Pakistan: It’s Part of Life

For ten years, Pakistan’s President Mohammed Ayub Khan has ruled his country with the firm hand of a field marshal, which he is. Under his version of “basic democracy,” Ayub’s rule is sustained by indirect elections through a sympathetic electoral college of 120,000 educated Pakistanis. He, in turn, provides Pakistan with political stability and a steadily improving economy. But last week Pakistan’s facade of political calm cracked. A would-be assassin took two wild potshots at Ayub. Student riots broke out in half a dozen cities.

And police arrested 141 opposition politicians, including Ayub’s chief rival, ex-Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The assassination attempt came while Ayub was sitting on a speaker’s platform at Peshawar. A disaffected engineering undergraduate in the crowd leaped up and fired two Luger shots from the improbable range of 30 yds. Ayub went on to give his speech, later dismissing the attempt with soldierly aplomb: “Don’t worry, it’s part of life.”

Islam and Socialism. Not so easily dismissed is the volatile combination of riotous students and their champion, ex-Minister Bhutto. A compelling orator, Bhutto is the scion of a powerful Pakistani family, and a graduate of both Berkeley and Oxford. He joined Ayub’s first Cabinet at 30. As Foreign Minister from 1963 to 1966, Bhutto took a belligerent line with India, and engineered Pakistan’s “Red shift” toward China and away from the U.S. He was the most popular man in the Cabinet by 1966, when Ayub sacked him in order to bring Pakistan back toward the middle of the road. Last year Bhutto formed his own Pakistan People’s Party, with the slogan “Islam, Socialism, Democracy.”

Though unable to unite Pakistan’s fractious opposition parties, Bhutto stumped the country, drawing bigger crowds than Ayub. His militant nationalism and fiery rhetoric made him a popular figure in the universities. For his part, Bhutto hinted privately that he was counting on popular unrest to give him a boost in next year’s elections. The riots upset that timing.

Goondas and Tractors. They began in Karachi last month, when students demonstrated for lower fees, better accommodations, and the lowering of the passing mark from 50% to 45%. Later goondas, or hooligans, joined in, and the demonstrators turned violent, burning buses and cars. By last week, the riots had spread through West Pakistan, causing four deaths and 70 arrests. The protesters echoed Bhutto’s charges that Ayub’s government is undemocratic and corrupt. Bhutto in turn helped fuel the riots. In the midst of the demonstrations, he set out on a whistle-stop tour from Peshawar to Lahore, declaring that “we do not want bloodshed, but we are not afraid of bloodshed. I am with the students in their struggle, for they are fighting against tyranny.”

Last week police arrested Bhutto, along with six members of his party. For good measure, the cops also picked up 134 other politicians, including the chief advocates of a separate state of Pushtunistan for approximately 9,000,000 Pushtu-speaking people on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier. Bhutto is charged with “acting in a manner prejudicial to security.” Under “state of emergency” laws imposed during the India-Pakistan war of 1965 and never repealed, he can be held indefinitely without trial. He is also under indictment on a corruption charge of using state-subsidized tractors on his personal land, a charge he vigorously denies.

Martyr’s Appeal. With either charge, President Ayub can effectively neutralize Bhutto in next year’s presidential vote by keeping him in jail, but only at the price of being accused of rigging the election—and of giving Bhutto a political boost. With the martyr’s appeal that a long stint behind bars may provide, Bhutto will perhaps stand a better chance of winning Pakistan’s opposition parties to his side. For the long run, Bhutto, who mixes militant nationalism with his socialism, seems in a promising position. At 40, his popularity is rising, while that of Ayub, who is 61, is on the wane.