Mujib was lodged in a suite of rooms at the Claridge Hotel assigned to heads of state. The suite was immediately swamped by well-wishers, inundated by phone calls from BD, Indra Gandhi and the British PM Edward Heath, among scores of other callers. Mujib’s suite soon became the nerve center of BD government. He wanted to rest for a few days after nine months of solitary confinement.
Anthony Mascarenhas in his book “Bangla Desh, A Legacy of Blood” claims that Mujib had made a deal with Bhutto to maintain some kind of link with Pakistan. His comrades in arms were not prepared to countenance any linkage with the erstwhile parent country.
Mujib had been kept in a cell with out any radio, TV or newspapers, and was not even allowed to talk to his jailers. He was unaware of the genocide perpetrated by the Pakistan army. The truth would not sink in till he reached Dhaka. He had to forego the little time off he needed for recuperation. A virtual insurgency had developed among the different factions in the government being run in his name in BD.
After the surrender of the Pakistan army to the Indian forces, Mujib’s assistants returned in triumph to, the Independent state of Bangla Desh, and installed themselves as the provisional government of the republic. A definitive establishment would have to await Mujib’s return. They behaved as all revolutionary governments do; sought revenge, put opponents in jail, conducted kangaroo court trials, appropriated property, businesses, and even houses of their opponents. Urdu speaking people became the special targets.
The situation was saved from degenerating into mass starvation, rampant epidemics, and enormous loss of life by the unprecedented scale of international help, and by the logistic support provided by the Indian army.
About half a million Urdu speaking persons had been left stranded. They were herded, for security, into hastily erected refugee camps. They were legally Pakistani citizens, and did not want to relinquish the citizenship. BD did not want them, though at one point an offer to grant citizenship to those born in Bengal was made. It was not taken up. Pakistan did not want to accept them either. They became stateless- South Asian equivalent of Palestinian refugees. They did not even have the consolation of being able to put the blame on “the infidel”. Their fellow Muslims-Pakistanis and Bangla Deshis had turned away from them.
Pakistan had to accept their claim of citizenship, but pleaded lack of resources for their repatriation and resettlement. Saudi and other gulf Governments set up a trust fund for the purpose.
The province of Punjab offered to take them all if housing, jobs and means of sustenance could be provided for them. Finances were not a problem. Muslim potentate’s largesse had seen to that.
But Sindhis were apprehensive that regardless of where these Urdu speakers were initially resettled, they would eventually gravitate to its cities. With the addition of the “Biharis”, as the Pakistanis left behind came to be called, the balance of population too would be tilted to against them. They started talking of being “Red Indianized”.
A few thousand houses were, nevertheless, built in the Punjab, and those with close relations in Pakistan were repatriated. Some made their way to Pakistan by bribing the border guards. The rest, over one hundred thousand in number (2006), clinging to the fiction of Pakistani Citizenship, are still languishing in UNO refugee camps. There is poor sanitation, little education, and deplorable lack of any purposeful activity in the Camps. A few have taken to doing jobs illegally.
The whole atmosphere is that of sloth, hopelessness, despair, and dejection. Moral turpitude is prevalent. “Sex” work is common.
Trust funds for their rehabilitation have, in the meanwhile, grown enormously. In 2004, they amounted to over 500 million US Dollars. In 2004, some camp residents, born since independence of BD (1971) moved the courts in the country that they should be entitled, under international law, to citizenship of the country. The courts agreed with the request and directed the BD Government to offer them citizenship. Some well meaning Pakistanis are (2006) planning a Quixotic appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to order the Government of the country to accept the “stranded” Pakistanis.
The repatriates from the then East Pakistan, did gravitate to Karachi, and live in a vast sprawling make shift colony on the out skirts of the city. They have little by way of civic amenities. They are, however, an enterprising community and have established a large number of cottage industries making garments, weaving cloth, metal works, you name it. They were trained in sabotage, bomb making, espionage and other such activities by the Pakistan armed forces to fight the BD insurgents. They put the training to good use in periodic confrontations with the police, army and other security agencies. They also played a large role in ethnic riots promoted by Zia, which were to break out in Karachi during his dictatorship. They also proved a great source of strength to the ethnic Mohajir party that Zia is believed to have sponsored. The matter would be discussed in detail later in the narrative. Suffice it to say at this point, that they contributed to the use of firearms in political affairs.
A large number of ethnic Bengalis were to migrate illegally to Pakistan. They live in Karachi and other urban centers in Sindh and do menial work. They are exploited by employers, victimized by security agencies and looked down upon by other ethnic elements. Many when compared to the average Bengalis are tall and fair. They are believed to be the products of the “Genetic Modification” practiced under the aegis of the butcher of Bengal.
The population of the country is, though, now less than that of Pakistan. The greater population of Bengal had always been a bone of contention. BD government was remarkably successful in promoting family planning. Frequent cyclones, hurricanes, floods, epidemics and poor living condition also worked the attrition. But it was too late to keep the old country in one piece.
One private venture the Grameen Bank lends small amounts of money to finance small home based industries like garment making etc. But that is a drop in the ocean.
In Pakistan, Bhutto took full advantage of the humiliation of the armed forces. He retired many in the top brass, and exiled others to comfortable sinecures as ambassadors.
He changed the designation of service Chiefs from that of Commander in Chief (C-in-C), which he called a relic of the colonial past, to that of Chief of the staff (COS). A new post, Chief of Joint Staff was created, but its occupant had only an advisory capacity.
On the civilian front, Bhutto tried to break the back of the entrenched bureaucracy.. He had lists of undesirable functionaries prepared. The criteria for inclusion in the list varied from the highest offence of ever disobeying the man himself to crossing the path of the lowliest PPP partisan. Corruption and inefficiency were prominent in being absent from the list.
Bhutto changed colonial designations of first to fourth class government servants to grades from 1 to 22. Special cadres, like administration, police and customs, were organized. Previously a Superior services officer could be a magistrate, judge, a district collector, secretary of a department or serve in the Foreign Service. Now the successful entrants had to stay in their field. He also let professionals be promoted to senior most ranks. A Doctor could, for example become Secretary of Health ministry, an engineer secretary of communications and so on.
Under the pretext of attracting talent, he appointed favorites directly, with out the benefit of any experience, to senior bureaucratic positions. This procedure was called lateral entry.
There is little doubt the civil was rigid hierarchy. Code of behavior was etched in stone. Above all, they were nearly complete segregated from ordinary mortals. A new patriotic institution needed to be created. But Bhutto went after the form much more than the substance. By introducing a few sycophants into the higher reaches of the service, he could not possibly change the “ruling class” mentality.
On the political front Bhutto offered a liberal democratic constitution. He even conceded the demands of the opposition that if he wanted executive powers; he should step down from the office of the President.
A constitutional draft was presented to the parliament. After careful deliberations, the ruling group accepted most of the amendments presented by the opposition. The document was passed by a unanimous vote in 1973. After the President had signed the document, martial law was lifted
In a malicious and Machiavellian display of bad faith, soon after the constitution had been passed, he declared a state of emergency, suspended civil rights, curtailed the authority of courts to entertain cases against the Government, and for all practical purposes set aside constitutional law. The opposition cried foul, but they were helpless
Bhutto ran the country as a fiefdom. It is widely believed that the head of a leading religious party, a venerable old man, was sexually assaulted while in jail. Bhutto personally threatened a high court judge with dire consequences, and pointedly referred to his daughter who went to college every day.
He was to haunt Bhutto later as a member of the panel of judges, which tried him for allegedly ordering murder of a political opponent.
His first law minister Mahmood Qusuri, author of the 1973 constitution, appeared to grow too big for his britches. He was sacked with the usual admonition to take care lest things were to happen to the females of the family.
Bhutto was one of the prime initiators of the “disappeared technique” of public policy. It was later to be practiced on a wide scale in Chile, and other South American countries. Hundreds were discovered in concentration camps in the early Zia period. Another close associate, a noted student leader Mairaj Khan, who had been helpful in catapulting Bhutto into limelight after Ayub had sacked the latter, and had cajoled the left/progressives into casting their lot with the man, fell out with the boss. To assert his newfound independent status, he joined a trade union procession. He was mercilessly beaten up by the police. He set something of a record. I have not been able to find a precedent, in non-communist countries, when a sitting minister had been man handled by the police. (In later years, the mayor of Karachi was punched in the face by a police officer. I have the pictures of his bleeding face of the dignitary on file). Mustafa Khar latter, after ruling the roost as governor of the Punjab, was in his turn, taken from his house, and left stranded in a remote area, with no roads and little traffic. He had to walk about twenty miles before he could find a bullock cart driver to give him a lift to a town.
Bhutto had given catchy slogans of: Roti, Kapra aur Makan” roughly bread, clothes and house for all. He also declared that factories and mills belonged to workers. On his ascension to power the workers in many factories had taken him at his word. They took over the work place in many industries, and in many instances locked the owners and administrators in their offices as punishment. Instances of verbal abuse hurled at the erstwhile masters were not uncommon. In a few cases the bosses were kept with out food or water for extended periods of time. This was termed “Gherao”, encirclement. Police dare not intervene, as the outrage was supposed to have the big chief’s sanction. Instances of actual physical assault of the persons of the bosses were rare though.
Bhutto maintained a lavish court. Drunken orgies, wife swapping, and seduction of the wives of associates were reported to be common.
Bhutto had appointed Zia chief of the army after the Butcher of Bengal retired. He had given the man the top job over the heads of several generals senior to him. Zia was widely regarded as a mediocrity. He used to follow Bhutto like a loyal henchman, usually with a tray of whisky in his hands. He was to change colors later and launch a pseudo-theocratic state.
Perhaps the greatest disservice he did to the country was to rekindle the animosity between the older inhabitants of Sind and the newer ones who had migrated from India. The immigrants controlled most of the business and industry, education and professions. The print media, dependent on Government advertisements for their daily bread, never virile in Pakistan, was reduced to abject servility. Radio and TV were under Government control already. One could easily dub the media, Bhutto voice.
He used state machinery to lavish favors on people who had done him a good turn in the days of his adversity. I have personal knowledge of one such examples.
In 1989 one of my class mates from Quetta College came to visit me in Karachi, and asked me, with an air of a person who had great and extra ordinary news to impart, if I remembered so and so from Quetta. I did. He then asked me if I had any idea what the man did now. I did not. The man, my friend blurted out, was a Judge of the Punjab High Court. It was my turn to be astounded at the news. After passing the 12th grade examination with low grades, he had gone to Lahore where he managed to get an undergraduate degree and a degree in Law with similar ranking.
He took to frequenting the meetings Bhutto addressed, and made speeches in the latter’s favor in Bar association. Bhutto on ascension to power had appointed him to a lower court, from which perch he had, over the course of time, ascended the departmental ladder. He eventually rose to a seat in the Supreme Court!
Bhutto was bright and educated enough to understand that the feudal system and Capitalism were contradiction in terms.
Bhutto had given populist socialist slogans before assuming power. Workers had shown him the way by taking over industries. He nationalized- read expropriated- industries, banks, schools, commercial concerns, even cottage industries like flour mills. Capitalists fled the country. Most had stashed a good portion of their wealth in Foreign Banks and had large investments in real estate in London, NY and other major cities.
Banking was one of the more efficient and robust sections of commerce in Pakistan. They offered good service, employed efficient persons, even some talented ones in the upper echelons, and were profitable enterprises. They had flourishing business in the UK and the USA and catered to the needs of expatriates who preferred to deal with them rather the native Banks. After nationalization, hundreds of millions in loans, with out any collateral, were given to sycophants, relatives and hangers on of the ruling clique.
Private schools, a relic of the colonial past, run by Churches, and a few other parochial groups provided high standard education for the progeny of the elite. They also accepted a few talented students from the middle and poorer classes. Minority communities such as Parsis (Zoroastrians)[xxxv] managed a few schools as well. The Government took them over. They started, like the government schools, churning out semi literate unemployable degree holders. Church and a few other high-powered schools managed to retrieve control, but many other less well connected they were reduced to low standards.
Bhutto convened a meeting of the heads of all Muslim countries in Lahore. He used the cover of the moot to obtain a “consensus from the conference to recognize BD”, publicly embraced Mujib, and buried the fictional existence of “United” Pakistan.
Bhutto was an expert at grandstanding. India had exploded a “peaceful” nuclear device in 1974. Bhutto had pledged a thousand years war with India.
The successful conference of the Muslim countries gave Bhutto a great boost.
Bhutto fell victim to a delusion common to all tin pot dictators; he started taking his own bombast seriously and made a critical mistake.1
He called a conference of all the nuclear physicists of the country and demanded that they produce a workable nuclear device in the next four to five years. The nuclear scientists in Pakistan were, one and all, jaded bureaucrats living a comfortable life in cushy sinecures.
The group of scientists humbly expressed their inability to deliver the goods, proffering the valid excuse of lack of equipment, infra structure, technical staff, laboratories and supplies. He heaped obscene abuses on them and literally shouted them out of the Shamiana. Tail between legs, they slinked out.
. A Pakistani metallurgist, A.Qadeer Khan, was worked in the translation department in a nuclear reprocessing plant in Holland. Married to a Dutch lady, he was trusted by his employers. That gave him unlimited access to all the records. He wrote to Bhutto that if he was given a personal audience, he could suggest a method of achieving the goal dearest to all their heart. Bhutto sent word to the man to present himself forthwith.
Qadeer brought photocopies of the relevant documents and a complete list of supplies, equipment, and materiel. Bhutto ensconced him in a secure location, ordered that phony companies be set up to smuggle supplies in, and the man be given the highest priority in all he needed. Khan turned out to be true to his word. He produced the bomb in about five years though due to the fear of international opprobrium the device could not be tested.
USA has always been obsessed with proliferation and of the exclusivity of the nuclear club[xxxvi]. Kissinger saw red in Bhutto’s plans to develop an atomic bomb and flew to Pakistan to upbraid the latter. Bhutto blandly denied the whole affair. Kissinger, as arrogant as they come, was incensed. He told Bhutto that the latter was insulting his intelligence, and that unless he ceased and desisted “we would make a horrible example of you”[xxxvii]. The confrontation with Kissinger sealed his fate