History of Pakistan

The political history of Pakistan (Urdu: تاريخ سياست پاكِستان‎) is the narrative and analysis of political events, ideas, movements, and leaders of Pakistan. Pakistan gained independence from theUnited Kingdom on 14 August 1947, when British India was divided by the United Kingdom, in a region what is commonly referred to as the South Asia. Since its independence, Pakistan has had a colourful yet turbulent political history at times, often characterised by martial law and inefficient governments.

The Pakistan Movement as it came to be known was based on the principal of two-nation theory, the outcome of the desire of Muslims of India to establish a separate homeland for Muslims. This was a movement against oppression, perceived or real, that living with Hindu majority within combined India will not allow Muslims the opportunities that they rightfully deserve.

Interestingly the Pakistan Movement was staunchly opposed by the some of Mullahs who one would have thought would be inclined to support a Muslim cause, instead the movement was spearheaded by Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

After the independence, Liaquat Ali Khan became the first Prime minister and Jinnah became the first Governor-General. Pakistan consisted of two wings, West-Pakistan and East-Pakistan. The Liaqat government faced major difficulties in East and West Pakistan. The same year, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 began to take place in a Kashmir region. Both Liaquat and Jinnah were determined to stop the riots and refugee problems and to set up an effective administrative system for the country. Liaquat Ali Khan did the groundbreaking work for the Foreign Policy of Pakistan while taking initiatives towards the formulation of the constitution. He presented The Objectives Resolution, a prelude to future constitutions, in the Legislative Assembly. The house passed it on 12 March 1949. It has been described as the "Magna Carta" of Pakistan's constitutional history. Both United States and Soviet Union send invitation to Liaqat Ali Khan. However, Khan first choose to pay a goodwill visit to United States. This was perceived as a rebuff to Moscow, and has been traced to profound adverse consequences. Khan had wanted Pakistan to remain neutral in the Cold War, as declared three days after Pakistan's independence when he declared that Pakistan would take no sides in the conflict of ideologies between the nations. Khan later tried to visit Soviet Union but the dates for goodwill visit were not materialized by Soviet Union.

The same year, Jinnah declared Urdu as official language of Pakistan. It sparked protests in East Bengal (later East Pakistan), where Bengali was spoken by most of the population. Jinnah also faced problems with Pakistan Army's Commander-in-Chief General Sir Douglas Gracey refused to obey the orders of Jinnah. General Gracey argued that Jinnah as Governor-General represented the British Crown of which he himself was an appointee. Therefore, he did not send troops to Kashmir region. Jinnah also faced problems with Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Air Vice-Marshal Richard Atcherley and Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Rear Admiral James Wilfred Jefford who also refused to obey standing orders given by Jinnah.

During Khan's tenure, India and Pakistan agreed to resolve the dispute of Kashmir in a peaceful manner through the efforts of the United Nations. According to this agreement a ceasefire was effected in Kashmir on January 1, 1949. It was decided that a free and impartial plebiscite would be held under the supervision of the UN.

In 1948, Jinnah died, and a major problem of religious minorities flared during late 1949 and early 1950. Militants from Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan began to attack the minorities in West-Pakistan, which later slipped to India. Sensing another war with India, Khan met Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to sign the Liaquat-Nehru Pact in 1950. The pact was an effort to improve relations and reduce tension between India and Pakistan, and to protect the religious minorities on both sides of the borders.

In East Pakistan, the Bengali Language Movement reached its peak on 21 February 1952, when the police and soldiers opened fire on students near the Dhaka Medical College protesting for Bengali to receive equal status with Urdu. Several protesters were killed, and the movement gained further support throughout East Pakistan. Later, the Government agreed to provide equal status to Bengali as a state language of Pakistan, a right later codified in the 1956 constitution.

1965 Kashmir war[edit]

In 1962, Pakistan witnessed the Sino-Indian War, with a defeat of Indian Armed Forces. The Inter-Services Intelligence's Joint Intelligence North and Military Intelligence's Northern Areas Assessment directorate began to formulated the plan to infiltrate in Indian held-Kashmir. Assuming that a weakened Indian Military would not respond, Pakistan chose to send in "mujahideens" and Pakistan Army regulars into Indian occupied of Jammu and Kashmir. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto backed the plan, and Pakistan Army's SS Group was told to began an operation, under codenameOperation Gibraltar. However, even after the careful analysis, the airborne operation was failed, and major war broke out between India and Pakistan. Ayub Khan blamed Bhutto for starting the conflict while the Armed forces became increasingly involved in the war.

However, both Soviet-Union and United States deescalated the conflict. China provide economic and moral help and even threaten India on its conflicted border issues. Pakistan Army defeated Indian Army one after the another. India suffered a great loss in Battle of Chawinda. Pakistan starts war in defensive position but now is using offensive position. Pakistan advance stops at Amritsar. Then India call for Peace in United Nation, and Ayub Khan along with Lal Bahadur Shastri signed the Tashkent Declaration.

1970 Pakistan election[edit]

After the indecisive war of 1965 with India, Pakistani people began to accused Field Marshal Ayub Khan of betraying the cause of Kashmir. Months after the war, Munir Ahmad Khan, a nuclear engineer at IAEA's Reactor Division, met with Bhutto where he notified Bhutto with rapid development of Indian nuclear programme. Sensing the seriousness of such threat, Bhutto arranged a meeting between Munir Ahmad Khan and Ayub Khan at the The Dorchester in London. Khan urged the need of acceleration of nuclear energy programme and developed a credible nuclear deterrent capability. Ayub Khan refused for accelerating the programme, and said famously said: if we [Pakistan] ever need the [atom] bomb, we [Pakistan] will buy it off the shelf". Munir Ahmad Khan quickly notified Bhutto of what had happen. And, Bhutto began to lobbying for the nuclear weapon's option. However, due the economical reasons, Khan deferred and refused to expand the nuclear energy programme despite the proposals made by Bhutto, Salam and Munir Khan. With extensive efforts led by Abdus Salam, Khan had personally approved the KANUPP-I commercial plant, against the wishes of his own military government.

In 1966, Ayub Khan removed Bhutto as his Foreign minister, in a conspiracy planned by Jurist and then-Bhutto's secretary Mushtaq Hussain, and under pressured by the Lyndon Johnson,President of the United States that time. In 1967, Bhutto formed People's Party of Pakistan and tapped a wave of anti-Ayub Khan movement in both West and East Pakistan. Demoralized and pressured, Ayub Khan handed over the regime to his junior Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army General Yahya Khan in 1969. General Yahya designated himself as Chief Martial Law Administrator of the country and installed a military government in both East and West-Pakistan. Yahya and his military government promised to hold a general election within 2 years.

The General parliamentary elections were held on in 1970, with People's Party winning the majority in West-Pakistan and Awami League [People's League] gaining absolute majority in East-Pakistan. Yahya Khan, Chief Martial Law Administrator of Pakistan, held talks with both Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Negotiation and talks were brutally failed, and Bhutto was famously heard saying "break the legs" if any member of [People's Party] attend the National Assembly inaugural session. However, the capitalization on West-Pakistan, West-Pakistanis feared the East-Pakistani separatism, therefore, Bhutto demanded a coalition government with Mujib. In a meeting, both Mujib and Bhutto agreed upon a coalition government as Bhutto would assumed the Presidency and Mujib as Premier. The Military government and General Yahya Khan was kept unaware of such of these developments. Both Bhutto and Mujib continued a political pressure on Khan's military government. Under pressured by Bhutto, Mujib and his military government, General Khan ordered a military action in East Pakistan. The Military Police arrested Bhutto and put him on house arrest. And, Mujib was sent to military court where his case was headed by Judge Advocate General Branch's Brigadier-General Rahimuddin Khan.

General Khan ordered Vice-Admiral Mohammad Shariff, Commander of Eastern Naval Command of the Pakistan Navy and Lieutenant-General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, Commander of theEastern Military Command of Pakistan Army, an extreme armed action to curb and liberate the East-Pakistan from the resistance. Faced with popular unrest and revolt in East-Pakistan, the Army and Navy clamped down through violence. The navy and army crackdown and brutalities during the Operation Searchlight and Operation Barisal and the continued extrajudicial killings throughout the later months resulted in further resentment among the East Pakistanis of East Pakistan. With India assisting the Mukti Bahini, war broke out between the separatist supporters in Bangladesh and Pakistan (Indo-Pakistani War of 1971). During the conflict, the coordination between the armed forces of Pakistan were ineffective and unsupported. On major decision, the army, navy, marines and air force weren't taken on confidence. Each forces had led their own independent operations without notifying or taking on confidence the higher command.

The result was the Pakistan Armed Forces surrender to the Indian forces upon which 93,000 Pakistan Armed Forces officials and 93,000 soldiers and officers became POWs, the largest since World War II. The official war between India and Pakistan ended in just a fortnight on December 16, 1971, with Pakistan losing East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh. The official Bangladesh Government claim puts the number of Bengali civilian fatalities at 3 million.

During this entire disaster, the military government had refused to take any political and reconciliation initiatives despite the calls were made. The coordination between the armed forces were ineffective and unsupported. The Air Force was brutally failed to protect the naval and army assets during the conflict (See Operation Python and wrapingOperation Trident).