At a 1966 Lahore conference of both the
eastern and the western chapters of the Awami League, Mujib
announced his controversial six-point political and economic
program for East Pakistani provincial autonomy. He demanded
that the government be federal and parliamentary in nature,
its members to be elected by universal adult suffrage with
legislative representation on the basis of population; that
the federal government have principal responsibility for
foreign affairs and defense only; that each wing have its own
currency and separate fiscal accounts; that taxation would
occur at the provincial level, with a federal government
funded by constitutionally guaranteed grants; that each
federal unit could control its own earning of foreign
exchange; and that each unit could raise its own militia or
paramilitary forces.
Mujib's six points ran directly counter to
President Ayub's plan for greater national integration. Ayub's
anxieties were shared by many West Pakistanis, who feared that
Mujib's plan would divide Pakistan by encouraging ethnic and
linguistic cleavages in West Pakistan, and would leave East
Pakistan, with its Bengali ethnic and linguistic unity, by far
the most populous and powerful of the federating units. Ayub
interpreted Mujib's demands as tantamount to a call for
independence. After pro-Mujib supporters rioted in a general
strike in Dhaka, the government arrested Mujib in January
1968.
Ayub suffered a number of setbacks in 1968.
His health was poor, and he was almost assassinated at a
ceremony marking ten years of his rule. Riots followed, and
Bhutto was arrested as the instigator. At Dhaka a tribunal
that inquired into the activities of the already-interned
Mujib was arousing strong popular resentment against Ayub. A
conference of opposition leaders and the cancellation of the
state of emergency (in effect since 1965) came too late to
conciliate the opposition. On February 21, 1969, Ayub
announced that he would not run in the next presidential
election in 1970. A state of near anarchy reigned with
protests and strikes throughout the country. The police
appeared helpless to control the mob violence, and the
military stood aloof. At length, on March 25 Ayub resigned and
handed over the administration to the commander in chief,
General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan. Once again the country was
placed under martial law. Yahya assumed the titles of chief
martial law administrator and president. He announced that he
considered himself to be a transitional leader whose task
would be to restore order and to conduct free elections for a
new constituent assembly, which would then draft a new
constitution. He appointed a largely civilian cabinet in
August 1969 in preparation for the election, which was
scheduled to take place in December 1970. Yahya moved with
dispatch to settle two contentious issues by decree: the
unpopular "One Unit" of West Pakistan, which was created as a
condition for the 1956 constitution, was ended; and East
Pakistan was awarded 162 seats out of the 300-member National
Assembly. On November 12, 1970, a cyclone devastated an area
of almost 8,000 square kilometers of East Pakistan's
mid-coastal lowlands and its outlying islands in the Bay of
Bengal. It was perhaps the worst natural disaster of the area
in centuries. As many as 250,000 lives were lost. Two days
after the cyclone hit, Yahya arrived in Dhaka after a trip to
Beijing, but he left a day later. His seeming indifference to
the plight of Bengali victims caused a great deal of
animosity. Opposition newspapers in Dhaka accused the
Pakistani government of impeding the efforts of international
relief agencies and of "gross neglect, callous inattention,
and bitter indifference." Mujib, who had been released from
prison, lamented that "West Pakistan has a bumper wheat crop,
but the first shipment of food grain to reach us is from
abroad" and "that the textile merchants have not given a yard
of cloth for our shrouds." "We have a large army," Mujib
continued," but it is left to the British Marines to bury our
dead." In an unveiled threat to the unity of Pakistan he
added, "the feeling now pervades . . . every village, home,
and slum that we must rule ourselves. We must make the
decisions that matter. We will no longer suffer arbitrary rule
by bureaucrats, capitalists, and feudal interests of West
Pakistan."
Yahya announced plans for a national
election on December 7, 1970, and urged voters to elect
candidates who were committed to the integrity and unity of
Pakistan. The elections were the first in the history of
Pakistan in which voters were able to elect members of the
National Assembly directly. In a convincing demonstration of
Bengali dissatisfaction with the West Pakistani regime, the
Awami League won all but 2 of the 162 seats allotted East
Pakistan in the National Assembly. Bhutto's Pakistan People's
Party came in a poor second nationally, winning 81 out of the
138 West Pakistani seats in the National Assembly. The Awami
League's electoral victory promised it control of the
government, with Mujib as the country's prime minister, but
the inaugural assembly never met.
Yahya and Bhutto vehemently opposed Mujib's
idea of a confederated Pakistan. Mujib was adamant that the
constitution be based on his six-point program. Bhutto,
meanwhile, pleaded for unity in Pakistan under his leadership.
As tensions mounted, Mujib suggested he become prime minister
of East Pakistan while Bhutto be made prime minister of West
Pakistan. It was this action that triggered mass civil
disobedience in East Pakistan. Mujib called for a general
strike until the government was given over to the "people's
representatives." Tiring of the interminable game of politics
he was playing with the Bengali leader, Yahya decided to
ignore Mujib's demands and on March 1 postponed indefinitely
the convening of the National Assembly, which had been
scheduled for March 3. March 1 also was a portentous date, for
on that day Yahya named General Tikka Khan, who in later years
was to earn the dubious title "Butcher of Baluchistan" for his
suppression of Baluch separatists, as East Pakistan's military
governor. The number of West Pakistani troops entering East
Pakistan had increased sharply in the preceding weeks,
climbing from a precrisis level of 25,000 to about 60,000,
bringing the army close to a state of readiness. As tensions
rose, however, Yahya continued desperate negotiations with
Mujib, flying to Dhaka in mid-March. Talks between Yahya and
Muhib were joined by Bhutto but soon collapsed, and on March
23 Bengalis following Mujib's lead defiantly celebrated
"Resistance Day" in East Pakistan instead of the traditional
all-Pakistan "Republic Day." Yahya decided to "solve" the
problem of East Pakistan by repression. On the evening of
March 25 he flew back to Islamabad. The military crackdown in
East Pakistan began that same night.
