Barring a few countries in Africa and Latin America, we have outrun many countries in the contest for unprecedented credits. We convinced the world that two nations, Muslims and Hindus, lived in one India; Muslims and Hindus could not co-exist with each other in one country without one of them being permanently reduced to the status of untouchables; no constitutional safeguards would establish equilibrium between the two nations; both nations follow different codes of life, which were bound to clash.
Finally, the opponents of the idea were convinced and they relented, or were defeated in the electoral contest. All this was made possible singlehandedly by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam. Unprecedented in the history of freedom movements.
He bequeathed to us a country rich in natural resources, and, succumbing to his lung cancer, he left us on 11 September. We took nine years to frame our first constitution, and shortened its life to two years by imposing Martial Law in October 1958; seven Prime Ministers were appointed and arbitrarily dismissed before the applecart was upset; the Martial Law administrator Ayub Khan gave us the 1962 Constitution which he himself violated by handing over power to his Commander instead of the Speaker; General Yahya Khan held general elections at the national level for the first time in December 1970; he declined to honour the verdict of the people, denying power to the majority Awami League, and we lost the bigger half of the country.
There was no soul-searching, no remorse and no regrets. As put by former Foreign Secretary Sultan Muhammad Khan, ‘General Yahya was cracking jokes and laughing on the day he was handing over power to Z.A. Bhutto’ (Reflections of a Diplomat). Isn’t it incredible?
Power was transferred to Z.A. Bhutto, whose PPP had emerged as the largest party in this part of Pakistan; the 1973 Constitution was adopted in April 1973. Bhutto made five amendments to the Constitution to strengthen his control over the judiciary. He held the election in March 1977; the opposition alliance rejected the electoral outcome on the plea that the elections were rigged. The PPP had won all the National Assembly seats, leaving only 36 for the Alliance.
We witnessed gutless parliamentarians and political thugs bending over backwards to please the real powers, and judges and generals supporting this puppet show in silence, with our populace looking on in bafflement
The opposition took to the streets and finally General Zia removed the Bhutto regime in July 1977, imposing Martial Law and holding the Constitution in abeyance – just seven years after the breakup of the country. He arrested Bhutto in a murder case and tried him in the managed Lahore High Court under Moulvi Mushtaq Hussain. Bhutto was finally executed after the rejection of his appeal by an equally compromised Supreme Court under Chief Justice Anwar ul Haq, in the face of protests by jurists all over the world. The Supreme Court realised the grave injustice meted out to an elected Prime Minister in March 2024, officially declaring that the trial of the former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was unfair. Incredibly shameful.
General Zia forced his nominated Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo to have the 8th Amendment to the Constitution, vesting executive powers in the President with immunity from prosecution for imposing Martial Law and suspending the Constitution, passed by the National Assembly of 1985. He lifted Martial Law only after the passage of this bill. He did not have immunity from natural justice, and perished. These executive powers were ruthlessly exercised by his successors, dismissing four elected governments – two each of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from 1988 to 1999, while the Junejo Government was sent home by General Zia himself. Incredible joke with public mandates.
General Musharraf behaved like a liberal, broad-minded, and progressive ruler, but his government remained embedded with the elite and military and civil bureaucracy. He held a rigged referendum to assume the Presidency and equally rigged elections to favour a new King’s party. He joined the USA anti-terrorism war, giving a fillip to terrorism in the country. We lost over 80,000 lives to terrorist attacks. Under pressure from the American intelligence agencies, he arrested the architect of our nuclear technology on proliferation charges and forced him to apologise publicly to the nation. He passed his remaining life in house arrest, loneliness and disgust. Earlier, the initiator of the nuclear programme – Z.A. Bhutto – was hanged. Again, isn’t it incredible?
The Zardari Government from 2008–2013 survived five years despite earth-shaking events such as the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, the Raymond Davis arrest and repatriation to Washington DC, the Memogate insinuating the President’s involvement, the letter to the Swiss authorities for the restoration of the trial of Zardari in corruption, and the disqualification of the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif again had problems with his Army Chiefs and was this time forced to resign as a result of an adverse verdict by the Supreme Court in the Panama Revelations involving him and his sons. His movement ‘Respect the Vote’ stirred substantial agitation. He was later sentenced along with his daughter and finally made a deal with the power-wielding quarters and went into exile.
Prime Minister Imran Khan fell out of favour and was sent home through a managed vote of no confidence and later arrested on the usual corruption charges. He has since emerged as the symbol of resistance to authoritarianism. The fear of his comeback forced the Chief Election Commissioner, the judiciary and sword-wielding kings to manage the result of the general election of 2024. Notwithstanding all the coercive measures, the party emerged as the largest group. Thanks to the innovative Form 47 and the marriage of convenience between PML and PPP, the PTI was robbed of its public mandate to rule. Incredibly spectacular feat by powers that may be.
The country has survived all these debilitating blows. It will also survive the 26th and 27th Amendments. However, we witnessed gutless parliamentarians and political thugs bending over backwards to please the real powers, and judges and generals supporting this puppet show in silence, with our populace looking on in bafflement.