Pakistan's Peaceful Revolution
OWEN, JOHN E.
By John E. Owen Pakistan's Peaceful Revolution General Ayub Khan s military dictatorship may bring an end to instability Dacca, East Pakistan The military dictatorship of General Ayub Khan, and...
...The second purchaser then resold the license to a third merchant at a still higher price, which was reflected in the high cost of all kinds of manufactured goods...
...Their American cars in Karachi and Dacca presented a weird contrast to the bullock-carts and rickshaws on which most Pakistanis had to depend for transport...
...Its membership was very small (perhaps 1,500 hard-core members) but it had appreciably more sympathizers, especially in East Pakistan...
...Constitutional provisions were never fully enforced, and every office, including President, Premier, Cabinet and provincial governors, was on a provisional foundation...
...A new Cabinet crisis in Karachi, fears over the coming elections, and the stormy scenes in the East Pakistan Assembly ostensibly led Mirza, on October 8, to abrogate the Constitution and declare martial law...
...Yet, on the outskirts of Karachi are many fine homes, owned mainly by Government officials...
...Pakistan has had the unique handicap of being divided into two wings, separated by over a thousand miles of Indian territory...
...In any case, Pakistani majorities seldom lasted very long...
...She has had no national figure with the stature of the late Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the absence of a strongly-developed party system had an unsettling influence, and the Constitution was only enacted after eight years of independence...
...Both in the central Government and in the provinces, ministries succeeded one another with bewildering rapidity, coalitions were formed, abandoned and reformed, and some bizarre combinations took place...
...Pakistan's domestic instability stems partly from the fact that at independence she did not, like Malaya, inherit a trained and experienced cadre of statesmen and civil servants who could be relied upon for disinterested leadership...
...He died a few days later...
...It was at his instigation that the Republican party was formed in 1956 in opposition to the Moslem League, and his usurping the authority of the then Prime Minister, Chaudri Mohammed Ali, led to the Premier's resignation that autumn...
...After two months of President's rule from Karachi, party wrangling flared up once again between the Awami League and the KSP...
...The only fanatic Moslem party was the Nazam-e-Islam, a group that sought to make Pakistan a theocratic state, but its priestly followers found little support among the people...
...He has been described by both Pakistanis and former British officials as a courageous soldier and a sincere patriot...
...Miss Fatima Jinnah, in a statement of October 28, declared that Mirza's exit had brought a general sense of relief to Pakistanis, and that during his three years of office he had failed to solve any of the national problems...
...Many political careers have terminated, Mirza is leaving the country and left-wing leaders have been imprisoned, but the personal freedom of most citizens has not been restricted...
...Negative party combinations, the lack of any strong ideology, and provincial antagonisms combined to render the internal situation unworkable...
...Its former strong man, President Iskander Mirza, declared that democracy without education had produced hypocrisy without limitation...
...National elections, originally scheduled for this month, were postponed until next February, ostensibly on the ground that the November harvest season would render large-scale voting difficult in the agricultural areas...
...chief cultural center, was the natural capital, but it is too close to the border with India...
...Actually, many Pakistanis felt that the real reason for the postponement lay in the reluctance of the politicians to face the judgment of the electorate...
...About 20 per cent of West Pakistan's population is still composed of refugees, and East Pakistan has also had to accommodate tens of thousands of them...
...Mirza then surprised the country by choosing Suhrawardy as Ali's successor...
...If the new era can eventually establish democratic processes on a stronger foundation, the events of October may contain significant implications for other undeveloped nations...
...Immediate effects were a cessation of black-marketeering, smuggling and "permit-peddling," an appreciable fall in prices, compulsory price-lists in stores, military orders to clean the roads and turn beggars off the streets, the imprisonment of thieves and abductors, and controls over the processing of milk and food stuffs...
...The dominant political goals appeared to be simply party aggrandizement and the determination to seek and keep office...
...Trained at Sandhurst, General Ayub Khan, a Pathan from the Northwest Frontier, became the Army's Commander-in-Chief in 1951...
...So Karachi, in the poor and parched province of Sind, was chosen instead...
...In a few years, the Pakistani politician could own one or more of these elegant homes...
...But at provincial elections the Moslem League, with other parties, used old-fashioned Islam to win votes among the illiterate peasants...
...The unhygienic living conditions of the poorest half of the population have to be seen to be believed...
...He is now President, Defense Minister, and Chief Martial Law Administrator...
...The martial-law proclamation evoked a response of thankful approval from Pakistani newspapers and populace...
...The radical left was represented by the National Awami party, a camouflaged version of the Communist party...
...In June of this year, three East Pakistan ministries were voted out of office within one week...
...Most of the 4.5 million agricultural refugees from India who entered West Pakistan between 1947 and 1951 are now settled under various rehabilitation schemes...
...A far more important element was the Moslem League, which sought to adapt Islamic teachings to the 20th century...
...Of all these parties (and other fractional bodies such as the United Progressives and the Scheduled Caste Federation, both Hindu) it was impossible to state with any certainty which had a parliamentary majority...
...But Republican ambitions to become dominant in West Pakistan led them to oust Suhrawardy as Premier while he was paying an official visit to the U. S. The stability of government was not strengthened by Suhrawardy's exit, and a subsequent coalition between the Moslem League and the Republicans proved very tenuous from the outset...
...But some well-informed observers have felt that the "coup" was due to Mirza's suspicion that his enemies were planning to impeach him...
...But in a nation founded on Koranic principles and still seek-ink to enjoy the advantages of a modern secular state, religion played a more significant role than in most countries...
...These could be bought, at a price...
...Lahore, Pakistan's John E. Owen is currently attending Dacca University in East Pakistan as a Fulbright lecturer in sociology...
...At partition, the shortage of buildings was so acute that even top officials had no offices...
...The homes were then rented to Americans at American rates...
...From a desert tow of 300,000 people before partition, it mushroomed within ten years into a city of three million...
...they were then sold to a second merchant at a higher price...
...The office of Premier has been abolished, land distribution is to be instituted, and the legal system is due for reform...
...In any case, his joint rule with General Ayub Khan (Chief Martial Law Administrator) lasted less than a month...
...The Awami League was a pro-Western secular party headed by H. S. Suhrawardy, a man who might have been able to furnish national leadership had he not been displaced as Prime Minister by President Mirza and the Republicans in the summer of 1957...
...But some 2.2 million urban refugees in the province have been unable to find housing and jobs...
...By John E. Owen Pakistan's Peaceful Revolution General Ayub Khan s military dictatorship may bring an end to instability Dacca, East Pakistan The military dictatorship of General Ayub Khan, and the abrogation of the Constitution, inaugurate a new phase in Pakistan's troubled eleven-year history...
...The Krishak Sramig party (KSP) was also secular, claiming to speak for the farmers and urban proletariat...
...The Republicans, who originated as a defection from the Awami League, partly represented Pakistan's wealthy industrialists and landlords...
...There were few ideological differences between the different parties...
...So did another corrupt practice, openly discussed in newspaper editorials: the granting to businessmen of official permits or licenses to engage in trade...
...No water means no Karachi," a Government official said to the writer...
...National elections have never been held by her 84 million people (90 per cent illiterate), and corruption was admitted to have become a governmental way of life...
...But Mirza became actively involved in party disputes and manipulations...
...A common practice was to buy or build these imposing residences on mortgages from the Government at very low rates of interest...
...It would be rash to try to forecast future trends in the country...
...The new Cabinet appointed by General Khan at the end of October includes army officers, a former Ambassador and a university Vice-Chancellor, and plans are under way for calling in a body of international experts to draft a new and workable Constitution...
...Strong party discipline was nonexistent, and until September of this year a politician could change parties as frequently as he chose without thereby jeopardizing his parliamentary future...
...There was also a very flourishing and profitable black market, which helped produce inflation...
...After eleven years of instability, Pakistan is at least making a fresh start...
...Since 1947, Pakistan's political situation has been unstable...
...Building has progressed since 1947, but the entire province is beset by a severe water shortage...
...The President of Pakistan was constitutionally vested with formal executive authority, and was expected to be above party considerations...
...The foreign-exchange situation became extremely critical, yet Govern ment officials continued to make trips abroad that were widely regarded as junkets...
...No cabinet has held power with the full support of electorate, legislature, or party...
...Karachi, the capital, would have had problems even without the refugees...
...When the provincial legislature convened in September, it soon ended in physical fighting in which several members were injured, furniture was destroyed, the flag trampled on, and the Deputy Speaker knocked unconscious...
Vol. 41 • November 1958 • No. 42
