I have decided to publish on Ciao a series of my University assays, in order to help other Ciao'ers who may either be studying similar modules, or, to demonstrate ( loosely !!! ;-) ..)how an essay might be written, The following essay is from my 2nd year, it was an asessed Politics Module essay whilst at University.....

Asessed Essay Title .....'What factors best explain the collapse of military
regimes in Pakistan?'

There is such a lot to write about, I don’t believe that it is possible to do any real justice to the subject without an understanding of the History of Pakistan and the people who have ruled the country over the last 50 years or so, this in turn takes up so much space that it is difficult to contain oneself to 2,000 words without losing much of the essence of the original title. I would however like to try and answer the question, through a mainly historical view point, looking at the main characters in Pakistan’s history, since the demise of the British Empire. It is through the parts played by those characters, which, in my estimation have led to a “possible” collapse of the military regime in Pakistan, the will of the people of Pakistan has proved to be stronger than the force of the military, it is therefore, with that in mind, the reason why I have decided to try and answer the question in such a manner .

The British ruled the Indian subcontinent from 1756 to 1947. However, following a revolt in 1857, political reforms were made, including the introduction of new political parties. The Indian National Congress was formed in 1885 representing Hindus mainly. The Muslim League formed in 1906 represented the minority Muslims. When constitutional reforms were introduced in 1909 by the British, the Muslims demanded and received separate electoral rolls. This act guaranteed all Muslims representation in the provincial and national legislatures. By 1940, however, the Muslim League had resolved to seek the partitioning of the subcontinent and the creation of a separate Muslim state in August 1947, known as Pakistan, however, Pakistan was divided into two separate parts, East & West Pakistan, East Pakistan, now known as Bangladesh, they were separated by almost 1000 miles, and Indian territory.

Pakistan’s division caused much upheaval to the people. 4 million Hindus and Sikhs were forced to relocate from Pakistan into India, and some 5 million Muslims moved from India into Pakistan. This caused mistrust between Pakistan & India, the provinces of Hyderabad, Junagadh, and Kashmir, refused to join India or Pakistan, they became independent States in 1947, Junagadh joined Pakistan a month later and India then decided to annex Junagadh. Hyderabad was forced to join India in 1948. Kashmir (85% Muslim), decided to join India. Pakistan was not happy, and questioned Kashmir’s right to do this, which led to war between India and Pakistan. although things have cooled down, India still controls 2/3rds of Kashmir and is still a major problem area between Pakistan & India.

Karachi was the first Pakistani Capital, Prime Minister was Liaquat Ali Khan and Muhammad Ali Jinnah it’s first governor-general, there were many problems, a new civil service was formed, the Military needed building, refugees needed housing, social & economic reform proved not to be so popular.

Pakistan’s first foreign policy established cordial relations with the United States. Khwaja Nazimuddin, the governor-general since 1948, was elected prime minister. Khwaja Nazimuddin was not able to stop the depleting popularity of the Muslim League in East Pakistan ( now Bangladesh ), he was forced to give way to another East Pakistani called , Muhammad Ali Bogra. In 1954, the governor-general dissolved the constituent assembly, the new assembly which first met in 1955 was not dominated by the Muslim League. Muhammad Ali Bogra was replaced by Chaudhri Muhammad Ali, who was from West Pakistan., and

General Iskander Mirza became governor-general, The four West Pakistani provinces were joined into one political and administrative area. The Pakistani Assembly declared Pakistan to be an Islamic republic in 1956., and General Mirza was elected as President.

Prime Minister Ali held office only until September 1956, when Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, leader of the Awami League of East Pakistan took over. When President Mirza discovered that Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was planning an alliance between East and West Pakistan, Suhrawardy was forced to resign. The succeeding coalition government, headed by Ismail Ibrahim Chundrigar, lasted only two months before it was replaced by a Republican party cabinet under the leadership of Prime Minister Noon.

President Mirza’s influence among the Republicans was dwindling., and against a coalition led by Prime Minister Noon, President Mirza had no hope of being re-elected. dissatisfied with Pakistani Parliamentary democracy, President Mirza introduced martial law in 1958, and he dismissed Noon's Government, he also dissolved the Pakistan National Assembly. The President was supported by General Muhammad Ayub Khan, commander in chief of the armed forces, who was nominated as the chief martial-law administrator. Twenty days later Ayub forced the president to resign and assumed the presidency for himself.

Ayub controlled Pakistan for over ten years, during which time he did not rid Pakistan of its basic socio-economic problems. A land reforms commission appointed by Ayub Khan distributed some 2.2 million acres of land among 150,000 tenants. However, this did not get rid of the feudal disputes, Ayub Khan also increased the development funds to East Pakistan.
Ayub Khan created 80,000 democrats, who were rural influentials or leaders of urban areas. They formed the electoral college for presidential elections and for elections to the national and provincial legislatures created under the constitution introduced by Ayub in 1962. Ayub Khan also introduced Islamic marriage and family laws, Ayub Khan kept reasonable relations with America, who in turn gave military & financial aid to Pakistan, when another war with India broke out over Kashmir. America suspended military and economic aid, The Soviet Union tried to mediate, and invited Ayub Khan and Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri of India to Tashkent for negotiations. The subsequent Tashkent Agreement (1966) required Pakistan & India to withdraw their forces to their original pre-war positions. The Tashkent Agreement and the Kashmir war was not popular and bred resentment towards Ayub Khan.

Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto resigned. Ayub Khan was forced to resign in 1969, Instead of the speaker of the National Assembly taking over, as the constitution would have dictated, Ayub khan handed power over to his commander in chief of the army, General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan. Yahya Khan then declared martial law.

Yahya Khan sacked around 300 senior civil servants and identified around 30 families that were said to control about 50% of Pakistan's gross national product. To limit their power Yahya Khan introduced a law against monopolies. He also made a commitment to transfer power to a civilian authority as soon as possible. East Pakistan was becoming a problem, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of the Awami League, wanted self determination for East Pakistan, His ideas had a lot of appeal for the people of East Pakistan, and in December 1970 in an election of called by Yahya Khan, Mujibur Rahman won by a landslide.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan People's party (PPP) grew to be the largest party in West Pakistan. Mujibur Rahman accused Yahya of collusion with Bhutto and formed an almost independent government in East Pakistan. Yahya Khan opened negotiations with Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka in mid-March, but the effort soon failed. Mujibur Rahman was arrested and brought to West Pakistan an was tried for treason. A mainly Punjab dominated West Pakistan went into war against a mainly Bengali dominated East Pakistan.

India claimed 10 million Bengali refugees crossed its borders, there were many stories of atrocities committed by the West Pakistanis. The Awami League leaders took refuge in Calcutta and established a government in exile. India finally intervened on December 3, 1971, with the Pakistani army being forced to surrender 13 days later. Yahya Khan relinquished power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, this is seen as a turning point in Pakistani political history, and in January 1972 an independent Bangladesh was formed. When the Commonwealth of Nations admitted Bangladesh later that year, Pakistan withdrew from membership, not to return until 1989. However, the Bhutto government gave diplomatic recognition to Bangladesh in 1974.

In Pakistan, Bhutto nationalised basic industries, insurance companies, privately owned banks, schools and colleges. He introduced land reforms which benefited tenants and middle-class farmers. He removed the armed forces from the decision making process, but to placate the generals he allocated about 6 percent of the gross national product to defence. In 1973 the National Assembly adopted the country's fifth constitution. Bhutto became prime minister, and Fazal Elahi Chaudry replaced him as president.

Bhutto's nationalisation and land reforms alienated him from the upper classes, and the Islamic leaders saw his socialism as a threat. Bhutto's main flaw was his inability to deal constructively with the opposition. During his rule Bhutto became heavy-handed. In the general elections of March 1977 it was alleged that Bhutto had rigged the vote. When the situation seemed to be deadlocked, the army chief of staff, General Muhammad Zia Ul-Haq, staged a coup on July 5, 1977, and imposed another martial-law regime. Bhutto was tried for political murder, found guilty; he was supposed to have been hanged on April 4, 1979, although there is some controversy about whether he was hanged or murdered in his death cell, In this version one of the officers had given my father a violent push, he had fallen, striking his head on the wall of his cell, and had never regained consciousness . A doctor was summoned to revive him, giving him heart massage and a tracheotomy which would have explained the marks Nazar Mohammed had seen on his neck.

General Zia Ul-Haq formally assumed the presidency in 1978 and established Islamic law as the law of the land. The constitution of was amended, and benches were constituted at the courts to exercise Islamic judicial review. Interest-free banking was initiated, and maximum penalties were provided for adultery, defamation, theft, and consumption of alcohol.

On March 24, 1981, Zia issued a provisional constitution order, which allowed political parties approved by the election commission before September 30, 1979, to function. All other parties, including the PPP, which was now led by Bhutto's widow and daughter, were legally dissolved.

President Zia was worried by the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979, and by 1984 around 3 million Afghan refugees were living along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. In September 1981 President Zia accepted a six-year economic and military aid package from the United States. President Zia's Islamic-law policies were endorsed by a referendum in December 1984, where his term of presidency was extended until 1990, Zia then allowed elections for parliament, in February 1985. A civilian cabinet took office in April, and martial law effectively ended in December. Zia, however, was far from being happy with all this, and in May 1988 he dissolved the government and ordered new elections. Zia’s Pakistan continued to be repressive and divisive. The poor were demoralised, Women were demoralised, Zia was killed in an aeroplane crash some three months later which was claimed to be an accident, but many have their doubts.

Ghulam Ishaq Khan a civil servant, was appointed new president, and Benazir Bhutto became the first female prime minister of an Islamic State after her PPP won the general elections in November 1988. In August 1990 President Ishaq Khan dismissed her government, charging her with misconduct, and declared a state of emergency. Bhutto and the PPP lost the October elections after she was arrested for corruption and abuse of power. In April 1993, the charges against Benazir Bhutto were resolved, and she returned to lead the PPP in opposition, Ishaq Khan once again used his presidential power to dissolve parliament, and to dismiss Prime Minister Sharif. Sharif appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and in May the court agreed that Kahn's actions were unconstitutional, and they reinstated Sharif as prime minister. Sharif and Kahn subsequently became embroiled in a power struggle which paralysed the Pakistani government. In an agreement designed to end the stalemate, Sharif and Kahn resigned together in July 1993, and elections were held in October of that year. Benazir Bhutto's PPP won and she was again named prime minister.

With Benazir Bhutto in office, relations between India and Pakistan have became more tense. She announced Pakistan would continue with its nuclear weapons development program, raising concerns that a nuclear arms race could start between Pakistan and India, which has had nuclear weapons since the 1970s.

This brief chronological view of the history of Pakistan, I believe points to certain people believing in dictatorship, rather than democracy and leadership. The ordinary people of Pakistan clearly wanted a way out of poverty and hardship, I believe that the middle classes and the military pushed for Islam as the answer to control, It was a way of controlling the masses by the powerful & well of without getting their hands dirty, the wars with India and East Pakistan led to West Pakistan losing face on an International front, she was forced to give way, the military were not popular, they were necessary for National defence but not for keeping order in a dictatorial way on a domestic level.

I believe in modern day terms, Pakistan’s military collapsed due mainly to the death of General Zia in the plane crash, how long he would have lasted had the plane not have crashed is a debatable question. Western military aid has kept Pakistan’s military in business, I believe that the USA for example, was not interested in the people of Pakistan, they were more concerned about the strategic position of Pakistan, in relation to the Soviet Union’s friendliness towards India. Zia’s death has led to a civilian Government and administration, led by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, I’m not sure if Military rule has been totally got rid of, I feel that a return to military rule is only round the corner, should circumstances dictate. I’m not totally convinced therefore that Military rule and leadership has been totally eradicated in Pakistan, I feel that it is simmering in the background, waiting for a chance to return.

Bibliography

Ali T. Can Pakistan Survive 1983, Penguin Books, London
The Death of a State

Bhutto B. Daughter of the East 1989, Cox & Wyman, Reading UK

Kapur A. Pakistan in Crisis 1991, Routledge, London UK

Mahmud Ali S. The fearful state 1993, Zed Books, London UK
Power, People and the internal war in south Asia

Electronic Multi-Media

Bookshelf 1995, 1995, Microsoft Corporation, USA

Groliers Encyclopaedia 1994, Software Toolworks Inc., USA

Internet Bibliography

Pakistan News Service http://pakistan@netcom.com

Asian Studies Online Newsletter http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVLPages/
WhatsNewWWW/asian-www-news.html

Pakistan Home page http://www.rpi.edu/~ansars/paksa_locker/pak_mosaic/
pakistan.html