Pakistan Affairs MCQs – Page 15 (Q141-150)

General Yahya Khan became President of Pakistan in March 1969, taking power after Ayub Khan resigned amid widespread public unrest rather than handing over to the Speaker of the National Assembly as the 1962 constitution technically required. Yahya imposed Pakistan's second period of martial law and issued the Legal Framework Order in 1970, which abolished the unpopular One Unit Scheme and set rules for the country's first general elections based on adult franchise. His presidency proved catastrophic, overseeing the political crisis following the 1970 elections, the military crackdown in East Pakistan, and the resulting 1971 war that led to Bangladesh's independence. He resigned in disgrace in December 1971, handing power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and lived out his remaining years largely out of public life.

Pakistan's first general elections based on adult franchise were held on 7 December 1970, under rules set by President Yahya Khan's Legal Framework Order, marking the country's first genuinely nationwide vote for the National Assembly. The Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, swept East Pakistan and won an outright majority of seats nationally, while the Pakistan Peoples Party under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto dominated in West Pakistan without winning a single seat in the east. The refusal of the West Pakistani establishment to allow Mujib to form a government based on this majority triggered the crisis that led to civil war and East Pakistan's secession as Bangladesh in 1971. The elections thus stand as a pivotal, and tragic, turning point in Pakistan's constitutional history.

The Awami League won an overwhelming majority of seats in East Pakistan in the 1970 general elections, securing 160 of the 162 seats allotted to the province and, with these, an absolute majority in the National Assembly as a whole. Its landslide victory was built on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Six Points programme, which demanded far-reaching provincial autonomy for East Pakistan in response to decades of perceived economic and political marginalisation by the West Pakistani establishment. Despite winning enough seats to form the central government outright, the Awami League was denied the chance to do so, as talks between Mujib, Bhutto and Yahya Khan collapsed in early 1971. This denial directly triggered the military crackdown of March 1971 and the resulting war that created Bangladesh.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led the Awami League to its landslide 1970 election victory in East Pakistan, campaigning on his Six Points programme for regional autonomy that had made him the province's most popular political figure by the late 1960s. Revered in Bangladesh as 'Bangabandhu' ('Friend of Bengal'), he was arrested by the Pakistani military at the start of the 1971 crackdown and imprisoned in West Pakistan until after Bangladesh's independence in December 1971. He returned to a newly independent Bangladesh to become its first Prime Minister and later President, before being assassinated in a 1975 military coup along with most of his family. His daughter, Sheikh Hasina, later became a long-serving Bangladeshi Prime Minister decades afterward.

East Pakistan seceded to become independent Bangladesh in December 1971, following a brutal nine-month conflict that began with the Pakistan Army's crackdown, Operation Searchlight, in March of that year. India intervened militarily in support of Bengali guerrilla fighters, the Mukti Bahini, in late 1971, leading to a swift two-week war that ended with the surrender of over 90,000 Pakistani troops in Dhaka on 16 December 1971, one of the largest surrenders since World War II. The defeat forced President Yahya Khan's resignation, after which Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over as President and, later, civilian martial law administrator of the remaining Pakistan. The war remains a deeply painful chapter in Pakistan's history, and estimates of civilian casualties during the conflict remain a contested and sensitive subject in both countries.

The Simla Agreement between Pakistan and India was signed on 2 July 1972 in the Indian hill town of Simla, aiming to normalise relations following the 1971 war and the loss of East Pakistan. The agreement committed both countries to resolve disputes bilaterally rather than through third-party or international mediation, a principle India has since consistently invoked regarding the Kashmir issue. It also led to the return of over 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war held by India and converted the earlier ceasefire line in Kashmir into the more formal, though still disputed, Line of Control. The agreement remains a cornerstone reference point in Pakistan-India diplomatic relations, invoked by both sides in subsequent negotiations and disputes.

The Simla Agreement was signed by Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in July 1972, both leaders negotiating from very different positions of strength following India's decisive victory in the 1971 war. Bhutto is credited with skilfully negotiating the return of Pakistani prisoners of war and reclaiming Indian-held Pakistani territory in the west, despite Pakistan's weak bargaining position after the loss of East Pakistan. Indira Gandhi, who had led India through the war, remained India's dominant political figure through most of the 1970s and into the 1980s until her 1984 assassination. The agreement's bilateralism clause has remained a persistent point of friction in later disputes over Kashmir and other issues between the two countries.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto founded the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on 30 November 1967 in Lahore, building the new party around a socialist-leaning platform summarised in the slogan 'Roti, Kapra aur Makan' (bread, clothing and housing). Bhutto had earlier served as Foreign Minister under Ayub Khan but resigned in 1966 following public backlash over the Tashkent Declaration, using the ensuing popularity to launch his own political movement. The PPP quickly became a major political force in West Pakistan, particularly in Sindh and Punjab, and Bhutto became President and later Prime Minister after the 1971 war. The party has remained one of Pakistan's most enduring political forces, later led by his daughter Benazir Bhutto and, more recently, by his grandson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed on 4 April 1979 in Rawalpindi, hanged after being convicted of conspiracy to murder a political opponent in a trial widely criticised internationally as politically motivated and lacking due process. He had been removed from power in a July 1977 military coup led by General Zia-ul-Haq, following mass protests against alleged rigging in that year's general elections. His execution remains one of the most controversial episodes in Pakistan's judicial history, with the Supreme Court itself later, in 2024, acknowledging in a presidential reference that his trial had not met the requirements of a fair hearing. His daughter Benazir Bhutto later revived the Pakistan Peoples Party and became Prime Minister, while Bhutto's death anniversary continues to be marked annually by the party's supporters.

General Zia-ul-Haq imposed martial law on 5 July 1977, overthrowing Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government amid the political crisis triggered by opposition allegations of rigging in that year's general elections. Zia initially promised elections within 90 days but instead ruled for over a decade, becoming President in 1978 and pursuing a sweeping programme of Islamisation that reshaped Pakistan's legal and social institutions. His rule coincided with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, during which Pakistan became a frontline state channelling Western and Gulf support to Afghan mujahideen fighters. Zia died in a mysterious plane crash near Bahawalpur in August 1988, ending his eleven-year rule and paving the way for the return of civilian democracy under Benazir Bhutto later that year.