Ayub Khan (
May 14 1907–
April 19 1974) during the mid-
1960s, was a
Field Marshal and the
political leader of
Pakistan from 1958-1969.
Khan was born in 1907 in the village of Rehana, to Mir Dad Khan. He enrolled at Aligarh University in 1922, but never completed his studies, as he was accepted into the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He did well at Sandhurst, and was given an officer's post in the British Army. During World War II he served as a captain and later as a major. Following the war, he joined the fledgling Pakistani Army as its most senior Muslim officer.
Ayub Khan was later made Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistani Army, becoming in 1951 the first non-British general to hold that position. He would later go on to serve in the cabinet of Muhammad Ali Bogra, and when Iskander Mirza declared martial law on October 7 1958, Khan was made its enforcer. This would be the first of many instances in the history of Pakistan of the military becoming directly involved in politics.
As a result of his differences with Mirza, Khan gained more and more power, and became president of Pakistan after deposing Mirza on October 27 in a bloodless coup. This was actually welcomed in Pakistan, since the nation had experienced a very unstable political climate since independence. Khan moved to have a constitution created, and this was done in 1961. The Constitution called for elections, which took place in 1962, when martial law was lifted. Khan's main opponent was Fatima Jinnah, the sister of Pakistan's founding father. Despite Jinnah's immense popularity, Khan won the majority of the vote; whether or not this was done without corruption is debatable.
Under Khan's presidency, the industrial sector of Pakistan grew very rapidly, and this in turn improved the economy, as did Khan's educational and land reforms. It was under Ayub Khan that the capital was moved from Karachi to Rawalpindi, in anticipation of the construction of a new capital: Islamabad.
The turning point in Khan's rule was the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Despite the performance of the Pakistani Armed Forces, the settlement that was reached by Khan at Tashkent was seen as a loss for Pakistan. The settlement led Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to resign his post and take up opposition to Khan. The war also adversely affected Pakistan's economy. Eventually, Khan began to increase censorship and his control over the nation. These actions only served to further agitate the Pakistani population, which fell into disarray and required the presence of the army in the cities. Bhutto used this to his political advantage, while the Awami League also made great political gains in East Pakistan. As Khan's popularity plummetted, he decided to give up rule. In 1969 he turned over control of Pakistan to General Yahya Khan.
Ayub Khan died on April 19 1974.
See also
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