Today we have a great opportunity to review our mistakes committed in the past. The corridors of power accept their mistakes.
December 16, 1971, General Jagjit Singh Arora from India and General Niazi from Pakistan signed the surrender Agreement. Since then, a lot has been changed. Pakistan and Bangladesh are now separate countries and have a good relationship with each other. But even today, we have not learned any lessons from the East Pakistan debacle.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of Awami League, presented the controversial program with 6 points agenda in December 1970 election. His party Awami League cleaned sweep in the East Wing and win the majority in the Federal Parliament, he was not given the right to government to rule the country. Bengali people were having strong sense of deprivation (1958-1969), one unit and martial law government alienated the Bengalis and they had lost all hopes in the federation of Pakistan. Instead, a ruthless military operation had started on 26th March 1971. The Indian invasion in East Pakistan and the unjust political behavior of West Pakistan caused the fall of Dhaka on 16th December 1971.
Former chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Munir Ahmad has written in his book “From Jinnah to Zia” that as a Law Minister in 1962 he negotiated with Bengali members of assembly on behalf of Ayub Government about “How east Pakistan should be separated from west Pakistan.” He further writes that Bengali legislators rejected the proposal. This gives an hint that establishment of Pakistan wanted to get rid of Bengalis much before 1971. The establishment of military actions to achieve freedom no choice but put in a position where they were loyal to Pakistan shows that a Bengal.
Motherland was divided into two parts only 24 years after its creation, it was a tragedy. Pakistan’s military establishment and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto blamed India and Mujib-ur-Rehman for that disaster. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto formed Hamood-ur-Rehman commission which was headed by then Chief Justice of Pakistan, Hamood-ur-Rehman. This commission was given the mandate to investigate all circumstances and events which led to the disintegration of Eastern wing. The commission submitted its report to Bhutto in October 1974 but the report was not made public. In august 2000 parts of this report were leaked out and published in India Today and Dawn. After that in December 2000 this report was declassified and made public by Musharraf government. The report held Military elite of Yahya’s regime responsible for separation of East Pakistan and recommended action against Yahya and his deputies. Unfortunately, no action was taken against anyone until now.
Main factors which resulted in creation of Bangladesh were sense of deprivation and Usurp of their rights in East Pakistan. Today no lesson has been learnt. There is sense of deprivation among people of Balochistan, Hazarawall, Seraiki, and peoples of Karachi and also some urban areas of sindh. Government has started a so-called operation against the innocent people of Karachi as they previously started the same operation in 1992 in Karachi against. The excuses for the operation are same as they were in 1971 i.e. Indian conspiracies in these areas. People of West Pakistan were unaware of atrocities carried out by military in eastern wing and same situation exists today, as the rest of Pakistan doesn’t know how their countrymen are being treated by their own forces.
East Pakistan debacle was a big blow to the dreams of a prosperous Pakistan but somehow country managed to survive. If God forbid, history will repeat in the future, one can expect worse consequence, the situation is worse. So we have to learn from history and should avoid repeating the mistakes. Internal issues should be addressed intelligently and all citizens should be considered equal to all citizens of Pakistan; many problems will be solved automatically. If the current course of actions is followed then we will go deep down in an endless pit from where there is no hope of return. Hope for the best and prevent from the previous mistakes which were ended in separation of East Pakistan. Every Individual should play their role preventing any other separation in Pakistan.
Written by
Dr.Syed Hamood Ur Rehman
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