Ayub Khan
Not to be confused with Ayub Khan (Afghan commander), (1857-1914).Muhammad Ayub Khan (
Urdu: محمد ايوب خان ) (May 14,
1907 – April 19,
1974) was a
Field Marshal during the mid-
1960s, and the political leader of
Pakistan from
1958 to
1969. He became Pakistan's first native Commander in Chief in 1951, and was the youngest full-rank general and self-appointed field marshal in Pakistan's military history. He was also the first Pakistani military general to seize power through a coup.
Khan was born in the village of Rehana near
Haripur Hazara to a
Hindko speaking
Pashtun family of the
Tareen tribe, the first child of the second wife of Mir Dad Khan, who was a Risaldar Major in Hodson's Horse. For his basic education, he was enrolled in a school in Sarai Saleh, which was about 4 miles from his village. He used to go to school on a mule's back. Later he was shifted to a school in Haripur, where he started living with his grandmother. 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 Indian Army and then joined the 1st Battalion of the 14 Punjab regiment (Sherdils), later known as 5 Punjab Regiment. During
World War II he served as a
captain and later as a
major on the Burma front.Following the war, he joined the fledgling
Pakistani Army as the 10th ranking senior officer (his Pakistan Army number was 10). He was promoted to Brigadier and commanded a brigade in Waziristan and then was sent initially with the local rank of Major General to
East Pakistan as General Officer Commanding a division that was responsible for the whole East Wing of Pakistan in
1948 from where he returned in November
1949 as Adjutant General and then briefly was named Deputy Commander-in-Chief.
Ayub Khan was made Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army on January 17,
1951, succeeding General Sir Douglas Gracey, thus becoming the first native Pakistani general to hold that position. He would later go on to serve in the second cabinet (1954) of
Muhammad Ali Bogra as Defence Minister, and when
Iskander Mirza declared
martial law on
October 7 1958, Khan was made its chief martial law administrator. 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 soon adopted the titles of
Hilal-e-Pakistan, and the rank of Field Marshal. He was to be Pakistan's second field marshal, if the first is regarded as Field Marshal
Sir Claude Auchinleck (1884-1981), supreme commander of military forces in India and Pakistan in the lead-up to independence in 1947 and a vocal opponent of Partition.
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.
As President, Ayub Khan allied Pakistan with the global U.S. military alliance against the
Soviet Union. This in turn led to major economic aid from the U.S. and European nations, and 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. In 1960, Khan's government signed the
Indus Waters Treaty with archrival
India to resolve disputes regarding the sharing of the waters of the six rivers in the
Punjab doab that flow between the two countries. Khan's administration also built a major network of irrigation canals, high-water dams and thermal and hydroelectric power stations.
Despite the treaty, Khan maintained icy relations with India. Khan established close political and military ties with Communist
China, exploiting its differences with Soviet Russia and its 1962 war with India. To this day, China remains a strong economic, political and military ally of Pakistan.
The turning point in Khan's rule was the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, which despite a military stalemate, resulted in higher personnel losses for Pakistan than India. The war ended in the settlement that was reached by Khan at
Tashkent Declaration. The settlement led Bhutto to resign his post and take up opposition to Khan. The war also adversely affected Pakistan's economy. Government corruption and
nepotism, in addition to an environment of repression of free speech and political freedoms increased unrest. With publications like
Zeb-un-Nissa Hamidullah's
Mirror criticising his regime vociferously, Khan began to increase censorship and his control over the nation even more. These actions only served to further agitate the Pakistani population, which fell into a disarray of protests, strikes and riots, and soon 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. Attacked both in the press and in cities and villages across both wings of the nation, Khan began to lose both power and popularity.
During Ayub Khan's rule the price of 1 kg sugar was increased by 1
rupee and the whole population took to streets As Ayub's popularity plummeted, he decided to give up rule. Ironically, this was just what
Zeb-un-Nissa Hamidullah, one of the journalists who criticised his rule greatly, said he should do. In
1969 he turned over control of Pakistan to General
Yahya Khan, whom he had previously appointed chief martial law administrator.
* An autobiography entitled
Friends Not Masters was written by Ayub Khan.
*
Politics of Pakistan*
Prime Minister of Pakistan*
Line of Succession to President of Pakistan*
Cold War*
Chronicles Of Pakistan*
Ayub Khan bio*
Video Clip of Ayub Khan in Parisuse Quick Time Player.
*
Video clip of Ayub Khan with General De Gaulle*
Video Clip in Rawalpindi
