The 5th of July is a crucial day in Pakistan’s history. On this day the-then Army Chief of Pakistan overthrew the first government of the PPP headed by its founding Chairman. I am talking of the year 1977. 39 years have passed since then. The country has experienced two martial law regimes covering a total period of around 19 years.
The question that is pertinent today is: “Way was ZAB’s government overthrown?” I don’t want to relate this ‘day’— the coup day— with the subsequent hanging of ZAB on the 4th of April 1979. That indeed is a dark event in the country’s history. But as far as the coup of the 5th of July 1977 is concerned, it was in my view the logical consequence of the failure of the-then Prime Minister to arrest the tidal wave of history well in time, and to take all the corrective measures even ahead of the talks between the government and the opposition on the issue of the rigged elections.
Bhutto would not have faced the 5th of July if he had gone on air in the middle of April 1977 to announce unilaterally the holding of fresh elections under the control of a body unanimously approved by the Government and the Opposition.
Unfortunately no one is keen to learn the lessons of history. The man at the helm of affairs tends always to believe that POWER is more than adequate substite of wisdom.
Today’s Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif too has banished ‘wisdom’ from his various alternatives, and has left to his daughter and cronies to push back the tidal wave of history.
The consequences are unlikely to be any different from those of the 5th of July.
