PAKISTAN: If Not Democracy, What?

The journey began in the hot desert country around Hyderabad. Last week it ended, 1,500 miles distant in the cold, bleak hills near the Khyber Pass. Traveling in a sleek, air-conditioned train named Pak Jamhuriat (Pakistan Democracy), Field Marshal Mohammed Ayub Khan, 52, barnstormed the land, urging citizens to go to the polls in support of his new conception called "basic democracies."

In Cambellpur, Strongman Ayub was asked when martial law would be abolished. He snapped: "Martial law is not a good thing. It was imposed under extraordinary circumstances to save the country. If you think this is bad, go to Iran or other countries where martial law is really in force. Compared to them, Pakistan is a paradise." But he was equally tough to another questioner, who feared elections might bring the return to power of the old gang of corrupt politicians. "If you don't want democracy, what do you want?" demanded Ayub. "Do you want me to sit on your head all the time?"

Seeking Ideas. Ayub's military rule has given Pakistan's 85 million people 14 months of substantial economic and social progress. It has yet to shed blood, put down a revolt, or launch a diversionary campaign against foreign enemies. The press and radio are government controlled, and a few score of Communists were arbitrarily jailed. But burly, handsome Soldier Ayub Khan still rules through a Cabinet that is two-thirds composed of civilians, land reform is under way, and a start has at last been made in resettling the miserable refugees who fled India during the 1947 partition riots.

Ayub Khan had shopped around to get ideas for his return to "basic democracies." The U.S. Information Service obligingly loaned its volumes on democracy, and Ayub boned up on Thomas Jefferson. In a series of private talks, then U.S. Ambassador James Langley briefed Ayub on the U.S. system. Though Ayub is Sandhurst-trained and an admirer of Britain, he wants to be free of the methods inherited from the British. "So long as I am alive and at the helm of affairs," he said last week, "there will not be parliamentary democracy in this country, because it cannot work. This country cannot be a testing laboratory for political theories any more."

Ending Parties. Last March Ayub settled himself in his teak-paneled study in the huge President's House at Karachi and wrote the outline for his "basic democracies," which are intended "to begin at the beginning and, after building a strong, democratic base, to construct the structure above." What emerged was a political system based on the ancient institution of the village panchayat (council of elders). Each council, with elected as well as appointed representatives, will represent 10,000 people. Working without salaries, council members will be expected to levy local taxes, maintain roads, operate police forces, register births and deaths, and handle some 30 other jobs, from the promotion of sports to the disposal of dead animals. None of the candidates has been permitted to run under party labels; all are forbidden to criticize government policies.