Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Bhutto takes over- Post BD

I visited Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi a few months after the Pakistan army had surrendered in Dhaka. A state of total gloom pervaded the atmosphere. Even the elite were on the edge, but worried more about their skin than for the people or the country or what was left of it. They were still in complete denial that the army aided and abetted by Bhutto had blundered in the most vicious, mindless and brutal manner. Bhutto in their eyes was the savior. They were not prepared to countenance the fact, obvious to the meanest intelligence, that the Quad (army-feudal-mullah-bureaucratic cabal) had confronted Bengali sub-nationalism and with their stupid moves had promoted it into national rebellion. They had pushed Bengalis over the edge with their genocidal violation of basic Human Rights, mass reprisals, loot and rapine. All but the morally decrepit, the fanatics and the fifth columnists were left with little choice but to subscribe to and support the secessionist movement. Bengalis never wanted to destroy Pakistan. Among the Muslim majority provinces, Bengal was the only one to have given unstinted support to partition. All they asked for was that the majority party be allowed to form a government, which they hoped would be more egalitarian and give Muslim Bengal its due.
I had traveled from Karachi to Lahore on a railway train. It was a twenty-four hour-long journey. People tended to talk in under tones, even whisper. I cannot recall any one laughing loudly. The scene was that of a massive wake. I have seen more cheerful funeral processions. At railway stations radios blared patriotic songs by melody queen Noor Jehan who had forsaken the delights of Yahya’s lap to energize the nation. No body paid any heed to the still enchanting voice. Vendors, passengers, functionaries all seemed to sleep walk. No body fought over seats in the train. Even coolies did not haggle for wages. Children were quiet. It seemed to me that the babies cried, like adults do, in a restrained manner. Even the train whistle was subdued. I tried to engage people into a discussion of the calamity. I told them that it was not the end of the world. The POW’s will come back. BD was a Muslim country. Residual Pakistan was rich in resources. Many much smaller and poorer countries survived and made progress. Pakistanis were talented, hard working and honest. The country will recover. India will not escape retribution. People would only nod in response. They were resigned. They took refuge in the refrain “Allah knows best”.
Mujib had contested elections on a platform which did stretch the concept of provincial autonomy to that of con-federation. He dare not give a call for independence and there is not a shred of evidence that he wanted to. He had not dared to hint at secession even when his minions had taken over administration, security and judicial services of East Pakistan after Yahya had postponed the national assembly session scheduled for March 3,1971. The military can be forgiven for not having enough political sense to disallow Mujib to contest on his six points. They would, if fully implemented, reduce the federal government to an impotent body, which would have to go with a beggars bowl to the constituent units for funds to run the Foreign Service or pay the soldiers. A voter in the hinterland of the province would not be able to see through or analyze the implications of Awami League platform. Only the extremist religious parties opposed. Mujib. But they appealed in the name of Islamic solidarity. People were sick and tired of being taken in by devotional slogans. Bhashani was busy with flood relief work. The field was left to the Awami League.
Yahya had been advised to submit the six points to a referendum in Bengal. Mujib had groveled, swearing allegiance to one Pakistan. He had pointed to the photograph of his mentor, H.S.Suhrawardy, and claimed that he would give his life for his leader’s legacy. Yahya had been taken in. He had no political in sight. He had little common sense even during his lucid intervals, when he was not quite inebriated. Bhutto knew all that. He was supposed to be a master political mind. Why did he not exhort his cronies in the GHQ to push for a referendum?
But Bhutto hands in glove with the more extremist members of the ruling junta. He, along with the representatives of the “martial race” subscribed to the view that in the final analysis emaciated Bengalis could be cowed down with guns. If he had even a rudimentary sense and perception of history, he would have known that Bengal continued to rebel long after the rest of the country had started begging for crumbs from the imperial table. The martial race had been supporting the ambitions of the raj the world over for long before independence movement.
Bhashani was the only politician in Muslim Bengal with a mass following besides Mujib. Awami league gangsters dare not molest his political meetings. He decided to boycott elections on the very valid reasons that national effort should be focused on helping the wretched affected by the gigantic cyclone rather than be dissipated on counting votes. Why did Bhutto not endorse the call to postpone the elections?
All these questions have but one answer. Bhutto was more concerned with the number of seats his party will win in the west than with the fate of the common man or that of the country. He knew that he had no following in East Pakistan. His core support was in the Punjab. (Sindhis fell in line only after his good showing in the Punjab). He knew that under no conceivable arrangement would he able to get the top spot in the federal government. In fact he had openly declared that he was not prepared to sit in opposition benches indefinitely, or even take a subordinate position to Mujib. He had made no secret of his desire to rule West Pakistan, leaving the east to the latter. He sabotaged the negotiations deliberately, and with full knowledge of consequences of failure. He endorsed and encouraged the military brutality. If the blame for the tragic breakup of Pakistan can be laid at any door, it is at Bhutto’s. And tragedy it was-hundreds of thousands were killed, as many if nor more women raped, millions rendered homeless, and infra structure of East Pakistan was destroyed. If the Islamic punishment for the rapist and those abetting the act-stoning to death- had been applied, Pakistan army would cease to exist. West Pakistan did not escape unscathed. Its economy was shattered and its morale shredded.
. The Quad had been allowed to launch the criminal and sustained campaign to terrorize Bengali Muslims into submission. They had hedged their bets nearly to the very end. They thought that by prolonging the war and extending it the western wing they would be able to force international intervention. I have been told recently that if Tikka had not been recalled, he would have held Dhaka till a ceasefire was forced on India. There would have been no surrender. They refuse to believe that had Tikka stayed on no power on earth could have prevented his lynching at the hands of Bengalis.
Many prisoners of war realized, too late to do any good that they had been lied to in the worst way and led into believing that the men they had mowed down in mosques were infidels. As noted earlier soldiers and officers, in their scores of thousands lost their mind.
I was in Lahore on the day Bhutto addressed a public meeting. He had carted the whole diplomatic corps from Islamabad for the occasion. People sat glued to the TV screen. It was all televised for several hours. He had ridden a carriage pulled by eight white horses, relic of the raj, slowly through the streets of Lahore to the meeting ground. People did line the streets of the route. But hey were not up to the effort to greet him with full-throated “Zindabad”, long live slogans. His henchmen tried. All they could extract from the masses was a tepid, half-hearted clapping. Lahoris are normally cheerful, boisterous even loud. They are not called “Zinda Dillan-e-Lahore-roughly bubbling with enthusiasm-for nothing. They take to revelry like a duck to a pond. Their festivals celebrating the advent of spring, kite flying competitions, Bhangra dances, Kabbaddi -Indo/Pak version of American foot ball- restaurants, cinema houses, stage theater, parks, Shalimar and other gardens, boat rides on the languid Ravi river inviting clandestine rendezvous of lovers, Mazars (Shrines) visited by throngs not always with chaste motives, the famous red light area with song, dance and much else, would do proud to the most hedonistic, and exuberant pagan society. Bhutto had one incontestable talent. On the day an English crowd would compare favorably with them in boisterousness.
Bhutto had one incontestable talent. He could put up a show. His detractors had called him a “Madari”; a juggler. With not much pleasure in their lives, West Pakistanis had taken to him. He made a vehement speech interspersed with his antics. The only time the crowd responded lustily was when he swore an obscenity (B.C.). As though shocked by their temerity, they reverted to deathly quiet abruptly.
I next visited Rawalpindi, the seat of army GHQ. This city had the highest concentration of the relatives, friends and connections of POW’s held in India. They were all desperate for news of the loved ones. Perhaps worse affected were relatives of the civilian POW’s. Few received any news through Red Cross and other such agencies. Rumors were rife that civilians were not covered by Geneva conventions, and were being mal treated-given poor shelter, little food and less protection from marauding Hindu zealots. News of unsuccessful attempts at escape from prison camps and subsequent tortures of apprehended escapees unnerved, and demoralized the general populace. They openly castigated the senior army officers who had run away leaving their juniors to face the bloodthirsty Bengali freedom fighters. They were not privy to Bhutto’s infamous role in the debacle. Most never did.
The news that I was visiting from the UK spread soon and my host was swamped by requests to see me. They wanted my help in communicating with sons, husbands and brothers. They gave me letters to mail from London, requested me to call the Red Cross office, and get a petition going to the UNO, British, American, Russian and Indian governments. They knew that I was an ordinary citizen whom a senior official of the governments and international agencies would not deign to give the time of the day. They were clutching at straws. My host dropped broad hints as to my importance. He was delighted by the attention paid to his guest and was vicariously enjoying it. I could, however, not make myself give them false assurances. They would end up being let down with a thud. I simply told them that I would pass on the names, last known address, rank and relevant numbers if they were servicemen, to the Red Cross and send copies to the consulates. I could not carry a huge bundle of letters. If they would give me a single sheet with out envelopes I would mail them. Mine host, a senior GOP functionary, tried to get me to accept the load of letters and was peeved that I would not. He told me later that I could have discarded the bulk of letters with out any one being the wiser. Privately an honorable man, he could not shed his official work mode of giving patently false hope to people. Many of my interlocutors were annoyed too. I was not sufficiently compassionate and behaving in heartless fashion.
Army had appointed Bhutto as the foreign minister, and sent him to NY to defend Pakistan’s case in the UN Security council. He made grandiloquent, dramatic, and patently futile gestures. His grandstanding did not do any good to any one except himself. He was playing to the domestic audience; he tore up the draft resolution demanding immediate cease-fire. He was hailed in West Pakistan as a hero for magnificently taking on the whole world to save the country. Before returning to Pakistan he quietly called on Nixon his staff and the secretary of state and presumably obtained their clearance and blessings to supplant the army high command. Nothing would quite explain the arrogance with which he demanded and the ease with which the army high command complied with his demands. He was handed over total control of the Government. He styled himself Chief Martial Administer cum President of the country. He had driven into the President house in a plain car and driven out in a vehicle bedecked with national, presidential and CMLA flags. His excuse for assumption of the office of CMLA was that continuity had to be maintained, as though he had paid the least little heed to normal and lawful forms of governance before or was to henceforth. His party members displayed inordinate pride in the fact that he was the only civilian Martial Law administrator in the country’s history. If they had a single democratic fiber in their bodies, they would have tried to down play the appointment.
Indra had apparently decided to solve the Pakistan “problem” once and for all. She had held her hand when told that China would defend West Pakistan if attacked and the USA would not rush to her assistance as it did in 1961 when Chinese troops had walked across the border. She had been conducting a proxy war through “Mukti Bahini” the Bengali freedom force. She may not have been quite confident of the prowess of her forces. After all they had fled leaving their pants behind in face of the Chinese in 1961. The much smaller Pakistani army had fought them to a stalemate in 1965. In actual fact, if the Pakistanis had planned better, had been prepared for an all out war, and had blocked land access of India to Kashmir valley, they might have ended up with Kashmir in their control.
Indra had neutralized the threat of all out Chinese intervention by the disinterred and freshly signed thirty years treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union. Soviets had been wanting it and draft had been ready since 1969, but Indians had demurred. China could not take on Russia. Americans were not going to risk their life and limb for Pakistan, though it be the most allied ally. She or any other Indian leader would never get such an opportunity again. She was the standard bearer of the family for which undivided India was an article of faith. If she could not have her entire wish, she could at least demolish the breakaway state. Her father had scruples. He would not commit naked aggression. She was doubly “blessed” She had none. The example of Israel capturing territory and holding on to it must have crossed her mind. Pakistan army was thoroughly demoralized. She had 90,000 POWs in her grip. The country was led by a coterie of incompetent political Generals headed by an alcoholic. They were in no position to offer even a token resistance. If she had ordered her forces to cross the western border it would have been a walk over.
Nixon and Kissinger could not countenance complete annihilation of Pakistan. India would become too powerful. They needed a counter poise and exerted tremendous pressure on Indra to keep her from over running West Pakistan too. But why would she listen to them? She could have neutralized any overt threat from them by the simple expedient of offering Russians access to a warm water seaport. In any case, by the time the USA mobilized its forces, the game would be over. The vaunted seventh fleet which was steaming towards the erstwhile East Pakistan was so much tepid (not even hot) water. She did not have to hold on to the captured territory. It would have Balkanized on its own. NWFP would have become Pukhtoonistan. Baluchistan had been restive for long. Sindh would be happy to declare Sindhu Desh. Pakistani Punjab would be reduced to the status of a vassal state.
Explanations have varied from the possible, probable, fanciful, fantastic to absurd. Indra did not want to fall quite into the lap of the Soviets. She did not to be bothered with problems of a dismantled country. Americans had threatened to bomb Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. Her soldiers had refused to fight as they had seen headless Shaheeds on horseback. Some wags even maliciously made a charge that she hated Muslims so that she wanted them to keep on suffering under fascist dispensations. If she thought so, she was not off far the mark.
Bhutto had taken over a country universally despised for the genocide in East Pakistan. Its people were stunned. They had been bested by arch foe India. They were groaning under the twin burdens of low esteem and terrible guilt complex. He faced immense problems. India had captured large swathes of territory in the west too. 90,000 of his countrymen, soldiers, their kin and civil servants with their families were in India. The government of BD was demanding the surrender of the butcher of Bengal, now the army chief of Pakistan, plus scores of army men from among the POWs. Indra had not shown her hand. No body knew if she would have any qualms in sending the men to BD for the trials. If push came to shove Pakistan would have had to give up the butcher. I, for one, would call it just retribution, and I am sure I would have an enormous company. All Bhutto had in hand was Mujib in a Pakistani jail. He was certainly not in a position to touch the President of BD. Had he done so; Indra’s hand would have been forced. She would have had to attack West Pakistan, free Mujib and try Bhutto as a war criminal. Why Indra did not let the BD government conduct war crimes trials is a mystery. Hitler’s entourage were hanged and awarded long jail terms for lesser crimes. Astute observers speculated that she did not want Pakistan army cleaned of bad blood. If she had deliberately planned to under mine the country she went about it in no uncertain manner.
Bhutto was presiding over a nation in a worse state than it was in 1947. People had hope then. They were united. They had zeal. They had been given a vision and believed in it. The helmsman was still alive. Now it was undiluted gloom. The despised Banya had humiliated them. It was worse than even 1857. A ferocious technologically superior race, with their back against the wall (sea), driven by near starvation back home had defeated a dispirited, luxury ridden and dissolute monarchy. It was in marked contrast to the after math of the 1965 war too, in which Pakistan Army had given a creditable performance. They had openly boasted that if the big powers had not intervened, our gallants would have had our flag flying from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi. As noted earlier, both the armies had run out of armaments. China, though, was prepared to supply Pakistan but Ayub was under tremendous pressure from the USA and USSR both to cease-fire. East Pakistanis celebrated the supposed exploits of the army in equal measure though the mentally challenged had boasted that China had promised to protect East Pakistan. This was a thoughtless insult. Instead of taking responsibility themselves they had contracted out the fate of the Muslims of Bengal. (The general I have referred previously, who became my patient told me that he wanted an announcement to be made that if India looked cross-eyed at our Bengal, we will reduce their Punjab to killing fields. But he was over ruled. It was a macabre, and unrealistic claim. But it would be in line with tribal norms, and would have gone down well with east Pakistanis. I told him that in 1965 war East and West Pakistan had been cut off from each other for the duration of the war. He told me that was true, but who would know any better!)
On my return to England, I found Pakistanis in the depth of despair here too. Some religious, older East Pakistanis joined in grieving over a lost dream. Even the jingoist immigrants from the martial race were subdued, though the more extreme among them put the entire blame on the Bengali “traitors”, their subversive activities, and intervention of India. They were on the same wavelength as the generals. Such conceptions as sub-national aspirations, discrimination Bengalis were subjected to- that Bengalis wanted their share as their right, that they were not supplicants to be given autonomy or budget allocation as a charity in the manner of the British granting privileges- were foreign to their comprehension.
Once he had all the levers of power securely in his hands, Bhutto negotiated skillfully for release of the POWs, and return of the Pakistan territory, India had captured. Indra received him graciously, as befitted a magnanimous victor. The only concession he made was to agree that Kashmir dispute was a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan, and not an International issue as had been hitherto accepted by the world bodies. International intervention had failed to produce any solution any way. Pakistan was no longer in a position to force the issue. Besides losing face by going hat in hand to Simla to meet Indra, he did not concede much. It was, under the circumstances, not a bad bargain. Indra could have forced him to drop the issue altogether, and made him sign the kind of treaty the allies made Germany do post WWI. She did not humiliate him to the extent that he would lose all credibility in residual Pakistan. He could be replaced by a bunch of raving fanatics. She wanted a stable though weak state at her border. India was obliged to feed 90,000 POWs and keeping them secure. It was not an inconsiderable consideration. But when all is said and done, Indra behaved like a statesman, stateswoman if you will.
Mujib was still in a prison in West Pakistan. Bhutto grandiloquently declared that if Mujeeb agreed to a reunified Pakistan, he would order the latter’s release from the jail and hand over reins of power to him as the Prime Minister of All Pakistan. Wali Khan, a veteran politician, scion of the famous Khan family of NWFP, offered to visit Mujeeb in jail and convince him to take over from Bhutto. I am paraphrasing an article by Wali Khan that I read in a Pakistani magazine that Bhutto thanked the Khan for the offer, but the next thing he heard was that Mujib was put on a special and secret PIA flight early one morning to London!! Wali Khan claimed that Bhutto was so scared that Mujib would accept the offer, and displace him that he lost no time in sending the man away. He may have been right in being so apprehensive. Mujib had been held incommunicado and did not learn of the establishment of BD as sovereign sate till he landed in London. Wali Khan later ridiculed Bhutto in the parliament for his insecurity. The latter did not deny the charge. He only gnashed his teeth. Wali stood vindicated.
Mujib was received as state guest by the British Government and as a universal hero by all except by the Pakistanis. He was lodged in a suite of rooms at the Claridge Hotel assigned to heads of state. The suite was immediately swamped by well-wishers, inundated by phone calls from BD, Indra Gandhi and the British PM Edward Heath, among scores of other callers. Mujib’s suite soon became the nerve center of BD government. He wanted to rest for a few days after nine months of solitary confinement. Anthony Mascarenhas in his book “Bangla Desh, A Legacy of Blood” claims that Mujib had made a deal with Bhutto to maintain some kind of link with Pakistan. If so he was soon disabused of any such notion. His comrades in arms were not prepared to countenance any linkage with the erstwhile parent country. Mujib had been kept in a cell with out any radio, TV or newspapers, and was not even allowed to talk to his jailers. He was unaware of the genocide perpetrated by the Pakistan army. The truth would not sink in till he reached Dhaka. He had to forego the little time off he needed for recuperation. A virtual insurgency had developed among the different factions in the government being run in his name in BD. The foreign minister (FM) in the government in exile had been unceremoniously dismissed by the PM. One day when the man reached the office he found some one else sitting in his chair. The FM had apparently supported USA moves for reaching some kind of accommodation with the ruling junta in Pakistan. He had wanted to circumvent a civil war and save Bengalis from the worst excesses of the army. The PM was pro-Indian, and would rather sacrifice a few hundred thousand more. Mujib left in a hurry and had a historic reception in Dehli where he stopped en route. He, of course, had a much bigger welcome when he landed in Dhaka and quickly established absolute control over the government. He and Bhutto both were to practice a fascist form of governance.
After the surrender of the Pakistan army to the Indian forces, Mujib’s assistants returned in triumph to, the Independent state of Bangla Desh, and installed themselves as the provisional government of the republic. A definitive establishment would have to await Mujib’s return. They behaved as all revolutionary governments do; sought revenge, put opponents in jail, conducted kangaroo court trials, appropriated property, businesses, and even houses of their opponents. Urdu speaking people became the special targets. They distributed the loot among party members and friends in an ad hoc fashion. They were restrained by the Indian Army from blatant excesses. The leaders should have put their heads to gather to initiate the process of rebuilding. With no accepted leader, they fell to infighting instead. The country had been devastated. Little infrastructure had been left intact. The region is criss crossed by innumerable large and small rivers. Roads tend to be washed away every monsoon season. They have to depend a great deal on river transport. Boats had been demolished, first by the resistance to keep them from being used by the Pakistan army. To keep the insurgents from moving from place to place with ease and harassing the troops, the army destroyed the remnants. It was also a favored measure of mass reprisal. There was little food, clean water, electricity, fuel or adequate shelter for the bulk of the people. The situation was saved from degenerating into mass starvation, rampant epidemics, and enormous loss of life by the unprecedented scale of international help, and by the logistic support provided by the Indian army.
About half a million Urdu speaking persons had been left stranded. They were herded, for security, into hastily erected refugee camps. They were legally Pakistani citizens, and did not want to relinquish the citizenship. BD did not want them, though at one point an offer to grant citizenship to those born in Bengal was made. It was not taken up. Pakistan did not want to accept them either. They became stateless- South Asian equivalent of Palestinian refugees. They did not even have the consolation of being able to put the blame on “the infidel”. Their fellow Muslims-Pakistanis and Bangla Deshis had turned away from them. There were lengthy negotiations between the respective Governments and international agencies on what to do with them. Pakistan had to accept their claim of citizenship, but pleaded lack of resources for their repatriation and resettlement. Saudi and other gulf Governments set up a trust fund for the purpose. Pakistan hedged. The province of Punjab offered to take them all if housing, jobs and means of sustenance could be provided for them. Finances were not a problem. Muslim potentate’s largesse had seen to that. But Sindhis were apprehensive that regardless of where these Urdu speakers were initially resettled, they would eventually gravitate to its cities. Vast majority of Urdu speaking Mohajirs (refugees) had settled in the province, and taken over all the urban centers. Majority in population was the only factor in their favor. With the addition of the “Biharis”, as the Pakistanis left behind came to be called, the balance of population too would be tilted to against them. They started talking of being “Red Indianized”.
A few thousand houses were, nevertheless, built in the Punjab, and those with close relations in Pakistan were repatriated. Some made their way to Pakistan by bribing the border guards. The rest, over one hundred thousand in number (2006), clinging to the fiction of Pakistani Citizenship, are still languishing in UNO refugee camps. There is poor sanitation, little education, and deplorable lack of any purposeful activity in the Camps. A few have taken to doing jobs illegally. The whole atmosphere is that of sloth, hopelessness, despair, and dejection. Moral turpitude is prevalent. “Sex” work is common. Trust funds for their rehabilitation have, in the meanwhile, grown enormously. In 2004, they amounted to over 500 million US Dollars. In 2004, some camp residents, born since independence of BD (1971) moved the courts in the country that they should be entitled, under international law, to citizenship of the country. The courts agreed with the request and directed the BD Government to offer them citizenship. Some well meaning Pakistanis are (2006) planning a Quixotic appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to order the Government of the country to accept the “stranded” Pakistanis.
The repatriates from the then East Pakistan, did gravitate to Karachi, and live in a vast sprawling make shift colony on the out skirts of the city. They have little by way of civic amenities. They are, however, an enterprising community and have established a large number of cottage industries making garments, weaving cloth, metal works, you name it. They were trained in sabotage, bomb making, espionage and other such activities by the Pakistan armed forces to fight the BD insurgents. They put the training to good use in periodic confrontations with the police, army and other security agencies. They also played a large role in ethnic riots promoted by Zia, which were to break out in Karachi during his dictatorship. They also proved a great source of strength to the ethnic Mohajir party that Zia is believed to have sponsored. The matter would be discussed in detail later in the narrative. Suffice it to say at this point, that they contributed to the use of firearms in political affairs.
A large number of ethnic Bengalis were to migrate illegally to Pakistan. They live in Karachi and other urban centers in Sindh and do menial work. They are exploited by employers, victimized by security agencies and looked down upon by other ethnic elements. Many when compared to the average Bengalis are tall and fair. They are believed to be the products of the “Genetic modification” practiced under the aegis of the butcher of Bengal. These unfortunates would, any way, be social outcasts in the country of their birth. In terms of making a livelihood, they would be worse off in BD which did not see any economic benefit of independence The country remains much less developed than Pakistan. The population of the country is, though, now less than that of Pakistan. The greater population of Bengal had always been a bone of contention. BD government was remarkably successful in promoting family planning. Frequent cyclones, hurricanes, floods, epidemics and poor living condition also worked the attrition. But it was too late to keep the old country in one piece.
Causes of poor economic progress of BD are many. Detailed analysis of the subject is beyond the scope of this narrative. Briefly they include early neglect, unstable governments, and near total anarchy after Mujib and President Zia Rahman were assassinated. Governments have been uniformly inept. Infrastructure was never developed even to regain the level under Pakistan. Flood control measures have remained elusive. One private venture the Grameen Bank lends small amounts of money to finance small home based industries like garment making etc. But that is a drop in the ocean.
In Pakistan, Bhutto took full advantage of the humiliation of the armed forces. He retired many in the top brass, and exiled others to comfortable sinecures as ambassadors.
He changed the designation of service Chiefs from that of Commander in Chief (C-in-C), which he called a relic of the colonial past, to that of Chief of the staff (COS). That rank had hitherto been the number two spot, in the hierarchy of the army, navy and the air force. A new post, Chief of Joint Staff was created, but its occupant had only an advisory capacity. He did not have any power or authority over the service Chiefs. His job was actually to keep tabs on the chiefs. The President of the republic became the C-in-C of all the services. Hitherto he had been the Supreme commander of the forces. This was aping the USA dispensation. But in the USA the President has executive powers and the joints Chief is the senior most service person and the chief service adviser to the
President. In Pakistan, powers are vested in the cabinet with the PM at its head, as in the British system. So it was a hybrid arrangement. Bhutto sacked the first army chief he had appointed and replaced him with the butcher of Bengal, Tikka Khan. Tikka was quite subservient to Bhutto and kept the army under control for the boss.
On the civilian front, Bhutto tried to break the back of the entrenched bureaucracy by the tried and tested method used by Ayub and Yahya. He had lists of undesirable functionaries prepared. The criteria for inclusion in the list varied from the highest offence of ever disobeying the man himself to crossing the path of the lowliest PPP partisan. Corruption and inefficiency were prominent in being absent from the list. Ethnic prejudice once again played a large role. He sacked all on the lists, again with out due process. Some dismissed officials did get reinstated by pulling strings. A larger number did by the good old-fashioned way, by paying bribes. I have mentioned a personal encounter with one of the intermediary bribe recipients later on.
But Bhutto did introduce far-reaching reforms in the administration. He changed colonial designations of first to fourth class government servants to grades from 1 to 22. Special cadres, like administration, police and customs, were organized. Previously a Superior services officer could be a magistrate, judge, a district collector, secretary of a department or serve in the Foreign Service. The only job he could not claim was that of a medical officer. Now the successful entrants had to stay in their field. He also let professionals be promoted to senior most ranks. A Doctor could, for example become Secretary of Health ministry, an engineer secretary of communications and so on. These positions had hitherto been an exclusive preserve of superior services. Under the pretext of attracting talent, he appointed favorites directly, with out the benefit of any experience, to senior bureaucratic positions. This procedure was called lateral entry. A story made the rounds of official circles of the country at the time. A political hack was appointed joint secretary, the number two bureaucratic rank, in the ministry of foreign affairs. He sent a file to the secretary for advice. The senior official returned the file with a remark that it was not properly flagged. (For the uninitiated, the term means that the relevant pages have not been properly marked for the consideration of the boss). Nonplussed, the joint secretary asked his assistant the deputy secretary, a grizzled veteran, for advice. The man told the joint secretary that an appropriate miniature flag of the country under discussion in the file should be attached to the relevant page. Further that the respective consulates would easily make the requisite flags available if the joint secretary approached them in person. The poor man spent the day driving from consulate to consulate, requesting the flags. In most of the places he visited, the consular officials expressed surprise that instead of sending a minion, a person as high ranked as the joint secretary was doing the rounds himself. The man’s response was that the matter was urgent etc, and that he appreciated the courtesy. He sent the flag bedecked file to the secretary. Unable to make any sense of the flags, he asked the joint secretary what that was all about. The man, taken aback, blurted out “ Sir, you yourself had remarked that the file was not properly flagged”. On further enquiry, the secretary found out that a deputy secretary had given the outlandish advice.
Normally cabinet secretaries are like the British Queen. They do not laugh if one of their minions makes a stupid mistake. (Once Ronald Reagan had sent a heavy contributor, an uncouth Texan as ambassador to Britain. He made an absolutely ridiculous and pompous speech while presenting credentials to the Queen. All the courtiers burst out laughing. Not the Queen. She frowned at the audience and was regally gracious to the plenipotentiary, earning his life long gratitude. She had done a similar favor to Reagan himself. In return, when the Queen in was passing by California coast in her yacht, and had agreed to visit his ranch, Reagan had waited for her in pouring rain outside his home for hours, more like a forlorn lover than the Head of the most powerful nation on earth). In the event the secretary called all his senior officers, ostensibly to chastise the deputy secretary. When he related the story every one went into hysterical giggles. The object of the exercise finally got it, and had enough self-respect to resign.
There is little doubt that even though Ayub and Yahya had gutted the civil service, it was still fossilized. During early days of the British raj, only the British were admitted into the exalted Indian Civil service. (ICS). Indians were confined to subordinate services. An ICS officer could perform any function, except treat patients, so was excluded only from the job of a civil surgeon, the top medical functionary of a district under the British. During later days of the Raj, Indians of certifiable feudal, and therefore loyal disposition, were allowed in the upper ranks. But if the judge was an Indian he could not try an Englishman. A rare exceptionally bright student, if sponsored by a rich person, could sit for the competitive examinations. The tests were held in London. It was quite out of the reach of an average family to pay the fare and living expenses there. Rich persons did occasionally patronize brilliant offspring of the poor usually with a view to marry off their daughters. It was an equitable arrangement.
It was rigid hierarchy. Code of behavior was etched in stone. Above all, they were nearly complete segregated from ordinary mortals. The British protected the new entrants from temptations of bribes and graft. They were, till they saved a bit of money, housed with the district officer who would provide free board and other household assistance such as laundry and a personal attendant. Reforms wee certainly needed. A new patriotic institution needed to be created. But Bhutto went after the form much more than the substance. By introducing a few sycophants into the higher reaches of the service, he could not possibly change the “ruling class” mentality. But he did manage to bring the bureaucrats off the pedestal they had got used to.
On the political front Bhutto offered a liberal democratic constitution. He even conceded the demands of the opposition that if he wanted executive powers; he should step down from the office of the President. The constitution provided for a head of the state with vast reserve powers, but subject to the PM’s advice as long the latter enjoyed the confidence of the parliament. PM, with a cabinet of ministers serving under him would be answerable to the parliament. A constitutional draft was presented to the parliament. After careful deliberations, the ruling group accepted most of the amendments presented by the opposition. The document was passed by a unanimous vote in 1973. After the President had signed the document, martial law was lifted
It would be the last time the opposition, or for that matter even his minions, would trust him. In a malicious and Machiavellian display of bad faith, soon after the constitution had been passed, and civilian rule restored- remember Bhutto had taken over as the President and Chief Martial Law Administrator- he declared a state of emergency, suspended civil rights, curtailed the authority of courts to entertain cases against the Government, and for all practical purposes set aside constitutional law. The opposition cried foul, but they were helpless
Bhutto ran the country as a fiefdom, jailing opponents at will, and having them tortured as a matter of routine. It is widely believed that the head of a leading religious party, a venerable old man, was sexually assaulted while in jail. Bhutto personally threatened a high court judge with dire consequences, and pointedly referred to his daughter who went to college every day. The befuddled judge took a long leave of absence. He was to haunt Bhutto later as a member of the panel of judges, which tried him for allegedly ordering murder of a political opponent. Bhutto did not spare even benefactors and friends. As mentioned earlier senior civil servant, J.A.Rahim, who had been his mentor was not immune to his wrath.
His first law minister Mahmood Qusuri, author of the 1973 constitution, appeared to grow too big for his britches. He was sacked with the usual admonition to take care lest things were to happen to the females of the family. Bhutto was one of the prime initiators of the “disappeared technique” of public policy. It was later to be practiced on a wide scale in Chile, and other South American countries. Hundreds were discovered in concentration camps in the early Zia period. Another close associate, a noted student leader Mairaj Khan, who had been helpful in catapulting Bhutto into limelight after Ayub had sacked the latter, and had cajoled the left/progressives into casting their lot with the man, fell out with the boss. To assert his newfound independent status, he joined a trade union procession. He was mercilessly beaten up by the police. Bhutto had once introduced him along with Mustafa Khar, a corrupt, barely literate feudal debauch, as one of his successors, in the event something were to happen to him. He set something of a record. I have not been able to find a precedent, in non-communist countries, when a sitting minister had been man handled by the police. (In later years, the mayor of Karachi was punched in the face by a police officer. I have the pictures of his bleeding face of the dignitary on file). Mairaj, poor man, could never live down the association with Khar. The latter, after ruling the roost as governor of the Punjab, was in his turn, taken from his house, and left stranded in a remote area, with no roads and little traffic. He had to walk about twenty miles before he could find a bullock cart driver to give him a lift to a town.
Bhutto had given catchy slogans of: Roti, Kapra aur Makan” roughly bread, clothes and house for all. He also declared that factories and mills belonged to workers. On his ascension to power the workers in many factories had taken him at his word. They took over the work place in many industries, and in many instances locked the owners and administrators in their offices as punishment. Instances of verbal abuse hurled at the erstwhile masters were not uncommon. In a few cases the bosses were kept with out food or water for extended periods of time. This was termed “Gherao”, encirclement. Police dare not intervene, as the outrage was supposed to have the big chief’s sanction. Instances of actual physical assault of the persons of the bosses were rare though.
Bhutto maintained a lavish court in the style of potentates of yore. Drunken orgies, wife swapping, and seduction of the wives of associates were reported to be common. I am sure his detractors told some malicious lies too, but the known fate of close associates lent credibility to the stories. If he looked cross eyed at them, Ministers, Generals, bureaucrats and Governors were reduced to a quivering jelly. Bhutto had appointed Zia chief of the army after the Butcher of Bengal retired. He had given the man the top job over the heads of several generals senior to him. Zia was widely regarded as a mediocrity. He used to follow Bhutto like a loyal henchman, usually with a tray of whisky in his hands. He was to change colors later and launch a pseudo-theocratic state.
Bhutto was a scion of a feudal house, and as such had the mentality of a feudal lord. He would be all in all in his personal fiefdom. Pakistan was his personal realm, to do what he wished in it. And he did act as an absolute autocrat. When it came to enforcing his authority he did not have any scruples. With scant regard for law or the rules he would freely use all the coercive powers of the state. He just stopped short of declaring a la Louis fourteenth, I am the state. He imprisoned opponents in the thousands, put away hundreds in concentration camps, had a few murdered, and had their women raped. Physical and mental torture was common. No one in the country, educated and illiterate, rich or poor, member of the establishment or dis-empowered was immune to the dictates of his whim.
Perhaps the greatest disservice he did to the country was to rekindle the animosity between the older inhabitants of Sind and the newer ones who had migrated from India. The latter controlled most of the business and industry, education and professions. They formed the economic backbone of the country. They had also given Bhutto a leg up during his days of political wilderness. The print media, dependent on Government advertisements for their daily bread, never virile in Pakistan, was reduced to abject servility. Radio and TV were under Government control already. One could easily dub the media, Bhutto voice.
He used state machinery to lavish favors on people who had done him a good turn in the days of his adversity. I have personal knowledge of two such examples. In 1989 one of my class mates from Quetta College came to visit me in Karachi, and asked me, with an air of a person who had great and extra ordinary news to impart, if I remembered so and so from Quetta. I did. He then asked me if I had any idea what the man did now. I did not. My visitor looked as though he would physically explode if I did not insist that he divulge the secret. I obliged. The man, my friend blurted out, was a Judge of the Punjab High Court. It was my turn to be astounded at the news. I did not have to fake it. The man had been absolutely a pedestrian. I think he passed the twelfth grade liberal arts examination after several attempts in the third, that is the lowest division. It was an easy examination and few failed it. He had then proceeded to Lahore where he managed to get an undergraduate degree, again with the lowest marks. He subsequently obtained a degree in Law with similar ranking. With his meager earnings from practice of law, he was barely able to keep body and soul together. He took to frequenting the meetings Bhutto addressed, and made speeches in the latter’s favor in Bar association. Bhutto on ascension to power had appointed him to a lower court, from which perch he had, over the course of time, ascended the departmental ladder. He eventually rose to a seat in the Supreme Court! I had confirmed these details from Dr Rizvi of Lahore who gets many mentions in this narrative. (Rizvi had been offered a ticket for the provincial assembly by PPP, but had declined the honor as he thought Bhutto would do poorly in the elections. The seat had gone to second rater. This was one of the rare times when he would make a miscalculation).
The other example also pertains to the field of Law. One of the political disciples of my younger uncle, whom I have mentioned elsewhere in this narrative, also passed the Law examination. He was actually quite bright, But he had no contacts in “high” places, so did not do as well as he deserved to. Connections are essential in all societies, but are critical in the East. By the dint of hard work he had managed to develop a modest practice of Law. He like many others thought that Bhutto was a progressive and was duped into supporting him. Bhutto on assumption of power appointed him to Baluchistan High Court. I could fill up hundreds of pages with credible examples of the misuse of power by Bhutto.
Bhutto was bright and educated enough to understand that the feudal system and Capitalism were contradiction in terms. His erstwhile patron Ayub had promoted industry. He had also introduced land reforms, fixing a ceiling on the land holdings a person was allowed. Industry did develop in his time. He even managed to initiate pharmaceutical industry in East Pakistan, the first Head of the State, to have taken effective measures to develop the Eastern Wing. Land reforms did not work. Feudals simply transferred land over the allowed ceiling to their relatives and minions. They were too entrenched for even a military ruler to take on. But they had been shaken a bit out of their complacency. Bhutto decided to reclaim the influence lost by the feudals in Ayub’s time. It fitted in very well with his primary agenda of obtaining total control over all aspects of life in the country. He had given populist socialist slogans before assuming power. Workers had shown him the way by taking over industries. He would go the whole hog. He nationalized- read expropriated- industries, banks, schools, commercial concerns, even cottage industries like flour mills. Capitalists fled the country- he actually imprisoned the few he could lay his hands on -taking their money and skills with them. Most had stashed a good portion of their wealth in Foreign Banks and had large investments in real estate in London, NY and other major cities.
Banking was one of the more efficient and robust sections of commerce in Pakistan. They offered good service, employed efficient persons, even some talented ones in the upper echelons, and were profitable enterprises. They had flourishing business in the UK and the USA and catered to the needs of expatriates who preferred to deal with them rather the native Banks. After nationalization, hundreds of millions in loans, with out any collateral, were given to sycophants, relatives and hangers on of the ruling clique. One favorite technique was to mortgage barren and worthless land, take a huge loan and then default on the loan. Qualified and experienced officers were summarily sacked to make way for cousins, supporters, and contacts of Bhutto’s political party. What was done efficiently by one person could not be accomplished by four party hacks. The institutions were soon on the verge of bankruptcy and had to be bailed out by the government, further burdening the national exchequer. Many years later, when the Government offered the Banks to past owners, they declined to accept. It would be too much of a job to clean up the mess, sack all the parasites and risk another nationalization at the end of the day. It was not worth the bother.
Private schools, a relic of the colonial past, run by Churches, and a few other parochial groups provided high standard education for the progeny of the elite. They also accepted a few talented students from the middle and poorer classes. Minority communities such as Parsis (Zoroastrians) managed a few schools as well. The Government took them over. They started, like the government schools, churning out semi literate unemployable degree holders. Church and a few other high-powered schools managed to retrieve control, but many other less well connected they were reduced to low standards.
Bhutto was much more successful in his dealings with international community. He convened a meeting of the heads of all Muslim countries in Lahore. The conference gave birth to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), which is still in existence, though of dubious utility. But more importantly, he used the cover of the moot to obtain a “consensus from the conference to recognize BD”, publicly embraced Mujib, and buried the fictional existence of “United” Pakistan. He clearly impressed the Heads of the States attending the meeting. They were to finance his ambitious projects.
Political leaders the world over are known for public posturing. The discerning public takes these grandiloquent gestures for what they, in actual fact are-low comedy. But in times of crisis, they serve as unifiers and morale boosters. NY mayor Guiliani was applauded for rushing to the site of the Trade center on 9/11. Bush was castigated for going into hiding. When he appeared at the site a few days later, he was greeted with banners asking, “Where were you Mr. President”. Guiliani would have been no use if he had gotten himself killed. Bush was able to ”direct” the effort at presenting an appropriate stance, from a secure location. Bhutto was an expert at grandstanding. India had exploded a “peaceful” nuclear device in 1974. Bhutto had pledged a thousand years war with India.
The successful conference of the Muslim countries gave Bhutto a great boost. Nearly all heads of the Muslim states attended it. He was lauded as the future hope of the Ummah. He had vowed that we would eat grass, but make an “Islamic” atomic bomb. He was aided and abetted in this pledge by others heads of the state specially the likes of the wild-eyed fanatic Moammar Gadafi of Libya. Gadafi was later, to go around with a phalanx of female guards, and succumb to the fear of annihilation after the second Gulf War.