পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্থ খণ্ড).pdf/৪৬২

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432 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিল : চতুর্থ খন্ড But the reactionary ruling classes were not ready to accept this clear verdict of the people or to grant autonomy to East Pakistan. So the Central government conspired and had with the open and overt support, of the US imperialists dismissed the United Front Ministry only after 45 days or so of its taking office on the false and fabricated plea that the United Front Ministry, specially its leader late A. K. Fazlul Haq, was "in league with India and trying to undo Pakistan by seceding". The ruling classes had also launched a reign of terror in East Pakistan and thousands were thrown into jails. The Communist Party was form ally banned at that time. Significantly, it was only after a week or so of the dismissal of the United Front Ministry that Pakistan had joined the military pacts under imperialism. But even after such shameless attack by the ruling classes against the people of East Pakistan, the movement for autonomy and democracy went on in various forms. The Sindhis; Pathans and Baluchis were also fighting for their national and democratic rights. The ruling classes had, on the other hand, taken two political steps to counteract the growing popular movement for autonomy and democracy. The Central government had arbitrarily passed two acts. By one of these acts, it was laid down that East and West Pakistan would have "parity" in all matters, which meant that East Pakistan which had the majority of the population (i. e. 56 per cent) was made equal with the 44 per cent population of West Pakistan. By the second act, all the provinces in West Pakistan, such as Sindh, Punjab, North West Frontier Province as well as Baluchistan, were abolished and the whole of West Pakistan was constituted as "one unit" or one single province. These two acts were new measures of the reactionary ruling classes to intensify their policy of national suppression. But as has been said earlier, the popular movement for autonomy and democracy could not be checked. It was going on both in East and West Pakistan. After the imposition of one unit in West Pakistan the suppression of the smaller nationalitiesSindhis, Pathans and Baluchis assumed an acute form. They had complained that they had been made "virtual, slaves of the Punjab vested interests" who had, through the grace of the one unit, captured all the important posts in the administration of those regions and also occupied a dominant position in their economics. So, from that time, the demand for the liquidation of one unit had become the central slogan in the struggle by the Sindhis, Pathans and Baluchis -for democracy and autonomy. Intervention by the Imperialists One thing needs mentioning here. In 1966 a Constitution was framed for the country by the then Constituent Assembly which was elected in 1955 by indirect voting, on the basis of parity. That Constitution framed by the reactionary ruling classes was far from a democratic one and did not provide for autonomy of the various nationalities. The President was vested with many special powers. Its only redeeming features were that it had provided for parliamentary rule and accepted Bengali as a State language together with Urdu, solely because these were the most pressing and popular demands.