Deadly Choices

General Yahya Khan could have averted the tragic disintegration of Pakistan by postponing polls

Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani – who led his eponymous faction of the National Awami Party (NAP) – had been shouting for postponement of elections in the wake of devastating floods in former East Pakistan in November 1970 but nobody was ready to pay any heed to his advice.

On November 1, 1970, tropical storm Nora developed over the South China Sea. The system lasted for four days, before degenerating into a remnant low over the Gulf of Thailand on November 4.

The remnants of this system contributed to the development of a new depression in the central Bay of Bengal on the morning of November 8.

The depression intensified as it moved slowly northward. The storm – now renamed Bhola – became nearly stationary that evening but began to accelerate toward the north on November 10.

The storm further intensified into a severe cyclonic storm on November 11 and began to turn towards the northeast, as it approached the head of the Bay of Bengal.

It reached its peak intensity later that day, with three-minute sustained winds of 185 km per hour and one-minute sustained winds of 240 km per hour

The cyclone made landfall on the East Pakistan coastline during the evening of November 12, wreaking havoc and killing around 300,000 to 500,000 people.

It also destroyed and submerged houses, swept away livestock and inundated crops on a large scale while also severely damaging the rail and road infrastructure in the former eastern wing of the country.

Boats and canoes were the only means of transportation in a great part of the province where elections were scheduled to be held just a month later, on December 7, 1970.

Interestingly, canoe was also the election symbol of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League, the biggest political party of former East Pakistan.

A song Mola Ali O Sher-e-Khuda Meri Kashti Par Laga Dena [Hazrat Ali (AS) kindly intercede and steer my ship to safety] was widely played on the radio.

Sheikh Mujib’s election campaign was based on his Six Points which called for a separate currency, a separate army, a separate tax collection authority and a separate flag for East Pakistan.

Against this backdrop, Maulana Bhashani’s NAP—the second largest party of East Pakistan—called for postponement of the elections, which, it said, would be tantamount to breaking the country.

However, President General Yahya Khan and his aides – General Abdul Hameed Khan, General Pirzada and others – were not ready to listen to this demand of a 90-year-old politician.

On November 23, 1970, just two weeks before the general election, the NAP-Bhashani held a huge public meeting at Dhaka’s Paltan Ground. In the rally, Bhashani announced he was boycotting the polls.

He said if the generals were not ready to postpone the election then he had no option but to boycott the elections. This was the height of Bhashani’s desperation.

In March 1970, Maulana Bhashani had delivered a speech at a farmers’ conference in Toba Tek Singh.

In that speech he had said that people had no other option but to struggle for freedom.

“I will run a movement against the rulers in both arms of the country [East and West Pakistan] as the socialist revolution cannot be brought about without struggle.”

Bhashani believed that socialism was actually derived from basic tenets of Islam.

After addressing the conference in Toba Tek Singh, he had also addressed students in Lahore.

He had said after coming into power, his party would completely abolish private ownership. “We will confiscate all land, all houses, and all mills of the capitalists and distribute them among the people.

Maulana Bhashani had made similar speeches in rallies across East Pakistan.

The ruling junta of West Pakistan—which consisted of landlords, capitalists and military generals— was apparently afraid of these speeches as two parties of West Pakistan, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and NAP-Wali had also unveiled a similar policy agendas.

If these three parties united after winning the election, they could make revolutionary changes in the country’s politics and power structure.

This was the reason why the ruling elite considered the Awami League more acceptable. Probably, this elite believed that they could persuade Sheikh Mujib to share power with them.

Interestingly, there was an attempt to give the impression that the real contest was between the PPP and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI)—that is, socialism and Islam.

At that time, no one in the corridors of power understood that letting East Pakistan fall into the lap of Sheikh Mujib after a flood disaster would have such dire consequences. When people who do not have any political training play political games then the results are devastating.

General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s six-year tenure as the army chief will be remembered for many reasons.

People of different political persuasions may have different views about his tenure but I personally have many questions about his various initiatives.

About five-and-a-half years ago, senior journalists were invited to a major event in Karachi to discuss the country’s economy. General Bajwa was the keynote speaker at this event and we could not understand how a soldier could be part of a discussion on the country’s economy.

It is not a secret that General Ayub Khan imposed martial law in the country in 1958 and remained in power until 1969.

According to the 1962 constitution which General Ayub  introduced himself, he was supposed to hand over power to the parliament’s speaker in case of resignation, but since the speaker was a Bengali, Ayub Khan handed over the reins of power to General Yahya Khan.

General Yahya Khan held elections 24 days after the worst floods in the history of Bengal despite the fact that one of the major parties of East Pakistan was boycotting the polls.

General Bajwa primarily faces criticism for getting an extension in his tenure.

Actually, a real crisis emerged in the country when all the political parties in the parliament paved the way for extending General Bajwa’s tenure for another three years in 2019. And all politicians – including Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and Asif Ali Zardari – are all responsible for the crisis.