The Pakistan National Alliance (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

: PNA), was a

populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...

and consolidated right-wing

political alliance A political group is a group consisting of political parties or legislators of aligned ideologies. A technical group is similar to a political group, but with members of differing ideologies. International terms Equivalent terms are used differ ...

, consisting of nine political parties of the country. Formed in 1977, the country's leading right-wing parties agreed upon to run a political campaign as a single bloc against the left oriented PPP in the 1977 general elections. Despite each parties standing with a different ideology, PNA was noted for its large physical momentum and its right-wing orientation, originally aimed to oppose Prime Minister

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth ...

and the PPP. Despite its

right-wing populist Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti- elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establ ...

agenda, the alliance performed poorly in the 1977 general election and levelled accusations of rigging the elections. After months of spontaneous violent political activism, the

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

came in effect under chief of army staff General

Zia-ul-Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, ( Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial ...

who made call for a political retribution. By 1978, the alliance met its end when parties diverged in each of its agenda. The left-wing parties later would form the MRD alliance under PPP to oppose President Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s and the right-wing forming the IDA alliance under PML.

History

The PPP came in

power politics Power politics is a theory in international relations which contends that distributions of power and national interests, or changes to those distributions, are fundamental causes of war and of system stability. The concept of power politics pro ...

after the

loss Loss may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Loss'' (Bass Communion album) (2006) * ''Loss'' (Mull Historical Society album) (2001) *"Loss", a song by God Is an Astronaut from their self-titled album (2008) * Losses "(Lil Tjay son ...

of East-Pakistan in 1971. After uplifting the martial law in 1972 and promulgating the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

in 1973, the PPP made slow efforts to advance the "

Islam and democracy There exist a number of perspectives on the relationship of Islam and democracy among Islamic political theorists, the general Muslim public, and Western authors. In 2021, a number of Muslim majority countries are Islamic and secular democra ...

" in the country, but intensified the

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

with a vengeance. First and foremost, the nationalisation program was carried out to centralised the large-scale industries, private-sector and commercial corporation to set up the strong

state sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, infra ...

. Resentment and heavy disapproval came from the elite

corporate sector In economics, the business sector or corporate sector - sometimes popularly called simply "business" - is "the part of the economy made up by companies". It is a subset of the domestic economy, excluding the economic activities of general gover ...

and PPP intensified its public programs at the social circles. Although the general elections were to be held on half of 1977, Bhutto made a move and called for holding the general elections on 7 January 1977. Early calls for the elections was an idea to not to given time to the opposition to make decisions and arrangements for the forthcoming elections. Immediately after the announcement, Bhutto started his election campaign and began allotting party tickets to party's candidates. Sensing the difficulty of facing PPP alone, the conservative mass began to consolidate when ''JeI'' contacting the

Pakistan Muslim League The Pakistan Muslim League ( ur, ; known as PML), is the name of several different Pakistani political parties that have dominated the right-wing platform in the country. The Muslim League (a different party) was the party of Pakistan’ ...

(PML) and TeI. The other small nine parties too joined the alliance and initially called for ending the era of stagflation in the country and its manifesto was to bring back the 1970 prices. On social views, the implementation of Islam was its primary election slogan. They promised to enforce Islamic laws " Nizam-e-Mustafa" and the

Sharia law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the Five Pillars of Islam, religious precepts of Islam and is based on the Islamic holy books, sacred scriptures o ...

s. The PNA's parties were a conglomerate of diverse views and of contradictory causes and united by common dislike of PPP's autocratic policies:

Right-wing populism and violence

At this platform, the modern European style-influenced forces formed an alliance with totally opposite of hard-line Islamist forces. The alliance decided to contest the elections under one election symbol "''plough''" and a green flag with nine stars as its ensign. Flag of IJI

Contesting the 1977 elections jointly the PNA launched a national campaign against the government after the controversial and allegedly rigged results showing the Peoples Party as an overwhelming victory in the general elections. The agitation caught the Peoples Party and its political scientists, by surprise and after several months of street fighting and demonstrations. Under advised by his advisers, Bhutto opened negotiations with the then PNA leadership but whether or not it would have been signed by all PNA parties or by Bhutto remains open to speculation. In a single unusual anti-Bhutto bloc, the alliance seemed to be effective when tapping a wave to remove Bhutto from government. Meanwhile, Bhutto's trusted confident and a lifelong companion dr.

Mubashir Hassan Mubashir Hassan ( ur, ; 22 January 1922 – 14 March 2020), was a Pakistani politician, humanist, political adviser, and an engineer who served in the capacity of Finance Minister in Bhutto administration from 1971 until 1974. In 1967, Hass ...

tried to handle the situation on behalf of Bhutto by bringing the alliance on a table to reach an agreement of co-existence and a vital political solution. On other hand, Hassan advised Bhutto to not to rely either on establishment or use the force to curb the alliance. An agreement was eventually reached in June 1977 and Bhutto was to sign it on 5 July. However, despite the enthusiasm of the negotiating team, other PNA leaders had reservations about the agreement. In response, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto also tried to crush the power of this alliance, with the help of his agencies such as FSF and Rangers and for this reason was also considered for the cause of Bhutto's hanging on 4 April 1979. In a coup staged by General Zia, Bhutto was removed from office with majority of his colleagues.

Authoritarianism and PNA split

The conservatives and Islamist fronts went to General

, Chief of Army Staff and Admiral

Mohammad Shariff Admiral Mohammad Shariff ( ur, ; 1 July 1920 – 27 April 2020), was a Pakistan Navy senior admiral, who served as the 2nd Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and a memoirist who was at the center of all the major decisions made ...

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee The Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC), ( ur, ); is an administrative body of senior high-ranking uniformed military leaders of the unified Pakistan Armed Forces who advises the civilian Government of Pakistan, National Security Council, ...

, and convinced them to remove Bhutto and no other agreement is reached with Bhutto and his colleagues remained stubborn. The absence of a formal agreement between the government and the PNA was used as an excuse by the

Pakistan Defence Forces The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are ...

under its chairman Admiral Mohammad Shariff which led to stage a Coup d'état (see ''

Operation Fair Play Operation Fair Play was the code name for the 5 July 1977 coup by Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, overthrowing the government of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The coup itself was bloodless, and was preceded by ...

'') by General Ziaul Haque to break the impasse. Those justifying the coup, argue that no agreement had been reached between the two sides.

Controversy regarding foreign support

On 5 July 1977, the PPP accused the United States of plotting the coup and maintained that the coup had tacit consent from the United States. A few before the martial law, Bhutto had indicated that few foreign powers had been engineering his downfall, though he did not name which foreign powers. Several Pakistani scholars and researchers have given credence to Bhutto's claim. The veracity of these claims are difficult to verify since the United States has strongly rejected any claims of their involvement in downfall of Bhutto. Though, former American Attorney General

Ramsey Clark William Ramsey Clark (December 18, 1927 – April 9, 2021) was an American lawyer, activist, and federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States Department of Justice under Pres ...

did questioned the "knowledge, hence the tacit approval" of the coup staged against the PPP. Further

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

investigative research showed that one of PNA's leading politician, Air Marshal (retired)

Asghar Khan Air Marshal Muhammad Asghar Khan (Retd.) ( ur, 17 January 1921 – 5 January 2018), was a Pakistani politician and an autobiographer, later a dissident serving the cause of pacifism, peace, and human rights. Born into a military famil ...

who was perhaps closer to the secret

establishment Establishment may refer to: * The Establishment, a dominant group or elite that controls a polity or an organization * The Establishment (club), a 1960s club in London, England * The Establishment (Pakistan), political terminology for the military ...

, had received millions of

Rupees Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

from the establishment account to fight against the PPP. Reportedly, it was Asghar Khan who ultimately called for military take over and hanging of Bhutto. After imposition of martial law, the retired air marshal withdrew himself from the front line of the PNA and took a back seat. In 1998,

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...

publicly announced her belief that her father was "sent to the gallows at the instance of the superpower (most believe it to be USA) for pursuing the nuclear capability, though she did not disclosed the name of the foreign power.

Alliance members

The Alliance unusually consisted of 9 parties, with complete different ideologies, backgrounds, and political goals. As of today, the parties have been separated from its original bloc, and formed different parties with different names. And, as of the 1970s, the fronts and parties that Bhutto and his colleagues were facing are listed below in their respective categories: * Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) * Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) * Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) * National Democratic Party (NDP) * Balochistan National Party (BNP) * Muslim League (Qayyum) (ML-Q) * Muslim League (Functional) (ML-F) * Democratic Party (PDP) * Tehreek e Istaqlal (TI)

References