost impossible. Many friends and colleagues from those days, and even some members of the Opposition, have urged me to publish an account of that critical decade. I owed it, they said, to Pakistan and to history, since no one had as yet written an accurate account of what happened, and certainly not from the PPP point of view. Indeed, a major tragedy in Pakistan is that the truth is neither told nor written. As a result, we have learnt little or nothing about ourselves. Over the years, so many falsehoods and canards have been spread about ZAB that it is difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. He ceased to be a man and became a myth and martyr to those who believed in him, and evil incarnate to those who opposed him. The greatest casualty has been the truth, particularly as all efforts to destroy the man's image gave greater impetus to the myth. I have thus taken care to substantiate everything that is said. Only my account of personal conversations must stand on their own. Inevitably, however, in narrating events and developments I have been constrained by considerations of national interest and security. iv CHAPTER 1 ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE PPP: 1967-9 Conceiving the PPP 'Welcome back,' we greeted Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at Karachi airport on his return from Europe in October 1966 as President Ayub Khan's former Foreign Minister. His cousin Mumtaz Ali Bhutto1 and I were the only two present to meet him—far outnumbered by the police who, like ZAB, had expected a large gathering. This was ZAB's period in the wilderness. Many felt his political career was finished and that opposition to a well-entrenched Ayub Khan was futile. Mumtaz, however, gave emotional support: 'Don't worry. We will form a party of our own; you can register me as the first member.' A year before, ZAB had been at the height of his career as Foreign Minister and virtual Prime Minister under Ayub Khan. His path to prominence had been easy as the well- educated son of a wealthy land-owning family with a political background and good connections. He went to the University of California (1947-50), then Christ Church, Oxford (1950-2), before being called to the Bar in England. His father, Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto, nurtured this ambitious son on politics; letters to him in student days conveyed the political scene in Pakistan rather than family news and normal parental advice.2 His first official assignment was as chairman of the Pakistan delegation to the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Seas in April 1958. In appreciation, he wrote to President Iskander Mirza from Geneva: 'For the greater good of my own country, I feel that your services to Pakistan are indispensible.
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