Why Bangla Desh?

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Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to K. Subrahmanyam, Director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses for his assistance in compiling the Tables and documenting the sources.

Referendum

In his election campaign the Sheikh declared “Unless you win the fight with overwhelming majority on December 7, you future generation would become slaves of the 22-blood-sucking families staying in West Pakistan.” “This was the last battle for the realisation of the rights of the people of East Bengal which will be faught in a way that the Mir Jaffars were routed.”

The people of Bangla Desh gave Mujibur Rahman the overwhelming mandate he asked for when they elected 167 members of the Awami League candidates to the National Assembly against 169 seats alloted to East Pakistan and 288 candidates of the Awami League to the Provincial Assembly against 300 seats.

Again when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called for non-cooperation to register the protest of the people of East Pakistan against the un-warranted and unilateral postponement of the National Assembly Session, they responded magnificently. To quote the Prime Minister of Bangla Desh, Tajuddin Ahmed “Never in the course of any liberation struggle has non-cooperation being carried to the limits attained within Bangla Desh between 1 and 25 March. Non-cooperation was total. No judge of the high court could be found to administer the oath of office to the new Governor, Lt. General Tikka Khan. The entire civilian administration including the police and the civil service of Pakistan, refused to attend office. The people stopped supply of food to the army. Even the civilian employees of the defence establishment joined the boycott. Non-cooperation did not stop at abstention from work. The civilian administration and police positively pledged their support to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and put themselves under his orders”.

When the West Pakistani army cracked down and attempted to crush this movement with its military might, they killed Pakistan and buried it under a mountain of corpses. Hundreds of thousands of people murdered in cold blood by the army in Bangla Desh will act as an impenetrable barrier between West Pakistan and the people of Bangla Desh. The guns that opened up on the night of the 25 of March to put down the mass non-cooperation movement in fact heralded the birth of Swadhin Bangla Desh.

Notes

1. “Process of Economic Disparity”, The Pakistan Observer Supplement, 27 April 1963.

2. Source: National Assembly of Pakistan Debates V. I. No. 7 March 8, 1963 pp 29-31.

3. Ayub Khan’s speech of 8 October 1958; paragraph 9, The Pakistan Observer, 9 October 1958.

4. Yahya Khan’s speech of 28 June 1969, paragraph 47, The Pakistan Observer 29 July 1969.

Paragraph 2 of the Directive; The Pakistan Observer, 10 April 1969.

5. The Pakistan Observer, 10 April, 1969.

6. Compiled from p 43.

Statistical section, Pakistan Economic Survey, 1968-69.

7. Source: Khwaja Shahabuddin, Minister for Information and Broadcasting 1968-69. Budget Discussions in National Assembly on June 18, 1968. The Pakistan Observer June 19, 1968.

8. The Pakistan Observer, 3 February, 1969.

9. pp 112-113 Statistical Pocket Book of Pakistan 1969 published by Manager of Publications, Karachi.

10. Source: Pre-Plan and First Plan figures are for public investment, taken from Mahbubu Haq. The Strategy of Economic Planning p. 255; Second Plan figures are of public sector development expenditure, which is slightly broader in coverage than public investment. The data are from Planning Commission, Final Evaluation of the Second Five-Year Plan, p, 12.

11. Source: Pakistan Economic Survey 1965-66, Rawalpindi, Ministry of Finance 1966, p. 176. The Third Five Year Plan 1965-70 Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan 1965, pp. 128–129; and Third. Plan; Targets and Achievements, Planning Commission Government of Pakistan, 1968, pp. 9, 12–13.

12. p 54, Seminar June, 1971.

13. pp. 192-201 Statistical Pocket Book—Op cit

14. Source: Khan & Bergan, Pakistan Development Review: 1966

15. Таble No. 41, Pakistan Economic Survey 1968-69.

16. S N.H. Naqvi, Nuruddin Choudhury, and P.S. Thomas, Basic Statistical Tables: Import Licensing in Pakistan 1953-54. Research Report No 35, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics

Data do not permit separation of Karachi and the rest of West Pakistan prior to the Jan-June 1954 shipping period.

17. Source: Thomas, ‘Import Licensing and Import Liberalization in Pakistan,’ Pakistan Development Review 1966, Table A-6, p. 534.

18. Source: P. S. Thomas “Import Licensing and Import Liberalization in Pakistan’, Pakistan Development Review.Winter 1966, Table A-5, p.533.

19. Sources: 1959/60-1964/5. Final Evaluation of the Second Five-Year Plan. December 1966, p. 181; 1965/6 from Evaluation of the Five Year Plan, May 1967, p. 144

20. Source: Computed from Nurul Islam, Imports of Pakistan: Growth and Structure (Karachi, 1967), Tables B-11 and B-12.

21. Computed from C.S.O. Bulletin, May 1967 & Eeonomic Survey, 1966-67

22. Source: Α. Bergan, ‘Personal Income Distribution and Personal Saving in Pakistan, 1963/4’, Pakistan Development Review, Summer 1967, Table XIV, p. 186.

23. Source: J. J. Stern, ‘Growth, Development and Regional Equity in Pakistan,’ Paper presented at the Development Advisory Service Conference, Sorrento, Italy, September 1967.