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| About Pakisatn |
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The Bhutto Government
Under Bhutto’s leadership Pakistan began to
rearrange its national life. Bhutto nationalized the basic industries,
insurance companies, domestically owned banks, and schools and
colleges. He also instituted land reforms that benefited tenants and
middle-class farmers. He removed the armed forces from the process of
decision making, but to placate the generals he allocated about 6
percent of the gross national product to defense. In July 1972 Bhutto
negotiated the Simla Agreement, which confirmed a line of control
dividing Kashmir and prompted the withdrawal of Indian troops from
Pakistani territory.
In April 1972 Bhutto lifted martial law and
convened the National Assembly, which consisted of members elected from
West Pakistan in 1970. After much political debate, the legislature
drafted the country’s third constitution, which was promulgated on
August 14, 1973. It changed the National Assembly into a two-chamber
legislature, with a Senate as the upper house and a National Assembly
as the lower house. It designated the prime minister as the most
powerful government official, but it also set up a formal parliamentary
system in which the executive was responsible to the legislature.
Bhutto became prime minister, and Fazal Elahi Chaudry replaced him as
president.Although discontented, the military
grudgingly accepted the supremacy of the civilian leadership.
Bhutto
embarked on ambitious nationalization programs and land reforms, which
he called “Islamic socialism.” His reforms achieved some success but
earned him the enmity of the entrepreneurial and capitalist class. |
| Zulfikar Ali Bhutto |
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Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto formed the Pakistan
People’s Party in 1967 and became the country’s president in 1971. His
presidency, which followed the secession of Bangladesh and the
resulting war with India, is credited with restoring relative stability
to Pakistan. Bhutto became prime minister in 1973 under a new
constitution, but his political fortunes changed in the face of
opposition and regional violence in Pakistan. He was overthrown four
years later, charged with the death of a political opponent, found
guilty, and hanged in 1979. |
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In
addition, religious leaders considered them to be un-Islamic. Unable to
deal constructively with the opposition, he became heavy-handed in his
rule. In the general elections of 1977, nine opposition parties united
in the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) to run against Bhutto’s PPP.
Losing in three of the four provinces, the PNA alleged that Bhutto had
rigged the vote. The PNA boycotted the provincial elections a few days
later and organized demonstrations throughout the country that lasted
for six weeks.
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Zia Regime
The PPP and PNA leadership proved incapable
of resolving the deadlock, and the army chief of staff, General
Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, staged a coup on July 5, 1977, and imposed another
martial-law regime. Bhutto was tried for authorizing the murder of a
political opponent and found guilty; he was hanged on April 4, 1979.
The PPP was reorganized under the leadership of his daughter, Benazir
Bhutto.
Zia formally assumed the presidency in 1978
and embarked on an Islamization program. Through various ordinances
between 1978 and 1985, he instituted the Islamization of Pakistan’s
legal and economic systems and social order. In 1979 a federal Sharia
(Islamic law) court was established to exercise Islamic judicial
review. Other ordinances established interest-free banking and provided
maximum penalties for adultery, defamation, theft, and consumption of
alcohol.
On March 24, 1981, Zia issued a Provisional
Constitutional Order that served as a substitute for the suspended 1973
constitution. The order provided for the formation of a Federal
Advisory Council (Majlis-e-Shoora) to take the place of the National
Assembly. In early 1982 Zia appointed the 228 members of the new
council. This effectively restricted the political parties, which
already had been constrained by the banning of political activity, from
organizing resistance to the Zia regime through the election process.
The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in
December 1979 heightened Pakistan’s insecurity and changed the fortunes
of General Zia’s military regime. Afghan refugees began to pour into
Pakistan. After about a year, the United States responded to the
crisis. In September 1981 Zia accepted a six-year economic and military
aid package worth $3.2 billion from the United States. (The United
States approved a second aid package worth $4.0 billion in 1986 but
then suspended its disbursement in 1989 due to Pakistan’s
nuclear-weapons program.) After a referendum in December 1984 endorsed
Zia’s Islamization policies and the extension of his presidency until
1990, Zia permitted elections for parliament in February 1985. A
civilian cabinet took office in April, and martial law ended in
December. Zia was dissatisfied, however, and in May 1988 he dissolved
the government and ordered new elections. Three months later he was
killed in an airplane crash possibly caused by sabotage, and a
caretaker regime took power until elections could be held. |
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