Daily Morning Post (Nigeria)

Pakistan occupies a prominent position in the political might of Asia. Being the biggest Muslim state and fifth largest in world population, her affairs can easily become the affairs of the world. No wonder the civil war in that country had so provoked world-wide comments in the Press. And now the frightening reality of the aftermath of the Pakistani crisis is the refugee problem whereby some million homeless people are reported to have gone over to India. What is the cause of Pakistan's predicament? A secession was being attempted by a political group belonging to the majority in term of population and the government of Pakistan ordered an action to arrest the situation. But after facing an armed resistance from the secessionists, the government brought the situation under control and is now engaged in restoring economic life and organising relief measures in East Pakistan-the territory that attempted to secede. Contrary to sensational reports that a worsening situation is being experienced in East Pakistan, reliable and accurate sources disclose that many factories and industrial units have resumed their normal work. Communications and transportation on railways and the riverine have been largely restored. Also, the movement and distribution of food grains and other essential goods have also been resumed.

The war in Pakistan has attracted such attention and not unexpectedly the sensationalism of some sections of the Western press has also come into play. So, exaggerated accounts of the situation in that country similar to that to which Nigeria was treated during her own trouble was being fed to unwary readers. These pressmen were trying to equate the situation in Pakistan with that in Vietnam, putting West Pakistan in place of the United States of America and the East Pakistani secessionists in place of the North Vietnamese. But even a child knows that a more appropriate analogy, if one is to be sought, is the recent use of the federal troops against the secessionists in Nigeria, or the use of British forces in Belfast, or even that of federal troops by the United States of America within its own territories. The picture of trigger-happy Pakistan Army is a completely false one. In an attempt to refute most of these false reports, the Pakistani Government has taken around foreign correspondents to see the Dacca University falsely reported to have been razed to the ground. Many scholars alleged to have been killed along with their families have appealed on Dacca television and contradicted the false reports. Even fifty scholars issued a joint statement protesting the allegations of a New York group of scholars that they were killed. The Italian Ambassador in Pakistan was taken to Jessore and other places and he ascertained the falsehood of the reports about murder of the Catholic students in an Italian missionary school, and the brother of the Italian Bishop supposed to have been murdered in East Pakistan has been reported by Reuters to have contradicted the news personally.

One other false pictorial story which sounds rather funny to the commonsense is that of three dead bodies said to have been victims of an aerial bombardment by Pakistani jets. These dead bodies are neatly placed on the pedicab-without any damage to the pedicabs. How can an aerial bomb kill three people and leave the pedicab on which they stood quite undamaged? It is incredible. Another wonderful report was that of some refugees said to have told a London paper how they were shot through the neck and through the chest by the Pakistani soldiers, and they survived. For persons to survive military rifle shots through one's neck and through one's chest is something which, if anybody can believe, he would have to create a new science. Talking of the politics behind the Pakistan issue, one must consider the last request of Sheikh Mujib just before he broke away. He asked President Yahya Khan to issue a proclamation abrogating Martial Law, transferring powers to the five provinces of Pakistan, and instead of one National Assembly for Pakistan, two constitutional conventions be called to draw up separate constitutions for East Pakistan and West Pakistan. People have described this plain demand for secession as a demand for autonomy. As originally claimed, the six-points were no more than a mechanism for providing the largest possible measure of autonomy to East Pakistan within the framework of a single country. Throughout the year long electioneering campaign, the Awami League leadership took pains to emphasise that their six points were not the "word of God" that they were open to negotiation and that it was mischievous on the part of the critics even to suggest that the six points visualised anything outside the framework of Pakistan. This remained the Awami League's position-- right up to the polls, and accordingly it evoked statements from West Pakistan leaders, expressing their readiness to work out accommodation with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, both to evolve a constitution under legal framework order and to set up a government.

However, as soon as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had secured the electorate's verdict in favour of autonomy, he started elaborating and interpreting the six points in a manner the electorate had not bargained for, and adopted a deliberate posture of rigidity that left no room for negotiations. His attitude now was: "Take it or leave." One political leader after another, including the leader of the largest political party of West Pakistan, flew to Dacca to negotiate a settlement with him. The President of Pakistan paid several visits but to no avail. Publicly described as would-be Prime Minister, Sheikh Mujib showed no interest in the all-Pakistan role which the nation was willing-even eager for him to assume.

He refused even to visit West Pakistan. When a temporary adjournment of the National Assembly was announced with the object of facilitating talks among party leaders to pave the way for an agreed approach to constitution-making within the House, Sheikh Mujib seized the opportunity to launch a 4 massive defiance of law and order. Again, Sheikh Mujibur did not during elections ask for secession, neither was any mandate given to him by any people to declare it. Therefore the reports in some sections of the Press which had attempted to glorify the secessionist movement as a popular demand is not only devoid of truth, but also a kind of psychological warfare against Pakistan's integrity.

The truth is that a military action supported by a majority of East Pakistanis was ordered against the secessionists, and not a war between East Pakistan. Neither will it be right to describe the government of Pakistan as "West Pakistan Government". Unless one is bent on creating a North and South Vietnams in the land of the Pakistanis. i Pakistan is based on a very solid foundation and while it may have its ups and downs, as any ideological State would have, it would be churlish to forget the 1000 year historical process in the sub-continent that created Pakistan.