Political decline

Liaquat Ali Khan fell to an assassin's bullet in October 1951. Into his place as prime minister stepped Khwaja Nazimuddin, the leading member of the family of the nawab of Dacca. He was a Bengali aristocrat and a man of extreme personal piety. Nazimuddin had followed Jinnah as governor-general under the interim constitution. He was succeeded as governor-general by Ghulam Mohammad, a Punjabi, so that the twin pillars of power represented the two main regional power bases in West Pakistan and East Pakistan.

With Nazimuddin in office, militant Muslims, led by the Ahrars, a puritanical political group, called for the purification of national life. In 1953 they demanded that the Ahmadiyah sect be outlawed from the Islamic community. Nazimuddin temporized, and rioting and arson enveloped Lahore and other Punjabi towns. The secretary of defense, Colonel Iskander Mirza, pressed the Cabinet into sanctioning martial law in Lahore, and order was restored. Ghulam Mohammad decided that Nazimuddin must go, although he had the support of the Constituent Assembly. The dismissal was effected, and Mohammad Ali Bogra became prime minister.

In March 1954 a general election was held in East Bengal (East Pakistan) to choose a new provincial legislature. The contest was between the official Muslim League and a "United Front" of parties from the extreme right (orthodox religious) to extreme left (quasi-Marxist). There was a landslide defeat for the Muslim League. At the head of the victorious opposition stood two politicians who had previously kept one foot in the Muslim League and the other in the camp of the Congress and regional politics; these were the aged Fazl ul-Haq, with his Workers and Peasants Party, and Hussein Shaheed Suhrawardy, with a new party, the Awami League. This result was a dramatic demonstration of the gulf between West and East Pakistan.

The Constituent Assembly reflected the new political mood of Pakistan by attempting to curb the powers of the governor-general, Ghulam Mohammad, who retaliated by proclaiming the dissolution of that body. His action was validated by the Supreme Court, with the rider that a new assembly must be convened. This was produced by a system of indirect election. The ministry of Mohammad Ali Bogra was completely reorganized, and three newcomers were introduced as strongmen from outside politics: these were Major General Iskander Mirza, as minister of the interior, General Mohammad Ayub Khan, commander in chief, as minister of national defense, and Chaudhri Mohammad Ali, a senior civil servant, as minister of finance. Mohammad Ali Bogra had little support in the new assembly, and he was replaced by Chaudhri Mohammad Ali.

Ghulam Mohammad, whose health had broken down, was replaced as governor-general in August 1955 by Iskander Mirza. Mirza had no regional power base and little in common with any of the politicians. He insisted that his fellow administrator Chaudhri Mohammad Ali remain prime minister, and the Chaudhri was able to succeed in one objective over which his three predecessors had failed: he induced the politicians to agree to a constitution (February 1956). To create a better balance between the West and East wings, the provinces and parts of West Pakistan were amalgamated into one administrative unit.

The constitution of 1956 embodied the Islamic provisions of the "aims and objectives" resolution of 1949 and declared Pakistan to be an Islamic republic. The national parliament was to comprise one house of 300 members, equally representing East and West. Ten seats were reserved for women. The prime minister and Cabinet were to govern according to the will of the parliament, with the president exercising only reserve powers.

Khan Sahib, a former premier of the North-West Frontier Province, was invited by the Muslim League to become the chief minister of the new "one unit" of West Pakistan. Soon after taking office, Khan Sahib was faced with a revolt against his leadership in the Muslim League, but he adroitly turned the tables by forming a new group, the Republican Party, out of dissident Muslim League assemblymen. In the National Assembly also, members adopted the Republican ticket, and Prime Minister Chaudhri Mohammad Ali found himself without a majority. He resigned in September 1956.

Iskander Mirza, then president, was compelled to accept an Awami League government headed by Suhrawardy but dependent on Republican support to retain office. For a time the combination worked, but the flimsy consensus of Pakistani politics soon began to dissolve into factionalism, regionalism, and sectarianism. Khan Sahib found his hold over the West Pakistan legislature slipping, and he asked the president to suspend the constitution. The East Pakistan legislature voted unanimously for autonomy in all matters except foreign affairs, defense, and currency. The country was to hold its first complete general election in 1958, but a dispute over the basis of the constituencies led to Suhrawardy's resignation. His successors proved ineffective, and the legislative process came to a halt.