পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্থ খণ্ড).pdf/৬০১

57.1 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিল : চতুর্থ খন্ড Enters Yahya Then came Yahya Khan to the rescue of the ruling class. Yahya imposed martial law on Pakistan, abrogating Ayub's constitution and pushing aside his phoney democracy. Popular pressure compelled Yahya to concede certain demands, namely, direct election based on adult franchise, dismemberment of one unit and restoration of former provinces, abolition of 'parity' which was introduced in 1955 as mentioned earlier, a constitution for the country to be framed by the elected National Assembly, etc. But Yahya promulgated a Legal Framework Order which stipulated, inter alia, that the constitution would have to be authenticated by Yahya Khan, the President. This greatly restricted the freedom of the National Assembly. The first general election was held in December. 1970. The results were startling. In East Pakistan Awami League won 167 out of a total of 169 National Assembly seats. This made Awami League the party with an absolute majority in the National Assembly (having a total of 313 seats). By voting for Awami League, the people of East Pakistan actually voted for autonomy. And it was the realization of this fact that unnerved the ruling class. In West Pakistan Z. A. Bhutto won 84 (out of 144) N. A. seats, but these seats were from Punjab and Sind provinces only. However, the ruling class decided to use Bhutto as a cat's paw in their conspiracy to jeopardize democracy. As soon as Yahya Khan announced a date for the first session of the National Assembly, 3rd March, Bhutto declared that his party would not attend the National Assembly session and threatened direct action in case the session was held on due date. And Yahya thought it fair to postpone the National Assembly session sine die and convene a round table conference of the various party leaders instead. He did not even consider it necessary to consult Awami League, the party commanding absolute majority in the National Assembly, before taking this unusual step. The last peaceful mass upsurge: the peak Naturally enough, all democratic parties and forces resented the postponement of National Assembly session and rejected the idea of a round table conference as absurd and ridiculous. But the people, without waiting for the reaction of the leaders, spontaneously came out in thousands in the streets as they heard the news, to protest against this high handed decision of Yahya Khan. Yet, the upsurge did not lose its peaceful character. In protest against the postponement of the National Assembly session, the Awami League called a general strike for five days from 2nd March. All the democratic parties supported it. The entire people fully responded to this call. The ruling clique as usual tried to suppress it by intimidation and violence. Curfew was imposed on Dacca and other cities and when people brought out peaceful processions, they were mowed down by machinegun fire. The conspiracies of the ruling clique failed to demoralize the people, however.