RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Dec. 23—In the space of only four days Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has imposed an iron hold on all the reins of power and has undertaken to transform Pakistan into virtually a new nation.

Mr. Bhutto's’ political skill and driving ambition have combined with luck to put him in a position of absolute control as President, Chief Martial‐Law Administrator and Defense Minister. He began consolidating his position within minutes after his return Monday. from a mission to present Pakistan's position to the United Nations,

With the top military commanders in national disgrace for having lost the two‐week war with India, Mr. Bhutto has reorganized the leadership of the once all‐powerful armed forces, ousting a score of ranking officers. At the same time he has moved swiftly against the economic elite, impounding the passports of members of the 22 wealthiest families.

He has announced a comprehensive land‐reform program and has warned that industries that do not comply with forthcoming reforms will be nationalized.

Opposition Dispirited

Tough though Mr. Bhutto's program promises to be, opposition to him, for the moment, at least, is dispirited and ineffectual.

In the months and perhaps years ahead there is one source of opposition he will never be able to ignore completely—the military. If his administration proves ineffective or abuses the military, they are likely to replace him rapidly,

For the time being the armed forces are too involved in licking their wounds to concern themselves much with politics, and Mr. Bhutto has been free even to remove the generals and admirals he distrusts or dislikes.

He has repeatedly told his countrymen that his administration will be accountable to them and that genuine democracy will be implemented soon.

Some of Mr. Bhutto's many critics, asserting that he is already well on the way toward becoming a dictator, accuse him of boundless ambition that can never be meshed with democratic accountability.

Others grant Mr. Bhutto's good intentions but say that real representative democracy is impracticable in a country as backward and uneducated as Pakistan, Inevitably, they say, he will face the choice of turning power back to a military regime or becoming a strongman himself.

Whatever the future, a period of one‐man rule seems certain. The hard‐driving 43‐year‐old President has also assumed the Ministries of Interior and Interprovincial Coordination for himself, and all other key posts are being handed to men he can trust.

A civil servant who has been under many governments remarked: “It's not a question of whether people like or hate Bhutto. Pakistan is about to sink or swim, and it will do one or the other under Bhutto. The whole nation owes him the best it can give him.”

Educated at the University of California and Oxford, Mr. Bhutto is an articulate and compelling speaker. His gifts served him well as a career diplomat and he became a protege of the former dictator, Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, who was ousted in 1969 by Mr. Bhutto's predecessor, Gen. Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan.

As Marshal Ayub's Foreign Minister, Mr. Bhutto reached number of important diplomatic agreements with neighboring China and came to he known as a reform‐minded Socialist and, in his own words, “Yankee‐baiting Foreign Minister.”

He became a full‐time politician in 1967 when he took charge If the Pakistan People's party, a fusion of reform‐minded landowners and labor‐union militants of the radical leftwing.

Wealth and Skill

The disparity between the two groups deeply divided the party, which has seemed at times to be on the verge of complete dissolution. But Mr. Bhutto's personal wealth and his skill forged an organization of loyal party workers reminiscent of the heyday of Tammany Hall. The wardheelers of Mr. Bhutto's machine are despised by the social and economic elite, but they get out the crowds when needed.

During most of the nation's 24 years of independence it has been governed directly or indirectly by the army; political parties have not evolved as national forces. The existing parties have tended to be either regional — for example, the Bengali nationalist party called the Awami League, which has dominated East Pakistan and was the basis of the victorious secessionist movement that led to the formation of Bangladesh — or religious.

Besides the regional parties and some splinter‐groups in West Pakistan, there were three factions of the founding Moslem League, each purporting to be the heir to power in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Mr. Bhutto's main strength has been in his native province, Sind, which includes Pakistan's largest city, Karachi. Though his base has been limited to West Pakistan, his party is secular, demanding a new society for the workers and peasants of a nation whose per‐capita annual income is $100 and whose literacy rate is about 8 per cent.

Most all, Mr. Bhutto can draw on his experience in Western countries, where he had studied the political tactics in elective democracies at close hand.

Almost by default, then. his party has become the single most important political force for the poor of West Pakistan, The big chance came a year ago when President Yahya Khan called a national election to create a National Assembly, which was to write constitution and establish central government.

General Yahya Khan's intentions remain a subject of debate. His defenders say that he always recognized the army's limited capacities for effective rule and genuinely wanted to “return the troops to the barracks.” Critics contend that he was convinced that a free election would put the right‐wing Moslem League factions in power and that they in turn would serve as dependencies of the army, which would remain discreetly in the background.

Haste Viewed as Unseemly

In any case, there was general agreement that the election was conducted freely and that its results reflected the will of the people. Sheik Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League won a sweeping victory in East Pakistan and Mr. Bhutto and the Pakistan People's party had a clear majority in the West.

Presumably disappointed by the results, General Yahya Khan nevertheless proposed that the Government be divided, and it was assumed that Sheik Mujib would be Prime Minister, with Mr. Bhutto holding some important ministry. But the two leaders failed to agree on dividing the ministries and Mr. Bhutto demanded the postponement of the National Assembly.

With what many politicians considered unseemly haste, President Yayha Khan agreed to the postponement and that in turn led to the Bengali insurrection last March. When the army moved into East Pakistan on March 25, the Awami League was banned and Sheik Mujib was arrested, which left Mr. Bhutto as the single most important politician.

The army remained in full control and, despite frequent demands by Mr. Bhutto that power be transferred immediately “to the people,” things moved slowly.

President Yahya Khan announced that by‐elections would be held in East Pakistan to replace the Awami League members of the National Assembly. He also announced that he would promulgate a constitution, and it was understood that he would retain the title of President in a civilian government.

Mr. Bhutto was again faced with the prospect of becoming the No. 2 man In a puppet civilian government over which the army still exercised the real power.

Late last month Indian forces ‘began to move into East Pakistan and the situation of the Pakistani troops, already hard pressed, deteriorated sharply. General Yahya Khan and the circle of generals close to him decided to open a second front in the West, but the gamble failed.

Effigies of the Generals

East Pakistan was lost, there was no compensatory gain for Pakistan in the West and the nation had suffered by far its gravest defeat.

Mobs burned effigies of the ruling generals, denouncing them as inept, lacking in heart and morally corrupt. The outcry was joined by a number of military leaders themselves, one of whom told newsmen on the night Pakistan accepted India's cease‐fire offer:

“We have been betrayed by drunken pigs. We have had no government for three years and Pakistan has been at the mercy of all its foes, with the loyal armed forces made the scapegoat. It is time now for real government — civilian government.”

The top commanders met that night, holding a kind of military election in which it was decided that President Yahya Khan and his coterie must go.

Two New Military Faces

In another country that would have been called a coup d'etat, but Pakistan's armed forces are modeled after those of Britain and there is no tradition of political violence. When an officer is ousted from the club, he remains an “old boy” entitled to wear the regimental tie.

Two officers came to the fore.

One, probably the most important, is Air Marshal Abdul Rahim Khan, commander of the air force. During the brief war the air force was far more effective than its sister services and, in any case, it was never identified with President Yahya khan's main supporters.

Air Marshal Rahim Khan, soft‐spoken former fighter pilot, had often said that the armed forces and politics ought not mix. His vote was probably decisive.

Another key voice was that of the acting army commander, Lieut. Gen. Gul Hasan Khan, a 50‐year‐old bachelor known as a stickler for discipline who had never been one of the President's drinking companions.

The decision to remove General Yahya Khan meant that another decision had to be made. Either the armed forces would have to create another military government or they would have to turn things over to civilians.

Having decided that the time for civilian control had come, the obvious choice was the man the people had elected a year before — Mr. Bhutto. General Yahya Khan was permitted to call his successor and swear him in.