Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - Pakistan Peoples Party

Pakistan Peoples Party

Further information: Pakistani general election, 1970, Bangladesh Liberation War, Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and Pakistan Peoples Party

Following his resignation, large crowds gathered to listen to Bhutto's speech upon his arrival in Lahore on 21 June 1967. Tapping a wave of anger and opposition against Ayub, Bhutto began travelling across the country to deliver political speeches. In a speech in October 1966 Bhutto declared the PPP's beliefs, "Islam is our faith, democracy is our policy, socialism is our economy. All power to the people." On 30 November 1967, in a residence of Dr. Mubashir Hassan, Bhutto, along with Bengali communist J.A. Rahim and Dr. Mubashir Hassan, Basit Jehangir Sheikh and other young leaders founded the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Lahore, establishing a strong base of political support in Punjab, Sindh and amongst the Muhajir communities.

Dr. Hassan, a professor of civil engineering at the UET Lahore, was the main brain and hidden hand behind the success and the rise of Bhutto. Under Hassan's guidance and Bhutto's leadership, Bhutto's People's Party became a part of the pro-democracy movement involving diverse political parties from all across Pakistan. The PPP activists staged large protests and strikes in different parts of the country, increasing pressure on Ayub to resign. Dr. Hassan and Bhutto's arrest on 12 November 1969, sparked greater political unrest. After his release, Bhutto, joined by key leaders of PPP, attended the Round Table Conference called by Ayub Khan in Rawalpindi, but refused to accept Ayub's continuation in office and the East-Pakistani politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Six point movement for regional autonomy.

Following Ayub's resignation, his successor, General Yahya Khan promised to hold parliamentary elections on 7 December 1970. Bhutto attracted the leftist and ultra-leftist forces, who gathered under his leadership, becoming the full sum of force. The Socialist-Communist mass, under Bhutto's leadership, intensified its support in Muhajir and poor farming communities in West Pakistan, working through educating people to cast their vote for their better future. Gathering and uniting the scattered socialist-marxist mass in one single center was considered Bhutto's greatest political achievements and as its result, the leftist and Bhutto's party won a large number of seats from constituencies in West-Pakistan. However, Sheikh Mujib's Awami League won an absolute majority in the legislature, largely because an electoral reform had given East-Pakistan a substantial majority of the seats in the chamber. Bhutto refused to accept an Awami League government and famously promised to "break the legs" of any elected PPP member who dared to attend the inaugural session of the National Assembly. Capitalising on West Pakistani fears of East Pakistani separatism, Bhutto demanded that Sheikh Mujib form a coalition with the PPP. According to terrorism expert Hamid Mir, Bhutto sent his most trusted companion to East Pakistan to meet with Mujib and his inner circle, played a major role convincing Mujib to meet Bhutto. After Dr. Hassan achieved this task, Bhutto and Mujib agreed upon a coalition government for the sake of keeping Pakistan united. Under the terms of the deal, Mujib would have become prime minister and Bhutto would have succeeded Yahya as president. Yahya was unaware of these talks, and both Bhutto and Mujib kept substantial pressure on Yahya Khan. After his own talks with Sheikh Mujib failed, Yahya postponed the opening session of the National Assembly and ordered an army action against Mujib. Amidst popular outrage in East Pakistan, Sheikh Mujib declared the independence of "Bangladesh". According to historical references and a report published by leading newspaper, "Mujib no longer believed in Pakistan and was determined to make Bangladesh", despite Bhutto's urged. His daughter Hasina Wajid has not accepted Pakistan from the core of heart even today. As long as she is the prime minister, relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan cannot normalise, The Nation noted.

On 26 March 1971 after Mujib was arrested by the Pakistan Army, which had been ordered by Yahya to suppress political activities. While supportive of the army's actions and working to rally international support, Bhutto distanced himself from the Yahya regime and began to criticised Khan for mishandling the situation. He refused to accept Yahya's scheme to appoint Bengali politician Nurul Amin as Prime minister, with Bhutto as deputy prime minister. Soon after his refusal and continuous resentment toward General Yahya Khan's mishandling of situation, General Yahya Khan ordered Military Police to arrest Bhutto for a treason charges, a quiet similar to Mujib. Bhutto was situated at the Adiala Jail along with Mujib where he was set to face the charges. The Indian intervention in East Pakistan led to the very bitter defeat of Pakistani forces, who surrendered on 16 December 1971. Bhutto and others condemned Yahya for failing to protect Pakistan's unity. Isolated, Yahya resigned on 20 December and transferred power to Bhutto, who became president, commander-in-chief and the first civilian chief martial law administrator.

Bhutto was the country's first civilian chief martial law administrator since 1958, as well as the country's first civilian president. With Bhutto assuming the control, the leftists and democratic socialists entered in county's politics, later emerged as power players in country's politics. And, for the first time in country's history, the leftists and democratic socialists had a chance to administer the country with popular vote and wide approved exclusive mandate, given to them by the West's population in the 1970s elections.

In a reference written by Kuldip Nayar in his book "Scoop! Inside Stories from the Partition to the Present", Nayar noted that "Bhutto's releasing of Mujib did not mean anything to Pakistan's policy as in if there was no liberation war. Bhutto's policy, and even as of today, the policy of Pakistan continues to state that "she will continue to fight for the honor and integrity of Pakistan. East Pakistan is an inseparable and unseverable part of Pakistan".