Non-cooperation movement
The President of Pakistan summoned
the session of the National Assembly
in Dacca on 3 March, 1971. The
7
In the election the Awami League won
167 seats out of 313 seats in the
National Assembly of Pakistan and of
169 seats reserved for East Pakistan.
Single largest Party from West
Pakistan was Pakistan People‟s Party
of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who resigned
from Foreign Minister Ship of
Gen.Ayub cabinet. Pakistan People‟s
Party secured 64 seats while Pakistan
Muslim League 7 seats and National
Awami Party of Wali-Muzaffar group
of West Pakistan 3 seats from North
West Frontier and 3 from Baluchistan,
Jamat-e-Islam 6 seats from Punjab and
Sindh and Independents 6 seats. The
Awami League won landslide victory
in East Pakistan and a comfortable
majority in the National Assembly of
Pakistan. Therefore, it would have
been logically wise to hand over
power to Awami League Party.
leader of People‟s Party Zulfiqar Ali
refused to participate in the session of
the National Assembly who advocated
coalition between Awami League and
his Party. It was not acceptable to
Awami League. Without consulting
the leader of the majority party the
President dramatically announced
postponement of the session of the
National Assembly, which evoked
sharp reaction from the people of East
Pakistan. The leader of majority Party
had no other option, but to launch a
country wide non-violent and noncooperation movement against the
government. The response was so
overwhelming that virtually the leader
of Awami League became a ruler of
East Pakistan. The central authority
became
worried
to
witness
unprecedented response of the people
in
favor
of
non-cooperation
movement. On March 6, 1971 the
President of Pakistan again announced
to convene the session of National
Assembly on March 25, 1971. On
March 7, 1971 in his historic speech
at Suhrawardy Uddan Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman gave a clarion call to people
and government employees to follow
his instructions and declared that he
would consider attending session of
National Assembly only if four points
are met. These were: lifting of Martial
Page
editor, said in his book,“ Maulana
Bhashani thus stole the honor from
Mujib of being the first Bengali
politician who actually spoke up for
an
independent
sovereign
Bangladesh”(page 83: After the Dark
Night by S.M.Ali).