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| Nawaiwaqt
| Nida-i-Millat | Family
Magazine | Phool |
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The rule of seniority
KAMAL AZFAR
God alone can prevent a coup d'�tat if an Army Chief decides to take over.-President Ayub Khan told his Intelligence Chief on reading the daily situation report in 1969.
This anecdote was recounted by Raza Kuli Khan Khattak as we were driving to Wali Bagh for condolence on a spring afternoon late last month. He is the eldest grandson of the legendary Khan Bahadur Kuli Khan Khattak, one of the founders and guardians of Pakistan. Raza was a contemporary at Government College Lahore and Oxford in the second half of the 1950s.
This makes us, and fellow residents of New Hostel Ahad Bux Khan of Khetran, Shahnawaz Khan of Isakhel, Choudhry Habibullah Tarar of Vanike Tarar the first generation Pakistanis who have lived through the first half century and more of Pakistan and bear witness to the troubled history of the promised land, the title of my first editorial as Editor-in-Chief of the Ravi, the Magazine of Government College .
This series of Articles (The Discovery of Pakistan) is inspired by Syed Fakhr Imam and Syeda Abida 'Chandi Bibi' Hussain who, along with Tarar, Isakhel, Raza Kuli and Shahbaz Hussain, son of class fellow Syed Qalandar Hussain ,displayed much generosity and forbearance which is the hallmark of Muslim civilization in the Subcontinent during my driving tour of Pakistan from Karachi to Khyber last winter.
Perhaps Ayub Khan was subconsciously echoing Aristotle who famously said "Even God cannot change the past". One can only cherish the fond hope that ,on reading 'The Discovery of Pakistan' some potential usurper will think twice and help save democracy and federalism which are part of the genesis of Pakistan.
Democracy and federalism are integral to the genesis of our nation state as the foundation of Pakistan was laid by the Indian Independence Act of 1947 ,which in turn empowered the Muslim majority areas of British India to exercise the power of self determination by democratic means, the votes of the majority of the members of the provincial assemblies from the Muslim majority districts of Punjab and Bengal , the entire Provincial Assembly of Sindh and by Referendum in the NWFP which had a Congress oriented Majority.
Thus Pakistan was created by the provinces exercising the power of democracy and hence the true destiny of our nation state is a federal democracy. Pakistan did not grow from the barrel of a gun but from the ballot box.. Though dictatorship, in any form ,is a negation of the concept of Pakistan, it is recorded in the Twelve-Volume Transfer of Power Documents, published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, that the Punjab's Unionist Premier, Khizar Hayat Tiwana, predicted to the Wartime Viceroy Lord Wavell, that Pakistan was inevitable yet power would pass to dictators, civilian or military.
Shah Jewana, is the shrine of Syeda Abida Hussain's ancestors, and hanging on the walls of the sumptuous guesthouse , is a photograph of the 30 members elected to the Constituent Assembly of India in the fateful elections of the Winter of 1945-46 in which all the seats reserved for Muslims were won by the Muslim League. It is worth noting that the Muslim League did not enjoy a majority in any of the provinces of present day Pakistan in the wake of the elections of 1937.
Colonel Abid Hussain, Chandi Bibi's father ,the youngest Member of the Muslim League Parliamentary Party ,is standing in the second row sporting a Chiefs College turban and Mr Jinnah is seated in the middle of the front row with his successor as Governor General of Pakistan, Khwaja Nazimuddin ,to his right.
Among other prominent people in the photograph are those disqualified from public office by the infamous Electoral Bodies Disqualification Order(EBDO) promulgated by Ayub Khan as Chief Martial Law Administrator and self-proclaimed President. They include Pirzada Abdul Sattar, Yusuf Haroon and Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan ,the first Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.
Liaquat Ali Khan survived EBDO as he had been killed earlier in mysterious c circumstances. EBDO was a weapon which decapitated the founding fathers of Pakistan in one blow including Prime Ministers Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, Malik Feroze Khan Noon ,three Chief Ministers of Punjab, Iftikhar Hussain Mamdot, Mian Mumtaz Muhammad Khan Daultana and Nawab Muzaffar Ali Khan Qazilbash. Qazi Muhammad Isa ,who single-handedly brought Balochistan into Pakistan, Khan Bahadur Ayub Khuro, the first Chief Minister of Sindh and Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan, whom the Quaid anointed as the Chief Minister of NWFP after dismissing the Congress Ministry headed by DR Khan Sahib, the first Chief Minister of West Pakistan .
One may well ponder how the history of the United Sates would have shaped if George Washington, Jefferson and Madison were disqualified or whether the USA would have survived if Abraham Lincoln had fallen prey to the likes of EBDO.
The history of Pakistan may well have been different if the rule of seniority had been observed. Let us remember and honour those Chiefs of the Pakistan Army who did not take over :General Mohammed Musa Khan, General Tikka Khan, General Jehangir Karamat and above all General Abdul Waheed Kakar, who even declined an extension as it would block Army promotions.
At least Ayub Khan did not block the careers of Officer Corps of the Pakistan Army because he immediately appointed Musa Khan ,the senior most General as his successor. When Ayub Khan departed from this precedent he paid the price. The daily situation report that Spring morning informed President Ayub Khan that his chosen C-in-C Yahya Khan was planning a Coup detat and Ayub's. His reply was that if an Army Chief decides to take over there is nothing you can do to prevent it.
Ayub himself was appointed out of turn. Secretary to the Governor of Sindh Mr. Hashim Raza was present at the farewell lunch given by Governor Francis Mudie in honour of the outgoing C-in-C General Sir Douglas Gracey." Who is your successor "inquired the host ."Major General Ayub Khan "was the reply" Is he the senior most "asked Mudie." No, he is number four on the seniority list ,but he is being appointed " replied Gracey as he is a Sandhurst graduate and is the least ambitious"
The course of history may well have been different if Generals Sharif and Ali Kuli Khan ,the senior most officers of the Pakistan Army had been appointed instead of Generals Zia and Musharraff. The only way to prevent a Coup d'etat is that the person who is appointed is free of Bonapartist impulses .Napoleon too was a junior officer who ,in his own words, found the crown of France lying in the dust and picked it up with his sword.
Those appointed out of turn "Ayub, Yahya, Zia and Musharraf have all betrayed their mentors and the Constitution sending their benefactors in exile or to the gallows.
One day when Zia was waiting upon Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the White House in Multan, the residence of the Qureshis, Zia stubbed out his cigarette in his pocket as he was summoned by the Prime Minister .The smoke emanated from Zia's pocket symbolizing his subservience .It is better to appoint the Senior rather than the Sycophant. The rule of Seniority would protect Federalism and Democracy and also the right of promotion along the chain of command. Thus the rule of seniority is best for the officer corps of the Pakistan Army.
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