THE%20SINDH%20STORY

Even otherwise, the USA prefers to deal with dictators --- preferably of the
military variety --- than with democrats who have a mind of their own and a
constituency to tend.
Pakistan has been an unashamed American client state ever since the New York
Times welcomed Liaqat Ali’s arrival in the USA with a front-page, greeting in
Urdu: “Khoosh Aamded!” Ayub Khan’s brother Sardar Bahadur himself said
that the military coup of 1958 was CIA inspired. As long as Ayub was the strong
man of Pakistan, he visited USA every year and met CIA boss Allen Dulles every
time. Allen himself certified Pakistan under military dictatorship as “a bulwark
of freedom in Asia”. The then US ambassador not only donned the “Jinnah cap”,
his daughter even married strongman Iskander Mirza’s son. Indeed in the words
of Air Marshal Asghar Khan, “Iskander Mirza’s pro-Americanism often
embarrassed the Americans.” Ayub opposed Egypt’s Nasser to please the USA --
- and Zia opposes Iran’s Khomeini, again to please the USA. None of this would
be possible in a democratic Pakistan.
The USA, therefore, does not want elections any more than does Zia. Indeed the
USA would dump Zia, if he gets to be too unpopular, and install another general
in his place, who can then hop fully eke out some more years for the Pentagon’s
comfort. A now broom is expected to sweep better --- for a while.
But not quite. The new dictator will not last even a fraction of that of the old one.
And meanwhile the people’s demand for democracy will grow too strong to
resist. And at that stage the American democratic conscience will no doubt come
into play. Elections will be held --- even though Zia says that Allah told him in a
dream in 1978 that “elections are un-lslamic.” Interestingly enough, Jinnah had
pronounced that “whatever the Muslims do, is Islamic.” And Muslims in
Pakistan do want elections! And these elections may prove as crucial as the 1971
polls.
A pertinent question here is why the demand for elections is much stronger in
Sindh than in the other three provinces. The fact is that all the provinces want
elections, but some want it more urgently --- for local reasons. The Punjab is
ruling all Pakistan today through the Army; so it is not all that keen on elections,
which will give it more freedom, but which will also reduce its power.
People in Sindh, Baluchistan, and the NWFP, on the other hand, want much
more than elections. They want autonomy --- as a prelude to independence. But
as separate nationalities, they have a different psychic clock ticking away inside
them. Baluchistan’s fight for freedom in the Nineteen Seventies caused Pakistan
to post one lakh troops in that province at a daily expense of one crore of rupees -
-- mostly paid for by the Shah of Iran for five long years. At the end of it, 5,300
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