ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) seminar on the reasons behind the “Fall of Dhaka”, Thursday, called for learning from the past mistakes identified in the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report with a view to put the country on the path of true democracy and rule of law.

The speakers of the seminar titled, “50 years of the fall of Dhaka: Reasons and lessons?”, were the party’s senior leaders including former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Raja Zafarul Haq, Sartaj Aziz, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, and others.

Abbasi, in his address said that the lesson from the Fall of Dhaka and the Army Public School (APS), Peshawar, attack was that “Pakistan’s institutions and all its people must strictly abide by the Constitution, otherwise, similar disasters await.”

He said that in the history of the world, always minorities had seceded from a country but the fall of Dhaka was a unique case where a majority seceded from a country.

He said that this did not happen overnight, but was a result of a political process, they tabled their demands in front of the people of Pakistan, participated in the elections and when they were refused government even after winning the elections, they decided to secede from Pakistan. “Those who seceded were the same people who had also contributed in the creation of Pakistan and how had stood by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah,” he added.

He said that it was unfortunate that the history of the country had been distorted to the point that the coming generation had no idea about the truth. He said that four and a half, out of the six demands made by the Awami League, were now a functional part of Pakistan’s Constitution, especially after the 18th Amendment, while remaining 1.5 were being debated in the country whether they should be adopted or not.

“This showed that the demands by the Awami League were not something out of the extraordinary, but in fact, they were progressive reforms proposed well ahead of their time. However, as a result of these demands, they were dubbed traitors, put behind bars, and were not given the right to govern the country despite, winning the majority in the elections, which led to the dismemberment of Pakistan. This was the undisputed reality of history,” he said.

Abbasi further stated that there was a need to understand the current circumstances in the country by reflecting upon the events of 1971 because Pakistan was faced with similar situation. “Because it was undeniable that if the state would not respect the public vote and grant them the true right to self-govern, the country would not progress,” he added.

“The socio political and socioeconomic situation of Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1971 and today was plain for everyone to see. The only reason Bangladesh progressed more than Pakistan is that their democratic system was allowed to continue despite, mutinies and other obstacles,” he said.

This, he, added was what was needed in Pakistan that until the public vote was treated as a useless piece of paper and the Constitution was obliterated at will as a rag doll, the country can never progress and develop.

“This isn’t a novel idea, it is all written in the Constitution, a country that does not function strictly according to its constitution cannot move forward. Therefore, no institution can supersede the constitution and everyone would need to function within the roles and demarcations defined by the constitution. This is the lesson we must learn from the Fall of Dhaka and the APS tragedy. This is what this country needs to think hard about because there is no alternative,” he said. He stated that democracies cannot function without abiding by the constitution, and constitutions are not empowered in a country where the vote of the people is not respected. “These are the lessons that need to be learnt by all, be it the security institutions, politicians, judiciary, bureaucracy, or the media,” Abbasi further stated.

Ahsan Iqbal maintained that Mujibur Rehman of the Awami League saw how Fatima Jinnah, the sister of the Founder of the Nation, was treated, which turned his views more and more towards the extreme, which led to the Fall of Dhaka.

“This shows that unless the people are given their right to vote and self-govern, such disasters would continue to sneak up on countries,” he said, adding that this is what needed to be learnt from the current situation where the people of Pakistan are once again being denied the power and respect of their vote.

He also paid rich tribute to the martyrs of the APS and stated that the PML-N government led unprecedented operations against the terrorists with unshakeable resolve and rooted them out following the horrific attack.

“However, the PTI government is reversing all the gains made by those operations because of its incompetence. The people of Pakistan understand how this current government is eating the country at its very roots and praying that this disastrous reign would end soon,” he maintained.

Sartaj Aziz also shed light on the sad events that led to separation of the East Pakistan, saying that making one language – Urdu as the national language was one of the few reasons, besides giving a disrespect to the majority and imposition of the martial law.

“Had the democratic process been continued, the situation would have been different,” he said, adding that General Ayub Khan kept all the powers in his hand after the martial law was imposed.

He said that of all the reasons, one major reason behind the Fall of Dhaka was denial of the democratic rights to the people of East Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021