The Dominion was dissolved on 23 March, 1956 and replaced by
the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with the last Governor-General, Iskandar
Mirza, as the first president.[61] Just two years later the military took
control of the nation.[62] Field Marshal Ayub Khan became president and
began a new system of government called Basic Democracy with a new
constitution,[63] by which an electoral college of 80,000 would select the
President. Ayub Khan almost lost the controversial 1965 presidential
elections to Fatima Jinnah.[64] During Ayub's rule, relations with the
United States and the West grew stronger. Pakistan joined two formal
military alliances — the Baghdad Pact (later known as CENTO) which included
Iran, Iraq, and Turkey to defend the Middle East and Persian Gulf against
the Soviet Union;[65] and SEATO which covered South-East Asia.[66] However,
the United States adopted a policy of denying military aid to both India and
Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 over Kashmir and the Rann of
Kutch.
Between 1947 and 1971, Pakistan consisted of two geographically separate
regions, West Pakistan and East Pakistan. During the 1960s, there was a rise
in Bengali nationalism in East Pakistan, and of allegations that economic
development and hiring for government jobs favoured West Pakistan. An
independence movement in East Pakistan began to gather ground. After a
nationwide uprising in 1969, General Ayub Khan stepped down from office,
handing power to General Yahya Khan, who promised to hold general elections
at the end of 1970. On the eve of the elections, a cyclone struck East
Pakistan killing approximately 500,000 people. Despite the tragedy and the
additional difficulty experienced by affected citizens in reaching the
voting sites, the elections were held and the results showed a clear
division between East and West Pakistan. The Awami League, led by Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, won a majority with 167 of the 169 East Pakistani seats, but
with no seats in West Pakistan, where the Pakistan Peoples Party led by
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, won 85 seats. However, Yahya Khan and Bhutto refused to
hand over power to Mujib.
Meanwhile, Mujib initiated a civil disobedience movement, which was strongly
supported by the general population of East Pakistan, including most
government workers. A round-table conference between Yahya, Bhutto, and
Mujib was convened in Dhaka, which, however, ended without a solution. Soon
thereafter, the West Pakistani Army commenced Operation Searchlight, an
organized crackdown on the East Pakistani army, police, politicians,
civilians, and students in Dhaka. Mujib and many other Awami League leaders
were arrested, while others fled to neighbouring India. On 27th March 27
1971, Major Ziaur Rahman, a Bengali war-veteran of the East Bengal Regiment
of the Pakistan Army, declared the independence of East Pakistan as the new
nation of Bangladesh on behalf of Mujib. The crackdown widened and escalated
into a guerrilla warfare between the Pakistani Army and the Mukti Bahini
(Bengali "freedom fighters").Although the killing of Bengalis was
unsupported by the people of West Pakistan, it continued for 9 months. India
supplied the Bengali rebels with arms and training, and, in addition, hosted
more than 10 million Bengali refugees who had fled the turmoil.
In March, 1971, India's Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi expressed sympathy for
the East Pakistani independence movement, opening India's borders to
refugees and providing other assistance. Following a period of covert and
overt intervention by Indian forces, open hostilities broke out between the
two countries on December 3, 1971. In East Pakistan, the Pakistani Army led
by General A. A. K. Niazi, had already been weakened and exhausted by the
Mukti Bahini's guerrilla warfare. Outflanked and overwhelmed, the Pakistani
army in the eastern theatre surrendered on December 16, 1971, with nearly
90,000 soldiers taken as prisoners of war. The figures of the Bengali
civilian death toll from the war vary greatly, depending on the sources.
Although Pakistan's official report, by its Hamood-ur-Rahman Commission,
places the figure at only 26,000, other sources put the number between 1.25
to 1.5 million. Highest figure, reported in the media, is 3 million.
The result was the emergence of the new nation of Bangladesh.Discredited by
the defeat, General Yahya Khan resigned. Bhutto was inaugurated as president
and chief martial law administrator on 20 December, 1971. |
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