By DR MANZUR EJAZ

In 1971 it was not the Bengalis but almost the entire Punjabi population, along with the Urdu-speaking population of Sindh, who wanted ‘Bengal’. A few tiny progressive groups, like the Young Peoples Front, some pro-Soviet intellectuals and a handful of writers and elements of Amador Kinas Party were raising stifled voices. However, these feeble voices were drowned in the thunder of Bhutto’s and other patriots’ rhetoric. Alas, in the Bengalis we lost the best protectors of democracy in Pakistan and our best allies even in the Punjab University.

I still remember an occasion on which a friend and myself sat in the Punjab University New Campus cafeteria talking about the agony of the Bengali Muslims and the sinful support of military action that we witnessed around us. We could not face our harassed and mentally tormented Bengali friends in those days.

At that time, there were about sixty-to-seventy Bengali students studying at Punjab University in an exchange program. They all lived with us in hostels and were our best ideological allies. All the Bengali students, with hardly any exception, stood with the progressive students to oppose Islami Jamiat-i-Talba (IJT). During the election days they would come out with their own procession, raising slogans of “Jalo Jalo Agan Jaloo.” Palestinian students were also major allies of the progressive movement. Notwithstanding the claims of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and other Islamic groups these days, they were strong supporters of the US policies then.

The military action in East Pakistan not only broke Pakistan but also led to the dismemberment of progressive students’ alliances in Punjab’s educational institutions. Dr. Aziz-ul-Haq and Professor Aziz-ud-Din were the major intellectuals and organizers of the progressive students’ movement that started taking shape in 1968 in Punjab. Nationalist Students Organization (NSO) was the main platform established in the process. The National Student Federation (NSF) was a powerful student organization, but somehow it was quite negligible in Punjab, particularly in Lahore. NSO gained such strength in universities that it became very competitive with the IJT.

However, the division of opinion on military action in East Bengal devastated this entire set-up. The final debate between Dr. Aziz-ul-Haq and Professor Aziz-ud-Din took place at Prof. Aijaz-ul-Hasan’s (the Daily Times columnist) residence. The scene was quite funny because both sides used the same pages of the Marxist classics to support their position. It was like a religious munazara where befitting quotes are hurled from both sides. Anyway, nothing came out of this munazra and the NSO was split. Our group left the NSO and kept on working under the banner of Young Peoples Front, led by Dr. Aziz-ul-Haq.

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