The Press TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1969. Pakistan: End Of An Era

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31922, 25 February 1969, Page 16

The Press TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1969. Pakistan: End Of An Era

Events in Pakistan have moved swiftly in the last few weeks. Opposition to President Ayub Khan has widened and deepened; and it came as no surprise when he said publicly that he would not be a candidate in next year’s Presidential Election. He has made many concessions to popular demands in the hope of ending the unrest, in both the eastern and western regions, which in the last three months led to widespread violence, cost many lives, and seriously disrupted government. The state of emergency imposed in 1965, at the time of the conflict with India over Kashmir, has been ended. Charges against Sheikh Rehman and other members of his East Pakistan Awami League, of plotting secession, have been withdrawn and those held for trial have been released. Mr Bhutto, a former Foreign Minister and leader of the Left-wing People’s Party in West Pakistan, who was recently released from prison and placed under house arrest, has now had his freedom of movement restored—a gesture which he celebrated by immediately plunging again into the whirl of politics. He has already been announced as a candidate for the Presidency. These are significant developments; but it is a question whether, in themselves, they will suffice to restore order and enable preparations for the 1970 election to be made in a reasonable atmosphere of calm. Much will depend on whether the 10 or a dozen political parties—there are eight in the coalition calling itself the Democratic Action Committee —are able to find enough common ground to take part in the talks proposed by President Ayub Khan a week ago. There is much that needs to be discussed, quietly and rationally, for it is clear that no election date can be set until constitutional changes are agreed upon by all the parties. The central demand underlying the present unrest is for a return to a system of universal suffrage in place of the President’s so-called “ basic democracy ” system, which he imposed to counter what he regarded as the political immaturity of the mass of the people.

Under this system, instead of an open franchise, voting for the Presidency was confined to an electoral college of 120,000 voters. The country has something like 125 million people. President Ayub Khan’s 1962 constitution arbitrarily limited the powers of the National Assembly. It could make law’s but could not demand a change of Government. Ministers were the President’s protected by him from impeachment. The Executive had thus no obligation to concede anything to popular demand. It held and exercised power through the Army, and it kept—or tried to keep—public opinion in check by restricting the activities of political parties and curbing the press.

For most of President Ayub Khan’s 11 years of power this system appeared to work well enough. It certainly aided industrial development on a considerable scale. Now, it is plain, the clamour for change will not be stilled: and the President, looking reality in the face, has decided to assist reform rather than resist it It remains to be seen what the political parties will make of the opportunity now’ offered them to work out policies and to choose a Government by orderly processes. Ayub Khan will step down—probably not at all reluctantly, having served Pakistan according to his assessment of its needs and limitations. He made mistakes, central among them his belief, admitted in his autobiography, that it should be possible “ to run our politics without the “ party system ”. Such a misconception was hardly surprising in a man whose virtues were those of the soldier rather than the statesman.