Factores de riesgo

In May 1955, the second CA was elected indirectly through the electoral college of provincial assemblies and held its inaugural session in July at Murree (Ahmed, 2004: 10 and Choudhury, 1969: 93).The first, most difficult and controversial task before the second CA was to create One Unit by merging the western wing of Pakistan into a single unit to be called west Pakistan. The logic behind the merging of west Pakistan into One Unit was to bring parity between the two wings of Pakistan as well as to make things simple when chalking out the

principles and structures of the new federal constitutions.

Nonetheless, this move was severely criticised by the smaller provinces such as NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan (Kutty, 2009: 82-84; Ahmad, 1981: 32-33; and Sayeed, 1960: 427-28). During the debate over the One Unit Scheme (OUS), some leaders such as Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan of NWFP and Abdul Sattar Pirzada of Sindh declared that they were not in favour of this scheme (Malik, 1988: 21 and Ahmad, 1981: 33). The merger was a move to counter the numerical majority of the eastern wing over the western wing (more specifically the province of the Punjab). Adeney (2007a) and Khan (2005) assert that the creation of One Unit was intended to remove the Bengali dominance in the federal legislature. For the smaller provinces, however, it was a move towards the domination of the western wing by the Punjab. To secure the favour of smaller provinces for the OUS, the provincial assembly of Sindh was dissolved and similar tactics were used in NWFP to get the scheme approved (Adeney, 2007a: 105-106; Ali, 1996: 80; and Malik, 1988). According to Sayeed (1967: 78), as the

Sindh Assembly under the Chief Minstership of Pirzada Abdul Sattar produced a statement (signed by 74 members out of 110) opposing the OUS, the Assembly itself was dismissed and replaced with Muhammad Ayub Khuhro in November 1954. Khuhro, after a month, succeeded in getting 100 votes from the same Assembly approving the OUS. Abdul Qayyum Khan, the Chief Minister of NWFP, who was a strong opponent of the OUS, was replaced by Abdul Rashid Khan. The latter agreed to the merger of NWFP with the other provinces because he was promised that the new capital of west Pakistan would be established in NWFP. He was also promised that Dr. Khan Sahab31 would not be installed as Chief Minister of the One Unit Government. However, such promises have never been honoured by the Central Government (Malik, 1988: 48).32 Thus, the One Unit Bill was passed in spite of formidable opposition, both within and outside the CA, from the people of the smaller provinces, including the princely states. An Anti-One Unit Front was established in 1956 by the smaller ethnic groups comprising of the Red Shirts (under the leadership of Abdul Ghaffar Khan), Awami League (NWFP under Pir Sahab of Manki Sharif), the Ustaman Gul of Balochistan, the Wrore Pashtun (Pukhtun Brotherhood of Balochistan) the Sindh

Awami Mahaz and the Azad Pakistan Party. This front later became National

Awami Party (NAP) (Afzal, 2001; Malik, 1988; Tendulkar, 1967; Zutshi, 1970; and Amin, 1988). The NAP leadershers who stood against the OUS and demanded more provincial autonomy were arrested on various charges. For instance, when Abdul Ghaffar Khan became the President of the Anti-One Unit Front, he demanded autonomy for all the provinces and asked for the renaming of NWFP as Pakhtoonistan. The Government dubbed him ‘anti-Pakistani’ and an

31 _{Dr. Khan Sahab was the younger brother of Ghaffar Khan, the then leader of Khudai Khidmatgar} Movement, while Abdul Rashid Khan was Muslim Leaguer.

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It is also important to note that the opposition led by the NWFP branch of Awami League, under Pir Sahib of Manki Sharif, boycotted the session of the Assembly. The strong opponent of OUS, Abdul Ghaffar Khan was banned from entering the frontier province by that time (Malik, 1988).

arch disruptionist. He was arrested and imprisoned for three years (Tendulkara, 1967 and Zutshi, 1970).33 Mr. Ghous Bakhsh Bizenju, a Baloch nationalist leader, was put behind the bars because he was found with a currency note on which the slogan of ‘undo the One Unit’ was written (Kutty, 2009: 122 and Afzal, 2001: 332).34 Besides Ghaffar Khan and Bizenju, there is a long list of the many leaders who were arrested by the Central Government (1947-1969). These included Mujibur Rehman from east Pakistan, Wali Khan from NWFP, and Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Sardar Attaullah Mengal from Balochistan and many more (see Kutty, 2009; Afzal, 2001; Tendulkar, 1967; Janmahmad, 1989; Ahmad, 1992; and Zutshi, 1970).

The era from 1947 to 1956 was crucial in Pakistan’s history where, in order to counter Bengal’s numerical dominance, the civilian and military establishment (dominated by the Punjabis and Mohajirs) created an artificial Unit and sacrificed those who dissented from it. The central Government used the weapon of the Public and Representative Offices (Disqualification) Act of 1949, known as PRODA, against those who were demanding more autonomy within the framework of Pakistan. A corollary of this effort was to increase the influence of civilian bureaucracy and military in political life and reduce the role of elected political leadership. During the military regime (1958-1969), Ayub Khan wanted to eliminate the influence of politicians and therefore, he promulgated two presidential orders in 1959, namely, the Public Office Disqualification Order

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Ghaffar Khan was arrested on many occasions. He was arrested on 15th June 1948 and awarded three years rigorous imprisonment. This was because; he had (with other nationalist leaders of Sindh and Balochistan) formed the people’s party in opposition to the Muslim League government’s excesses. On the expiration of his three years imprisonment, he was awarded another three years imprisonment. After release in 1954, he was arrested again in 1956 on account of anti-one unit demonstrations. The arrest of Ghaffar Khan created a wave of resentment in the whole country, especially in NWFP where, according to one estimate, 150 of his followers were killed and 400 left injured. Several hundred of his followers were arrested including his son and brother. Along with many nationalist leaders from across the country, he was arrested during Ayub regime in 1958 and 1961 for various reasons. For more details, see Tendulkar (1967), Zutshi (1970) and Syed Viqar Ali Shah (n.d).

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During Ayub Khan’s regime, currency notes were circulated in the bazaars on which it was written or stamped undo one unit (see Kutty, 2009).

(PODO) and the Elective Bodies Disqualification Order (EBDO) (Rizvi, 1988: 86-88; Talbot, 1998: 154; and Afzal, 2001: 226).35