<i>Pak journos blame leadership for failure in avoiding '71 massacre</i>
Two Pakistani journalists, reputed for writing political analysis and commentary, have blamed Pakistani military leadership--aided by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto--for their failure to avoid the killing and mayhem in 1971 in Bangladesh erstwhile East Pakistan.
The Pakistani journalists-- Saad Hafiz and Shahzeb Jillani-- expressed their views respectively to the Daily Times of Pakistan and BBC World Service at such a time when Bangladesh is celebrating 40 years of independence and has started the war crimes trial.
“What can be said is that the murder and mayhem that followed the elections, which destroyed the lives of many Bengalis and non-Bengalis alike, could have been avoided by statesmanship and sagacity sadly lacking in the leadership at the time,” Saad Hafiz said in his column titled 'Witness to national disintegration' in the Daily Times of Pakistan in its December 13 issue.
He said the final nail in the coffin of a united Pakistan was the inability of the West Pakistani military leadership--allegedly aided by Bhutto--to accept the Awami League victory in 1970 general elections.
Some of the political causes of the separation of Pakistan could have been addressed and misgivings removed over time if democracy, which involved consensus, parliamentary sovereignty and judicial independence, had been allowed to continue uninterrupted, Hafiz said.
He said the primary cause of national disintegration was the political alienation of the Bengali population and economic imbalance between the two provinces.
He said it seems that a truncated Pakistan has not learnt a lesson from the history. Pakistan is still a national security state, which continues to look to military adventures as 'saviours' instead of building and nurturing democratic institutions, he added.
In an article titled “Scars of Bangladesh independence was 40 years on” Shahzeb Jillani, the South Asia Editor of BBC World Service, commented that it was perhaps the darkest moment and ultimate humiliation for Pakistan when its army stood accused of mass murder, torture and rape and tens of thousands of them were taken prisoners of war.
Jillani, born in December 1971 in Sindh, said, “Forty years on, I decided to examine the legacy of the brief but bitter war.”
Referring to his first visit to Dhaka he said it was immediately clear that the Bangladeshi narrative of 1971 remains firmly focused on the violence unleashed by the Pakistani army.
Many Bangladeshis still feel very bitter about their treatment by West Pakistan, with discriminatory policies over economy and language, Jillani said.
He said in 1971, the West Pakistan leadership appeared to have made up its mind to answer this resentment with military force.
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