Ali Bhutto Begins to Pick Up the Pieces

ANGER over its humiliating defeat by India boiled into street demonstrations throughout Pakistan, rumors of an impending coup d'état by younger army officers against the government of President Mohammed Agha Yahya Khan swept the country. As expected, Yahya last week became the highest-ranking casualty of the war: to forestall further unrest, he hastily surrendered his powers to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, 43, the ambitious leader of West Pakistan's powerful People's Party. Bhutto, the first civilian to lead his country in 13 years, launched his presidency with a move calculated to appease the wounded feelings of his nation: he sacked the entire top echelon of the army, denounced them as "feudal lords," and pledged that he would lead Pakistan to democracy—although not. perhaps, right away.

The change of power came none too soon, for Yahya had found himself the principal target of a terrible national fury. In Peshawar, an angry mob burned him in effigy and set aflame a house they thought he owned. Outside President's House in Rawalpindi, a band of sobbing wives and sisters of captured Pakistani soldiers threw down their gold and silver bangles in a bitter symbolic gesture: Yahya had taken their men, so now he could have their jewelry, too.

Game of Drunkards. The former air force commander in chief, General Mohammed Asghar Khan, demanded a public trial for Yahya, adding, "If someone had asked how to destroy Pakistan, there could not have been a more perfect way." A veteran army officer, with tears in his eyes, told TIME Correspondent Louis Kraar: "How can men have confidence in Yahya Khan when he is such a drinker and womanizer? We are being punished by God for departing from the ways of Islam." Pakistanis who had proudly listened to the steady din of a patriotic song on the radio (War Is Not a Game That Woman Can Play) choked with anger when India's radio blared forth a bitter but pointed parody, War Is Not a Game That Drunkards Can Play.

Yahya got the message. When Bhutto returned from a trip to the United Nations, he was immediately invited to President's House. Bhutto later recounted that at the two-hour meeting, he told Yahya: "You have been committing one blunder after another. But even now, if you don't listen to me, I will go into the background and keep quiet." Yahya replied: "I want to swear you in."

Heart to Heart. Moments after he took the oath of office, Bhutto accepted the retirement offers of seven generals, including Yahya himself. (Seven more were fired later in the week, as well as six top navy officers.) He appointed a new acting army commander, Lieut. General Gul Hasan, and assured younger officers that despite the defeat, they had nothing to be ashamed of: "You are the victims of a system."

That evening Bhutto delivered a 57-minute address on the national radio network that he described as "a heart-to-heart talk" to his people. "I am speaking to you today as the authentic voice of the people of Pakistan," he declared, conveniently omitting the fact that the Awami League, the party headed by the East Pakistani political leader, Sheik Mujibur Rahman, had won more seats than Bhutto's party in the national elections last March.