In March 1972 Gul Hasan was summoned to the President's house alongwith Air Marshal Rahim Khan and made to sign his resignation. Subsequently Punjab governor Ghulam Mustafa Khar drove him in his car with Communications Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi holding a gun on his head to the Punjab governor's house. The elegant house had two most unwilling guests who were later despatched as ambassadors. Meanwhile the post of Army C in C was abolished. Dr Mubashir Hasan the Finance minister brought Gen Tikka Khan in a helicopter to Rawalpindi to take over as Chief of Army Staff

Tags:   Pakistan history 'armed forces' 'gul hasan' 'rahim khan' tikka mubashir khar jatoi rawalpindi

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Shaking hands with Brig A R Siddiqui DG ISPR. After Gul Hasan the post of CinC was abolished.

Tags:   pakistan army history 'gul hasan khan' ambassador greece siddiqui ispr farewell reception

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Tags:   pakistan istory heritage president prime minister z bhutto zulfikar zulfiqar ali

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All Services Chiefs are present

Tags:   pakistan istory heritage president prime minister z bhutto zulfikar zulfiqar ali

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When war broke out between Pakistan and India on December 3, 1971 the world fully realized what its unfortunate outcome would be in a matter of days - the world excepting Pakistan, where the high and mighty were 'higher' than ever and jubilant. As was his norm in such situations, President Nixon called his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to check the news. Kissinger told him that the war would end shortly. This was contrary to the position nine months ago when after getting news of the military action, Nixon had got in touch with Kissinger and given the cryptic response, "Nothing special - Yahya has just got control of his own country again" This time over the matter was far more serious and lethal - the two men agreed that the time of their friend in Islamabad was at an end. Interestingly while the king makers in Pakistan were not even sure there would be a change, the two men in the White House were familiar with the idea that the new man in would be Bhutto whom Nixon called a demagogue!

It was the high point in Pakistan-USA relations. A few months after Yahya Khan had taken over and when Joseph Farland was being sent as ambassador to Pakistan in October 1969, Kissinger's predecessor William Rogers had called Pakistan a 'country more important than any other to the United States'. The route to Beijing had been carefully delineated. The position was about to change though not dramatically.

The jubilation was almost at an end by the end of the first week of the war. General Niazi was contacting the Secretary General of the UN on the 10th, the consuls general of every superpower in Dhaka to request for an airlift of his troops out of East Pakistan on the 11th and even came on BBC on the 12th requesting the world to take action. This fact forgotten by most is important to realize in the context of the Polish/Russian reolution tabled in the Security Council a couple of days later.

Pakistan was already talking of surrender on the 10th, practically appealing for it by the men who felt the brunt of the war the most. Actually Chief of General Staff Gul Hasan had called Brig. Siddiqui on December 11, and told him to come up with a press release with Information Secretary Roedad Khan to prepare the nation for the worst. The whole thing came as a shock to the country on December 16 because of the complete information gap.

GHQ's response according to Niazi was Gul Hasan's call to him suggesting that help was imminent from the Yellow in the North and White from the South, meaning the Chinese and Americans in the racist language of a 'brown' Napolean. Anyway Brig Siddiqui of ISPR calls what happened on December 16 a tale of "gross human negligence, misconduct and mismanagement inviting Divine wrath." Like everything else in Pakistan, it is characteristic of us to apportion a part of the blame of everything that happens in Pakistan on God.

Meanwhile Niazi claims the government was simply following a plan that would leave the eastern wing without a government. The drivers of that plan are still not known. What was the urgency, the collateral damage, did anything matter to Yahya Khan?

It is important to see the sequence of events followed in Pakistan. There is a search for 'cleared' MNAs from East Pakistan. Nurul Amin fits the bill and is designated Prime Minister with Z A Bhutto as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

Meanwhile, neither Amin nor Bhutto take oath of these constitutional offices in a country without a constitution. Bhutto takes three days to get to New York, something quite normal for 1971, gets over a cold and lambasts the UN on December 15. As the top diplomat of the country, he most undiplomatically tells the UN body they are not serious, only wasting time with their 'Nina Ricci' cosmetic tactics.

Bhutto stays on in New York feting the only UN ambassador he didn't attack - George W. Bush Sr. and later has what is known as a 'clearance' meeting with President Nixon, and moves on to Rome. Back home, Yahya Khan has gotten a constitution prepared by his legal adviser Justice Cornelius and Radio Pakistan is getting serious about a new constitution on December 17 as if East Pakistan didn't matter at all. He suggests to Gen. Hamid to take over as Commander in Chief while he will remain President. Hamid wants to test the waters first with fellow officers in GHQ. Two brigadiers and a colonel had mutinied and already cast a shadow on the administration. They were told to shut up and later compulsorily retired, a punishment far too lenient in comparison to their charge of obstructing a legal government from functioning. Anyhow Hamid advises Gul Hasan to invite all Lt-Colonels and above to the meeting. Gul Hasan proceeds to invite all commissioned officers to the meeting while advising them not to mince their words.

As Gen. Hamid says that Yahya Khan tried his best for a political solution there are cries of Shame, Shame!, and Hamid goes down in history as the most heckled chief of army staff (not to be confused with that designation meaning the supremo from Tikka Khan onwards) by his own junior colleagues. The writing on the wall is clear - Yahya and his team have been voted out by their own constituency. This was already clear to Nixon on the 4th but none so blind as would not see. Now just a gentle 'persuasion' with shells on the presidency would enable Yahya forgetting about his new constitution.

Meanwhile Brig. Siddiqui innocently enters the office of General Gul Hasan and finds a strong lobby in favor of Air Marshal Asghar Khan as the new president. He ostensibly remained a contender for the presidency until his rejection during an interview in Niavaran Palce in 1978, and therefore never accepted a lesser office. Air Marshal Rahim also supported him until reminded by Gul Hasan that he was defeated by a corporal in the elections, meaning Khurshid Hassan Meer. Gul Hasan was in favor of supporting the only option of a joker meaning Bhutto. A plane is sent to Rome despite Governor State Bank S U Durrani warning Gul that he would soon be 'sorted out' by Bhutto, an assertion to which Siddiqui agrees forgetting he is only a brigadier.

The fact of the matter was that Pakistan was essentially devoid of a government from December 18 to December 20. Bhutto arrives to a warm welcome at the airport. After responding to the crowds, he sits in a car driven by Ghulam Mustafa Khar, and asks him tensely "What do they say?" Khar replies he cannot say anything as Nasrullah Khattak is in the back seat. Bhutto tells him to throw out Khattak, which he dutifully does. He then replies that they are asking him to take over! Bhutto proceeds to meet Gen Hamid, Gul Hasan and Air Marshal Rahim and finally Yahya Khan.

Meanwhile Cabinet Secretary Ghulam Ishaq Khan has prepared all the instruments necessary for a succession in the presidency and CMLA ship from Yahya to Bhutto and is pacing the lawns of the President's House with Information Secretary Roedad Khan before they are called in. Finally they are and the succession takes place. Meanwhile there is a rumor that Ghulam Ishaq Khan did not want him to be CMLA. It did not require a lawyer to know that there was no instrument left to govern the country without martial law. Bhutto tells Roedad he will be hearing from him. He calls him to meet at 5 pm in the Punjab House to prepare for his inaugural broadcast later that evening. He introduces him to Information Minister Hafeez Pirzada and tells him although he has nothing against him, he will be making certain changes. He later calls the Finance Secretary telling him to post Ghulam Ishaq Khan to Karachi as Governor State Bank. When asked about Durrani, he summarily requests his dismissal. Later in his address Bhutto remarks that he has been "summoned by the Nation". That was December 1971 but till today we do not know what the nation really means!

The picture shows Cabinet Secretary Ghulam Ishaq Khan overseeing the transition of power from Gen Yahya Khan to Mr Z A Bhutto on 20 December 1971. Ishaq Khan was himself president of the republic from 1988 - 1993 - as he knew the nuts and bolts of power well.

Copyright: Dr. Ghulam Nabi Kazi

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