Growing Confidence In Ayub Khan

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28825, 20 February 1959, Page 11

Growing Confidence In Ayub Khan

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, February 18. A genuine sense of relief, among Pakistanis at the emergence of a strong Government by , General Ayub Khan which evoke* patriotism, self-respect and which to sincerely committed to cleansing the Augean stable* that the country had become, to reported by the “Daily Telegraph’s” Karachi correspondent He-says that so far the Government has been increasingly successful and people’s confidence In the new regime appear* to be growing daily. Those who had lost hope are regaining their spirit. Ayub Khan has chosen men of known personal integrity to advise him. Most of them are acknowledged experts in the fields in which they have been assigned. The preponderance of civilians in the Cabinet does to a certain extent disarm criticism that the regime is entirely military; but the ultimate and absolute authority still lies with the military.

There is frank admittance ghat it was fear or reprisals under martial law, with it* strict punishment open to no appeal, that killed the black market in Pakistan and so brought prices down.

The same fear made people reveal their true incomes and hoarded wealth, thus enriching the national Treasury by more than £2l million. In the four month* that the new regime has been in power remarkable changes and long overdue reforms have indeed taken place and many are due in the near future. The pace of Government to breathlessly

fast. Four momentous fundamental reforms are being pushed through with the greatest urgency at this moment. * A commission on the law has been ordered to submit its report to the President by April. At the moment the British legal system operates in Pakistan; but this is now considered to be "dilatory and expensive and totally unsuited to the requirements of the country,” so a new system which Will simplify civil and criminal procedure and the law of evidence is being devised. The educational system of Pakistan is being examined by another body and its report must be submitted in May. Among other things, this commission is asked to suggest reorganisation of the educational system to "develop among the people a sense of public duty, patriotism and natiohal solidarity,” and also to "provide facilities for the development of talent and produce men of character and ability required for the development of the country in different fields.” The third measure now being worked on deals with the rehabilitation -f refugees, a problem dating from the great partition of the sub-Continent in 1947. In Karachi alone there are some.half million living in dreadful mud hovels. Now the order has gone out that 16.000 houses are to be built at “wartime speed.” Large numbers of refugees are to be resettled in country areas where agriculture and small industries can be developed, ffter

<me year nobody in Paktatep be described so a - They will all have been But the mo* tar-reaching, important and revolutionary measure of all, which strikes drastically at the very roots of the country's social, economic, and political life, was announced last month—land reforms tat West Pakistan. More than half of all cultivate* land in West Pakistan, some 7.300.000 acres, is at present owned by about 8000 men. Some of these personal estates are run on most Modal lines. fI!C--ing their owners immense power and influence over their tenants. The new measure says: “No person shall own or possess an area of more than SOO acres of irrigated land or of more than 1000 acres of unirrigated land." Landowners will be compensated fairly generously; but the regulation is carefully phrased to prevent estates being kept under the control of one family, though nominally broken up into 800acre holdings. One of the most useful outcomes of the land reforms is likely to be the emergence in Pakistan of a strong middle class to take its rightful place In national affairs. Although no deflnite time limit has been fixed by Ayub Khan tor the ending of martial law ’ in Pakistan and the return of representative government, it is assumed by everyone, ministers, officials and others, that neither will happea until the two big tasks of rehabilitating refugees and implementing land refcrma have been completed and thatW® not be for two yearg'MiJsSfe