(Or to be exact: Pakistan's political history: mistakes we made and what lesson we can learn from them. Due to the lack of time i didn't get much time to go through it properly, ignore the grammatical errors. I hope i have not made any error. And do give it a read.)
Pakistan's political history-Part 1
by: WAJsal
The Initial Struggle
14 August 1947: Birth of Pakistan. Dawn Newspaper front page.
After decades of struggle and sacrifice Pakistan became an independent state in 14 August, 1947. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the first Governor General of the newly formed state. Liaquat Ali Khan became the first Prime Minister and a government was set-up to run the state.
Initially, the newly formed state faced many problems. The refugee crisis being on top of that list, as many refugees were coming in from India, they had to be provided with the essentials. There were constant riots, lack of resources and many such problems that had to be tackled.The 1947 partition of India and Pakistan led to the largest mass migration in human history of some 10-15 million people with Muslims migrating from present day India to present day Pakistan and Bangladesh (which was then known as East Pakistan) and Hindus migrating to present day India.
Pakistan had no administrative structure, no industrial infrastructure; while India inherited colonial state’s central government apparatus and an industrial infrastructure which for all its weakness, was better developed than in areas constituting Pakistan. Pakistan had to form an administrative structure, with lack of resources it all became nothing less than impossible. India inherited government institutes left by the British, India didn’t have to form these institutes, unlike Pakistan. This paved way to many problems...The shortage of trained human power especially senior officers was a serious problem in the setting up of federal government in Karachi. Most of them had migrated to India. There was a shortage of office space, equipment and furniture. Solving the problem of the Muslim refugees who had nothing to eat, drink, wear, rest, etc.
Newly formed state was financially very poor, initially there weren’t enough funds to run government buildings; with almost 70% of the budget being spent on the military due to number of reasons which were:
- Pakistan was not given military equipment, which it was supposed to get by India. The Indian government was not cooperative for transfer of record and equipment to Pakistan. The civil administration was not handing over the promised financial, military, and other shares that created mountainous hurdles to eradicate the pains and miseries of the refugees. The Indian Army was to be divided on basis of religion. The ratio of military assets were 64:36. There wasn’t a good number of Muslim serving in the Indian Army, which became a problem. Pakistan needed 4000 officers but only had 1500 officer, of which 500 were British. From 195000 ton ordnance store Pakistan received only 4703 ton, which was only 3%. Whatever equipment it did get was old, broken and useless…Total financial reserves were 4000 million rupees; Pakistan’s claim was a 1000 million rupees, but only 750 million were give, which is 15% of the total. 200 million were given directly and the rest 500 was associated with Kashmir. It was only due to efforts of leaders like Gandhi, who threatened of marn bert (fast until death) more funds were sent in early 1948 but no installment was later paid.[1]
- On October 1947, Dogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir state under pressure and fear, had acceded his state to the Indian government. Quaid-i-Azam ordered the commander in chief of the time Sir Douglas Gracey to send troops to Kashmir to maintain control of the area and control law and order situation. According to Major General Shahid Ahmed: “On 27th October he (Quaid-i-Azam)ordered Gracery to move troops into Jammu and Kashmir and to seize Srinagar and the banihal Pass. Gracey repled that he could not comply with the order and must report the matter to Auchinleck as compliance would entail the issue of ‘Stand Down Order No.2’ which meant the withdrawal of the British officers from the Pakistan Army. According to Gracey’s private secretary, Wilson, Mountbatten rang up Gracey and threatened that if he moved any troops to Kashmir he would ensure that he would not get knighthood. Gracey capitulated.”[2]
Failure of Pakistan army in Kashmir made it an utmost priority for the Pakistan government. To remain integrally strong and to protect itself in any future war Pakistan army had to be given huge funds. Kashmir war continued for some time and both side accepted to a cease fire. Both sides accepted to hold a referendum in Kashmir, and the rest is history. From a neutral point of view and from a Kashmiri point of view, more importantly, the best thing to do is to let the people decide. Kashmiris should be given this basic right. It is quite unfortunate that even after all these years the nations haven’t been able to solve this problem.
Secondly Indian state not giving what was rightfully Pakistan sew the first seeds of enmity between the two nations. It was something the founding Father of India opposed, who had hoped for good relations between the two countries. Pakistan’s leadership and the intellectual felt India did not wish to see Pakistan strong, and expected (foolishly) Pakistan would collapse and rejoin India soon after its existence, it tried its level best to block these funds to suffocate the newly born state.
Due to the failure of the army in Kashmir, to strengthen the state internally and to safeguard the motherland from foreign attack- it was essential to spend so much on the armed forces.
Sept. 19, 1947: Muslim refugees sit on the roof of an overcrowded coach railway train near New Delhi in trying to flee India. Millions of Muslims migrated from India to Pakistan and vice versa
10 years of Political and Military struggle
Quaid-i-Azam wanted to get rid of the old mentality and old ways, applied by the British. He also wanted Pakistan to treat all citizens equal regardless of their religion, as for hundreds of years Muslims had suffered being a minority. He didn’t want to apply the same principle to the minorities living in Pakistan, wanted to establish a state where they have full religious freedom. He wished to create a progressive state.While explaining his policy he stated that, “You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any caste or creed- that has nothing to do with the business of the state.
Now i think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time, Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslim would cease to be Muslims, not in religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in political sense as a citizen of the State.”
[3]
He had hoped to give the state a constitution, a proper system which the coming generations could run the country by. Unfortunately, it was not to be. He was going to governor's house from the airport, in an army ambulance. The ambulance broke down on the road into town, and the Governor-General and those with him waited for another to arrive; he could not be placed in the car as he could not sit up. They waited by the roadside in oppressive heat as trucks and buses passed by, unsuitable for transporting the dying man and with their occupants not knowing of Jinnah's presence. After an hour, the replacement ambulance came, and transported Jinnah to Government House, arriving there over two hours after the landing. Jinnah died at 10:20 pm at his home in Karachi on 11 September 1948, just over a year after Pakistan's creation.
It was a great setback for all Pakistanis, the founder of Pakistan had just passed away. He cared not for his health, instead worked day and night for Pakistan, Fatima Jinnah later wrote, "even in his hour of triumph, the Quaid-e-Azam was gravely ill ... He worked in a frenzy to consolidate Pakistan. And, of course, he totally neglected his health ..."
If only he had a chance to give the nation a strong constitution, if only he had time to give the nation a strong base.
Fatima Jinnah and Dina Jinnah mourning at Quaid-e-Azam Funeral
Special services and prayers were held in the Kwitang mosque of Jakarta (Indonesia) after the death of Jinnah.
Khawaja Nazimuddin became the second Governor General of Pakistan. Liaquat Ali Khan did the heavy lifting and used governor General's powers.
Ayub Khan was made Commander in Chief of the Army in 1951. Ayub had to face mutiny in the army, as soon as he took the charge. At the time it was called Rawalpindi Sazish. It is stated that General Akbar and his supporters were keen to take over the government and bring a Socialist revolution in the country. If this revolution was successful Pakistan’s history would be much different. Feudal system would be abolished, chances of military interventions would be slim-it was something not to be.
On 16th October Liaquat Ali Khan was shot to death in Liaquat park Rawalpindi, his killer was shot at the spot. His death is termed as: eerie. Some state those who profited the most from his death are responsible. The reason why he was killed is still unknown to this date. His killer was identified as Saad Akbar Babrak. It was a great setback for the nation. After Jinnah Liaquat Ali Khan had also died. After his death major problems started occurring. There was no other leader in Muslim league to take his place-which caused some major problems in near future, Muslim league could not establish itself as a dominant political forces and started fading away.
Liaquat Ali Khan’s death is considered to be part of some well-planned conspiracy. After Liaquat Ali Khan’s death Ayub Khan writes about the behavior of Cabinet ministers in his book, ‘Friends not Masters’:
“....I met several members of the new Cabinet in Karachi-Prime Minister Khwaja Nazimuddin ...and others. Not one of them mentioned Liaquat Ali’s name, nor did i hear a word of sympathy or regret from any one of them. Governor General Ghulam Muhammad seemed equally unaware of the fact that the country had lost an eminent and capable Prime Minister...I wondered at how callous, cold-blooded, and selfish people could be...it seemed that every one of them had got himself promoted...it was disgusting and revolting...I got the distinct feeling that only person who might have kept them under control had disappeared from the scenes…”[4] (It is upto you to believe this revelation, it is indeed quite startling.)
Some Mistakes made….
Some major mistakes were made in this starting period: India had established its constitution in 1949, which brought all institutions under the constitution. And a system was formed, which was respected and followed. India was quick to rid of the British system and ways, getting rid of the feudal system, abolished Princely states. This was done for a number of reasons, as these landlords and princes had been principal collaborators with the British in ruling India and could, therefore, be attacked fairley and revengeful as enemies of both the nation and the people. Pakistan, instead of getting rid of the old ways: the Feudal system, they were made politically strong; which again was a failure of the state.
India was quick to realize the fault in the system, on 15 August commander in chief's rank was removed, as it was a very powerful rank. Army was kept away from politics and through time Army was brought completely under civilian control. Pakistan never did this and continued the commander in Chief's rank, who was by protocol equal to President, Prime Minister and etc, etc... In 1972 Bhutto changed the structure of the army, till then much had already happened.
Pakistan had retained the structure of the colonial state from its inception. Lacking an indigenous bourgeoisie, dominated by a feudal elite totally dependent upon the colonial bureaucracy, deprived of well structured programme-oriented and duly encarded political parties and without a judiciary which would jealously protect civil authority and the citizen rights, Pakistan saw a gradual choking of the democratic spirits from it’s early days.
(
@Indos ,
@Nihonjin1051 ,
@Daneshmand ,
@Chinese-Dragon ,
@Serpentine )
Thank you, experience helps. You remember when i started 
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, you haven't seen some of his other posts. 
