THE FIRST PERIOD OF PAKISTAN’S POLITICAL LIFE

THE FIRST PERIOD OF PAKISTAN’S POLITICAL LIFE
( From 14th August 1947 to October 1958)

This is the period in which Pakistan attained political stability with difficulty. After the father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam and Khan Liaquat Ali Khan we completed the constitution making stage and in order to consolidate the democracy we declared it ? Islamic Republic of Pakistan? and selected the year 1959 to hold election in the country after 12 years of its inception. These are good points but the negative things that happened were as follows:
We did not show any gesture of magnanimity and tolerance because every citizen living in this country was supposed to be equal according to the saying of Quaid-e-Azam. But we refused to accept this. We continued the debate after the partition that those who opposed the Pakistan movement were traitors and enemies. If we had decided to forget and forgive and had started our journey of independence without prejudice as desired by Quaid-e-Azam, then all these capable people would have worked shoulder to shoulder with us for consolidating the democratic system of this newly born country . When the great leaders like Husain Shaeed Suhrawardy and Mian Iftikharuddin started playing the role of opposition in the Pakistan parliament we should have welcomed it and could improve and purify the system in the light of their criticism. If we had started the tradition of welcoming the criticism the democratic system could be strengthened. But we saw the successor of the Quaid-e-Azam , Mr Liaquat Ali Khan being murdered before our eyes and we allowed the murderers to abscond from the scene of crime. We started calling our Pakistani brothers as traitors and dishonest. This political immaturity cost us heavily. Our assemblies became hot beds of disturbances and fights and it became obvious that democracy did not suit us.
During this period we made another mistake that we appointed ?needy? people as Custodians of Evacuee Properties. To fulfil their own needs and the needs of their kith and kin they usurped the rights of many deserving people. And to become rich overnight many groups of usurpers came into being. They openly traded in the evacuee properties in the Punjab and other parts of Pakistan and took possession of lot many properties. The deserving people were loitering in the streets and the illegitimate property holders are enjoying themselves even today and they started spending this illegitimate wealth in building their political stature. The result was that in Pakistan politics became the hand maiden of the rich people only. The poor and capable people because of the non availability of sufficient funds became subservient to the usurpers groups and these usurper groups in spite of their incapability became important in politics due to their wealth thus creating confusion in the national politics. In assemblies chairs were thrown on members. The members were murdered. In one assembly the deputy speaker was killed by members of the assembly. It resulted in the imposition of martial law in whole of the country in October 1958.
The martial law of October 1958 in spite of some good points was full of many defects. Due to martial law the political confusion was forestalled and the lawlessness was curbed but the martial law government decided to remove all reputed people instead of the dishonest persons. All those escaped accountability who had indulged in illegal business of evacuee property and the many important leaders of the Pakistan movement came in the purview of the Electoral Bodies Disqualification Ordinance(EBDO).Those who understood the federal structure and politics went into background. Second and third grade leaders emerged on the political scene in place of these people. They were neither trained for politics nor they were fully conversant with the aims and objectives of the Pakistan movement. They were those who came of age after the establishment of Pakistan. They were Punjabis, Bengalis, Sindhis Pathans and Baluchis but none of them was a Pakistani. When Ayub Khan introduced the basic democracies system then initially it was meant to strengthen the local bodies . But Field Marshal Ayub Khan converted it into electoral college. The result was that the common man stood alienated from the mainstream of politics and our politics was being run by only forty thousand B.D. members. Gradually the selfishness of these people made them into a separate class and this class became a symbol of hatred of Islam. On the other hand the number of ethnic and regional parties and its leaders swelled up into a majority. So instead of practising national politics they became engaged in internal rivalries and clashes. Thus ultimately the regional and lingual politics overshadowed the national political scene.
What is the difference between national and regional politics?
When a balanced political leadership operates in a country then its roots are embedded in streets, lanes and villages and due to balanced political leadership a unified country emerges. It?s results are found in every federal unit and in every village, town, sub-division and district development work is undertaken with the same speed. The people get employment. With the setting up of industries every part of the country benefits. Proper planning is done and in the area where sugar cane grows sugar mills are installed. Where cotton grows in abundance there cotton ginning and textile factories are established. At the place where more rice is grown rice husking mills are installed and where wheat grows in abundance flour mills are set up. In the areas where mineral resources exist the work on mining is undertaken . Where oil is expected to be found there the oil exploration is carried out. In the agricultural areas the canal system is improved. New dams are constructed. For industrial development new power houses are built. To improve the national resources industries are set up in backward areas. Thus the economic and developmental work is spread out in such a manner among the people that the people of every part of the country feel their participation in it.
Whenever roads are constructed in the country then cognisance is taken of the industrial and economic prosperity and convenience of the country. The basic purpose of every road is to provide the best means of transport and communication from farm to the market. All other objectives are made subservient to this. More development takes place where the majority of people live . This is the basic principle of civic facilities. Where the railway facility is available there this system should be made more modern and progressive because besides transporting the people the railway system is also the cheapest and convenient means of transporting the industrial products and trade. Where railway system does not exist there the roads are improved and widened and where railway system exists there railways are given preference as a means of communication and in other areas other means of communication are activated. The objective of the government is to provide employment, housing and social security to the citizens. They are also supposed to provide a just and independent legal system. The most important duty of every government is to provide education to the people even if they live in the remotest part of the country. In every village separate schools for boys and girls should be established and local teachers should be engaged in those schools. The local bodies and their office holders should supervise these schools. Instead of a single person local bodies education committees should be set up consisting of educated members of the local councils who keep an eye on the results and also on the working of the teachers. They should also make recommendations about the financial matters of the schools. There should be free education up to the matriculation level. The poor students should be provided free books and after matriculation the students should be given technical and vocational education. They should be trained in such vocations so that after the training of a year or two they should be able to earn their livelihood. Those boys and girls who want to go for higher education should be provided facilities accordingly. There should be a college after every eight or ten miles.
In the fields of education and housing the industrialists can help the government a lot In the industrial zones in addition to mills, factories and manufacturing units, housing colonies for the workers can be built. The buildings for schools and colleges can be constructed in these colonies with the help of industrialists and local people. The teaching staff should be provided by the government. While appointing teachers preference should be given to local people particularly the lady teachers so that they do not have to come from far away places.
The government needs to work in agricultural sector on revolutionary footings. An Agricultural Task Force should be created in the villages. They should undertake the desilting and strengthening the lining of the canals and water channels. The local landlord or the departments of agriculture, irrigation or revenue should pay the wages to the workers on daily basis. The Agricultural Task Force along with the representatives of the agriculture, irrigation and revenue department should supervise their work and pool up their efforts to get work out of them. In this manner the village youth and the farm workers who remain jobless for some part of the year shall get part time work and the irrigation system will also improve which would have a positive effect on the production of agricultural commodities. There are only a couple of Agricultural Universities in the country including the one in Faisalabad. There should be an agricultural college and research centre in every division which should try to develop better seeds for the crops and vegetables and other commodities that are grown in that area. There should be orchards and forests in every division and trees should be planted by the sides of irrigation channels. The local bodies should be associated in this work at all levels and should organise the Task Forces on divisional level.
Pakistan?s population is increasing at a great pace every year. To forestall this growth it is imperative that there are more opportunities of employment and education is promoted at all level .Another factor is the expansion of habitats in an unorganised manner. For example the city of Lahore is spread over many hundred square miles. Look at Karachi and other cities. People are selling the agricultural land for residential schemes at high prices.. This is a wrong trend. The human habitats should not expand indiscriminately and should now extend in the horizontal direction. Law should be framed to secure the agricultural land so that only agricultural people should be able to purchase agricultural land. A ban should be imposed on utilising agricultural land for housing purpose.. The old colonies should be demolished and in their place multi-storied buildings should be constructed and flat system should be introduced throughout Pakistan. In cities eight storied and in villages six storied building should be constructed. For this purpose Co-operative Societies system should be introduced on local level and these societies should build big plazas and residential flats. People should join these societies on self-help basis. Government should gradually discourage the construction of small houses. The Housing Department should provide loans to co-operative societies who should build eight storied buildings on the Flats System. The government should also gradually convert the government housing colonies into Flat System. This will increase the availability of residential accommodation in the cities and the homeless government employees will be able to get houses on government rents instead of hiring private houses This will also reduce the rates of rents in the cities. Moreover people will be able to purchase residential flats on easy instalments under the co-operative scheme. This is not a new system. In every developing and developed country of the word this system is working. It will be useful to seek information from those countries.
Now the Banks are under government control. Instead of selling these banks to private parties these should be converted into multi-purpose financial institutions and loans should be given to the individuals and local societies of the area where the banks are situated by the local bodies and co-operative societies through these banks .In short there are unlimited suggestions for an exemplary government. If the government undertakes to follow these suggestions then many countries will come to their assistance and would tender better advice and give better schemes but the condition is that the government should work on these schemes with sincerity of purpose. In the previous pages we have discussed in details the post-Quaid democratic system, Ayub Khan?s martial law and his system of basic democracies and the causes of the separation of East Pakistan. We have also commented on the positive and negative aspects of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto?s period in the name of democracy and socialism. However it is necessary to talk about General Ziaulhaq?s period because most of the ills of the present system can be traced back to his period.