This series will cover the history of Modern Pakistan, from the earliest notions of a separatist Muslim governance to the creation of Pakistan and all the way to 2023.

You can read post covering 1857 – 1927 here: A History of Modern Pakistan #1 1857 – 1927

You can read post covering 1927- 1939 here: A History of Modern Pakistan #2 1927 – 1939

You can read post covering 1939 – 1947 here: A History of Modern Pakistan #3 1939 – 1947

You can read post covering 1947 – 1953 here: A History of Modern Pakistan #4 1947 – 1953

You can read post covering 1953 – 1958 here: A History of Modern Pakistan #5 1953 – 1958

You can read post covering 1958 – 1970 here: A History of Modern Pakistan #6 1958 – 1970

1970 – 1977

The events of 1970 to 1977 are among the most important in the history of Pakistan because, within seven years, the country would lose its eastern wing, fight another war with India, create a new constitution, undergo major economic and social reforms, face an armed insurgency in Balochistan, and finally return to military rule. The period also changed the political direction of Pakistan. The country that had been created in 1947 as a homeland for the Muslims of British India was now having to confront a difficult question. Was a shared Muslim identity enough to hold together two populations separated by geography, language, culture and increasingly different political interests?

1970 General Elections

General Yahya Khan had promised that Pakistan would finally hold nationwide elections based on adult franchise. These were the first general elections in Pakistan’s history in which the population directly elected the National Assembly on the basis of population. The result exposed the political divide between the two wings more clearly than anything that had happened before. The Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won 160 of the 162 general seats contested in East Pakistan, giving it an overall majority in the 300-seat National Assembly. The Pakistan Peoples Party, led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, won 81 seats, all of them in West Pakistan. Neither party had significant electoral support in the other wing.

This result was hugely significant. Mujib had not merely won East Pakistan. He had won enough seats to form the government of Pakistan as a whole. Under the parliamentary system, he was therefore entitled to become Prime Minister. For many Bengalis, the election was a democratic mandate for the Six Points and for a new political arrangement in which East Pakistan would have much greater control over its own affairs. For many in West Pakistan, however, there was deep concern about handing national power to a party whose programme would drastically weaken the federal government. Bhutto’s PPP had won the largest number of seats in the western wing and therefore considered itself the principal political force there.

The problem was that Pakistan had never developed a political culture in which power could peacefully move from one region to another through elections. The military leadership was reluctant to hand control of the country to Mujib, while Bhutto did not want a constitution written entirely according to the Awami League’s Six Points. Bhutto famously declared, “Idhar hum, udhar tum”, meaning roughly “we rule here, you rule there”, although the exact context and wording of the statement have subsequently been debated. What was clear was that Pakistan’s two largest political parties had become almost entirely regional parties. The Awami League represented East Pakistan, while the PPP represented much of West Pakistan. The election had therefore produced a winner, but instead of producing a government, it produced a constitutional crisis.

The crisis was made worse by events that had already damaged the relationship between East and West Pakistan. In November 1970, the Bhola cyclone struck East Pakistan and became one of the deadliest natural disasters of the twentieth century. Hundreds of thousands of people died, although estimates vary considerably. The response of the central government was widely criticised in East Pakistan and became another source of anger against West Pakistani rule. By the beginning of 1971, Bengali nationalism had therefore become much stronger than it had been only a few years earlier.

The National Assembly Crisis

Yahya Khan initially announced that the National Assembly would meet in Dhaka on 3 March 1971. Mujib and the Awami League were preparing to form the government and begin drafting a constitution. Then, on 1 March, Yahya postponed the session indefinitely. The announcement triggered enormous protests throughout East Pakistan. Mujib called for a non-cooperation movement and, for much of March, the authority of the Pakistani government outside military installations was effectively paralysed. Government employees, businesses and much of civil society followed the Awami League’s instructions.

Yahya Khan travelled to Dhaka and held negotiations with Mujib, and Bhutto also travelled to East Pakistan. There were still attempts to find a political settlement, and it is important not to treat the eventual war as inevitable from the moment of the election. There were genuine negotiations taking place. But the gap between the positions of the three sides became increasingly difficult to bridge. Mujib wanted the Awami League’s electoral mandate and Six Points recognised, Bhutto wanted his party to have a major role in framing the constitution, and the military leadership feared that the proposed arrangement would effectively destroy the authority of the central government.

At the same time, violence was spreading between Bengalis and non-Bengali communities, particularly Urdu-speaking Biharis who were generally viewed as more sympathetic to the Pakistani state. There were attacks and killings by Bengali nationalists against Bihari civilians, while the Pakistani military subsequently carried out a much larger and systematic campaign against Bengali resistance. The situation had moved far beyond an ordinary constitutional dispute.

Operation Searchlight

On the night of 25 March 1971, the Pakistani military launched Operation Searchlight. The objective was to re-establish central government control over East Pakistan and crush the Awami League-led resistance. The operation targeted political activists, students, members of the security forces suspected of supporting the Bengali movement and other groups regarded as a threat to the Pakistani state. Dhaka University became one of the major locations of the initial military operation, while military action was also launched in other major cities.

The scale and nature of the violence transformed the political crisis into a war. The Awami League was declared illegal, Mujibur Rahman was arrested and taken to West Pakistan, and Bengali members of the police and armed forces began defecting or mutinying. Many civilians also joined the resistance. What had initially been a struggle over the constitutional future of Pakistan had now become an armed conflict over whether East Pakistan would remain part of the country at all.

The Bengali resistance organised itself into the Mukti Bahini, meaning the Liberation Force. India began providing increasing assistance to the Bengali movement, including training, weapons and sanctuary. Millions of refugees crossed the border into India. The precise number of people who died during the conflict remains disputed, with estimates varying enormously depending on the methodology and sources used. The same is true of the number of women subjected to sexual violence. What is not seriously disputed is that the conflict involved widespread killings, mass displacement and extensive sexual violence, and that the Pakistani military and its local allies were responsible for a substantial proportion of the atrocities.

India Enters the War

The refugee crisis created an enormous problem for India. By the latter part of 1971, millions of people had crossed from East Pakistan into India. India increasingly decided that supporting the Bengali resistance was in its own strategic interest as well as a humanitarian issue. Indian forces trained and armed the Mukti Bahini while preparing for the possibility of direct war with Pakistan.

Pakistan, meanwhile, was fighting a war thousands of miles away from its western wing and increasingly found itself isolated diplomatically. On 3 December 1971, Pakistan launched air strikes against Indian airfields in the west, formally bringing India and Pakistan into open war. The conflict therefore became the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, with Indian forces attacking from the west while Indian and Bengali forces advanced into East Pakistan.

The geographical problem that had always existed now became decisive. East Pakistan was surrounded by India on three sides and could not be reinforced easily from West Pakistan. Pakistani forces in the east were therefore fighting without a realistic means of receiving substantial reinforcements or supplies. Within two weeks, their position became untenable.

On 16 December 1971, Lieutenant General A. A. K. Niazi surrendered the Pakistani forces in Dhaka to the joint Indian and Mukti Bahini command. East Pakistan ceased to exist and became the independent state of Bangladesh.

The loss was devastating for Pakistan. The country had been created in 1947 on the principle that Muslims of the subcontinent constituted a political nation whose religious identity could justify a separate homeland. Yet only twenty-four years later, one of the two wings of that homeland had separated and created a new country. The lesson was profound. Religion had been powerful enough to create Pakistan, but religion alone had not been enough to erase language, ethnicity, geography, political representation or economic grievances.

Bangladesh Resistance

The Bangladesh government in exile sought diplomatic recognition and requested support from the Indian military. As Pakistan’s takeover worsened, over 10 million Bengalis sought refuge in India. India said they would be ready in November to provide Bangladesh with military support.

As a result of Operation Searchlight, agitation was now transformed into civil war as Bengali members of Pakistan armed forces and Police mutinied and formed the Mukti Bahini along with common people of all classes to launch unconventional and hit-and-run operations. Violent disorder and chaos followed after the Pakistan Army continued its systematic and deliberate campaign of killing and mass rape of the populace of East Pakistan.

When India was ready to fight, they assisted the Bengalis in taking the province back, also known as the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Pakistan attacked at several places along India’s western border with Pakistan, but the Indian Army successfully held their positions. The Indian Army quickly responded to the Pakistan Army’s movements in the west and made some initial gains, including capturing around 15,010sqkm of Pakistani territory.

General Yahya determined to keep Pakistan unified, desperately appointed the veteran Bengali politician Nurul Amin (PML) as Prime Minister, asking him to reach a compromise between the PPP and Awami League. But it was too late, within two weeks of intense fighting, Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered to the joint command of Indian and Bangladeshi forces.

This news caused overwhelming anger in West Pakistan causing both Nurul Amin and General Yahya to resign. Nurul amin is known to serve as Prime Minister for only 10 days, the shortest serving PM. The presidency was handed to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Amin became Vice President. General Yahya was put on house arrest.

Yahya Khan Falls

The defeat destroyed Yahya Khan’s political position. On 20 December 1971, he resigned as President and handed power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto became President and Chief Martial Law Administrator of what remained of Pakistan. Nurul Amin, the Bengali politician who had briefly served as Prime Minister during the final days of united Pakistan, became Vice President. The National Assembly was eventually reconvened with the representatives from West Pakistan and those few East Pakistani representatives who had chosen to remain with Pakistan.

Bhutto therefore inherited a country that had just suffered its greatest military and political disaster. Pakistan was smaller, economically damaged, traumatised and deeply humiliated. Around 90,000 Pakistani military personnel and civilians were held as prisoners of war in India, while questions were being asked about how the country’s political and military leadership had allowed the situation to reach such a point.

Aftermath of the war

It is claimed between 300,000 and 3,000,000 Bengali men died and over 200,000 women were raped, mainly from Hindu areas in Bangla. This war of independence would be known as the Bengali genocide locally and across the world. It has left a permanent scar on relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh and for years to come leaders like Zia ul Haq, Pervez Musharraf and Imran Khan have tried to improve relations between the two countries.

Bangladesh Founded

Within hours of becoming Bhutto becoming President, Sheikh Mujib was pardoned (due to pressure from the west) and released to London. Mujib was still titular president of the Bengal region, but now a new state had been founded, the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. He served as the first Prime Minister between January 1972 and January 1975. He worked to establish a new state for the Bengalis and ordered a different state of governance from what was ordained by West Pakistan.

As communism and liberalism grew in the country and divided the people, Mujib had a difficult time unifying the country, so in 1975, he decided to create a single party state with him as President and head of state. By the summer of 1975, Mujib along with his wife and children were assassinated during a military coup by renegade army officers.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as President

Bhutto had already been one of Pakistan’s most prominent politicians during the final years of Ayub Khan. He had served as Foreign Minister, had broken with Ayub and founded the Pakistan Peoples Party in 1967. His political message combined Islamic language, Pakistani nationalism and democratic socialism, famously appealing to ordinary people through the slogan “Roti, Kapra aur Makan”, meaning food, clothing and shelter.

As President, Bhutto attempted to rebuild the state after the disaster of 1971. He released political prisoners, began reorganising the administration and attempted to restore confidence in Pakistan. His government also pursued a programme of nationalisation. Major industries, banks, insurance companies and educational institutions came under greater state control. The objective was to prevent economic power from remaining concentrated among a small group of industrial families and to give the state greater control over the country’s economic direction.

Bhutto also expanded workers’ rights and introduced policies intended to assist farmers and poorer sections of society. At the same time, nationalisation created serious problems of its own. State management did not always produce greater efficiency, and the expansion of government control eventually became associated with bureaucracy, political appointments and declining private investment. Bhutto’s economic record therefore remains deeply contested. He undoubtedly changed the relationship between the state, business and workers, but the long-term consequences of his economic policies were mixed.

Some of his policies include:

• Improve workers’ rights, pensions and give trade unions a platform
• Nationalise industries like iron, steel, engineering, cars, oil, gas and many others
• Nationalise Education which meant free education in all private and public schools.
• Promote science, literature, cultural activities and Pakistani nationalism
• Subsidies to the poor farmers, like giving seeds, fertilisers, and tractors
• Business loans
• Establish the state bank of Pakistan

Internationally he strengthened ties with China and Saudi Arabia.

Instead of a new five-year plan, Bhutto decided to have annual plans. Most of his policies involved nationalisation of industry. Bhutto also wanted Pakistan to become a major scientific superpower in the world.

Simla agreement 1972

One of Bhutto’s immediate priorities was to rebuild Pakistan’s position internationally and secure the return of the prisoners of war. In June and July 1972, he travelled to India to meet Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The resulting Simla Agreement, signed on 2 July 1972, formally committed India and Pakistan to resolving their disputes through peaceful means and bilateral negotiations. The ceasefire line in Kashmir was redesignated as the Line of Control, although it was not recognised as an international border. India subsequently returned the territory it had captured in the west during the 1971 war, and the issue of the prisoners of war was eventually resolved.

For Bhutto, this was an important opportunity to rebuild Pakistan after the catastrophe of 1971. Pakistan had lost East Pakistan, but it still had to function as a viable country in South Asia. Bhutto therefore began pursuing stronger relationships with countries such as China and Saudi Arabia while attempting to maintain Pakistan’s strategic importance internationally.

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC)

The 1971 defeat also changed Pakistan’s thinking about national security. India was already developing its own nuclear capability, and Bhutto believed that Pakistan could not afford to remain permanently vulnerable to its larger neighbour. The nuclear programme had existed in civilian form before Bhutto, including the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and the country’s first research reactor, but after 1971 Bhutto gave the development of a nuclear weapons capability much greater political priority.

In January 1972, Bhutto brought leading Pakistani scientists together at Multan and directed them to work towards developing a nuclear weapon. His determination was captured in his famous statement that Pakistan would build the bomb even if it had to “eat grass”. The programme would take many years to complete, but the decision made under Bhutto established nuclear weapons as a central part of Pakistan’s long-term security policy.

1973 constitution

As the 1962 constitution had been repealed by General Yahya, Bhutto along with his team drafted a new constitution.

Some key features were:

• A federal system with provinces
• There will be an assembly and a senate that make up parliament
• It will be a Bicameral legislation that is democratic
• Both President and PM will be Muslim
• State religion is Islam
• Country called is Islami Jamhoor Pakistan
• Use Islamic way of life in rule, law, culture, and promote Islamic values
• The council of Islamic ideology will work on the Islamic perspective
• Constitution will be written so it is hard to amend in future

Notably this constitution is still in effect today with 25 amendments.

When the constitution came in to effect, Bhutto became the Prime Minister and Chaudhry Fazal Ilahi was given presidency.

Chaudhry Fazal Ilahi as president

Chaudhry Fazal Ilahi as President was largely a figurehead, and had less power than the Prime Minister, as written in the new constitution. They had no influence in government operations or military and national affairs.

Baluchistan Operation 1973

Bangladesh’s independence gave rising to a call from the Balochi’s to have greater independence and powers. Bhutto refused to negotiate on any terms that would reduce the power of the federal government.

In time, the nationalist insurgency, which had been steadily gathering steam, now exploded into action, with widespread civil disobedience and armed uprisings. Bhutto now sent in the army to maintain order and crush the insurgency. This essentially pitted the ethno-separatists against the central government.

The army suffered more than 3,000 casualties in the fight while the militants lost some 5,000 fighters. After three years of fighting the separatists were running out of ammunition and so withdrew by 1976.

OIC Conference/Lahore Summit 1974

Bhutto also wanted Pakistan to play a leading role in the Muslim world. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had been established in 1969 and brought together Muslim-majority states from across the world. In 1974, Pakistan hosted the second Islamic Summit Conference in Lahore.

The summit was significant because Bangladesh was also a Muslim-majority country. Pakistan had not yet recognised Bangladesh, but pressure was building for it to do so. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman eventually attended the summit, and Pakistan formally recognised Bangladesh in February 1974.

For Bhutto, the conference was an opportunity to demonstrate that Pakistan remained an important Muslim country despite the disaster of 1971. It also strengthened Pakistan’s relationships with countries such as Saudi Arabia and other states of the Muslim world.

Assassination of Kasuri’s father

Bhutto’s government was also becoming increasingly controversial at home. One of the most serious allegations against him concerned the murder of Nawab Mohammad Ahmad Khan Kasuri in 1974.

Ahmad Raza Kasuri, a political opponent of Bhutto, was travelling in Lahore with his father when their vehicle came under gunfire. Ahmad Raza survived, but his father was killed. The prosecution later alleged that Bhutto had ordered the attack against Kasuri. Bhutto denied the accusation.

The case became one of the most controversial episodes in Pakistan’s political history. Bhutto was eventually convicted and sentenced to death after the 1977 coup. Decades later, in 2024, the Supreme Court of Pakistan concluded that the trial and appeal had not met the requirements of a fair trial and due process, although the Court also held that it had no legal mechanism to overturn the final conviction.

The case would ultimately become central to the events surrounding Bhutto’s downfall and execution, but at this stage his political problems were much broader.

1977 General Election

Bhutto decided to hold the next general election earlier than required. In January 1977, the National Assembly was dissolved and elections were scheduled for March. The PPP entered the election with considerable political strength, but opposition parties recognised that they would struggle to defeat Bhutto individually.

Nine opposition parties therefore united to form the Pakistan National Alliance, or PNA. The alliance brought together religious parties, conservative political groups and other opponents of Bhutto. It campaigned against his economic policies, nationalisation, alleged authoritarianism and what it described as corruption and abuse of power. The religious parties also accused Bhutto of failing to establish a sufficiently Islamic system.

The PPP won a huge victory. It secured 155 of the 200 National Assembly seats, while the PNA won only 36. On paper, Bhutto had achieved an overwhelming parliamentary majority.

The problem was that the result was not accepted by the opposition. The PNA accused the PPP of systematic election rigging and refused to accept the result. There were credible allegations of malpractice in a number of constituencies, particularly where opposition candidates had been strong. The scale of the PPP victory therefore became the centre of a national political crisis.

The opposition launched demonstrations across the country. What began as a dispute over the election results developed into a much wider movement against Bhutto. Religious slogans became increasingly prominent and the movement was eventually associated with the demand for Nizam-e-Mustafa, meaning the establishment of a system based upon the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ.

Bhutto attempted to negotiate with the opposition and made several concessions, including measures relating to Islamic legislation. But the crisis had already become too large. Violence spread and the government increasingly relied upon the military to restore order.

Martial law of General Zia ul Haq 1977

The army had once again become the most powerful institution in the country. General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq had been appointed Chief of Army Staff by Bhutto in 1976, partly because Bhutto believed that Zia was politically unambitious and would remain loyal to the civilian government.

That calculation proved disastrous.

On 5 July 1977, General Zia-ul-Haq launched a military coup. Bhutto, his ministers and senior political leaders were arrested. The Constitution was suspended, the National Assembly and provincial assemblies were dissolved and martial law was imposed. Zia became Chief Martial Law Administrator and announced that elections would be held within ninety days.

The promise of elections did not materialise. As the ninety-day period approached, Zia argued that Pakistan’s political system was too corrupt and unstable for elections to be held immediately. He presented military rule as a temporary necessity to cleanse the political system before democracy could return.

The coup therefore marked another major turning point. Pakistan had begun its history with the hope of establishing a democratic Muslim state, but repeated political crises had once again brought the army directly into government.

The events of 1977 would have consequences far beyond the removal of Bhutto. General Zia would remain the dominant figure in Pakistan for the next eleven years, during which the country would undergo one of the most significant periods of Islamisation in its history, become a frontline state in the Cold War following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and develop a political and religious landscape that continues to shape Pakistan today.

The next chapter therefore begins not simply with another military ruler, but with a fundamental change in the direction of Pakistan itself.