W.11
BANNED
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
- Messages
- 15,032
- Reaction score
- -32
- Country
- Location
Z.A. Bhutto: Enemy of Democracy (Part I)
POSTED ON OCTOBER 31, 2013 UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 2, 2013
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) was a machiavellian politician, prepared to use all conceivable underhand, violent and illegal methods at his disposal to suppress democracy, in order to acquire and retain power. Throughout his political career, ZAB showed utter contempt for the democratic process, whether as a Dictator’s henchman (1958-1966), a sore loser in the 1970 election, or a blatant rigger in the 1977 election. ZAB’s key role in the creation and manipulation of the 1960 Presidential Election and 1965 Pakistan election process has been forgotten by many. The 1960 election was held with Field Marshal Ayub Khan as sole candidate (he won with 96% mandate). In the 1965 elections, the fact that ZAB filed his nomination papers and thereby entered himself as a Candidate for the Presidency (which he later withdrew) has been almost universally forgotten. However, an examination of these incidents provides further illustration of the consistently anti-democratic posture of ZAB.
ZAB first entered government in 1958, in the very first Cabinet of (then) General Ayub Khan, a military dictator who had just seized power in a coup. During the Ayub regime, ZAB served as Ayub’s most polished administrator, and a politician at ease on the world stage. By January 1960, a little over a year into Ayub’s regime, ZAB held no less than 7 ministerial portfolios, including Minister for Basic Democracies.
For a number of reasons (to be examined another time), Pakistan had not held any elections between independence in 1947 and 1958. On 8 October 1958, Martial Law was declared across Pakistan and the National and Provicial Assemblies were dissolved. On 27 October, General Ayub Khan (Chief of Army Staff) assumed full governmental control as President of Pakistan. After his coup d’etat, Ayub set into motion an election process to demonstrate popular legitimacy, beyond the barrel of a gun. The problem was that Ayub wasn’t terribly popular. As “Minister for Basic Democracies”, ZAB devised a custom-built Electoral College system, the likes of which I am not aware of anywhere else in the world in recent times. This enabled Ayub to hold elections in an effectively rigged “North Korea style” system, designed to ensure that he held power.
In summary, the Basic Democracy system had a double election system. First, elections were held to elect 80,000 Electoral Voters across Pakistan. Once these elections were held, the selected 80,000 Basic Democrats would then vote for the Presidential Candidates (ie voting was not by universal franchise). Election results of the 80,000 voters could be monitored down to Tehsil-level (ie constituency sub-district), of which there are currently 445 in Pakistan. The tehsils which supported Ayub would receive favours and patronage, and woe betide those which did not. The Basic Democrats were known to be partial to Ayub.
The 80,000 Basic Democrats were heavily in favour of Dictator AyubThe first Presidential Election (with these 80,000 voters) occurred on 17th February, 1960. There was only one candidate, namely Field Marshal Ayub Khan. (Legend has it that ZAB himself persuaded Ayub Khan to take on the preposterous title of Field Marshal in order to feed his ego). In this election, following the procedure set out by ZAB, Ayub Khan won 95.6% of the vote. There has been much whitewashing of history since then about ZAB’s commitment to democracy – a laughable proposition. The fact remains that ZAB was responsible for designing the most anti-democratic electoral system in the history of Pakistan. The 95.6% vote in favour of the dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan confirms the autocratic nature of the regime of which ZAB was a key architect.
After Ayub received this rigged mandate, he governed for a few more years (with ZAB by now promoted to Foreign Minister) before he once more felt compelled to hold elections. Ayub refused repeated Opposition requests to hold a Presidential Election under a democratic universal suffrage system. Instead, Ayub decided to retain ZAB’s Basic Democracy system, which had already served him well. At all times, needless to say, ZAB was a key member of Ayub’s anti-democratic regime.
The Pakistan Presidential Election was scheduled to be held on January 2 1965. So where does ZAB’s nomination on 27 November 1964 as a Presidential candidate fit into this story? Not only did ZAB enter his nomination as an Election Candidate, the story reveals even further his skullduggery.
According to the Electoral System devised by ZAB (as Minister for Basic Democracy), the first stage was the Election of the Basic Democrats. This occurred on 2 November 1964. Once this was completed, the next stage was prospective Presidential candidates filing their nomination papers, which occurred on 27 November 1964.
There were 7 candidates who filed their nomination papers: Ayub Khan, Fatima Jinnah, 2 unknown independents, and 3 of Ayub’s senior ministers: ZAB (Foreign Minister), M. Shoaib (Finance Minister) and A.S. Khan (Communications Minister). At first glance, for those with knowledge of Ayub’s regime, this seems incredible. Ayub was a Dictator who ruled with an iron fist – the notion that his handpicked clique of civilian ministers would oppose him in an election would seem beyond the realm of comprehension.
However, on the basis of the fundamentally rigged nature of ZAB’s “Basic Democracy” electoral system, it all makes sense. After many years of Ayub’s dictatorship, political parties had been suppressed, and there was no cohesive opposition as a result. It was widely expected that Ayub would face several disparate candidates, and easily brush them aside.
According to ZAB’s system, if there were more than 3 candidates standing against the President, then the National Assembly (as well as the 2 Provincial Assemblies, ie E. & W. Pakistan) would vote by secret ballot to reduce the challengers to 3. So therefore, there would be no more than 4 Electoral candidates, including the President.
There had not been any elections under Field Marshal Ayub Khan. Therefore, needless to say, the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies were packed full of his appointees.
The purpose of ZAB, M. Shoaib and A.S. Khan standing for President was to automatically create 3 challengers to President Ayub, which would then automatically trigger a vote in National/Provincial Assembly to select the 3 candidates who would stand against Ayub. Khurshid Ahmad (Law Minister) claimed that the nomination of ZAB and the 2 other ministers was to prevent the Opposition from delaying elections. The Opposition denied wishing to delay elections. However, even if true, the implication of this statement was a threat: There was less than a month of campaigning, with all State media giving coverage overwhelmingly to Ayub. If the Opposition refused to agree to early Elections, the elections would proceed without the Opposition. The end result under this scenario would be another 95.6% victory for Ayub, like in 1960!
The handpicked Assemblies could of course be relied to select candidates of Ayub’s choosing. Ayub and ZAB had assumed they would face an array of disparate opponents. The Assembly vote could be used to remove the stronger candidates, and leave Ayub with a virtual walkover. Or perhaps, even more cynically, the Assembly vote could be used to select the 3 Ministers (ZAB, Shoaib, Khan) who would then stand down before the election, handing Ayub a walkover.
Based on a wide range of ethically dubious tactics employed by ZAB during his career, I am inclined to favour the last option as most probable (ie the 3 ministers would stand down, and hand Ayub a walkover).
However, Fatima Jinnah united the 5 opposition parties, and emerged as their sole candidate. This scuppered ZAB’s plan. As a result of Fatima Jinnah’s candidacy, the 2 unknown independent candidates withdrew. This forced ZAB and his fellow horsemen of the apocalypse to withdraw from the contest, leaving a straight contest between Ayub and Fatima Jinnah.
ZAB’s candidacy for the 1965 Presidential Election has been forgotten by virtually all Pakistanis. However, illumination of this obscure incident serves to provide a framework for the rest of ZAB’s career.
British newspapers at the time suggested that, had the election been held according to universal suffrage, Fatima Jinnah would have swept the vote. As it turned out, this rigged system ensured a massive 62%-38% victory for Ayub across Pakistan, with a whopping 74% margin in West Pakistan. In fact, the only district in Pakistan in which Fatima Jinnah defeated Ayub Khan was Karachi (1049 votes to 837) – this in a city in which the Muhajirs were almost unanimously in favour of Miss Jinnah. In Peshawar, Ayub won by an 83-17 margin. In Quetta, Ayub won by 562 votes to Fatima Jinnah’s 20, a 28-1 margin. Ayub decided to hold a victory parade in Karachi of all places, straight after the election, which led to a wave of deadly anti-Muhajir riots. These riots, directly instigated by Gohar Ayub (son of Field Marshal Ayub) are discussed in a separate Blog Post: http://mqmhistory.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/the-great-muhajir-massacre-of-1965/
POSTED ON OCTOBER 31, 2013 UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 2, 2013
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) was a machiavellian politician, prepared to use all conceivable underhand, violent and illegal methods at his disposal to suppress democracy, in order to acquire and retain power. Throughout his political career, ZAB showed utter contempt for the democratic process, whether as a Dictator’s henchman (1958-1966), a sore loser in the 1970 election, or a blatant rigger in the 1977 election. ZAB’s key role in the creation and manipulation of the 1960 Presidential Election and 1965 Pakistan election process has been forgotten by many. The 1960 election was held with Field Marshal Ayub Khan as sole candidate (he won with 96% mandate). In the 1965 elections, the fact that ZAB filed his nomination papers and thereby entered himself as a Candidate for the Presidency (which he later withdrew) has been almost universally forgotten. However, an examination of these incidents provides further illustration of the consistently anti-democratic posture of ZAB.
ZAB first entered government in 1958, in the very first Cabinet of (then) General Ayub Khan, a military dictator who had just seized power in a coup. During the Ayub regime, ZAB served as Ayub’s most polished administrator, and a politician at ease on the world stage. By January 1960, a little over a year into Ayub’s regime, ZAB held no less than 7 ministerial portfolios, including Minister for Basic Democracies.
For a number of reasons (to be examined another time), Pakistan had not held any elections between independence in 1947 and 1958. On 8 October 1958, Martial Law was declared across Pakistan and the National and Provicial Assemblies were dissolved. On 27 October, General Ayub Khan (Chief of Army Staff) assumed full governmental control as President of Pakistan. After his coup d’etat, Ayub set into motion an election process to demonstrate popular legitimacy, beyond the barrel of a gun. The problem was that Ayub wasn’t terribly popular. As “Minister for Basic Democracies”, ZAB devised a custom-built Electoral College system, the likes of which I am not aware of anywhere else in the world in recent times. This enabled Ayub to hold elections in an effectively rigged “North Korea style” system, designed to ensure that he held power.
In summary, the Basic Democracy system had a double election system. First, elections were held to elect 80,000 Electoral Voters across Pakistan. Once these elections were held, the selected 80,000 Basic Democrats would then vote for the Presidential Candidates (ie voting was not by universal franchise). Election results of the 80,000 voters could be monitored down to Tehsil-level (ie constituency sub-district), of which there are currently 445 in Pakistan. The tehsils which supported Ayub would receive favours and patronage, and woe betide those which did not. The Basic Democrats were known to be partial to Ayub.
The 80,000 Basic Democrats were heavily in favour of Dictator AyubThe first Presidential Election (with these 80,000 voters) occurred on 17th February, 1960. There was only one candidate, namely Field Marshal Ayub Khan. (Legend has it that ZAB himself persuaded Ayub Khan to take on the preposterous title of Field Marshal in order to feed his ego). In this election, following the procedure set out by ZAB, Ayub Khan won 95.6% of the vote. There has been much whitewashing of history since then about ZAB’s commitment to democracy – a laughable proposition. The fact remains that ZAB was responsible for designing the most anti-democratic electoral system in the history of Pakistan. The 95.6% vote in favour of the dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan confirms the autocratic nature of the regime of which ZAB was a key architect.
After Ayub received this rigged mandate, he governed for a few more years (with ZAB by now promoted to Foreign Minister) before he once more felt compelled to hold elections. Ayub refused repeated Opposition requests to hold a Presidential Election under a democratic universal suffrage system. Instead, Ayub decided to retain ZAB’s Basic Democracy system, which had already served him well. At all times, needless to say, ZAB was a key member of Ayub’s anti-democratic regime.
The Pakistan Presidential Election was scheduled to be held on January 2 1965. So where does ZAB’s nomination on 27 November 1964 as a Presidential candidate fit into this story? Not only did ZAB enter his nomination as an Election Candidate, the story reveals even further his skullduggery.
According to the Electoral System devised by ZAB (as Minister for Basic Democracy), the first stage was the Election of the Basic Democrats. This occurred on 2 November 1964. Once this was completed, the next stage was prospective Presidential candidates filing their nomination papers, which occurred on 27 November 1964.
There were 7 candidates who filed their nomination papers: Ayub Khan, Fatima Jinnah, 2 unknown independents, and 3 of Ayub’s senior ministers: ZAB (Foreign Minister), M. Shoaib (Finance Minister) and A.S. Khan (Communications Minister). At first glance, for those with knowledge of Ayub’s regime, this seems incredible. Ayub was a Dictator who ruled with an iron fist – the notion that his handpicked clique of civilian ministers would oppose him in an election would seem beyond the realm of comprehension.
However, on the basis of the fundamentally rigged nature of ZAB’s “Basic Democracy” electoral system, it all makes sense. After many years of Ayub’s dictatorship, political parties had been suppressed, and there was no cohesive opposition as a result. It was widely expected that Ayub would face several disparate candidates, and easily brush them aside.
According to ZAB’s system, if there were more than 3 candidates standing against the President, then the National Assembly (as well as the 2 Provincial Assemblies, ie E. & W. Pakistan) would vote by secret ballot to reduce the challengers to 3. So therefore, there would be no more than 4 Electoral candidates, including the President.
There had not been any elections under Field Marshal Ayub Khan. Therefore, needless to say, the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies were packed full of his appointees.
The purpose of ZAB, M. Shoaib and A.S. Khan standing for President was to automatically create 3 challengers to President Ayub, which would then automatically trigger a vote in National/Provincial Assembly to select the 3 candidates who would stand against Ayub. Khurshid Ahmad (Law Minister) claimed that the nomination of ZAB and the 2 other ministers was to prevent the Opposition from delaying elections. The Opposition denied wishing to delay elections. However, even if true, the implication of this statement was a threat: There was less than a month of campaigning, with all State media giving coverage overwhelmingly to Ayub. If the Opposition refused to agree to early Elections, the elections would proceed without the Opposition. The end result under this scenario would be another 95.6% victory for Ayub, like in 1960!
The handpicked Assemblies could of course be relied to select candidates of Ayub’s choosing. Ayub and ZAB had assumed they would face an array of disparate opponents. The Assembly vote could be used to remove the stronger candidates, and leave Ayub with a virtual walkover. Or perhaps, even more cynically, the Assembly vote could be used to select the 3 Ministers (ZAB, Shoaib, Khan) who would then stand down before the election, handing Ayub a walkover.
Based on a wide range of ethically dubious tactics employed by ZAB during his career, I am inclined to favour the last option as most probable (ie the 3 ministers would stand down, and hand Ayub a walkover).
However, Fatima Jinnah united the 5 opposition parties, and emerged as their sole candidate. This scuppered ZAB’s plan. As a result of Fatima Jinnah’s candidacy, the 2 unknown independent candidates withdrew. This forced ZAB and his fellow horsemen of the apocalypse to withdraw from the contest, leaving a straight contest between Ayub and Fatima Jinnah.
ZAB’s candidacy for the 1965 Presidential Election has been forgotten by virtually all Pakistanis. However, illumination of this obscure incident serves to provide a framework for the rest of ZAB’s career.
British newspapers at the time suggested that, had the election been held according to universal suffrage, Fatima Jinnah would have swept the vote. As it turned out, this rigged system ensured a massive 62%-38% victory for Ayub across Pakistan, with a whopping 74% margin in West Pakistan. In fact, the only district in Pakistan in which Fatima Jinnah defeated Ayub Khan was Karachi (1049 votes to 837) – this in a city in which the Muhajirs were almost unanimously in favour of Miss Jinnah. In Peshawar, Ayub won by an 83-17 margin. In Quetta, Ayub won by 562 votes to Fatima Jinnah’s 20, a 28-1 margin. Ayub decided to hold a victory parade in Karachi of all places, straight after the election, which led to a wave of deadly anti-Muhajir riots. These riots, directly instigated by Gohar Ayub (son of Field Marshal Ayub) are discussed in a separate Blog Post: http://mqmhistory.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/the-great-muhajir-massacre-of-1965/
