Bhutto, Yahiya and Sheikh Mujeeb

July 30, 2021

Bhutto, Yahiya and Sheikh Mujeeb

The 1907 elections had taken place and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman had won with a big lead. It is said that the reason for the breakup of Pakistan was that General Yahiya had adjourned the session of the National Assembly and refused to make Sheikh Mujibur Rehman the Prime Minister. Two questions were the most important after the 1970 election.

One is what will be the new constitution of the country?

This question was important because the elections of 1970 were actually held so that the new constitution could be made by the people's representatives.

The second question, of course, was who form the new government and which party would would get what share.

The answer to both these questions could only be found if the Assembly was convened as soon as possible. And this meeting was to be convened by General Yahiya who was the President of Pakistan and Chief Martial Law Administrator. But the meeting was constantly delayed. And during this delay, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, who got the highest number of votes in East Pakistan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who got majority in West Pakistan. The two were having big meetings.

So that they can increase their weight in governance. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto knew that Sheikh Mujibur Rehman should get the government now on the principle of democracy because he has the majority vote. But he was addressing large gatherings in Lahore, Multan and other cities, saying the central government would not be able to function without the participation of the PPP. He was demanding that both the Awami League and the PPP be given an equal share in the central government.

However, the fact was that Bhutto's seats were almost half that of Sheikh Mujib. During a speech, he also said that if East Pakistan did not get its fair share of government for 23 years, it does not mean that East Pakistan will rule over West Pakistan for the next 23 years. In Lahore, he announced that the keys to the Punjab and Sindh Assemblies were in my pocket and the central government could not function without my cooperation.

He also threatened that if a conspiracy was hatched against the people's decision, the PPP would launch a movement. It is not possible to make a constitution in East and West Pakistan without reconciliation. The constitution or government imposed by a province is not something that works. These smoky statements by Bhutto did not please Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Because he stood with Claire Majority.

He did not need an alliance with any other party to form a government. So he was also playing on the front foot. He responded to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's remarks on January 3, 1971 at the Race Course Ground in Dhaka. One million people had gathered here to celebrate the election victory of the Awami League. In front of them, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman made sharp statements like Bhutto. He said that if the six-point constitution was not accepted, blood would be spilled in the country.

He said that we are in the majority, we are in the majority and only we will form the next government and only we can make the constitution of Pakistan. He did one more thing to show his determination. In the same meeting, he took an oath from all the members of the Awami League Assembly that they would remain loyal to the six points of the Awami League. After the delegates, he also told the Bengali people that if any amendment had to be made in the six points, this right could not be given to anyone but 60 million Bengalis.

But at the same time, something else was probably going on in his mind, a slight indication of which is also given by his statement in the same meeting that 'if need be, I will first raise the slogan of revolution myself'. These powerful and sharp statements of Mujeeb-ur-Rehman were bothering President General Yahiya Khan who was also the President of Pakistan. Because it was not all on their agenda. Among the six points that Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was emphasizing was the issue of complete autonomy of the provinces, autonomy. While General Yahiya was against it, he wanted a constitution in which the center, the federation had more powers, more powers.

So General Yahiya Khan himself decided to go to Dhaka and meet Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. He thought that in this way he would be able to persuade Sheikh Mujibur Rehman to bring some leeway in six points. In this connection, the talks between General Yahiya Khan and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman began on January 12, 1971 in Dhaka. During the talks, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman explained his point of view to General Yahiya in detail about his six points.

General Yahiya listened with satisfaction and finally said your six points for me Acceptable, but the people of West Pakistan will not accept them. Take them with you. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman said that of course we will go with West Pakistan. It seemed that things were getting out of hand. But then General Yahiya Khan and Sheikh Mujib had a separate meeting. One on one. After this meeting, General Yahiya looked very sad.

He complained to his colleagues that Mujeeb-ur-Rehman had betrayed me and had broken his promise. The people who were urging me to be careful of him were right. I made a mistake by trusting this person. However, when the talks ended, General Yahiya arrived at Dhaka Airport from where he was to arrive in West Pakistan, but at the airport he was surrounded by some journalists and started asking about the country's constitution and other issues.

Here General Yahiya's answer was very historic. From this answer you can get some idea of the inside story of that one-on-one meeting. General Yahiya said that you should not ask this to me but to Sheikh Mujibur Rehman because he is the next Prime Minister of the country. I will not be here when they take over the reins of the country. We can say that during this visit to Dhaka, General Yahiya Khan had decided to hand over power to Sheikh Mujib or was thinking so. Has been declared the next Prime Minister. But for more clarity in this decision, General Yahiya had yet another meeting.

This was a meeting with PPP chief Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. So General Yahiya reached Larkana directly from Dhaka. Here he hunted ducks and had the most important meeting with Bhutto. Details of this most important meeting in Pakistani history have not been published in the newspapers, but British writer Talbot writes that during this meeting, Bhutto gave a piece of advice to General Yahiya which is still detrimental to him politically.

Bhutto asked General Yahiya Khan not to convene a meeting of the Assembly before agreeing on a new constitution. That is, first the consensus on the basic points of the constitution should be reached and then the assembly should be convened. Calling Sheikh Mujib a virtuous man, Bhutto said that he wanted to convene the assembly soon so that he could bulldoze the constitution. Bhutto was saying this because he did not accept the six points of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.

Bhutto's statements suggest that he was in a hurry to come to power. He kept telling General Yahiya that his family members were dying in his youth so he, Bhutto, had to come to power as soon as possible. A statement is also attributed to a senior minister in Yahiya Khan's cabinet that he had told General Yahiya Khan that if Bhutto did not come to power for a year, he would go insane. On the other hand, Bhutto Yahiya was holding talks in Larkana and on the other hand, his message was going in Dhaka.

According to Siddique Salik, the Awami League began to spread the impression that a conspiracy was being hatched against the Awami League in Larkana. Because Sheikh Mujibur Rehman has angered Yahiya Khan with his harsh attitude. In this whole situation, you can clearly feel that Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto were not trusting each other. Because of this mistrust, the country came to a standstill. Elections were held but the car was not moving forward.

When will the assembly meet?

The winning party will be able to form a government or not. These questions were breaking the nerves of the people. So Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto caught the plane and went to Dhaka, East Pakistan to meet Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Where he had to talk to Sheikh Mujibur Rehman about the future situation and six points. The talks began in the last week of January 1971. The conversation was mostly at Mujeeb-ur-Rehman's house in Dhan Mandi, but occasionally Mujeeb-ur-Rehman would come to meet Bhutto at the hotel where Bhutto was staying.

But how much the two agreed in the meetings can be gauged from a small incident. He said that when Bhutto and Sheikh Mujib were in front of the media and pretending to smile for the picture, Bhutto told Sheikh Mujib that those who won the election have performed well and those who lost have been acquitted. Sheikh Mujib replied that the election result is a fact, not an act. The last meeting in these meetings was held on January 29 at the residence of Mujeeb-ur-Rehman in Dhan Mandi. When the two came out, their faces were sad. Were sad Sheikh Mujib told the media that he had made it clear to the PPP chief that his party was committed to the constitution on the basis of six points.

Bhutto's face was also downcast. But he did not say such a thing. Instead, he avoided media questions by saying that he would consult with his colleagues on the issue of negotiations But Negotiations failed. The two did not reach a consensus.

What was the reason?

The reason, according to Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, was that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto placed more emphasis on the issue of ministries rather than negotiations on constitutional issues. What will be the distribution of ministries and who will get which ministry. According to Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, Bhutto continued to say the same thing in negotiations. While the then Minister of Communications Prof. GW Chaudhry writes that Sheikh Mujib was not ready for any change in the six points and Bhutto also made it clear that he would not accept this covert scheme of separation.

According to Bhutto, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman's six points in this meeting were in fact a secret scheme of separation, so he did not agree. So these talks failed and Bhutto returned to West Pakistan. The political turmoil was now in full swing. But the hijacking and destruction of an Indian plane added fuel to the fire. After the failure of the talks between Sheikh Mujib and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, an Indian plane caused a stir in Pakistani politics.

Ashraf and Hashim, two Kashmiri youths, hijacked an Indian Airlines flight from Srinagar to Jammu. They brought the plane to Lahore airport. Here they released the crew and passengers, but blew up the empty plane. He then sought political asylum in Pakistan. The Indian government blamed Pakistan for the plane crash and banned Pakistani military and civilian aircraft from crossing its borders. Remember that in Pakistan, every ship had to pass over India to go from West Pakistan to East Pakistan.

Now Pakistani planes, which used to cover the distance between East and West Pakistan via India in just two hours, now take more than six hours to reach Sri Lanka. The Indian people, on the other hand, were outraged at the hijacking and destruction of their plane. They launched attacks on the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. Pakistani diplomats were also injured in the attacks. In response, students in Pakistan staged demonstrations in front of the Indian High Commission.

In this context, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman expressed surprise and regret over the crash of the Indian plane. He also demanded an investigation into the hijacking and crash of an Indian airliner. But many in West Pakistan were outraged by Sheikh Mujibur Rehman's statement. He was even declared a traitor to the Kashmiri people by some quarters. In Lahore, students even attacked the Awami League office at Dayal Singh Mansion, smashed the boards there, took down the Awami League flag and set it on fire in Regal Chowk.

Interestingly, when the Indian plane was hijacked, Bhutto went to the Lahore airport and met the hijackers, shook hands with them. But when India banned the flight of Pakistani planes, it was said in Pakistan that the hijacking was an Indian conspiracy. Both hijackers were declared Indian agents in Pakistan. They were tried and both were jailed for some time. While all this was going on, on the other hand, on February 13, General Yahiya made the most important announcement.

He said that the assembly would meet on March 3 in Dhaka. The same announcement everyone was waiting for. As the time for the meeting approached, West Pakistani leaders were trying to persuade Sheikh Mujibur Rehman to relax some of the six points. In this regard, Maulana Fazlur Rehman's father Mufti Mahmood also visited Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in Dhaka. But Sheikh Mujib also denied them and said that he would not be flexible in the six points.

The assembly session was approaching and the Awami League had completed its homework. He also drafted a constitutional draft, a constitution, based on six points. It was written in the draft that the State Bank of Pakistan would be abolished and separate reserve banks of the provinces would be established. The NWFP, now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was proposed by the Awami League in its constitutional draft as Pakhtunistan and East Pakistan as Bangladesh in its draft.

This draft constitution was unacceptable to the political parties of West Pakistan at that time, especially the PPP. So they boycotted the most important National Assembly session on March 3. After the PPP, Qayyum League also joined the boycott. In these circumstances, only Maulana Mufti Mahmood, the head of the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam, was opposed to this impression. He was saying that the Awami League does not want to impose its own constitution on other federal units.

On February 28, 1971, Bhutto held a huge rally at Miner Pakistan in Lahore. "If the National Assembly convenes without us, a resistance movement will be launched," he said in his speech. He warned that if any member of his party went to Dhaka, they would break his legs. He may or may not have broken his legs, but General Yahiya had made an even tougher decision. On the one hand he was convening a meeting of the assembly and on the other hand he had started preparations for a military operation whose code name was Operation Blitz.

On February 26, General Yaqub Khan, the military commander of East Pakistan, convened a meeting of senior military commanders. General Yaqub Khan told the commanders that General Yahiya Khan was about to adjourn the Assembly. Therefore, the army was ready to implement Operation Blitz on short notice. Meanwhile, some units of Pakistan Army stationed in Quetta were shifted to Karachi so that they could be flown to East Pakistan.

It was not that Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and his party were not doing anything. He was also preparing for war in a military manner. They had decided that if their six points were not met, they would revolt. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman had already hinted at this in his speech. General Khadim Hussain Raja writes that in those days arms shops were being looted in East Pakistan. The Awami League, with its immense public support, was ready for a direct confrontation in the future.

Pakistan was also infiltrating or infiltrating on a large scale from India. In this situation, it was clear that if the March 3 session of the National Assembly was adjourned, the flames of civil war would flare up in East Pakistan. East Pakistan Governor Vice Admiral SM Ahsan was also watching. He started meetings with Sheikh Mujib to prevent the impending catastrophe. SM Ahsan also advised General Yahiya Khan not to adjourn the Assembly.

But General Yahiya did not agree and instead removed Admiral Ahsan from the post of Governor and appointed General Yaqub Khan, the Commander of East Pakistan in his place. And then he announced that the way back was gone. On March 1, General Yahiya announced that the session of the National Assembly had been adjourned. It was announced that thousands of people took to the streets in Dhaka. Sheikh Mujib called an emergency press conference and called for a strike.

The situation was now out of control. Then came a time when Sheikh Mujibur Rehman refused to meet General Yahiya in the drawing room of the Presidency and he had to go to the bathroom to negotiate.

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