Bhutto engineered break-up of Pakistan: Ayub

Islamabad, May 3 (UNI) Well before the military action in East Pakistan, both President General Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had virtually agreed in principle to the break-up of the country.

This has been revealed in the diaries of Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan edited by Craig Baxter.

Quoting excerpts from the diaries, The Nation newspaper said before proceeding to Dhaka in March, General Khan and Mr Bhutto had agreed that it was no longer possible to retain East Pakistan.

But although separation was unavoidable, Mr Bhutto did not want to say it openly.

He wanted General Khan to take the responsibility. But he desisted at the last moment and fell out with Mujibur Rahman, the founder leader of Bangladesh. They reached an understanding that General Khan would be made President of Bangladesh.

But since Mr Rahman would only offer him an Indian-type presidency, he refused and started hobnobbing with Mr Bhutto again with a view to securing his position, the paper said.

General Khan was anxious to hand over power to public representatives provided he could retain his position with considerable powers.

While the situation in East Pakistan was deteriorating nobody among the junta seemed to be concerned. In fact, they seemed very confident.

The thinking was that General Khan would remain as the President, Nurul Amin as the Prime Minister. Mr Bhutto demanded to be appointed as the Vice Prime Minister as he did not like the word deputy.

''Bhutto will not hesitate to remove Yahya as soon as he get the chance. They have very little faith in each other,'' said an excerpt from the diaries.

Lt General Peerzada was with Mr Bhutto. His ambition was to replace General Khan or become commander-in-chief of the army with the help of Mr Bhutto. Lt General Peerzada kept Mr Bhutto well posted with secret information.

The diaries also dealt with victimisation of Ayub's family.

''A reliable friend confirmed today that a team of special police had been set up to go into my, and even my distant relatives' financial transactions under orders from Mr Bhutto.

The Central Board of Revenue had been told to tax us at least one crore. Had we paid it, it would have broke our backs. Had we not, we would have been put in jail.

''In this connection, I was told that the IG Special Police, who was appointed recently, had been transferred because he called on me for Eid greetings,'' Ayub said in the diaries.

The diaries also revealed that Mr Bhutto had proposed the division of Kashmir.

''A confidant of Mr Bhutto, who is the Chairman of the Press Trust, which is completely under government control, is going about selling the idea that in Kashmir, India should get Jammu, Pakistan PoK and the Valley to become independent. Then the Valley, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, should form a confederation. He might well be voicing Mr Bhutto's views...'' Mr Bhutto also accused General Tikka Khan of conspiring against him.

Apparently, Mr Bhutto was well assured of the loyalty of the army. He could not, of course, find a better goof than General Tikka Khan. But the army had never been a threat to any politician until they made a mess of the country. Then it became a ''survival and rescue'' operation, and if the survivors were incapable of carrying it out some juniors would have done it.

This is the common experience of most new countries.

''I understand that Mr Bhutto told General Tikka Khan that he had concrete evidence against him that he was planning to overthrow him.'' General Tikka Khan said before he, Bhutto, went any further he would give him the true story. Some politicians had approached him with the proposal to remove Mr Bhutto. His answer was that the army was not interested in any such thing but he wanted also to make it clear that the army would not shoot down peaceful demonstrators, Ayub wrote in his diaries.

UNI