View source for Pakistan History: The Challenges Of Independence (1947-1958)

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This article is an extract from <br/>
''' A Brief History Of Pakistan ''' <br/> 
'''JAMES WYNBRANDT '''<br/> 
Foreword by Fawaz A.Gerges <br/> 
Copyright © 2009 by James Wynbrandt;  <br/> 
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wynbrandt, James. <br/> 
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=The Challenges Of Independence (1947-1958)=
Pakistan had won its independence, but the chaotic, violent state 
of the new federation created little cause for celebration. Born in 
spasms of massacre and flight, Pakistan was a nation physically divided, 
its East Wing (present-day Bangladesh) and West Wing separated by 
some 1,000 miles (1,600 km). Among the issues the new nation con- 
fronted: Could it exist as two separate areas linked by little but religion? 
Was Pakistan to be secular or an Islamic state? How could it deal with 
the refugee crisis of Muslims spilling into its territory from India, and 
how to cope with the brain drain as Hindus and Sikhs fled Pakistan for 
India? 

The India Independence Act, which granted statehood to both 
Pakistan and India in 1947, left it to principalities along border areas 
to decide which of the two new nations to join. Some that had been 
designated as part of Pakistan tried to assert their own independence, 
requiring military action from Pakistan to bring them forcibly into the 
union. The battle over the future of one, Kashmir, would provoke a 
war with India within two months of Pakistan's statehood and remain 
unsettled into the following century. Pakistan would also fight a trade 
war with India, forcing it to find new sources for basic supplies that 
previously had come from its neighbor. 

In yet another blow Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founder and 
leader, died little more than a year after independence, creating battles 
over succession that also roiled the country. As the fractious divisions 
grew more visible and seemingly intractable, a senior military officer, 
General Mohammed Ayub Khan, seized power in a coup a decade after 
independence. These tumultuous events served as the milestones of the 
first years of the independent nation of Pakistan. 
[[File:Partition of India 1947.PNG |Partition of India, 1947-1949|frame|500px]]
==Pakistan's Difficult Birth==
With the passage of the Indian Independence Act by the British parlia- 
ment on July 18, 1947, Pakistan and India became sovereign states. 
The transfer took place on August 14, 1947, which is today celebrated 
as Pakistan's Independence Day. (India chose August 15 as its inde- 
pendence day, so it would not celebrate on the same day as its Muslim 
neighbors.) The Muslim dream of a homeland had been achieved. 

Pakistan was a dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations. 
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was named its first governor-general. Jinnah 
selected the port of Karachi as the nation's capital. Liaquat Ali Khan, 
Jinnah's primary aide and political ally, was appointed the first prime 
minister. 

The birth of Pakistan spelled the death of several political parties 
that had maintained power in the area by allying themselves with the 
Congress Party. These included the Unionists in Punjab and the Khudai 
Khidmatgars in the NWFP. Meanwhile, some formerly marginal groups 
gained power, such as the muhajirs, the refugees who had fled India at 
partition, in Karachi and lower Sind, and the middle classes of urban 
Punjab.

==Communal Riots==
The wrenching split from India defined Pakistan in the aftermath 
of independence. The antipathy toward its new neighbor, the hos- 
tility between the two states, was an inseparable part of Pakistan's 
identity and national psyche. Sectarian violence continued to wrack 
both new states, as communal riots erupted throughout Pakistan 
and India. Newly independent Muslims in Pakistan and Hindus in 
India, inflamed by religious and nationalist fervor, attacked members 
of minority communities. The violence prompted mass migrations 
of Muslims from India to Pakistan, while Hindus and Sikhs fled 
Pakistan for India. Massacres in Punjab alone resulted in almost half 
a million deaths in a matter of months. By the time Pakistan con- 
ducted its first census in 1951, it determined some 14 million people 
had moved across the frontier: 8 million Muslims coming to Pakistan 
from India, and 6 million Hindus leaving Pakistan for India. Most 
of these people had to abandon all their possessions in their flight. 
No reliable survey of the number of people who lost their lives in 
the violence has ever been attempted, but it has been estimated that 
about 1 million people were killed. Additionally, as many as 50,000 
Muslim and 33,000 non-Muslim women were abducted by some esti- 
mates (Menu and Bhasin 1998, 70). 

The riots and sectarian strife destroyed property and infrastructure 
and created a vast sea of refugees who had to be clothed, housed, and 
fed by the poor nation. Pakistan had no real administration, as the civil 
service had been predominantly Hindu, and anyone of rank who had 
lived in what became Pakistan resettled in India. Moreover, the British 
had turned over most of their assets to India. 
[[File: during partition.PNG | The partition of India caused great dislocation. Muslims fleeing India swarmed aboard trains bound for Pakistan, which became targets for marauding bands of Hindus. (Courtesy Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation)|frame|500px]]
==Regional Challenges==
Even the pieces of the nation remained to be assembled in the after- 
math of independence. The day after partition, the khan of Kalat, 
Ahmad Yar Khan, declared Baluchistan an independent state. In 
October the khan traveled to Karachi to discuss Baluchistan's future 
and the transferability of its treaties with the British should the 
Baluchis choose to align themselves with Pakistan. The two houses of 
the Baluchistan Assembly vetoed a merger with Pakistan. Jinnah trav- 
eled to Baluchistan in an attempt to convince legislators to approve 
unification. But after hearing demands regarding recognition of 
Baluchi customs and privileges, Jinnah turned the matter over to his 
cabinet to resolve. 

An autonomous government continued to enjoy support in the 
North- West Frontier Province (NWFP), whose leadership encouraged 
followers to ignore the edicts of Pakistan's new rulers. Afghanistan's 
government also claimed rights within Pakistan, leading to a rupture of 
diplomatic and commercial relations between the two countries. 

==State Language Movement==
The issue of the state language created a schism between East and 
West Pakistan during these first years of nationhood. Many in Bengal 
had hoped the area would gain independence as a separate state when 
the British withdrew from the subcontinent. When Lord Mountbatten 
announced the post-British division of the subcontinent on June 3, 
1947, he made Bengal a province of Pakistan, forestalling if not shat- 
tering those dreams. Eager to ensure their voices would be heard in 
the new nation, many in East Pakistan wanted Bengali, the language of 
Bengal, to be the state language of East Pakistan and to share the dis- 
tinction of the state language with Urdu, the language that dominated 
West Pakistan. West Pakistanis, who controlled the political power, 
planned to make Urdu alone the state language. In the months after 
independence the issue grew more acute. In November 1947 university 
students in Dhaka, the capital of the province of East Pakistan, staged a 
protest, demanding Bengali be made the state language. When the new 
nation's coins and stamps were issued, they were in Urdu and English 
alone. Government officials explained it was an oversight, but in 
February 1948 the Constituent Assembly, formed the previous August 
to draft a constitution, refused to approve the resolution to make 
Bengali the state language of East Pakistan. Demonstrations continued, 
and a general strike was called. 

Muhammad Ali Jinnah arrived in March of that year for a visit to East 
Pakistan. In a speech on March 21 he declared that Urdu alone would 
be the national language of Pakistan, further inflaming the public. 
==Indus Water Crisis==
In another major challenge Pakistan's water supply was disrupted by 
East Punjab in India. Pakistan was largely an agrarian society, and about 
80 percent of its agricultural production was in the Indus River basin. 
The plains of Punjab were the world's largest irrigated agricultural area, 
comprising more than 28 million acres, and the partition line cut across 
this unique irrigation network, just as it split Punjab. The extensive canal 
system in West Pakistan dating to the British era in the late 19th and early 
20th centuries was dependent on the waters of the Indus. At the time 
of partition the British awarded the area in Kashmir that contained the 
upper basin of the Indus River, which had traditionally been in Muslim 
control, to India. The source rivers of the Indus — the Ravi, Beas, Sutlei, 
Jhelum, and Chenab — also remained on the Indian side of Punjab. In 
the aftermath of partition, negotiators representing the two nations were 
unable to agree on how the water from the Indus would be shared, and 
in a unilateral action, on April 1, 1948, the East Punjab government cut 
off the flow of water to every canal whose source it controlled. 

Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan called for an immediate restora- 
tion of the water supply and proposed an interdominion conference 
to resolve the dispute. Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru (r. 
1947-64) prevailed upon the provincial government of East Punjab to 
restore the flow of water, the lifeblood of Pakistan's canals and irriga- 
tion system. An arbitration panel was appointed, but no agreement was 
reached by the time the panel's mandate ended in March 1948. In May 
representatives of the two nations met in New Delhi to take up the issue 
and at the conclusion of the talks signed the Inter-Dominion (Delhi) 
Agreement, which did little more than affirm that each country claimed 
rights to the waters of the rivers in East Punjab. 

Progress on the water dispute came to a standstill as tensions over 
Kashmir, and the two states' general animosity, overtook negotiations. 
Pakistan proposed submitting the water dispute to the International 
Court of Justice, but India refused. Even the Delhi Agreement yielded 
conflicting interpretations from each party. As positions hardened, the 
possibility of the dispute escalating into a major confrontation grew. 
India continued to block access to the water until Pakistan signed, 
under duress, an agreement on the division of the water. The issue 
would again be taken up in 1952, when India agreed to allow the World 
Bank to negotiate a new treaty. The final agreement, the Indus Waters 
Treaty — a landmark treaty in water-dispute resolution — would not be 
signed until 1960. In subsequent years Pakistan frequently cited the 
Indus water dispute as evidence of the necessity of third-party involve- 
ment in resolving differences between the two nations. 
==The Princely States==
The future of the Princely States, historically independent kingdoms, 
had yet to be determined. Some 560 of these semiautonomous prin- 
cipalities existed at the time of independence, some in Pakistan and 
some in India. Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy, had stipulated that 
the states would decide for themselves which nation they would join. 
But at the time of independence, four had yet to make their choice: 
Junagadh and Jodhpur in northwest India, Hyderabad in the southeast, 
and Kashmir in the north. The first three had Hindu majorities and 
Muslim rulers; Kashmir's population and rule were the opposite. 

Junagadh was 80 percent Hindu, but in September 1947 its Muslim 
ruler, Muhammad Mahabat Khanji III (r. 191 1-48) chose to join Pakistan. 
Neighboring Indian states reacted violently, and India sent troops to force 
him to reverse his decision. Khanji fled to Pakistan, and Junagadh joined 
India. In Jodhpur, the Muslim maharaja, Hanwant Singh (r. 1947-52), 
new to the throne, bent to Mountbatten's pressure to join India. 

Hyderabad, the largest and richest state in India, had a similar 
demographic profile, some 85 percent Hindu, led by the Muslim nizam 
Osman Ali Khan Bahadur Fateh Jung (r. 1911-48), who was reluctant 
to choose one nation over the other. Mountbatten again interceded, 
forcing the nizam's approval of accession to India. However, remnants 
of Hyderabad's independence were to be observed under a standstill 
agreement between the two states. Hindus who favored total absorp- 
tion by India rioted against the agreement. India deployed troops to 
the region in Operation Polo, citing the need to restore order. Again, 
the display of military power forced capitulation, and Hyderabad com- 
pleted its union with India. 
==The Kashmir Crisis==
Kashmir was the last and most contested of the holdout Princely 
States. Here a Hindu, Maharaja Hari Singh (r. 1925-51), ruled over 
a Muslim majority of some 78 percent. The maharaja favored main- 
taining independence, but Mountbatten urged him to join one of the 
new states by mid- August of 1947. Two Muslim parties, the Muslim 
Conference and the National Conference, dominated the debate. The 
Muslim Conference favored union with Pakistan, while the National 
Conference took a more secular approach to statehood, willing to 
accede to India in exchange for de facto autonomy. 

In the interim the maharaja sought standstill agreements with both 
Pakistan and India, seeking pledges of nonintervention. Pakistan agreed, 
but India refused. Local Muslims began agitating for accession to Pakistan. 
They staged a large demonstration in August. Hindu troops opened fire 
on the crowd, killing several hundred. The action caused a revolt in the 
region of Poonch, which declared itself Azad Kashmir, or Free Kashmir. 
The revolt sparked a Muslim guerrilla war against the maharaja, and 
Pakistan suspended supply shipments to the principality. On October 23, 
1947, some 5,000 Pashtun tribesmen — Afridi, Waziri, and Mahsud from 
the NWFP — crossed the border into Kashmir, carried by Pakistan army 
vehicles. The irregulars reached as far as the outskirts of the Srinagar 
Valley. This area was the heartland of Kashmiriyat, the meaning and values 
of Kashmiri Muslim identity founded on traditions of Sufism and charac- 
terized by tolerance for their high-caste Hindu neighbors. The maharaja 
fled to his winter palace in Jammu, and the Kashmiri prime minister asked 
India to send troops to stop the attack. Nehru agreed under the condition 
that the maharaja accede to having Kashmir join India. By some accounts 
Mountbatten had an understanding with Nehru that a referendum on the 
region's future would be held later. On October 26 the maharaja chose to 
join India, and the following day India began airlifting troops to Srinagar, 
where they engaged the Pashtun tribesmen in battle. 

The attack and occupation by Indian troops outraged Pakistan, which 
termed the accession coerced. Pakistan asked the United Nations (UN) 
Security Council to broker a cease-fire, so that a referendum or plebiscite 
could be held among Kashmiris, the results of which would determine 
which state they would join. With a large Muslim majority, a decision in 
favor of joining Pakistan was widely expected in any such referendum. 
Meanwhile, a large assault by Indian troops drove the Pashtun fighters 
back to the Pakistani border. In response Pakistan sent its own troops 
into Kashmir in May 1948, commencing a war with India. 

==UN Action== 
In August 1948 the UN Security Council called for an immediate cease- 
fire under four guiding principles: withdrawal of Pakistani troops, 
withdrawal of armed tribal groups, installation of an interim civilian 
government under UN control, and withdrawal of most Indian forces 
after the departure of Pakistani and tribal forces. Additionally, after the 
terms of the agreement had been met, a referendum would be con- 
ducted under UN supervision. Pakistan and India agreed to the terms. 
However, the resolution was not implemented until January 1, 1949. 
In March U.S. admiral Chester Nimitz (1885-1966) was appointed to 
oversee the referendum. 

The cease-fire line was established in July 1949. The line is basically 
oriented east-west and then south. Jammu and Kashmir, which encom- 
passes the Srinagar Valley, lies south of the border and is a member state 
of the Indian Union. Pakistan calls this Kashmiri Muslim heartland 
India-Occupied Kashmir. Hindus also cherish this region, for it is said 
to have been the scene of the development of important Hindu tradi- 
tions. North of the cease-fire line lie the former tribal lands of Gilgit 
and Baltistan, now the Northern Areas, which are directly governed by 
the Pakistan government. West of the line, Azad Kashmir, the former 
Poonch, is a semiautonomous state under Pakistani control. India 
refers to these areas as Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. 

The referendum on Kashmir's future was never held. The UN 
administrator who tried to engineer the vote concluded that the sole 
option to settle the dispute was to split Kashmir, while putting off 
decisions on the future of the hotly contested Srinagar Valley area. 
Thus began a volatile stalemate that would last into the 21st century 
and become the most contentious issue and flashpoint between the 
two nations. 
==A Change of Leadership==
Jinnah had seen himself as uniquely capable of achieving independence 
for Pakistan. He also believed he was the only individual capable of 
overcoming Pakistan's fractious political landscape and surmounting 
the problems plaguing the new nation. Many political observers at the 
time and since then have agreed. As Pakistan's governor-general, Jinnah 
wielded much more power than authorized under the Government 
of India Act of 1935 or the India Independence Act of 1947. After 

Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan 
chaired the first cabinet meet- 
ing, the cabinet asked the Quaid, 
or leader, as Jinnah was com- 
monly called, to take charge of 
the gatherings. Jinnah's role was 
so central that on December 30, 
1947, the cabinet accepted the 
Adoption of Convention, which 
decreed that no policy or major 
decision should be made unless 
Jinnah chaired the meeting. But 
Jinnah's health had been dete- 
riorating for several years, beset 
by tuberculosis and cancer. He 
tried to conceal his condition, 
fearing that any perceived weakness would encourage potential 
opponents to block his efforts. 
Despite the warnings of doctors, 
he maintained a rigorous Schedule, and the appearance of vitality. When he died on September 11, 1948, 
Pakistan plunged into shock and grief. 

Liaquat Ali Khan, Jinnah's prime minister, emerged as the nation's 
leader. Yet he could not replace Jinnah's power and stature. Liaquat Ali 
Khan had to forge coalitions and win the support of various factions. 
Three of the most important were his base supporters in the commu- 
nity of Karachi, the Muslim League constituency in Punjab, and the 
Muslim League constituency in East Pakistan. To win the support of the 
Punjabis and Bengalis, he delegated leadership roles to Muslim League 
figures such as Malik Ghulam Mohammad (1895-1956), from Bengal, 
who became finance minister; and Chaudhri Mohammad Ali (1905- 
80), from Punjab, who became the highest-ranking member of the Civil 
Service of Pakistan. He also offered the position of governor-general to 
Khawaja Nazimuddin (1894-1964), a powerful Muslim League leader 
and chief minister of the province of East Bengal. 
==The Civil Service of Pakistan==
Though the government seemed paralyzed, the business of state carried 
on through the Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP). The institution had its 
genesis in the prepartition Indian Civil Service (ICS). This had been the 
primary institution through which locals could attain advancement and 
position in the British-controlled society of the Raj; it attracted some 
of India's best and brightest sons. At the time of partition, of the 1,157 
senior members of the ICS and the police service, only 101 were Muslims. 
Of the latter, 83 opted to relocate to Pakistan, as did some 7,000 lower- 
level civil servants. But getting to Pakistan was difficult and dangerous, 
as the trains were unsafe, with marauding bands of Hindus hunting for 
Muslims. In a mission called "Operation Pakistan," Pakistan chartered 26 
British airliners to fly the civil servants from Delhi to Karachi. 

The civil servants arrived in a nation that had no administration 
to speak of. Managers who could staff senior posts were desperately 
needed, but none of the refugees held a senior rank equivalent to sec- 
retary. The CSP, struggling to meet the need for technocrats, gave rapid 
promotions and paid some British administrators to remain on payroll. 
The CSP was sometimes called the "steel frame," as it acted as the 
backbone of the nation. But early on its potential to achieve political 
power was also recognized. Jinnah instructed CSP members to stay out 
of politics. But after Jinnah's death, no one had sufficient clout to keep 
the CSP on the political sidelines, and the institution came to have a 
large part in forging the nation's policies. 

In 1973 various services were combined into one administrative 
system, and the CSP was disbanded. Former CSP members, however, 
retained critical positions in the country's administrative apparatus 
even as subsequent governments came and went. 
==Economic Challenges==
The new nation had little industry or industrial development plans. 
A total of 14,677 factories were registered in the subcontinent at the 
time of partition, but only 1,414 were in Pakistan. Of 394 textile mills, 
14 were in Pakistan. There were 106 mills to process jute, a major 
crop; none of the mills were in Pakistan. And what little economic 
power existed — banks and insurance companies — were mostly Hindu 
owned. Pakistan also had little cash on hand. Cash assets belonging to 
the subcontinent were to be divided, but the division of assets favored 
India. Moreover, India had control over the disbursements and delayed 
remitting Pakistan's share, concerned that the money would be used to 
finance the conflict in Kashmir. For the same reason India also held up 
transferring military equipment that was due Pakistan. British general 
Claude Auchinleck (1884-1981), in charge of the transition to parti- 
tion, was supposed to apportion military equipment between the two 
states, but, accused of being partial to Pakistan, he was recalled to 
England before Pakistan received its share of the hardware. 
==Liaquat- Nehru Pact==
The ongoing violence between Muslims and Hindus continued to strain 
relations between Pakistan and India. In April 1950 Liaquat Ali Kahn 
and Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru met in Delhi to seek a 
solution to the sectarian strife. Both agreed their respective countries 
would protect the rights of their minority citizens and guarantee their 
equality, including the freedom of speech and worship. They also 
agreed that both nations would establish minority commissions to 
enforce these rights and punish those who tried to abrogate them. The 
agreement became known as the Liaquat-Nehru Pact. It was one of the 
first high-level demonstrations of the leaders' awareness that the ongo- 
ing animosity between the two states and their citizens had to be reined 
in for the benefit of both nations. 
==Foreign Affairs==
Since independence Pakistan's foreign policy has been based on a per- 
ceived need to defend itself against its larger, richer, and better militarily 
equipped neighbor and rival, India. This has required large budgetary 
expenditures for defense, impinging on the nation's ability to make 
progress in other key domestic areas, such as health and education. 

During his brief tenure Jinnah had no real opportunity to put his 
stamp on foreign affairs. As prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan pursued 
a policy of nonalignment. He tried to keep the nation neutral in the 
cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States. Soviet leader 
Joseph Stalin (r. 1922-53) invited Liaquat Ali Khan to Moscow in 1949, 
but he declined. In 1950, however, Liaquat Ali Khan called on U.S. 
president Harry S. Truman (r. 1945-53) in Washington, D.C., where 
he portrayed Pakistan as a democracy pursuing an independent foreign 
policy. Rather than recognize the nation as such, both the Soviet Union 
and the United States ignored Pakistan. Its neutral status proved costly 
at a time when Pakistan was desperate for assistance and allies. During 
his visit to the United States, Liaquat also sought Truman's assistance in 
resolving the Kashmir dispute, without success. 
==Objectives Resolution==
Another important task facing the new state was the creation of a legal 
framework for its governance. The new nation had no constitution 
of its own. Under the terms of Britain's Indian Independence Act, the 
Government of India Act of 1935 became the working constitution of 
both new nations. However, Pakistan's leaders were anxious to draft 
their own constitution. 

Liaquat Ali Khan drafted the Objectives Resolution, which laid the 
groundwork for adopting a constitution. Also known as the Magna Carta 
of Pakistan's constitutional history, the resolution was adopted by the 
legislative assembly on March 12, 1949. It asserted that Pakistan's consti- 
tution would be based on democratic representation and Islamic ideals: 

Wherein the State shall exercise its powers and authority through 
the chosen representatives of the people; wherein the principles 
of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as 
enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed; wherein the Muslims 
shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective 
spheres in accordance with the teachings and requirements of 
Islam as set out in the Holy Qur'an and Sunna; wherein adequate 
provision shall be made for the minorities freely to progress and 
practice their religions and develop their cultures. 

The Constituent Assembly, established to create and ratify a con- 
stitution and pass legislation until a constitution's adoption, formed 
committees to draft the document, led by the Basic Principles 
Committee. But Liaquat was unable to create a sufficient base of sup- 
port to achieve a consensus on a plan for the constitution, and discus- 
sions and negotiations progressed slowly. 

The Basic Principles Committee laid out the preliminary plan in 
1950. It included provisions for equal representation in the upper 
house of the Central Legislature for East and West Pakistan, and that 
declared Urdu the national language. The plan met immediate opposi- 
tion from representatives of East Pakistan, who objected to the equal 
division of power. East Pakistan contained the majority of the nation's 
population but was given only half of the seats in the upper house of 
the Central Legislature. Disagreements over the Islamic nature of the 
republic created more dissension. Public comment was invited to assist 
in reformulating the plan for the constitution. 
==The Military==
Monitoring the civil discontent, high-ranking members of the mili- 
tary were also growing restive. Major General Akbar Khan (b. 1912), 
a veteran of the war in Kashmir, was among them. He was angered 
by Liaquat's failed efforts to resolve the conflict over Kashmir and 
believed Pakistan could remove Indian troops from disputed territory 
by military means. On February 23, 1951, he met with several other 
senior Pakistani army officers at his home in Rawalpindi. Many senior 
officers had experienced rapid advances in the wake of Pakistan's 
independence as the army expanded and top ranks were filled. Now 
that the military had been established and staffed, the lack of further 
advancement made some officers dissatisfied with civilian rule. The 
inability of the government to create a constitution and stable gov- 
ernment institutions — which India had already accomplished — was 
another source of military discontent. At the meeting at his home 
Akbar Khan and his guests planned a takeover of the government with 
subsequent rule by a military council of senior generals. The meet- 
ing and its aims, which became known as the Rawalpindi Conspiracy, 
were discovered by the government later that year. Several promi- 
nent civilians with ties to leftist causes were also involved, including 
poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911-84) and Sajjad Zaheer (1904-73), a 
Communist Party member. The conspirators were tried by a special 
military tribunal, convicted, and jailed. Most of them were released 
in 1955. 
==Growing Unrest==
The domestic political situation, never very stable or marked by integ- 
rity was deteriorating rapidly Punjab and Bengal were both beginning 
to chafe under Muslim League rule. And the Muslim League itself was 
rent by dissent. The political leaders Liaquat had relied on to forge 
stability were becoming primary destabilizing elements. The military 
was no longer trustworthy. Liaquat decided he would try to bypass the 
political bosses and seek support directly from the public. He set off on 
a series of public rallies around the nation. At a large public meeting 
in Rawalpindi on October 16, 1951, he was shot at close range by an 
unemployed youth from the NWFP and died instantly. Liaquat's assassi- 
nation did not plunge the nation into turmoil. It had already descended 
into chaos and political instability bordering on anarchy. 

After Liaquat's assassination, Governor-General Khawaja Nazimuddin 
was named prime minister (r. 1951-53), as no other person was deemed 
suitable for the post. Finance Minister Malik Ghulam Muhammad was 
elevated to the post of governor-general (r. 1951-55). Born in Dhaka, in 
Bengal, in 1894, Malik Ghulam Muhammad attended Aligarh Muslim 
and Cambridge Universities. In 1929 he became provincial education 
minister in Bengal, where he championed educational reforms for rural 
people. In 1937 he was appointed as the home minister, and he became 
chief minister of Bengal in 1943. In 1947 he was elected leader of the 
Muslim League Party of East Bengal. 

Work on the constitution continued. Nazimuddin was not a strong 
leader and was unable to gain control as political power struggles 
among subordinates increased. At the time of independence the eco- 
nomic and social disparity between the East Wing and West Wing 
of Pakistan was immense. The unity Islam brought to the two wings 
barely overcame the physical and economic distance between them. 
The majority — 55 percent — of the new nation's population lived in 
East Pakistan. So its citizens believed the nation's capital should be in 
the east. Additionally, the sale of jute, grown in East Pakistan, was a 
major source of foreign earnings, yet the profits were spent on projects 
that did little to benefit the east. Bengali nationalism began to rise. The 
Awami League, formed in 1949, answered nationalist political yearn- 
ings in Bengal. One of its founders and later its leader, Sheikh Mujibur 
Rahman (1920-75), championed more autonomy for the provinces, 
especially for East Pakistan. 

The issue of the state language burst forth again in 1952, when 
thousands of low-echelon government employees in East Pakistan 
staged a demonstration demanding Bengali be named their official 
language. In January Nazimuddin came to Dhaka and, despite his ties 
to Bengal, reiterated that the national language of Pakistan would be 
Urdu. He argued that Urdu was the only language that could facilitate 
communication among the provinces, as most people in both West 
and East Pakistan had some knowledge of Urdu, while Bengali was 
spoken primarily in East Pakistan. He emphasized that Bengali should 
be used in the administrative and educational systems of East Pakistan. 
His statement further inflamed the public. On February 21 students 
staged an illegal protest that was broken up by police, who used tear 
gas and fired into the crowds. Some students were killed. As a result of 
these events public support for the Bengali independence movement 
increased dramatically. 

The report finally prepared for and endorsed by the Basic Principles 
Committee called for a bicameral legislature. It proposed the nation be 
led by a Muslim serving a five-year term and chosen by a joint session 
of the Central Legislature. The leader would select the prime minister. 
A board of ulama, religious leaders, would vet all proposed laws to 
ensure they were compatible with the tenets of Islam. However, this 
revised report, presented to the national assembly in December 1952, 
and its adoption as the Objectives Resolution did not close the growing 
rift between East and West Pakistan that the first report provoked. A 
stalemate ensued as politicians representing each wing held up progress 
on writing and adopting a constitution. 
==The Government Is Dissolved==
Ghulam Muhammad, who had made adoption of a constitution a prior- 
ity, was frustrated by the lack of progress. The national assembly, show- 
ing its own pique, passed a bill reining in the governor-general's powers. 
Meanwhile, religious turmoil was spreading, stoked by Islamic theolo- 
gians opposed to a sect they believed to be heretical, the Ahmadiyya. 
The Ahmadiyya sect was founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad 
(1835-1908), who claimed to have received revelations from God and 
proclaimed himself a prophet. This ran counter to Islam, which held 
that Muhammad, who brought forth the Qur'an, was the last of God's 
prophets. Nonetheless, the sect had survived, and its adherents gener- 
ally supported independence for Pakistan; many became muhajirs after 
partition, moving their headquarters from the Indian province of Punjab 
to a small town southwest of Lahore the Ahmadiyya founded, Rabwa. 
The Ahmadiyya believed that jihad was not a struggle against infidels 
but a battle to spread the word of God, a belief that made them fervent 
proselytizers. Many thousands in Pakistan, as well as in Africa, East 
Asia, and North America, joined the sect. Mainstream Muslim leaders 
felt threatened by the Ahmadiyya's growing power and organization. 
In 1953 a group of ulama founded the Khatam-e-Nabuwat (Seal of the 
Prophets) movement in opposition. 

The group organized public dem- 
onstrations demanding that the government declare the Ahmadiyya to 
be non-Islamic. The riots spread, and the violence is believed to have 
claimed some 2,000 lives. 

Responding to the violence and the assembly's efforts to curb his 
power, Ghulam Muhammad declared a state of emergency and dis- 
solved the Constituent Assembly in October 1953. He thus became the 
first of several presidents who would remove democratically elected 
governments over the next half century. The Supreme Court upheld his 
action, determining the governor-general had the authority to dismiss 
the assembly and veto any legislation it passed. Ghulam Muhammad 
invited Muhammad Ali Bogra to resume the office of prime minister 
and to form a new cabinet dubbed "Ministry of Talents." 
==The Bogra Administration==
Muhammad Ali Bogra (r. 1953-55) was Pakistan's ambassador to 
the United States at the time he was installed as prime minister. An 
aristocrat from East Bengal, he had been Nazimuddin's parliamentary 
secretary, and finance and health minister prior to independence. 
Muhammad Ali Bogra pronounced formal adoption of the now-writ- 
ten constitution a priority but promulgated an alternate plan called the 
Bogra Formula. It attempted to redress the imbalance of power between 
East and West Pakistan by setting aside an equal number of seats in the 
two houses of Parliament for each wing and stipulating that either the 
head of state or the head of government had to be from East Pakistan. 
It also provisioned that the Supreme Court, rather than the ulama, 
had the authority to decide if proposed laws were compatible with the 
tenets of Islam. The report was presented to the Constituent Assembly 
in October 1953, and a committee was appointed to draft the constitu- 
tion under the Constituent Assembly's auspices. 

In 1954 Muhammad Ali Bogra named the commander in chief of the 
army, General Muhammad Ayub Khan (1907-74), minister of defense, 
marking the first time the military was directly involved in the country's 
political process. Muhammad Ali Bogra also tried to settle the Kashmir 
dispute with India and met Jawaharlal Nehru in London in June 1953 
in an attempt to reach a settlement. Although the two established cor- 
dial relations, Nehru refused to discuss the Kashmir dispute. That same 
year India forcefully suppressed a Muslim uprising in Kashmir, height- 
ening tensions between the two countries. In August Muhammad Ali 
Bogra went to New Delhi to meet again with Nehru, this time wresting 
an agreement from him to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir. A series of com- 
muniques between the two sides over the next several months further 
refined plans for the vote. 
==Alliances with the West==
Three days after Muhammad Ali Bogra's nomination as prime minister, 
U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower (r. 1953-61) ordered thousands of 
tons of wheat shipped to Pakistan. That same year Ghulam Muhammad 
visited Eisenhower and came away from the meeting with a commit- 
ment from the United States to consider providing military assistance 
to Pakistan. 

At the time Eisenhower was seeking cold war allies along what was 
called Asia's Northern Tier, which included Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan. 
In 1953 the United States offered economic and military assistance in 
return for Pakistan's agreement to join an alliance designed to check 
the spread of communism. In 1954 Pakistan signed the Mutual Defense 
Assistance Agreement and became a member of the Southeast Asia 
Treaty Organization (SEATO). Pakistan saw an alliance as a form of 
protection against India, though the agreement provided no guarantee 
that the United States would assist Pakistan in the event of aggression 
from India. But it obligated Pakistan to join in mutual defense against 
communist aggression. This was the price for the military and eco- 
nomic assistance from the United States, which Pakistan saw as vital to 
whatever military force Pakistan could muster to counter India's might. 
From 1954 to 1965 Pakistan received more than $1.3 billion in U.S. 
military assistance (Noor, n.p.). Defense minister Ayub Khan played a 
key role in negotiating Pakistan's entry into its military alliances. 

India reacted strongly and negatively to the pact. Nehru reneged on 
his promise to support a plebiscite in Kashmir. The Soviet Union threw 
its support behind India's renouncement of a referendum. 

Continuing its quest for international allies, in 1955 Pakistan joined 
Iraq, Turkey, and Iran in the Baghdad Pact. The administration saw 
the alliance as a way to strengthen relationships with other Muslim 
countries to foster more stability in the region. But the pact was bit- 
terly opposed by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (r. 1956-70), 
the leading political figure in the Arab world and a vocal pan-Arabist. 
Nasser's condemnation of Pakistan's participation in the Baghdad Pact 
earned it the rebuke of the Arab world. The Baghdad Pact was renamed 
the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) after Iraq withdrew in 1959. 
Pakistan leased military installations to the United States as well, 
posts used for gathering intelligence and communications. The United 
States's U-2 reconnaissance aircraft that was shot down over the Soviet 
Union in 1960, creating a cold war crisis, took off from a base near 
Peshawar in Pakistan. 
==Stabilizing the Economy==
Fitful steps were taken to stabilize and expand the economy during 
Pakistan's first decade. In July 1953 an economic planning board was 
given responsibility for identifying the human and material resources 
available to the country for a five-year period starting on April 1, 1954. 
But the repeated shake-ups of the government — five administrations 
between 1953 to 1958 — left the government without ongoing economic 
expertise or stewardship. The board was unable to complete a draft of 
its five-year development plan until May 1956. It called for a 15 per- 
cent increase in national income over the period 1955-60, which, after 
allowing for population growth, amounted to a slim 7 percent increase 
in per capita income. The plan advocated a more equitable distribution 
of land in agricultural areas and called for opening more administra- 
tive jobs currently available only to Civil Service of Pakistan personnel 
to other technical-service professionals. At the time, however, political 
power was shifting to an alliance of landowners and the CSP, dooming 
chances for such reforms. Recommendations were debated for another 
two years. Finally, in May 1958 the plan was approved. 

In August 1955 Ghulam Muhammad, beset by deteriorating health, 
resigned as governor-general. Major General Syed Iskander Ali Mirza, 
minister of the interior, succeeded him as governor-general (r. 1955- 
56). A civil servant, Iskander Mirza felt Pakistanis were not ready for 
true democracy because of lack of education and democratic traditions. 
He favored a partial democracy, with the majority of power vested in 
civil servants. That same month Iskander Mirza dissolved the national 
assembly and dismissed Muhammad Ali Bogra and his government. 
Called on to rule on the legality of the removal, the supreme court 
showed the compliance to those in power it would repeatedly display 
in acquiescence to military takeovers. "That which is otherwise unlaw- 
ful, necessity makes lawful," the justices proclaimed (Raza, 1997, 8). 
Muhammad Ali Bogra returned to his position as the nation's ambas- 
sador to the United States, replaced as prime minister by Chaudhry 
Muhammad Ali (r. 1955-56). 
==Chaudhry Muhammad Ali and the First Constitution==
Like prime ministers before him, Chaudhry Muhammad Ali placed a 
priority on creating a constitution. To resolve the imbalance of power 
between the West and East Wings of Pakistan, the four provinces of 
West Pakistan — Baluchistan, Punjab, Sind, and the NWFP — were 
merged into one province called West Pakistan, with Lahore as the new 
provincial capital. At the same time East Bengal became the province of 
East Pakistan, with Dhaka as its provincial capital. 

A constitution was approved by the Constituent Assembly on March 
23, 1956. The constitution of 1956, as it became known, established 
Pakistan as an Islamic republic, ending its status as a British dominion. 
It had a parliamentary form of government with a unicameral legisla- 
ture. The Constituent Assembly became the Legislative Assembly, and 
Iskander Mirza was made the nation's first president (r. 1956-58), the 
One unit solution. 

The problem of how to balance resources and political power 
between the East and West Wings was never far from center 
stage. A school of thought advocated a "One Unit" approach to West 
Pakistan's organization, uniting the four provinces of West Pakistan. 
It was thought this would help minimize the problems between 
East and West Pakistan by dealing with two wings instead of four 
provinces in the west and one in the east. Prime Minister Chaudhry 
Muhammad Ali announced this merger concept and plan in October 
1955. Iskander Mirza was an advocate of this approach. But regional 
rivalries within the West Wing complicated consensus. The popula- 
tions of Baluchistan, Sind, and the NWFP were mostly opposed to 
the One Unit solution, fearing it would dilute what little voice their 
respective provinces had. Sind and the NWFP in particular chaffed 
at Punjab's political and economic dominance. Nonetheless, the four 
provinces of West Pakistan — Baluchistan, Punjab, Sindh, and the 
NWFP — were merged in October 1955. Lahore was made the new 
provincial capital. 
office that replaced that of the governor-general. Seats in the national 
assembly were evenly divided between East and West Pakistan repre- 
sentatives. 

All citizens 21 years of age and older were given the right to 
vote. Urdu and Bengali were both recognized as state languages, while 
English was designated as Pakistan's official language for its first 25 
years. The president was given the power to suspend provisions of the 
constitution in times of emergency. 

Adoption of the constitution failed to stifle the dissension that made 
its creation so difficult. The parliamentary system created by the consti- 
tution needed disciplined political parties, and the nascent democracy 
of Pakistan had no such institutions. The sole political party that could 
serve as a model, the Muslim League, was losing its focus and power, 
and its decline fragmented the political landscape. 

The Muslim League, the only major political party in Pakistan at the 
time of independence, had been largely identified with its goal of an 
independent homeland for Muslims on the subcontinent, as well as by 
its two major figures, Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan. With independence 
achieved, the two leaders dead, and its surviving leaders split by regional 
rivalries, the party lost its broad-based support. It slowly came to be 
dominated by Punjabi landowners and bureaucrats. The party had been 
further split by the impasse over the constitutional debate. Regional 
disagreements over representation and the Islamic values the country 
would adopt as its spiritual foundation were stronger than party loyal- 
ties. Muslim League politicians in East Pakistan, with a larger Hindu 
population, sought to establish a more secular state, which they saw as 
key to retaining broad support and power. But the Muslim League was 
adamant in making Pakistan's Islamic identity a core issue. 
==Political Repercussions==
Chaudhry Muhammad Ali was unable to unite the spectrum of lead- 
ership to support the new constitution. Furthermore, he appointed 
a former Congress Party member who had opposed the creation of 
Pakistan, Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan (1882-1958), known by the honor- 
ific Dr. Khan Sahib, as chief minister of the newly unified province of 
West Pakistan. Jabbar Khan purged Muslim League politicians from his 
cabinet and formed a new party, the Republican Party. Muslim League 
members in the national assembly urged Chaudhry Muhammad Ali to 
rein in Jabbar Khan's actions in West Pakistan, but he refused, believing 
Jabbar Khan was acting in the best interests of the country rather than 
of an individual party. 

In 1954 two former members of the Muslim League from East 
Pakistan, Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy (1892-1963) and A. K. Fazlul 
Haq (1873-1962), joined a coalition of opposition parties called the 
United Front with the aim of defeating the Muslim League in upcom- 
ing elections. Suhrawardy was the leader of the Awami League, which 
he had cofounded in 1949, and Fazlul Haq had established the Krishak 
Sramik (Workers and Peasants) Party 

Both men had held important positions in their abandoned party 
Fazlul Haq had made the motion to adopt the historic Pakistan 
Resolution in 1940, and Suhrawardy had seconded it. But the West 
Wing's control over the Muslim League drove both away from the party. 
Suhrawardy was chosen as the leader of the opposition in the second 
Constituent Assembly. 

Bereft of support, Chaudhry Muhammad Ali resigned as prime 
minister and as a member of the Muslim League. He was replaced by 
Suhrawardy (r. 1956-57), who became the first non-Muslim League 
politician to hold the office. By now the Muslim League had even lost 
its majority in the West Pakistan Legislative Assembly to the Punjab- 
centered Republican Party. Suhrawardy formed a coalition cabinet at 
the center that included the Awami League and the Republican Party. 
Though Suhrawardy enjoyed wide popularity in East Pakistan, he had 
no political base in the west, and his strong endorsement of the One 
Unit Plan cost him the support of all its provinces save Punjab. 

Among his first challenges was the growing antipathy among the 
Muslim League and religious parties in West Pakistan to the joint 
electorate provisions he championed and the national assembly passed 
in October 1956. These provisions accorded greater voting power 
and rights to the nation's minorities. Opposition to the One Unit Plan 
was becoming better organized. And the ongoing economic inequal- 
ity between East and West Pakistan was another source of friction. 
Suhrawardy tried to balance the fortunes of the two wings, but was met 
by opposition from business interests in West Pakistan, who saw their 
power being diluted. President Iskander Mirza asked for Suhrawardy's 
resignation; Suhrawardy agreed to give up his role in October 1957. 
Iskander Mirza selected Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar to serve as interim 
prime minister (r. Oct.-Dec. 1957). Chundrigar presided over a coali- 
tion government that included the Muslim League, the Republican 
Party, the Nizam-i-Islam Party, and the Krishak Sramik Party. 

Though the Muslim League and the Republican Party typically worked in oppo- 
sition, the Muslim League consented to taking part in the coalition 
under the condition that the Republican Party support its efforts to have 
separate electorates. But after Chundrigar formed his cabinet, in the fall 
of 1957, the Republican Party began opposing the legislative amend- 
ments required to overturn the joint electorate provisions. Unable to 
make headway from atop this crumbling coalition, Chundrigar left 
the prime minister post. In December 1957 he was replaced by Malik 
Feroz Khan Noon (r. 1957-58), a leader of the Republican Party in the 
national assembly. His ruling coalition included the Awami League, 
the National Awami Party, the National Congress, the Scheduled Caste 
Confederation, and the Krishak Sramik Party. Despite the large number 
of parties in his coalition government, Feroz Khan Noon was able to 
form a stable government and political chaos began to subside. 
==Military Rule==
Iskander Mirza, who had exploited the divisions in Chundrigar's coali- 
tion to retain the upper hand in leadership, felt threatened by Khan 
Noon's stronger and more stable ruling alliance. Religious and ethnic 
tensions also persisted. In West Pakistan chief minister Khan Abdul 
Jabbar Khan was assassinated. In the NWFP his brother, Khan Abdul 
Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988), declared his intent to work for indepen- 
dence for the Pashtuns. And in Baluchistan, the khan of Kalat again 
declared his independence, requiring the intercession of the Pakistani 
army. Iskander Mirza, who already had the support of civil servants due 
to their distrust of politicians, tried to strengthen his position by forg- 
ing alliances with politicians from other parties, including Khan Abdul 
Ghaffar Khan. But he was unable to undermine the coalition created by 
Feroz Khan Noon. With his attempts to assert control through political 
means failing, Iskander Mirza turned to extralegal means. 

On October 
7, 1958, with the cooperation of the commander in chief of the armed 
forces, General (Field Marshal) Muhammad Ayub Khan, Iskander 
Mirza declared martial law. Ayub Khan assumed the position of chief 
martial law administrator. The Constitution of 1956 was abrogated, the 
central and provincial assemblies dissolved. Elections scheduled for 
January 1959 were cancelled. The Muslim League was dissolved, never 
to be revived again. 

Iskander Mirza and Ayub Khan presented themselves as dual lead- 
ers, but the real power rested with Ayub Khan due to his control over 
the armed forces. Within days Iskander Mirza realized he had little 
control over Ayub Khan or the government. Iskander Mirza sought, 
unsuccessfully, to cultivate Ayub Khan's rivals in the armed forces as a 
balance against the general's power. Attempting blunter measures, on 
October 24 Iskander Mirza removed Ayub Khan as head of martial law, 
appointing him as prime minister. On October 27, 1958, Ayub Khan 
had Iskander Mirza arrested and declared himself president. Ayub 
Khan was now the undisputed ruler of Pakistan and its military-run 
government.