The Lahore tragedy convinced many PPP leaders that Z.A. Bhutto should study the situation from all angles. Bhutto himself prolonged his stay at Lahore — perhaps for the longest period after the PPP came into power. Some of his close aides, like Maulana Kausar Niazi, Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, the newly elected Sindh Chief Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Hamid Raza Gilani, Shaikh Rashid Ahmad and Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, also stayed there to ensure that Bhutto was not alone. Mubashir Hassan was a regular visitor.

They all used to visit the PM and discuss the various options in his absence. In one such meeting, Bhutto’s cousin Mumtaz Bhutto and Rafi Raza, the election strategist, discussed the option of his quitting but it was rejected by Mumtaz Bhutto who did not think that Bhutto would do it. However, the general consensus was that the situation might lead to an irreversible point.

The agitation continued throughout the country and with that the arrests too continued which turned the situation grimmer day by day. Along with Lahore, Karachi was also brimming with general disorder. Street fighting and arrests had become the order of the day. On April 11, a complete strike was observed in the country with the PNA leadership calling upon the people not to pay taxes to the government. The PPP termed this move illegal.

As uncertainty gripped the country, the PPP members close to Bhutto too found themselves in a situation where they began thinking of acting on their own; some even thinking of quitting the party. Dr Mubashir Hassan was among the first to do so. He sent his resignation as secretary general of the PPP but Bhutto did not accept it. On the following day he called on Bhutto and asked him to purge the party of the feudal lords who had just joined the party to get into the assemblies, remove the bureaucrats around him who misguided him during the whole election exercise, disband the Federal Security Force and get rid of the corrupt people related to the ministers and their protégées. To this Bhutto had no answer, especially at a time when he was at cross roads.

Abdul Hafeez Kardar and Mohammad Ashraf Chowdhry quit the party, followed by many newly elected members of the Punjab and Sindh assemblies. Sardar Shaukat Hayat, who had joined the party at a later stage, while quitting advised Bhutto to reconsider the PNA demands. This was followed by General Gul Hassan and Air Marshal Rahim Khan, who were very close to Bhutto and had been appointed ambassadors to Greece and Spain respectively, tendering resignations charging Bhutto with making a mockery of democracy in Pakistan. General Rahim Khan addressing him said: “… you have not honoured your pledges … the previous regime held fair and free elections but you have imperiously ignored that fine precedent and allowed them to be rigged instead. … I am, therefore, resigning in protest against your oppressive and dictatorial regime”.

By this time, Bhutto had also been weighing the option of calling the army to contain the situation. While Abdul Hafeez Pirzada continued to monitor the situation and to an extent read the mindset of the army at a certain stage, Mumtaz Bhutto, who was closely related to Bhutto, stayed with him without any idea as to what Bhutto had in mind about resolving the issue. Bhutto had nothing new to offer whenever he appeared before his coterie.

During the stay in Lahore, the inner circle began to think that emergency should be lifted which the proponents of this move thought could release much pressure from the government. The attorney-general’s views were sought, who believed that it could be disastrous in those conditions, as it could open a gateway of legal and constitutional issues. Again the AG’s report was discussed threadbare. It proved fruitless and everything was put in cold storage.

For a couple of days Bhutto kept a low profile; perhaps he was trying to find some way out of the political disarray he was in. The agitation continued; this time with a new factor — that of raising azans (prayer calls) from mosques at times other than prayers. This was not a new factor in political activism as in the past, during floods and other natural catastrophes, people had been calling azans.

Everybody seemed perplexed. No one knew what to do next.

Next week: Yahya Bakhtiar presents a formula to ease the situation as Bhutto seeks Maulana Maudoodi’s advice

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