Karachi, December 31. The witty chief priest Maulana Ehteshamul Huq once told his admiring flock that while in India Moslems were threatened with extinction, in Pakistan Islam was fighting for its survival. Thirteen political parties, about 30 pressure groups, and some half dozen political cherubs described as independents, are in the next seven months and five days to devote their energies either to eroding or to rehabilitating Islam in the country that was created in the name of religion.

From January 1, political activity is to resume in Pakistan; and though this time martial law will ensure that it does not degenerate into the kind of violence that was witnessed in the last days of Ayub’s dictatorship, much heat is bound to be generated on the crucial issue of whether Pakistan should be an Islamic, a Socialist or a secular State.

Left and Right

Seven right-wing parties, including the extreme Right Jamaat-e-Islami, are arrayed against six Socialist parties, including Mr. Z.A. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and the pro-Peking Maulana Bhasani’s National Awami Party; and from January 1 to October 5, when general elections - the first to be held in this country - are due [or, more realistically, expected] they will argue the virtues of an Islamic State or the dangers inherent in mixing religion with politics. In the past eight months, since the introduction of martial law under President Yahya Khan, the Left-leaning parties have been losing ground, for Moslems in this subcontinent would rather starve to death than countenance an insult to Islam. President Yahya himself strongly feels that any attempt to hack at the roots of Pakistan’s ideology must be resisted, and under the new regulation reviving political activity attempts to subvert Pakistan’s ideology during election campaigns have been made punishable with long terms of imprisonment. This regulation also prohibits all activity aimed at frustrating the election schedule and creating a rift between peoples living in different regions of the country.

With the decision by Yahya Khan to dismember one unit in West Pakistan and to allow representation to East Pakistanis on the basis of population in assemblies and services, politicians have suddenly found themselves denuded of two of their most potent weapons in the fight to capture power at the centre and in newly revived provinces. In other respect, too, the political situation in Pakistan is unusual. Normally, political parties in opposition try to dislodge the party in power, but today the country is ruled by a grouP of men, under General Yahya Khan, who have no political ambitions. Yahya has repeatedly declared that his Government is only a caretaker Government and that he is resolved to step aside and make room for a civilian Government as soon as a new National Assembly passes a Constitution with his approval so that politicians are left to fight it out among themselves, while the martial law Government remaining free - until the formation of a new civilian Government - to run the Administration.

Unhappy

All this has left the left-wing parties, notably those run by Bhutto and Bhasani, extremely unhappy. When Ayub Khan was in power, Bhutto, for eight years his Minister, never stopped talking about the virtues and necessity of democracy. So did Bhasani. Now both of them have changed their minds. They no longer feel that “democracy alone” can solve the people’s problems of hunger, poverty, and ignorance. Bhutto said yesterday that he wanted the economic system to be revolutionised and based on socialism. The same line is adopted by Bhasani. Yet neither of them seems to know how they propose to go about it. Evidently, the only way to change the economic system - unless, of course, they are thinking in terms of force - is to capture power through more recognised democratic methods.

Bhutto and Bhasani have developed a sudden distaste for democratic processes for obvious reasons. Neither of them is expected to make a spectacular showing in the elections. Bhasani’s party is expected to run second to the Awami League of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in East Pakistan; and Bhutto’s party not even to get one seat in the house of 300 from East Pakistan and in West Pakistan, Bhutto is not even sure of securing a seat for himself in the National Assembly. In all, the People’s Party may return only four or five members to the Assembly. The rest of the seats will probably be captured by the Council of the Moslem League, Jammat-e-Islami, and the Pakistan Democratic Party. Some independents who are a crowd by themselves, like Air-Marshall Asghar Khan, General Azam Khan, and the ex-Chief Justice of East Pakistan, S. M. Murshed, may get elected, but this is still doubtful.

In the event of a Constitution’s coming into force, Pakistan’s first civilian Government after martial law would most likely be a coalition of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League, Mumtaz Daulatana’s Council of the Moslem League, and Wali Khan’s National Awami Party - a professedly pro-Moscow group exercising considerable influence in the North-West Frontier Province, but in reality a secular organisation for securing autonomy for Pathans. But this is only what one can visualise happening as of today. How things will develop and end in this hapless country, which has been fighting for freedom ever since the British conferred freedom upon it 23 years ago, is anybody’s guess.