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300 of the 313 seats in the National Assembly 151 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Registered | 56,941,500 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 57.96% | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Results by constituency | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Independence of Bangladesh |
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Events |
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Bangladeshportal |
History of Bangladesh |
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Bangladeshportal |
General elections were held in Pakistan on 7 December 1970 to elect members of the National Assembly. They were the first direct general elections since the independence of Pakistan and ultimately the only ones held prior to the independence of Bangladesh. Voting took place in 300 general constituencies, of which 162 were in East Pakistan and 138 in West Pakistan. A further thirteen seats were reserved for women (seven of which were in East Pakistan and six of which were in West Pakistan), who were to be elected by members of the National Assembly. [1]
The elections were a fierce contest between two social democratic parties, the west-based Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the east-based All-Pakistan Awami League. The Awami League was the sole major party in the east wing, while in the west wing, the PPP faced severe competition from the conservative factions of Muslim League, the largest of which was Muslim League (Qayyum), as well as Islamist parties like Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP).
The result was a victory for the Awami League, which gained an absolute majority, winning 160 of the 162 general seats and all seven women's seats in East Pakistan. The PPP won only 81 general seats and five women's seats, all in West Pakistan. In the provincial elections held ten days later, the Awami League again dominated in East Pakistan, while the PPP were the winning party in Punjab and Sindh. The Marxist National Awami Party emerged victorious in Northwest Frontier Province and Balochistan.
The National Assembly was initially not inaugurated as President Yahya Khan and the PPP chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did not want a party from East Pakistan in federal government. [2] Instead, Yahya appointed the veteran Bengali politician Nurul Amin as Prime Minister, asking him to reach a compromise between the PPP and Awami League. However, this move failed as the delay in inauguration had already caused significant unrest in East Pakistan. The situation deteriorated further when Operation Searchlight occurred under the orders of Yahya resulting in a civil war that led to the formation of the independent state of Bangladesh. [3] The Assembly was eventually inaugurated in 1972 after Yahya resigned and handed power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto became Prime Minister in 1973 after the post was recreated by a new constitution.
On 23 March 1956 Pakistan changed from being a Dominion of the British Commonwealth and became an Islamic republic after framing its own constitution. Although the first general elections were scheduled for early 1959, severe political instability led President Iskander Mirza to abrogate the constitution on 7 October 1958. Mirza imposed martial law and handed power to the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army, General Muhammad Ayub Khan. After assuming presidency, President Ayub Khan promoted himself to the rank of Field marshal and appointed General Muhammad Musa Khan as the new Commander-in-Chief.
On 17 February 1960 President Ayub Khan appointed a commission under Muhammad Shahabuddin, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, to report a political framework for the country. The commission submitted its report on 29 April 1961 and, on the basis of this report, a new constitution was framed on 1 March 1962. The new constitution declared the country the Republic of Pakistan and brought about a presidential system of government, replacing the parliamentary system of the 1956 constitution. The electoral system was made indirect, and the "basic democrats" were declared electoral college for the purpose of electing members of the National and Provincial Assemblies. Under the new system, presidential elections were held on 2 January 1965 which resulted in a victory for Ayub Khan. As years went by, political opposition against President Ayub Khan mounted. In East Pakistan, leader of the Awami League, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was one of the key leaders to rally opposition to President Ayub Khan. In 1966, he began the Six point movement for East Pakistani autonomy.[ citation needed ]
In 1968 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was charged with sedition after the government of President Ayub Khan accused him for conspiring with India against the stability of Pakistan. [4] While a conspiracy between Mujib and India for East Pakistan's secession was not itself conclusively proven, [5] it is known that Mujib and the Awami League had held secret meetings with Indian government officials in 1962 and after the 1965 war. [6] This case led to an uprising in East Pakistan which consisted of a series of mass demonstrations and sporadic conflicts between the government forces and protesters. [4] In West Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who served as foreign minister under President Ayub Khan, resigned from his office and founded the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in 1967. The socialist political party took up opposition to President Ayub Khan as well.
Ayub Khan succumbed to political pressure on 26 March 1969 and handed power to the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army, General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan. President Yahya Khan imposed martial law and the 1962 Constitution was abrogated. On 31 March 1970, President Yahya Khan announced a Legal Framework Order (LFO) which called for direct elections for a unicameral legislature. Many in the West feared the East wing's demand for countrywide provincial autonomy. [7] The purpose of the LFO was to secure the future Constitution which would be written after the election [8] so that it would include safeguards such as preserving Pakistan's territorial integrity and Islamic ideology. [9]
The integrated province of West Pakistan formed on 22 November 1954 was abolished and four provinces were retrieved: Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and the North-West Frontier Province. The principles of representation was made on the basis of population, and since East Pakistan had more people than the combined population of the four provinces of West Pakistan, the former got more than half seats in the National Assembly. Yahya Khan ignored reports that Sheikh Mujib planned to disregard the LFO and that India was increasingly interfering in East Pakistan. [10] Nor did he believe that the Awami League would actually sweep the elections in East Pakistan. [11]
A month before the elections the Bhola cyclone struck East Pakistan. This was the deadliest tropical cyclone in world history, killing an estimated 500,000 people. The government was severely criticised for its response to the disaster.
The general elections of 1970 are considered one of the fairest and cleanest elections in the history of Pakistan, with about twenty-four political parties taking part. The Awami League, a Bengali nationalist party dominated East Pakistan, while in the West the Pakistan Peoples Party, a leftist and nominally democratic socialist party, was a major power. The Pakistani government supported the pro-Islamic parties since they were committed to strong federalism. [12] The Jamaat-e-Islami suspected that the Awami League had secessionist intentions. [13]
The continuous public meetings of the Awami League in East Pakistan and the Pakistan Peoples Party in Western Pakistan attracted huge crowds. The Awami League, a Bengali nationalist party, mobilised support in East Pakistan on the basis of its Six-Points Program (SPP), which was the main attraction in the party's manifesto. In East Pakistan, a huge majority of the Bengali nation favoured the Awami League, under Sheikh Mujib. The party received a huge percentage of the popular vote in East Pakistan and emerged as the largest party in the nation as a whole, gaining the exclusive mandate of Pakistan in terms both of seats and of votes.
The Pakistan Peoples Party failed to win any seats in the east. On the other hand, the Awami League failed to garner any seats in the west. [14] The Awami League's failure to win any seats in the west was used by the leftists led by Zulfikar Bhutto who argued that Mujib had received "no mandate or support from West Pakistan" (ignoring the fact that he himself did not win any seat in East Pakistan).[ citation needed ]
Bhutto uttered his infamous phrase "idhar hum, udhar tum" (We rule here, you rule there) – thus dividing Pakistan for the first time orally. [15]
Some Bengalis sided with the Pakistan Peoples' Party and tacitly or openly supported Bhutto and the democratic socialists, such as Jalaludin Abdur Rahim, an influential Bengali in Pakistan and mentor of Bhutto[ citation needed ] who was later jailed by Bhutto. Jamat-e-Islami, while supporting allowing the Awami League to form a government, was also against the fragmentation of the country. Conversely, several prominent figures from West Pakistan supported allowing the Awami League to rule, including the poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz and rights activist Malik Ghulam Jilani, father of Asma Jahangir, G.M Syed the founder of Sindhi nationalist party Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) and Abul Ala Maududi, the leader of Jamat-e-Islami.
However, the political position in West Pakistan was completely different from East Pakistan. In West Pakistan, the population was divided between different ideological forces. The right-wing parties, led under Abul Maududi, raised the religious slogans and initially campaigned on an Islamic platform, further promising to enforce Sharia laws in the country. Meanwhile, the founding party of Pakistan and the national conservative Muslim League, that although was divided into three factions (QML, CML, MLC), campaigned on a nationalist platform, promising to initiate the Jinnah reforms as originally envisioned by Jinnah and others in the 1940s. The factions however criticised each other for disobeying the rules laid down by the country's founding father.
The dynamic leadership and charismatic personality of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was highly active and influential in West Pakistan during these days. Bhutto's ideas and the famous slogan "Roti Kapra Aur Makaan" ("Food, Clothing and Shelter") attracted poor communities, students, and the working class to his party. Under Bhutto's leadership the democratic left gathered and united into one party platform for the first time in Pakistan's history. Bhutto and the left-leaning elements attracted the people of the West to participate and vote for the Peoples Party based on a broad hope for a better future for their children and families. As compared to the right-wing and conservatives in West Pakistan, Bhutto and his allies won most of the popular vote, becoming the pre-eminent players in the politics of the West.
A total of 1,957 candidates filed nomination papers for the 300 National Assembly seats. After scrutiny and withdrawals, 1,579 eventually contested the elections. The Awami League ran 170 candidates, of which 162 were for constituencies in East Pakistan. Jamaat-e-Islami had the second-highest number of candidates with 151. The Pakistan Peoples Party ran only 120 candidates, of which 103 were from constituencies in Punjab and Sindh, and none in East Pakistan. The PML (Convention) ran 124 candidates, the PML (Council) 119 and the PML (Qayyum) 133.
All thirteen women's seats were uncontested. [16]
The government claimed a high level of public participation and a voter turnout of almost 63%. The total number of registered voters in the country was 56,941,500 of which 31,211,220 were from East Pakistan and 25,730,280 were from West Pakistan.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General | Women | Total | ||||||
All-Pakistan Awami League | 12,937,162 | 39.20 | 160 | 7 | 167 | |||
Pakistan Peoples Party | 6,148,923 | 18.63 | 81 | 5 | 86 | |||
Jamaat-e-Islami | 1,989,461 | 6.03 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |||
Council Muslim League | 1,965,689 | 5.96 | 7 | 0 | 7 | |||
Pakistan Muslim League (Qayyum) | 1,473,749 | 4.47 | 9 | 0 | 9 | |||
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam | 1,315,071 | 3.98 | 7 | 0 | 7 | |||
Markazi Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan | 1,299,858 | 3.94 | 7 | 0 | 7 | |||
Convention Muslim League | 1,102,815 | 3.34 | 2 | 0 | 2 | |||
National Awami Party (Wali) | 801,355 | 2.43 | 6 | 1 | 7 | |||
Pakistan Democratic Party | 737,958 | 2.24 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Thanvi) | 521,764 | 1.58 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Other parties | 387,919 | 1.18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Independents | 2,322,341 | 7.04 | 16 | 0 | 16 | |||
Total | 33,004,065 | 100.00 | 300 | 13 | 313 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 56,941,500 | – | ||||||
Source: Nohlen et al., [17] Bangladesh Documents |
List of members in East Bengal: [18] [19]
List of members from Punjab, Sindh, North West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Balochistan: [20] [21]
The elected Assembly initially did not meet as President Yahya Khan and the Pakistan Peoples Party did not want the majority party from East Pakistan forming government. This caused great unrest in East Pakistan. The military junta responded by executing Operation Searchlight, which led to the Bangladesh War of Independence, with East Pakistan becoming the independent state of Bangladesh. The Assembly session was eventually held when Yahya resigned four days after Pakistan surrendered to Bangladesh and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over. Bhutto became the Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1973, after the post was recreated by the new Constitution.
East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, with a coastline on the Bay of Bengal. East Pakistanis were popularly known as "Pakistani Bengalis"; to distinguish this region from India's state West Bengal, East Pakistan was known as "Pakistani Bengal". In 1971, East Pakistan became the newly independent state Bangladesh, which means "country of Bengal" or "country of Bengalis" in Bengali language.
Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan was a Pakistani general who served as the third president of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971. He also served as the fifth commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army from 1966 to 1971.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also known by the honorific Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman, activist and diarist, who was the founding president of Bangladesh. As one of the founding leader of Bangladesh, he had held continuous positions Initially, he served as the President of the Awami League, later as the President of Bangladesh, and then as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh until his assassination in August 1975. His nationalist ideology, socio-political theories, and political doctrines are collectively known as Mujibism.
The Constitution of Pakistan, also known as the 1973 Constitution, is the supreme law of Pakistan. The document guides Pakistan's law, political culture, and system. It sets out the state's outline, the fundamental rights of the population, the state's law and orders, and also the structure and establishment of the institutions and the armed forces. Drafted by the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, with additional assistance from the country's opposition parties, it was unanimously approved by the 5th Parliament on 10 April and ratified on 14 August 1973. The first three chapters establish the rules, mandate, and separate powers of the three branches of the government: a bicameral legislature; an executive branch governed by the Prime Minister as chief executive; and an apex federal judiciary headed by Supreme Court. The Constitution designates the President of Pakistan as a ceremonial Head of State who is to represent the unity of the state. The first six articles of the constitution outline the political system as a federal parliamentary republic system; as well as Islam as its state religion. The Constitution also encapsulates provisions stipulating the legal system's compliance with Islamic injunctions contained in the Quran and Sunnah.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a Pakistani barrister, politician, and statesman. He served as the fourth president of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and later as the ninth prime minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977. Bhutto founded the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and served as its chairman until his execution for murder.
The Pakistan People's Party is a centre-left political party in Pakistan, currently being the largest in the Senate and second-largest party in the National Assembly. The party was founded in 1967 in Lahore, when a number of prominent left-wing politicians in the country joined hands against the rule of Ayub Khan, under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It is affiliated with the Socialist International. The PPP's platform was formerly socialist, and its stated priorities continue to include transforming Pakistan into a social-democratic state, promoting egalitarian values, establishing social justice, and maintaining a strong military. It, alongside the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, is one of the three largest political parties of Pakistan.
Tikka Khan was a Pakistani military officer who served as the first chief of the army staff from 1972 to 1976. Along with Yahya Khan, he is considered a chief architect of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide that resulted in the deaths of up to 3,000,000 people. His leadership of the Pakistani Army actions in Bangladesh led to him being dubbed the "Butcher of Bengal" by Bengalis.
Tajuddin Ahmad was a Bangladeshi politician. He led the 1st Government of Bangladesh as its prime minister during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, and is regarded as one of the most instrumental figures in the birth of Bangladesh. He is one of the founding leaders of Bangladesh.
Khan Abdul Wali Khan was a Pashtun Pakistani democratic socialist politician who served as president of Awami National Party. Son of the prominent Pashtun nationalist leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Wali Khan was an activist and a writer against the British Raj like his father.
The Agartala Conspiracy Case was a sedition case in Pakistan during the rule of Ayub Khan against Awami League, brought by the government of Pakistan in 1968 against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the then leader of the Awami League and East Pakistan, and 34 other people.
Tehreek-e-Istiqlal was a political party in Pakistan. It was once the second most popular political party in Pakistan. It was formed by Air Marshal Retd. Asghar Khan in 1970.
The history of East Bengal and East Pakistan from 1947 to 1971 covers the period of Bangladesh's history between its independence as a part of Pakistan from British colonial rule in 1947 to its independence from Pakistan in 1971.
The 7th March Speech of Bangabandhu, or the 7/3 Speech, was a public speech given by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh on 7 March 1971 at the Ramna Race Course in Dhaka to a gathering of over one million (1,000,000) people. It was delivered during a period of escalating tensions between East Pakistan and the powerful political and military establishment of West Pakistan. In the speech, Bangabandhu informally declared the independence of Bangladesh, proclaiming: "The struggle this time, is a struggle for our liberty. The struggle this time, is a struggle for our independence." He announced a civil disobedience movement in the province, calling for "every house to turn into a fortress".
The Legal Framework Order, 1970 (LFO) was a presidential decree issued by then-President of Pakistan Gen. Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan that laid down the political principles and laws governing the 1970 general election, which was the first direct election in the history of Pakistan. The LFO also dissolved the "One Unit" of West Pakistan, re-establishing the four provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and the North-West Frontier Province. Pakistan would be a democratic country and the complete name of the country would be the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
The 1969 East Pakistan uprising was a democratic political uprising in East Pakistan. It was led by the students backed by various political parties such as the Awami League, National Awami Party, and Communist party of East Pakistan and their student wings, and the cultural fronts against Muhammad Ayub Khan, the president of Pakistan in protest of the oppressive military rule, political repressions, Agartala Conspiracy Case and the incarceration of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other Bengali nationalists.
The influences of socialism and socialist movements in Pakistan have taken many different forms as a counterpart to political conservatism, from the groups like The Struggle, Lal Salam which is the Pakistani section of the International Marxist Tendency, to the Stalinist group like Communist Party through to the reformist electoral project enshrined in the birth of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
Khan Amirzadah Khan was a member of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement and a leader of the National Awami Party in Pakistan. Born in Bakhshali village, Mardan District in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he was an active participant of Khudai Khidmatgar movement organized by Bacha Khan. Amirzada Khan started active politics with National Awami Party and remained President of National Awami Party District Mardan until 1972, when he remained senior Provincial Minister of Law, Education and Parliamentary Affairs.
Jalaluddin Abdur Rahim was a Pakistani communist and political philosopher who was known as one of the founding members of the Pakistan People's Party—a democratic socialist political party. Abdur Rahim was also the first Secretary-General of the Pakistan People's Party, served as the first minister of production. A Bengali civil servant, Abdur Rahim was a philosopher who politically guided Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, serving as his mentor, and had helped Bhutto navigate through the minefield of bureaucratic establishment when Ayub Khan had taken Bhutto into his cabinet. Abdur Rahim also guided Bhutto after Bhutto was deposed as Foreign Minister, critically guiding Bhutto to take down the once US-sponsored dictatorship of Ayub Khan.
The non-cooperation movement of 1971 was a historical movement in then East Pakistan by the Awami League and the general public against the military government of Pakistan in March of that year. After the announcement of the suspension of the session of the National Assembly of Pakistan on 1 March, the spontaneous movement of the people started, but officially on the call of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the non-cooperation movement started on 2 March and continued until 25 March. The movement lasted for a total of 25 days.
Provincial elections were held in East Pakistan on 17 December 1970, ten days after general elections. A total of 1,850 candidates ran for the 300 seats in the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly. The result was a landslide victory for the Awami League, which won 288 of the 300 seats.
The Agartala contacts however did not provide solid evidence of a Mujib-India secessionist conspiracy in East Pakistan
It is now clear that Mujib did hold secret discussions with local Indian leaders there in July 1962. Moreover, following the 1965 war there were meetings between Awami League leaders and representatives of the Indian Government at a number of secret locations.
When this duly arrived. the western wing's nightmare scenario materialised: either a constitutional deadlock, or the imposition in the whole of the country of the Bengalis' longstanding commitment to unfettered democracy and provincial autonomy.
Yahya had made some provision to safeguard the constitutional outcome through the promulgation of the Legal Framework Order (LFO) on 30 March 1970. It set a deadline of 120 days for the framing of a constitution by the National Assembly and reserved to the President the right to authenticate it.
It would also have to enshrine the following five principles: an Islamic ideology...and internal affairs and the preservation of the territorial integrity of the country
He also refused to countenance intelligence service reports both of Mujib's aim to tear up the LFO after the elections and establish Bangladesh and of India's growing involvement in the affairs of East Pakistan.
From November 1969 until the announcement of the national election results, he discounted the possibility of an Awami League landslide in East Pakistan.
The regime also increasingly favoured the Islam pasand (Islam loving) parties because of their conservatism and attachment to the idea of a strong central government
The JI itself warned that an Awami League victory would mean the disintegration of Pakistan.