Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

  September 15, 2020    Fantasy

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Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto 1971 - 77

Background

·         1971, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto became President and Chief Martial Law Administrator

·         Pakistan had faced a defeat in war with India

·         East Pakistan got separated

·         As PPP was won majority in 1970 elections so Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto intended to use that majority to introduce radical changes in Pakistan

Controlling the Army

Reasons for controlling Army

·         Although he was not an Army man yet he was Chief Martial Law Administrator and country was under military rule

·         He intended to limit the powers of Army so that Army may not intervene in his policies

·         Unless this was achieved, Zulfiqar would not have been successful in introducing his changes

Measures taken to control Army

·         Removing the most important army leaders: He removed 29 senior army leaders within 4 months in power. Among these were head of Air Force and Commander in Chief of the army

·         Appointing his own leaders: General Tikka Khan was placed in charge of the Army in a new post name Chief of Army Staff

·         Setting up Federal Security Force: A government controlled military force was set up to assist the Police Force

The Simla Agreement 1972

Reasons for Simla Agreement

·         It was vital to restore diplomatic relations with India after the war

·         Pakistan wanted to have its prisoners back which were captured by India in East Pakistan

Salient Features of Simla Agreement

·         Pakistani Prime Minister, Zulfiqar and Indian Prime Minister, Indra Gandhi signed the agreement in July 1972

·         India agreed to return prisoners to Pakistan upon a promise that Pakistan will discuss problem of Kashmir directly with India and not on international forums like UN

·         Bhutto didn’t give up the claim for Kashmir as it was rightly part of Pakistan

Results of Simla Agreement

·         Zulfiqar reduced his dependency on army to make war with India less likely

·         Improved his government’s international relations by being seen as willing to negotiate to maintain peace

·         Increased his popularity in Pakistan by bringing home prisoners of war

Establishing an new Constitution

Background:

·         PPP won overwhelming majority in 1970 elections

·         1972, martial law was lifted and the new Assembly was called

·         A committee was set up to draft a constitution accepted to all stakeholders

·         The report of the committee was almost unanimously supported by Assembly

·         On 14^th August 1973 the new constitution became law of the country

·         Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto became Prime Minister and Chaudhry Fazal Elahi was elected as President

Salient Features of 1972 Constitution:

·         There will be two houses, the Senate and the National Assembly

·         Assembly will be elected for 5 years and members of Senate would be nominated in equal numbers from each of the four provinces

·         The leader of the party with majority in the Assembly would become Prime Minister and select a Cabinet

·         The President became largely the figure head, whose orders had to be signed by the Prime Minister

·         Pakistan was declared as Islamic Republic of Pakistan and both President and Prime Minister had to be Muslim

·         Pakistan was a federal state.

·         Each province had its own assembly, elected government

·         All fundamental human rights were guaranteed

 

 

 

Party Politics after 1970 Elections

·         1973 Constitution revived the power of National Assembly and as a result political parties became more important

·         PPP was a major party in National Assembly and in Punjab and Sindh Provincial Assemblies

·         National Awami Party and Jamiat e Ulema Islam were stronger in KP and Baluchistan working together as a coalition

·         This gave these parties enough strength to force through changes that would maintain the autonomy of the provincial assemblies

Agreement between PPP & NAP/JUI

·         National Assembly would not appoint Provincial Governors without the agreement of Provincial Assemblies

·         NAP and JUI will give support to PPP in national assembly

·         NAP and JUI will have free hand in their provinces

Reasons for agreement coming to an end:

·         The agreement lasted for only 1 year

·         The agreement ended with Central Government dismissed the Governors of KP and Baluchistan

·         There was an uprising by Balochis which took five years to suppress

Consequences of the agreement:

·         This uprising destroyed any idea of provincial autonomy

·         It also brought Pakistan Army back in politics

·         Good government meant that several steps had to be taken which limited the benefits of new constitution

·         A constitutional amendment was made that allowed government to limit press freedom and ban any political party it felt was a threat to the country

·         Later, laws were passed increasing the powers of security forces

·         Any person thought to be a threat to government might find himself victim of FSF brutality

 

 

 

Bhutto’s Reforms

·         During election campaign Bhutto promised to give “Food, Shelter and Clothing”

·         After winning overwhelming majority Bhutto was expected to fulfill his promises

·         Therefore, country needed reforms that would raise food production, created more jobs and provided a better welfare system

·         All these reforms required money and time to be properly implemented

Industrial Reforms

·         Bhutto wanted to promote economic growth

·         It required to bring inflation down which peaked to 25%

·         For the first time ever, policy of nationalization was implemented in Pakistan

Policy of Nationalization

Reasons for Nationalization:

·         To control industrial output

·         To channelize investment into industrialization

·         To raise the working and living standards of workers including provision of cheap housing

·         To allow workers to set up unions

·         To even out inequalities of wealth and income distribution as 20 families were controlling 80% of Pakistan’s large scale industry

·         To create wealth to help fund other government reforms

·         To raise the popularity of PPP within Urban area as it was their major vote bank

 

Salient Features:

·         All major industries of the country like sugar, cotton, vegetable oil, rice, banking, insurance etc sectors were taken under government control

·         All 70 major industrial units were placed under the control of a Federal Ministry of Production

Problems faced by nationalization policy;

·         Lack of skilled labor, as Pakistani education system was not producing sufficiently educated and trained workers to take managerial positions

·         Capable factory owners were replaced by Civil Servants with little understanding of Commerce

·         Overload of work in Federal Ministry of Production, as it had to do a huge job of coordinating nationalization process across the country

·         The system got bogged down in bureaucratic muddle

·         Declining demand, as the changes were introduced at the time when world economy was facing recession. This decline forced private industries to close down whereas nationalized industries continued their operation bearing loss

 

Evaluation of Nationalization:

·         These industrial reforms brought some positive changes

·         Inflation fell to 6%

·         Economic growth also began to increase

·         Unemployment was reduced

·         Worker’s conditions and poor people living standards improved

 

Agricultural Reforms

Bhutto introduced two important changes to bring agricultural reforms

 

Land Ownership:

Ceiling Brackets:

·         Under Ayub, the ceiling on land ownership had been

500 acres irrigated land                                 1000 acres non-irrigated land

·         Under Bhutto, it was reduced to

250 acres irrigated                                         500 non-irrigated

Reasons for reduction:

·         The ceiling was reduced because improved technology and better farming methods had raised production

·         Landowners could maintain their income on smaller, more productive areas of land

·         Surplus land could be sold to the smaller peasant farmers to make their profits

·         Land would also be available to allow many people to own their farms for the first time

Drawback:

·         Bhutto’s reforms were undermined by the cunning of big landowners

·         Many of the big landowners thought Bhutto’s reforms to be much harsher

·         They transferred landholding to members of extended family

·         Even others transferred land to trusted tenants and leased it back on long term leases

·         Some bribed officials to persuade them to overlook transgressions to the new law

 

Security of Tenure

·         Bhutto wanted to give tenants security of tenure of the land they farmed

·         A measure was introduced giving tenants the first right of purchase of land farmed by them

·         This meant that landowners could not sell land to a third party who might then evict tenants

·         Such measures encouraged tenants to make improvements on their lands as they knew they would not be evicted

Drawback:

·         Big landowners undermined the impact of reforms

·         In advance of this measure, there was massive eviction of tenants from farms to prevent them receiving security of tenure

·         Bhutto’s government also underestimated the influence of landowners in their community

·         If a landowner did not want to sell to the tenant it was extremely difficult for the tenant to stand up to the landowner, to raise finance to buy the land and find the funds to fight a legal case

·         Big landowners also bribed officials to record land as owner-cultivated when actually it was in the hands of tenants

 

Educational Reforms

Reasons for Educational Reforms

·         The government was concerned about education

·         Official literacy rate was only 25%

·         Bhutto took education seriously and introduced reforms

 

Basic Goals of Educational Reforms:

·         To eradicate ignorance

·         To provide education for all including women

·         To ensure school curriculum meets Pakistan’s social, economical and political needs

·         To ensure uniformity of education

·         To raise the self-confidence of common man

·         To raise aspirations for higher education among youth

·         To develop Pakistani culture and identity and national pride

 

Problems:

·         There was lack of coordination between administration and planning

·         There were lack of administrators

·         Very little only 13% of the government budget was allocated for education

·         There was lack of awareness in rural areas about education

·         There was a drop of standard of education in certain educational institutions after nationalization

·         Educational reforms are time taking and results are not produced over night

 

Health and Social Reforms

Reasons for Health Reforms

·         Pakistan had poor health care facility

·         It had one of the highest infant mortality rate the world

·         Life expectancy was also very low

·         Bhutto launched an extensive health reforms

 

Salient Features

·         Prime feature of the reform was introduction of Rural Health Centres [RHCs] in rural areas and Basic Health Units [BHUs] in urban areas

·         Their main aim was to provide more widespread healthcare.

·         The plan was to set up

1 RHC for every                      60,000 people

1 BHU for every                      20,000 people

·         Training colleges for doctors and nurses were expected to admit students on merit

·         Once qualified, doctors had to work the first year wherever the government placed them. So that instead of working, only in big cities they could be assigned a post in any small town or village

·         The sale of medicines under brand names was also banned.

·         This practice allows drug companies to sell new medicines under a patented name and stops other companies manufacturing the drug under its medical name. This measure reduced the costs of medicines dramatically.

·         Medicines were made available without prescription. They could be bought at any pharmacy

 

Problems

·         The reforms did improve medical services in Pakistan but there was always a shortage of doctors and nurses

·         Pakistan had fewer doctors and nurses in 1977 than in 1970

·         The removal of brand names from medicines also saw a fall in the income of chemists and many international drug companies closed down their operations in Pakistan, as they could not make a profit

 

Administrative Reforms:

Reasons for Administrative Reforms

·         To administer his reforms, Bhutto wanted a modern and efficient civil service

·         He felt that the Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) was corrupt, inefficient and full of unnecessary rules and regulations

 

Salient Features

·         He reorganised the Civil Service into a smaller number of levels and unified pay scales

·         This removed some of the old, unnecessary distinctions between types of civil servant

·         He also reformed entry requirements so that people could join at any level, even the more senior ones, without having to work their way up

 

Problems

·         He said that this would enable the CSP to recruit high quality staff, but his opponents complained that all he was doing was setting up a system of patronage where he could reward his followers with posts in the civil service

 

 

 

 

The 1977 Election

·         In 1977 Bhutto called a general election

·         He was confident that his government’s record and the lack of effective opposition would result in an easy PPP victory

 

Formation of Pakistan National Alliance

·         However, once the election was called, nine of the various opposition parties combined to form the Pakistan National Alliance [PNA]

·         There were two issues which united the opposition in the election campaign

o   They all wanted to end the rule of Bhutto and the PPP

o   They were united in their desire to rule Pakistan according to Islamic law

·         The PNA began to attract big audiences at its election rallies and was clearly gaining support.

·         The government introduced a law limiting public gatherings to just five people. This was to stop public demonstrations of support for the PNA and to ensure law and order during the election

 

Results of 1977 Elections

·         The results of the election showed a landslide victory for the PPP

·         Of the 200 seats contested it won 154, against the PNA’s 38

·         There was an immediate outcry of protest from the PNA, which accused the government of rigging the results and demanded new elections

·         However, there is little doubt that the election result was correct in showing that the majority of people in Pakistan supported the PPP.

·         There is little doubt that the government did interfere with the vote, and on one occasion the results for one constituency were announced on television before the count had even started

·         Some historians believe such vote rigging was a serious error because the PPP was likely to have won the election without it

 

Steps to Downfall

·         Bhutto refused to agree to fresh elections and the PNA organised mass protests against the government

·         Soon there was rioting in many towns and cities and the Federal Security Force could not stop the unrest

·         Bhutto was forced to negotiate with the PNA

·         He offered fresh elections in some of the disputed constituencies

·         To appease the religious factions, banned gambling, restricted the sale of alcohol and declared Friday to be the weekly holiday.

·         However, at the same time he turned to the army for help.

·         On 19 April he declared a state of emergency, placing Pakistan under martial law

·         There were arrests on massive scale

·         Bringing the army into politics is a dangerous game, as Bhutto found to his cost

·         The army leaders saw the concessions Bhutto was making as a sign of weakness which would lead to even greater unrest.

·         Consequently, on 5 July the army staged a coup, named 'Operation Fairplay'. Bhutto and all other major political leaders were arrested that night.

·         Two days later, the Chief of Army Staff, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, announced the suspending of the constitution and the dissolution of all national and provincial assemblies.

·         Once more the army was in control in Pakistan

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