Pakistani Politics

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31318, 14 March 1967, Page 16

Pakistani Politics

President Ayub Khan came to power in Pakistan on October 27, 1958, in a bloodless coup backed by the Army. He still has the country rigidly under control while the Army remains quietly but obediently in the background. It appears that no challenge to President Ayub’s power can come before the next presidential election, due in the winter of 1969-70. It is already being suggested, however, that preparations are being made to oppose him, and that the man most likely to rally and lead opposition to the regime is Zulfikar All Bhutto, who was President Ayub’s Foreign Minister during the war with India over Kashmir in 1965. Mr Bhutto sharply disagreed with the President over the Tashkent peace agreement with India in January of last year. In June he was dismissed from office. For expedient reasons his “ resignation ” was accepted during his absence on a “health trip”. Since then he has campaigned assiduously against the President—in Pakistan discreetly, elsewhere more openly. Immediately after his departure from the Cabinet he received something in the nature of a hero’s welcome in Lahore, seat of the main opposition to Tashkent Then, two months later, Mr Bhutto paid a round of calls in London and openly described President Ayub’s Government as “a one- “ man dictatorship disguised as democracy ”. In an address to Pakistani students he attacked the President’s policies, particularly towards India on Kashmir; and while he did not declare his candidacy for an election still distant by about three years, he told his student audience that his political future was “ in God’s hands and yours ”,

Mr Bhutto is credited with having ushered in the era of friendship with China during his period as Foreign Minister. He said after Tashkent that East Pakistan had been defended during the war “primarily by the sword of China”—possibly a reference to the ready availability to Pakistan of Chinese weapons and military aircraft. Mr Bhutto had gathered around him at that time much Leftwing and nationalist support He is not known to be directly associated with the Left-wing National Awami Party, but supports the campaign for autonomy for East and West Pakistan. Disunity is the weakness of the political opposition in Pakistan, a result of President Ayub’s method of silencing opponents by gaoling them. The anti-Tashkent rioting in Lahore in January of last year led to the imprisonment of 19 opposition members, although they were later released as a gesture of clemency. The calm within the country and the relative soundness of the economy have earned the President a good deal of respect; but there is bitter criticism within the opposition groups of his system of “ basic “ democracy ”, in which an electoral college of 80,000 elects three Assemblies for Pakistan’s 110 million people. There are also curbs on the press. It is an open question what President Ayub’s reaction will be if there is an attempt to revive and unify political opposition to the regime. A five-year ban on 125 politicians, including some of the country’s most influential personalities, expired last December. They had been barred from political activity under the Elective Bodies Disqualification Ordinance. Mr Bhutto, should he aspire to leadership of the Opposition and a presidential nomination, will at least be aware of th«> risks ho is taking.