Pakistan period part – 2

In 1957, the Awami League faced a serious organizational crisis resulting in a split in the party
on the issue of foreign policy.On March 18, Maulana Bhasani resigned from the Awami League
and its presidentship. This led to the formation of a new party named the National Awami Party
with Maulana Bhasani at its president. At this critical juncture, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman took upon himself the reign of the Awami League.

The Constitution of Pakistan was finally adopted in 1956. In the preamble it was declared that
Pakistan would be an Islamic Republic where all authority was to be subject to the supreme
power of Allah. General Ayub Khan was the first military ruler, He was long in power in
Pakistan. Between the end of 1968 and the beginning of 1969 General Ayub was compelled to
hand over power of General Yahya Khan in March 1969. In 1962 Education movement was
initiated by the students alone without any outside insluence. Indo-pak war was began on
September 5, 1965 and lasted for 17 days. East pakistan was completely cut off from its
Western wing duning the war.

Six point programme was held on 1966. On the following day newspapers of west pakistan
published reports on the six point programme. The Ayub government projected sheikh Mujib
as a separatist and later instituted the Agrtala Conspiracy Case against him. Then Mass Upsurge
was started with the student unrest of 1968 against the tyrannical rule of Ayub Khan. On 4
January 1969, leaders of different parties declared their 11 point programme. The 11 points
included the Six Points of Awami League and demand for Sheikh Mujib’s release and withdrawal
of the Agartala Conspiracy Case was included in it . On the face o mounting pressure, Sheikh
Mujib and other accused in the Agartala Conspiracy Case were released. And Martial Law was
re-imposed but simultaneously it was agreed that elections would arranged soon on the basis
of universal adult franchise, and parliamentary democracy would be introduced. The Bhola
Cyclone, one of the deadliest tropical cyclones the world has ever recorded, struck the Bay of
Bengal of East Pakistan in November 1970.

The 1970 general election was a turning point in the history of Bangladesh’s struggle for
independence, as it was the first general election to have taken place in Pakistan since its
founding in 1947. The Awami league was achieved an absolute majority in the general elections
on December 7. Awami league was won 167 seats out of the 169 of the national assemble
allocated for East Pakistan and 298 seats of 310 seats of the provincial assembly of East
Pakistan.
 Political Phases
During first three years of civilian rule (1972-1975), the country moved from a one-party
dominant to a single party system.The single party was named the Bangladesh Krishak Shramik
Awami League (BAKSAL). All political parties and their members were asked to join the BAKSAL.
It’s leadership remained in the hand of AL. However, the experimentation with the single party
system did not last long. Within six months on August 15, 1975, Bangabandhu, together with
many members of his immediate and extended family were killed by a group of military officers.
A series of coups and counter-coups followed in November 1975 which ushered in fifteen years
of military rule in the country. 3 November 1975 was The jail killing day. Many Important
persons was killed that day.
Mujib’s assassination shifted political power from democracy to military authoritarian regime.
Army had the entire political system dysfunctional in which democratic culture struggled to
flourish. Zia played a key role in the Liberation War both at the level of planning and execution.
In 1972, he was appointed as the deputy chief of the army. He was approached by some
personnel to join the coup against Mujib, but he rejected the offer, at the same time he did
nothing to prevent them from executing a coup against Mujib or caution him about itA high-
level politicization of the armed forces in Bangladesh has been visible since the very beginning
of the freedom movement. Politicization of the armed forces reached its peak during Zia’s
period. As part of the civilianization process, in 1977 Zia announced to launch a political party-
the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which won the majority of the seats in the
parliamentary election, held on February 1979. On March 24, 1982 the chief of Army staff Lt
General H M Ershad ousted President Sattar and his government in a bloodless coup, imposed
martial law in the country. During Ershad period, most of the freedom fighter officers were
meticulously weeded out. In 1990, out of 20 major generals, only 5 belonged to the freedom
fighters category.On January 1, 1986, removing the ban on outdoor politics, Ershad announced
presidential and parliamentary polls and formed the Jatiya Party. Military rule had become a
major powerful institution in Bangladesh, which can control or topple democratic regime. In
1996, national election was held for the first time under the supervision of caretaker
government and it was regarded a free and fair election by domestic and international
observers. This time the Al emerged as the single largest party in parliament with 146 seats. The
BNP gained 116 seats.

Following the practice of the previous BNP government, the AL government also began to use
the state machinery to harass the opposition. At the end of the five-year term, the AL
government handed over power to a NCG headed by the last retired CJ Latifur Rahman.
The 2001 election was followed by widespread violence. The supporters of the victorious four
party alliance launched massive violence against the AL supporters in many areas. Almost
overnight the BNP supporters ousted the AL supporters from control of various key institutions.
Extremist groups such as the Jamaat-ul-Mjahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and some its allies
engaged in widespread terrorist activities. AL entered into fourteen party grand alliance with
Ershad’sfaction of JP, the JSD (Inu) Bangladesh Workers’ Party (BWP), and ten other small
parties.

The AL-led opposition rejected this change as a political move to ensure the appointment of
Justice K. M. Hasan as the CA of the next NCG.

The government’s attempt to democratize party politics by ousting the two leaders, popularly
named as the ‘Minus 2 Strategy’ , also failed. The grand alliance formed the government on
January 6, 2009 with Sheikh Hasina again as the prime minister.

Awami League alone won 230 seats in the elections, BNP secured only 30 seats. The Shahabag
mobilization was quickly countered by an Islamist fundamentalist mobilization on the streets in
April/ May 2013 led by Hefazat-i-Islam, a religious group with numerically large following
among Madrassa alumni and students who branded the Shahabag movement as atheist and
demanded implementation of an extreme Islamist agenda. There is some indication thath the JI
may have supported this mobilization.