Up to now there were very good reasons for this attitude; the main one being that political activity in this country had in the past been curtailed and almost crippled to the extent that without nourishment and encouragement it would never have got off the ground. If the Martial Law authorities had gone strictly by Martial Law Regulations and Orders in every case right from the start, there was a possibility that the main objective of this regime, namely, the transfer of power, would have been unduly delayed and even jeopardized.
The plan under which the Martial Law authorities had, on occasions, to ignore breaches of Martial Law Regulations and Orders has, I know, been misconstrued in certain quarters as weakness. These people did not understand that this attitude was deliberate and was in fact inherent in the situation obtaining in the country. The task of my Government has been a difficult and delicate one. On the one hand we had to keep the forces of disorder in check and on the other, we had to ensure that development of political activity was not discouraged in any way.
Let me at this stage explain to you as to how this regime has tried to bring back political life in this country step by step.
In the first phase which commenced with the imposition of Martial Law and ended round about July 1969 the most important element of this plan was not to ban political parties. I remember that this caused both surprise and relief amongst our political parties, intellectuals and all others interested in this subject. The reason for their being surprised was that, normally speaking, the first action of any Martial Law regime is to ban political parties, for the existence of Martial Law regime side by side with political parties is a most unusual phenomenon. During this phase, however, we took care to see that whilst political parties were not banned, their activities were considerably restricted. This was, of course, deliberate and in keeping with the plan of reviving political life in a gradual manner.
The next phase which lasted from August 1969 to December 1969 saw considerable freedom of action in the political field although certain checks were still maintained. By about this time I had taken and declared decisions on certain major issues such as restoration of pre-1955 Provinces in West Pakistan and one man one vote.
The next phase commenced with the 1st of January this year when full scale political activity was allowed and all restrictions were removed except for certain guidelines which were issued in the form of a Martial Law Regulation.
So you see, the nourishment and bringing up of political activity went hand in hand with certain major decisions which had a direct bearing on such activity. I am happy to note that this main plan of ours has worked out well.
The present is the last phase.
Now that I have prepared the ground in every possible way for a peaceful transfer of power to the elected representatives of the people, there is no further requirement for handling of breaches of Martial Law, such as creating disaffection against the Government, violence and such other crimes, in a soft manner. From now on, in the
