PAKISTAN
A State Of Two Widely Separated Parts
Pakistan is a Moslem country split into two parts by 1,000 miles of hostile Hindu territory. It was created from the North-Eastern and North-Western corners of what was once British India, whose muslim populations wanted no part of predominantly Hindu India.
After the partitian of India and Pakistan in 1947, border fighting broker out, and several states changed hands. Since that time, the two Nations have been in a state of hostile armed neutrality, with an occasiopal outbreak of violence.
The Eastern and Western sections of Pakistan, although separated by India have in the past been governed from Rawalpindi in West Pakistan.
Government from West Pakistan create political ill-feeling in the East, whose population was greater and whose higher foreign curency earnings were spent by West Pakistan.
After 12 years of military rule, President Yahya Khan announced General Elections at the end of 1970.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League from East Pakistan won an absolute majority of seats in the New Assembly on a platform of autonomy for the two wings of Pakistan.
The Awami League proposal conceded power to a Center Government over only Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Currency.
Critics of the Awami League, most of them in West Pakistan, accused Sheikh Mujib of trying to dismantle Pakistan by weakening the center. But they were unable to shake the grass roots base of a politician who to nearly all East Pakistanis represented the only hope of creating BANGLADESH- Bengaliland- and freeing them from West Pakistan political domination.
Rounds of talks between President Yahya Khan, Mujib, and West Pakistan People’s Party leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto over the shape of the new Consitiution ended in deadlock, with Bhutto threatening to boycott the talks unless Mujib backed down on his demand for autonomy.
Riots broke out in East Pakistan when the President postponed the National Assembly Meeting scheduled to start early this month.
The Awami League seized Civil Power in East Pakistan a week later, as families of foreign businessmen and diplomats were evacuated.
Another attempt by the President to solve the constitutional crisis apparently failed earlier this week.
East Pakistan’s population is about 75 million-out of a total population about 125 million for the two provinces.
Its main crop is Jute, which East Pakistanis have long complained has been used to earn foreign exchange for the Western Wing.
During the 23 years since Pakistan came into being, the West Pakistanis have dominated the civil service and the military.
Although the two wings of Pakistan were united by the common religion of Islam, they had little else in common.
The taller, fairer-skinned West pakistanis speak Urdu-while the shorter, darker East Pakistani speak Bengali.
While West Pakistan is composed mainly of rugged mountains and river valleys, East Pakistan has vast delta regions and a rainfall of up to 100 inches in the monsnon season front July to September.
East Pakistan also has been the scene of numerous national disasters caused by cyclones sweeping into the coastal regions from the Bay of Bengal.
Several hundred thousand persons were killed in such a cyclone and tidal wave last November
Reference : The Indonesian Observer, 29.03.1971