PAKISTAN STUDIES

ASSIGNMENT NO 1

PREPARED BY
Saif Nasir
52932
Okasha Osama Paracha
53006
Umair Ahmed
53378
Sikander Nazar
55132

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ISLAMIC STATE OR A COLLECTION OF ETHNIC GROUPS?

FROM ONE PARTITION TO THE NEXT

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Until mid-1940s, M.A Jinnah gathered Muslims under one platform with a promise of giving
Pakistan a federal Government system (system where powers are divided between center and
provinces), even in 1945 he devoted himself in giving provinces complete autonomy similar to the
provincial autonomy enjoyed by the provinces of US, Canada and Australia. These promises kept
Muslims of the sub-continent motivated and committed to make sacrifices while trying their best
to get a separate homeland for themselves. But after Mr. Jinnah became the Governor General and
President of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, his approach of giving the country a federal
system suddenly changed. He declared it the “Poison of Provincialism” by declaring it one of the
hidden divisions of the nation that the neighboring country sought to make worsen to its own
benefit. In one of his speech in Dhaka Mr. Jinnah stated:

“I want you to be on your guard against this poison of provincialism that our enemies wish
to inject into our state.”

Similarly, the Muslim Legistors’ Convention in Delhi had amended the Lahore Resolution towards
centralizing perspective in a way that this amendment was not even noticed by the Provincial
leaders of the league. One provision of the Delhi provision read:

…the Muslims are convinced that with a view to save Muslim India from the domination of the
Hindus and in order to afford them full scope to develop themselves according to their genius, it
is necessary to constitute a sovereign independent state comprising Bengal and Assam in the
North-East Zone and the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan in the North-
West Zone.

There was no mentioning of the previously promised provincial autonomy and sovereignty which
was giving much importance in the Lahore Resolution. As a result of this new approach severe
stress was seen between the National and Regional leaders. The late 1940 debates between the
Provincial leaders and Muslim League Leaders resulted in two opposing conceptions of Pakistan.
The provincial leaders were in favor of a Federal System as it allows the nation’s ethnic groups to
use their own language. On the other hand, the Muslim League leaders wanted to see not only an
Islamic State but also a state with Urdu as factor of forming a Unitary State. The Muslim League
leaders wanted to utilize their powers to dissolve the complicated ethno-linguistic divisions but
this required not only getting the support of the Provincial States but also to withstand India even
more effectively as they saw the country as a constant threat.

This disagreement hindered the work of the Constituent Assembly for almost ten years as during
this period the Muslim League leaders were trying their best to establish an institutional framework
which would satisfy everyone’s demands. Finally, the domineering groups, the Muhajirs and the
Punjabis, failing to find a middle way imposed a Central Government System which additionally

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worsens the ethnic tensions. One result of this tension was the 1971 partition and creation of
Bangladesh.

Jinnah’s Nation-State: Between “The Poison of Provincialism” and the Indian

Threat
Jinnah’s fight against “Provincialism” started from East Bengal during the period of March 1948
where he delivered a very promising speech:

“Pakistan is the embodiment of the unity of the Muslim nation and so it must remain. That
unity we, as true Muslims, must jealously guard and preserve. If we begin to think ourselves
as Bengalis, Punjabis, Sindhis, etc., first and Muslims only incidentally, then Pakistan is
bound to disintegrate.”

Mr. Jinnah’s concerns regarding the “Indian Threat” were clearly visible in his speeches, he in his
speeches warns the Eastern Bengalis regarding the foreign agencies collaboration with Pakistani
Communists groups working against country.

Even after parting from India and getting an independent state for themselves the Pakistani nation
was still strongly dependent on India regarding the basic resources. Not only Pakistan was smaller
than India demographically, economically, and in military terms but it was also denied its inherited
share of resources by Nehru.

In this regard, Pakistani leaders were arguing publically that India did not want their country to
survive, these statements which helped these leaders in gathering their people behind them were
manipulated by Hindu Nationalists in favor of “Akhand Bharat” (undivided India).

These endangered feelings were more prominent in military because the agreement of transferring
military equipment was broken by India. Ayub khan the General Commanding in charge of
Pakistani Army in East Bengal stated:

“India’s attitude to Pakistan continued to be one of unmitigated hostility. Her aim was to
cripple us at birth. She denied us our share of financial resources and dishonored solemn
agreements for the supply of our share of stores and equipment.”

In addition to the Kashmir war in 1948-49 which resulted in a defeat Pakistan faced two different
problems which increased its fear of India. First when New Delhi decided to stop the water flow
in two canals irrigating West Punjab and tributaries of Indus River. This matter continued till the
Indus Treaty was signed in 1960. Second when India decided to stop exporting coal to Pakistan.
Although this issue was partially solved through trade agreements signed in 1951 but still both
countries are unable to get along and become trade partners.

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Stillborn Federalism and the Unresolved Ethno-Linguistic Issue
Naturally Indian fear strengthens the centralizing attitude of Pakistani leaders towards unitary
system in any case. Mr. Jinnah made it clear through his speech regarding the Bengali’s attachment
to their language which he gave during his official visit to Dhaka in March 1948.

“…let me make very clear to you that the state language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and
no other language. Anyone who tries to mislead you is really the enemy of Pakistan. Without
one State language, no nation can remain tied solidly together and function.”

Mr. Jinnah was a strong and prominent supporter of the unitary system, he was a person who
believed in the “one country, one people, one religion, one language” equation. In order to save
the country from the “Poison of Provincialism” he mentioned the importance of unity in many of
his speeches. The reason he was mentioning this issue in many of his speeches was because he
was frightened by the condition of previous Muslim nations that got destroyed because of the tribal
conflicts. The reason Mr. Jinnah gave so much importance to Urdu was that this language was not
affiliated to any province of the country.

In addition to Bengalis Mr. Jinnah also focused on other communities as well during his tours of
Pakistan. He delivered speeches regarding unity and the importance of Urdu in other parts of the
country as well as he wanted to assemble the entire nation under one flag.

After independence till the first constitution of Pakistan was made Pakistan was ruled under the
amended version of “The Government of India Act 1935” where the center was in charge of 59
matters, the provinces had charge of 54 matters while the concurrent list was 36 items long. The
amendments in the constitution allowed Mr. Jinnah to use article 51(5) -according to which
governors were supposed to appoint and dismiss the government of their provinces on the orders
executed by the Governor General.

Mr. Jinnah utilizes these powers by dismissing the Chief Ministers of NWFP and Sindh because
they were promoting a Pashtun National Agenda and were hindering the transformation of Karachi
into the capital of Pakistan respectively.

After Mr. Jinnah’s demise Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan also followed the path paved by Mr. Jinnah as he
also gave importance to Urdu language. When in 1948 a member of the Constituent Assembly
presented an amendment to allow Bengali as a language of the Assembly along with English and
Urdu he replied:

“Pakistan is a Muslim State and it must have as its Lingua Franca, the language of the
Muslim nation”.

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Muhajirs and Punjabis, Founding Fathers of a Unitary and Centralized State
The Mujahirs, Architects of a “Migrant State”

Muhajir literally means “Migrant”. Here it is referred to those members of Muslim community
who had left their entire lives behind and travelled to Pakistan on account of partition or for fear
of disturbances related to independence. According to 1951 census, at that time there were 7
million Muhajirs in the country from which 700,000 were settled in East-Pakistan and the
remaining 6.3 million were settled in West-Pakistan. Mostly the Muhajirs after crossing the border
settled in a similar cultural and linguistic environment but those from the Hindu majority areas felt
difficulties. Certainly, the “Muhajir” label was restricted to the community whose influence would
immediately overweigh its demographic size.

The Muhajirs primarily settled in the urban areas, particularly the larger towns of Sindh, especially
in Karachi which eventually became the city of Muhajirs par excellence, even if they settled in
other places. As a dominant society the Muhajirs enjoyed real prestige in Sindh. They dominated
the state through Muslim League. Similarly, as the Muhajirs were a trade elite they also dominated
the economy of the country by practicing control over 36 out of 42 largest private companies of
the country. This community also dominated the civil service of the country as well as they showed
their competencies in other professional departments like Education, Law etc which were
previously controlled by the Hindus.

The Sindhis showed mixed feelings regarding the Muhajirs dominancy over the country, some
appreciated them for their help in fulfilling the gaps in the departments while some got frustrated
as they did not got the chance to obtain some of the positions left by Hindus.

The Muhajirs also helped in the promotion of Urdu to the rank of official language. While
recognizing the importance of English for the administration of the multilingual country Pakistan
Government tried its best to promote Urdu, regarding which the courts and regional assemblies
were also requested to use Urdu. In fact, the Punjabis abandoned the use of their mother tongue
publically in order to occupy the vanguard of the new state.

The Roots of Punjabi Domination

The Punjabi Muslims used their demographic weight, political and economical strength to
dominate the country from its independence. This nation particularly had benefited through
modernization of agriculture in their region. Along with a strong agricultural background they
were also heavily overrepresented in the armed forces. The Punjabis also dominated the
administrative departments even out-numbering Muhajirs in the administrative posts. The Punjabis
were responsible for the supply of wheat to the entire country and through their “Green

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Revolution” the agricultural production of the country rose by nearly 9 percent a year. In 1951, the
GDP of Punjab was 3 times larger than that of Sindh minus Karachi.

Initially, after independence Pakistan was dominated by two different groups: The Punjabis
dominating the Army and Bureaucracy, while the Muhajirs dominating the field of Business,
Administration, and Government. Yet both groups did not share similar cultural and political
interests. The Muhajirs considered Islam as nothing more than an identity symbol while on the
other hand the Punjabis gathered under the flag of a separate homeland after realizing the cry of
“Islam in Danger”. Unsurprisingly, Punjab was one of the first provinces of Pakistan to reshape
the colonial Muslim Personal Law (Sharia) Application Act of 1937. Moreover, these both groups
were also very different in socioeconomic terms. The Muhajirs were active in private sectors living
in the urban areas of the country while the Punjabis mostly lived in rural areas and farm the lands.

These differences among the two groups certainly favored Punjabis in the mid-1950s. After the
mysterious assassination of Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan the post of Prime Minister and the President
both were filled by individuals from Punjab. Similarly, the Punjabis also created a new political
party by the name of Republican Party made up essentially of Punjabis who were related to the
movement of Pakistan.

These games of power and domination between the two groups hindered the way of Pakistan in
giving itself a constitution for almost 10 years.

The Slaying of Federalism: The One-Unit Scheme and the 1956 Constitution
The Bengalis were the main opponents to the political views of Muhajirs and Punjabis as they
objected the first draft of Constitution that the Basic Principles Committee of the Assembly
prepared on the basis of the Objective Resolution presented by the Prime Minister Mr. Liaquat Ali
Khan by stating that its making the state plainly centralized because according to that draft the
centre was given the charge of 67 subjects and only 35 items were given to the Provinces while
concurrent list was 37 items long.

With respect to population East Pakistan had a larger population than the West Pakistan. On these
grounds, the people of East Pakistan demanded a federal system and at least equal representation
in the institution the Constituent Assembly was in charge of. After a while the Basic Principles
Committee presented a second report where it was recommended the formation of a Federal and
Parliamentary System, with two assemblies. The elected representatives from Punjab in a
counterproposal recommended that same number of seats must be allocated for both wings on
Pakistan in the lower and upper houses which was rejected by the Bengalis. These quarrels over
representation became the main blocking point for the Constituent Assembly in making any
progress. Thus for settlement the BPC proposed a compromise by giving equal number of seats to
the west and east in the lower house but this compromise also got rejected by the Punjabis and the
Muhajirs.

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In 1952, Urdu was made the national language of Pakistan. Despite the complete opposition of the
Bengalis, Punjabis and Muhajirs tried their best so that they can make a centralized, unitary state
that they would control. The response to this elevation came in the form of riots and protests in the
East Pakistan which resulted in the death of 3 individuals.

After partition, different Bengali Nationalist who once had briefly joined hands with Muslim
League created their own political parties and gathered Bengalis around Awami League (A core
political party of a United Front created by Suharwardi). This group demanded the recognition of
Bengali as a national language.

The United Front marked their presence by recording a huge victory in the provincial election of
1954 which allowed Fazul Haq to form the government. The centre after realizing this devised an
equality plan by introducing the concept of the One- Unit Scheme. The purpose of this scheme
was to combine all the provinces of West Pakistan in a single large province in order to offset the
weight of East Bengal. In 1955, Governor General Ghulam Muhammad converted this scheme
into an institutional reality. This scheme made sure that the Punjabis and Muhajirs retain their
powers and it was clearly visible that through this scheme these groups wanted to keep their
dominancy over the Bengalis.

The Bengali Leaders also accepted this political equality between East and West Pakistan because
the West Pakistani leaders made many promises to them including the guarantee to give complete
autonomy to the provinces as well as the inclusion of Bengalis in the Bureaucracy and Army and
even a promise was made regarding the post of Prime Minister which stated that the next Prime
Minister would be a Bengali.

The Awami League parted their ways from the One-Unit Scheme after they realized the fact that
the promises made to them were being betrayed as despite making the promise of appointing a
Bengali Prime Minister the authorities appointed Chaudhri Muhammad Ali a Punjabi Leader as
the Prime Minister. Similarly, while the scheme was being processed the actions of the authorities
led to the withdrawal of Punjab and NWFP from the support of this One-unit Scheme.

Still the One-Unit Scheme remained one of the important features of the constitution of Pakistan
which finally was made in 1956 after almost 10 years of independence. Article 1 of the constitution
of Pakistan states:

“Pakistan shall be a Federal Republic to be known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”

The number of central list items were reduced to 30 while the provinces were given 94 items, 19
items were included in the concurrent list. Besides this the provinces were given autonomy in
amending and even rejecting laws passed by Central Legislature. Similar techniques were used in
West Pakistan. In the new constitution huge powers were given to the President even the decision
of implementing emergency and suspension of the assemblies. Then in 1957 a resolution was
passed in the West Pakistan Assembly regarding restoration of former Provinces.

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Ayub Khan’s Constitution: Authoritarianism and Centralization
Ayub khan’s implementation of Martial Law reaffirmed the domination of Punjabi’s in the country
who gained momentum at the expense of Muhajirs whose domination got declined in 1960 after
the shift of the Federal Capital from Karachi to Rawalpindi a Punjabi city near NWFP where the
GHQ was already located. In 1967, the federal capital again got transferred to a nearby city
Islamabad.

The martial Law established by Ayub Khan resulted in the increase of centralization in the country
as the power was shortened in few hands, even the 1962 constitution also was unable to mark any
difference, the federal character of the state was not more than just a written constitution, and
provinces were not given any autonomy. The constitution also included the One-Unit Scheme and
equality between East and West Pakistan. In the provinces, Governors who were given the power
to dismiss regional governments were appointed by Ayub Khan. The balance of power was
changing at the expense of those who wanted regional autonomy which is why the Bengali’s were
the first victims of the balance of power not only politically but also economically. Mujibur
Rehman a Bengali Political Leader protested passionately against this domination.

Bengali Separatism: Mujibur Rehman, the Two-Economy Theory and the

Center’s Overreaction
Mujibur Rehman a prominent Bengali political leader who was also a trustworthy companion of
Suharwardi started his political carrier under the flag of Muslim League but after the creation of
Awami Muslim League joined the party and got elected under the United Front label in the 1954
elections and remained the part of several Provincial Governments. After the demise of Suharwardi
in 1963, Mujibur Rehman became a key leader of the Awami League.

Mr. Mujibur Rehman had showed strong attachment to the Bengali Culture, he showed his
concerns regarding the One-Unit Scheme which had seriously affected the Bengalis who were
already lagging behind in Socio-Economic terms since partition.

The administration of East Bengal was in the hands of civil servants from West Pakistan because
out of the 95 Muslims in the Indian Civil Service who opted for Pakistan after its partition only
one or two were from Bengal. Although Bengalis could be appointed District Administrators and
Administrative Heads they remained a minority in the Central Administrative Bodies.

In 1959, the Bengali Civil Servants only filled 9.6 percent of the seats whereas at the same time
there was not even a single Bengali member among the highest 47 Army Officers. In 1963, the
East Pakistani’s represented 5 percent of Army officers, 5 percent of Navy officers while their
representation in the Air Force was 11 percent.

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Similarly, the Bengalis also had suffered serious Economic exploitation as well. The revenue
generated by East Pakistan from their exports was used to finance industries of West Pakistan. The
trade surplus created by East Pakistan during the period of 1947-62 was used to cover the trade
deficit created by West Pakistan. The Bengalis raised voice regarding this exploitation as their per-
capita income was even below than West Pakistan. In 1971, East Pakistan recorded 6000 hospital
beds, 162 colleges, 16 percent of civil servants, and had an army of 20,000 individuals while the
West Pakistan had 26000 hospital beds, 271 colleges, 84 percent of civil servants and an army of
500,000 soldiers.

The East Pakistani’s however, got more politically as well as educationally stabled than the West
Pakistani’s. Their literacy rate was even much greater (17.6) than that of West Pakistan (13.6).
Hence the influential economists produced by the East Pakistan suggested that a “Two-Economy
Theory” had replaced the “Two-Nation Theory”.

In 1966, the Awami League presented a Six-Point Programme as a challenge to the Central
Government.

1: The constitution should provide for a federation in the true sense and a Parliamentary democracy
on the basis of direct universal suffrage.

2: The federal government should control only defence and foreign affairs; all the other matters
should be devolved to the state level.

3: Each wing of the country should have its own freely convertible currency; failing that there will
be a single currency but constitutional provisions will prevent the flight of capital from East
Pakistan to West Pakistan. Furthermore, East Pakistan should have its own central bank and
conduct a separate fiscal and monetary policy.

4: The power of taxation should be vested in states. A share of the revenue will be remitted to the
federal government.

5: Each wing of Pakistan will manage its own currency reserves and trade with whatever country
it chooses.

6: East Pakistan should have its own paramilitary force.

After getting to know these demands the President General Ayub Khan responded to these
demands by arresting Mr. Mujibur Rehman along with a number of other members of Awami
Muslim League on the basis that they were threatening National cohesion. The government while
focusing on Mr. Mujibur Rehman accused him of having accepted arms from India.

In 1968, when the trial of the case regarding Mr. Mujibur Rehman was opened in Dhaka where it
provoked mass mobilization of opponents of the regime. The accusations were dismissed by the

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Judges because of lack of evidence while marking an end to this chapter with the even more
strengthened popularity or Mr. Mujibur Rehman.

In 1969, Ayub Khan convened a round table conference regarding the amendment of constitution
towards complete federalism after realizing that their attitude ended up fostering the radicalization
of the Bengali movement for self-determination. Eventually, this round table conference failed due
to the boycott by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the founder of Pakistan People’s Party. At the end Ayub
Khan decided to step down so he resigned and handed over his powers to the army commander-
in-chief, Yahya Khan.

Yahya Khan after getting the powers in his hands decided to ignore the 1962 constitution declared
Martial Law, while announcing that elections would be held in the country and a federal –style
constitution was drafted. In early 1970, Yahya Khan introduced a Legal Framework Order while
this time the One-Unit Scheme was set aside and the East Pakistani’s were for the first time given
majority seats in the assembly.

Yahya khan made his promise true by holding elections in the country in December 1970. The
results of these elections were in favor of Rehman’s Awami League as they won 160 seats while
PPP of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto only managed to secure 81 seats. These elections confirmed the
parliamentary partition of Pakistan as Awami League was not able to secure a single seat in West
Pakistan whereas PPP was not able to secure even one seat in East Pakistan. Apparently, it was
Mujibur Rehman’s turn for the government but Bhutto and the West Pakistani’s had no intention
of giving powers to a Bengali. He, like the Punjabi’s, viewed the people of East Pakistan as being
meant to remain second-class citizens.

Yet on the other hand Mr. Mujibur Rehman after winning the election demanded the
implementation of his Six-Point Programme and Yahya Khan seemed to be going to allow this
implementation when suddenly Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a new powerful man of West Pakistan rejected
this and stated clearly that his party would boycott any such body. Due to this reason Yahya Khan
announced that the appointment of proposed constituent assembly would be postponed
indefinitely. As a response to this decision of Yahya Khan, on 1 st March 1971, Mr. Mujibur
Rehman recorded his protest by launching a general strike throughout East Pakistan.

A meeting of many military as well as civilian leaders in Islamabad convinced that India is actually
manipulating Pakistan through these moves. The Pakistani leaders reacted to this by sending troops
to East Pakistan under the name of the infamous Operation Searchlight. These soldiers attacked
and killed almost 300 individuals on the campus of Dhaka University. Bengalis also responded by
attacking the Urdu-Speakers usually known as Biharis causing the largest number of casualties in
the Crescent Textile Mills in Khulna.

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India after realizing the golden opportunity also started to support the Bengali Guerrilla Forces,
the Mukti Bahini by training its members but this help changed its nature when on November 21
New Delhi, while justifying its military intervention on humanitarian grounds, argued that it could
not cope with the influx of refugees. The war was not fought for much time and after a short time
Pakistan accepted its defeat and surrendered what would soon become Bangladesh.

The war caused some serious damages to the country, the casualties of this war according to
various sources ranges from 300,000 to 3 million people. The result of this war separated Pakistan
from an ethnic group that shared its Muslim hood. The Bengalis were not satisfied from the
structure of the constitution of the new state as it did not produced that kind of autonomy which
they expected and this dissatisfaction resulted in socioeconomic disturbances as well as economic
exploitation. This separation of Bangladesh had weekend Pakistan and it cannot further claim that
it encircled India.

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