Daily Times

On February 14, 1960, a referendum where General Ayub Khan was the sole candidate was held. The basic but rational 75,283 democrats, with 95.6 percent turn out, elected Khan as president for the next five years. Also, the elected president, through the electoral college, was mandated to bless Pakistan with a Constitution. However, politicians and their political parties, disqualified or banned, did not accept the controlled referendum. They resorted to agitation politics to urge Ayub Khan to hold free and fair elections and, if not, to leave for good. Consequently, massive arrests were carried out and punishments were accorded.

Nonetheless, to further democratise the democrats — both basic and advanced — the president decided to set the rules of the game in terms of a new Constitution. For this purpose, under the chairmanship of the former Chief Justice (CJ) of the Supreme Court (SC), Justice Shahabuddin, a Constitution commission was set up on February 17, 1960. The commission submitted its report on April 29, 1961. The politicians and political parties generally welcomed its recommendations except the adoption of a separate electorate. However, Ayub unwelcomed it; he put the report before his cabinet to civilise it to the president’s standards. Unsurprisingly, the Constitution the country was given in 1962 was totally opposite to the commission’s report as well as politicians’ expectations. In fact, it formally introduced a presidential form of government whereby the president was the repository of all powers. Besides, the Objectives Resolution still remained in the preamble, much to the chagrin of the clergy. Moreover, unicameral legislature was introduced along with a centralised federal system. More importantly, it introduced indirect elections by the basic democrats for the president, the national and provincial assemblies.

As the above shows, the Ayub-led military determined the rules of the game. The underlying objective behind the politics of the Constitution was to retain the political leverage in its own hands. Therefore, all difficulties related to the election of the National Assembly (NA) and ministers’ appointments were solved by the president under the Removal of Difficulties (Appointment of Ministers) Order, 1962. Moreover, all actions taken and proceedings carried out by any martial law authority were given full protection under the Martial Law (Pending Proceedings and Protection) Order 1962. Importantly, indemnity was provided to all actions and proceedings in connection with the administration of martial law under the Martial Law (Repeal) Order 1962.

However, despite attempts at civilianisation by revoking either the presidential proclamation or issuing presidential orders, opposition politicians, especially from East Pakistan, preferred not to compromise their agency and rationality. They saw more political and economic cost in the acceptance of the Constitution. As a result, they opted for protest politics to demand their basic rights of speech, organisation etc. Having felt the gravity of the situation, the Ayub-led regime chose to undo the ban on political parties. Thus, the Political Parties Act of July 1962 provided a political opportunity not only to opposition politicians but also allied the opportunity to strategically interact with each other to maximise their returns.

In fact, the military under Ayub did the same. It was able to ally a section of the politicians from the Muslim League who had named their faction the Muslim League Convention.The non-allied section called itself the Muslim League Council. In December 1963, the Convention League chose unanimously General Ayub Khan as its president. Interestingly, the country’s president assumed the party’s presidency in order to not only deal with the opposition politicians more effectively but also fight the next presidential elections since, under the 1962 Constitution, the president’s term was to expire on February 14, 1965. Therefore, the presidential election was scheduled to be held on January 2, 1965 followed by the election for new assemblies, both national and provincial.

No wonder then that Ayub Khan decided to contest it. He was the candidate from the Muslim League (Convention). The opposition political parties, on their part, were able to unite under an umbrella organisation named the Combined Opposition Parties (COP). However, they struggled to nominate their presidential candidate. After many negotiations, the COP was, somehow, able to convince Miss Fatima Jinnah, Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s sister, to fight against General Ayub Khan electorally.

However, before the presidential election could take place, the Constitution required the election for a new electoral college, which would then elect the new president. Hence, the election for a new college was scheduled for November 1964. During the run-up to the election, the COP, despite its internal differences, decided to give the government a tough time. It demanded the withdrawal of the Press and Public Ordinance, the Loudspeaker Ordinance and the Public Safety Act. Also, it complained to the Election Commission (EC) about gerrymandering and faulty voters’ lists. However, the weak EC, on its part, saw everything as beingperfect. Resultantly, on election day, out of the electoral college’s 80,000 members, 3,282 (around 4.5 percent) were selected by the government’s political agents from the tribal areas and 32,000 (around 40 percent) happened to be sitting democrats. Both these categories, as mentioned earlier, were administratively and judicially facilitated by the regime’s agents, namely the civil bureaucracy and the judiciary. If rationality is any guide, they were then supposed to vote for Ayub Khan on January 2.

The COP, on its part, was campaigning hard. Though it knew its disadvantages vis-à-vis the regime and its political-bureaucratic allies, it campaigned massively and enthusiastically in order to possibly urge the masses to stir, in turn, their respective democrats to vote for Miss Fatima. In this respect, the COP left no stone unturned to criticiseAyub’s failed domestic and foreign/defence policies. Indeed, they highlighted the malpractices in terms of corruption, misuse of authority etc. by his close associates including his sons. The Ayub side, at its end, never hesitated to label the COP, especially its eastern component, as being traitors and unpatriotic.

Nevertheless, the election took place as scheduled. Ayub Khan was able to poll 49,951 democrats and Miss Fatima was honoured by 28,691. K M Kamal and Mian Bashir Ahmad, the minnows, were able to only poll 183 and 65 votes respectively. From the East-West Pakistan perspective, Ayub got 28,939 against Jinnah’s 10,257 in the West and in the East, the former obtained 21,012 against the latter’s 18,434 votes. In addition, the electoral college elected members to the national and provincial assemblies also. The majority of the elected, however, was in political alliance with Ayub. Expectedly, the opposition refused to accept the results and accorded a preference for agitataional politics. Did the Ayub regime survive the day or succumb to popular demand? This shall be discussed in the next part.

(To be continued)

This is the second part of a five-part series appearing every Saturday

The writer is a political scientist by training and professor by profession. He is a DAAD fellow and the author of Military Agency, Politics and the State in Pakistan. He tweets @ejazbhatty