East Meets West

Back in 1940, long before others first spoke the words, a fat politico named Fazlul Huq publicly proposed the independent state of Pakistan. Last week, seven years after the state became a reality, Pakistan charged Huq, now Chief Minister of East Pakistan province, with "treasonable activities" and threw him out of office.

In Karachi, capital of the two-part country (divided by 1,000 miles of Indian territory), Premier Mohammed Ali cried: "Disruptive forces and enemy agents are actively at work" in East Pakistan, "setting Moslem against Moslem, class against class, province against center . . . Huq and his colleagues were not prepared to take the action necessary," therefore we are "taking over administration of the province to save East Pakistan."

East Pakistan, which has most of the population but only one-third of the country's per capita income, has long felt itself neglected by its prosperous brother, West Pakistan. Two months ago the angry Bengalis of East Pakistan trooped to the polls in the first provincial election since independence, and routed Mohammed Ali's Moslem League from office, leaving it only ten of 309 seats in the local legislature. Into power came a comic United Front--as diverse a group of politicians as ever made common cause--ranging from an Orthodox Islamic party to a Communist outfit on the left. Atop the uneasy heap as Chief Minister sat old (82) but popular Fazlul Huq, who campaigned for election by announcing: "I love you all, and if you love me, you will vote for me."

Soon coalition members quarreled over posts and patronage and disagreed on program. Within two months East Pakistan had three labor riots costing 600 dead.

Last week, after two months of such goings-on, Huq and his government were deposed on Ali's orders and Defense Secretary Iskander Mirza was sent in to restore law & order. Tough, Sandhurst-trained Mirza drove to his new headquarters at Government House in Dacca along a five-mile route pointedly lined with armed troops and cops. He ordered the arrest of more than 600 Reds and assorted troublemakers, clamped on press censorship, prohibited meetings of more than five persons and sent troops swarming through the local capital to take over the secretariat, railway depot, radio station, powerhouse and telegraph and phone offices. For the first time in months East Pakistan quieted down and from Huq's HQ not a sound was heard, only the pacing of the troops outside his house where he was sequestered in house arrest.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.