Death in the Chair

Though the eleven-year-old republic of Pakistan has yet to hold its first general election, its politicians stage some of the fiercest parliamentary battles of the British Commonwealth. Last week in Dacca, the evenly matched government and opposition forces of East Pakistan waged the biggest brawl in the young country's brief history.

It began when Abdul Hakim, speaker of the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly, managed to destroy the government's slim parliamentary majority by disqualifying half a dozen government deputies for unlawfully holding state jobs on the side. Outraged government deputies laid down a barrage of paperweights, desk panels and curtain rods, chased him out the door, voted him "insane." Thereupon one of their men, Deputy Speaker Shahid Ali, took over his place.

When parliament met again, the new speaker readmitted the six deputies. Opposition members exploded with fury. They tore their desks from the floor ripped their microphones out of their stands, and charged. Steel microphone stands whipped at Ali's face, a desk panel struck him full on the head, and he went down in a pool of blood. After steel-helmeted cops arrived to break up the melee, sergeants-at-arms bore Mr. Speaker off to a hospital on a stretcher. He died two days later, the first presiding officer of any parliament in the history of the British Commonwealth to perish of injuries received while occupying the chair.

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