Recalling the Pakistani Dictators
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Not just one, Pakistan has had four dictators who, in toto, ruled the country for about 35 years in its short history of 71 years. Here is a brief history of all four of them:
1. Gen. Ayub Khan (1958- 1969):
After the promulgation of the first constitution in 1956, the country fell prey to shear political turmoil. The Pakistani people and their political leaders wanted to conduct the first-ever general elections in the republic but Iskandar Mirza, then president of Pakistan, saw this aspiration as a threat to his position. To retain his presidency, he kept on changing the prime ministers without any genuine reason. Consequently, the situation got even worse. In 1958, he imposed martial law and abrogated the constitution with the intent of getting rid of all the political opposition. Mirza appointed his trustworthy comrade Gen. Ayub Khan as the chief martial law administrator and this proved to be his biggest mistake. Soon Ayub realized that he could easily sack the president and consolidate all the powers in his hands. Two months after the imposition of martial law, Ayub launched a bloodless coup d’état and sent Mirza on an exile. Thus, he became the first dictator of Pakistan who ruled for almost ten years.
2. Yahya Khan (1969–1971):
Yahya came as a successor of Ayub. The decline of Ayub had already started after the Indo-Pak War of 1965. It was in 1969 when the situation got so loathsome for Ayub that he had to relinquish the powers to Yahya Khan.
When Yahya took charge as the new president, the country was again facing acute political upset. He came with the commitment of conducting free and fair elections in the country and he did so, but after the elections, an unprecedented tussle evolved between both wings of the country viz. East and West Pakistan. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was victorious from West Pakistan, was unwilling to cede power to Sheikh Mujib who had gained a clear cut majority from the East and was legally entitled to become the head of the new constituent assembly. Tensions grew more and more with time and culminated in the outbreak of the Bangladesh Liberation War that later turned into the Indo-Pak war of 1971. Bangladesh emerged as an independent state on the face of the Earth and Yahya gave in his presidency right after the defeat of Pakistan.
Bhutto became the next president and chief martial law administrator.
3. Zia ul Haq (1978–1988):
After the enactment of the constitution of 1973, ZA Bhutto established the first democratic government of Pakistan. Choudhry Fazal Elahi became the president and entrusted his powers to Premier ZA Bhutto, as per the constitution. The first tenure of Bhutto’s government was overall successful but it ended up with several differences with the military establishment. It was mainly because Bhutto wanted to grasp full control of Pakistan’s foreign policy and he had leanings towards the USSR and socialism. Bhutto knew that a faction of army officers disliked him. Hence, he made a trustworthy general the new army chief of Pakistan. Unfortunately, like Iskandar Mirza, he was also betrayed by his loyal army chief Gen Zia ul Haq who overthrew his government in 1977. In the great game of great power, principles are seldom observed. Gen Zia not only deposed Bhutto but also, with the help of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, convicted him in a controversial murder case. After two years of incarceration, Bhutto was hung to death. His demise left the nation discontented; once again, the hopes of democracy ended up in smoke.
Afterward, Zia ruled the country until his death in 1988. Throughout this period, he enjoyed unbridled powers with no one strong enough to intercept his path.
4. Gen Pervaiz Musharraf (1999–2008):
The fourth and the last military usurper was Musharraf who staged a bloodless coup d’etat in 1999. His story is comparatively the most dramatic.
Musharraf staged a clandestine operation against India, with his comrades-in-arms. He infiltrated Pakistani soldiers in the disputed territory of Indian Occupied Kashmir with the intent of conquering Kargil district. Ironically, on one hand, then Prime Minister Nawaz was trying to normalize relations with India and on the other hand, his dependable army chief was operating a secret mission in Kargil without even acknowledging him.
The Kargil Mission escalated the tensions between both archrivals. Indian retaliation and Western pressure on Pakistan compelled it to withdraw its troops from Kargil. Nawaz's government faced severe criticism globally due to the misadventure of his army chief. The relations between both soured. Nawaz appointed a new army chief when Musharraf was on an official tour to Sri Lanka. Nawaz tried to stop Musharraf from landing on the soil of Pakistan but he failed. The night Musharraf came back to Pakistan, he overthrew Nawaz’s government and declared Martial law for the fourth time. Like his predecessors, He also sent the Prime Minister on exile. Musharraf remained at the helm of affairs from 1999 to 2008.
Originally published at http://tadbeeer.wordpress.com on July 14, 2019.
