AYUB KHAN

4 Marks Questions
Q 1. What were the Basic Democracies?
Q 2. Describe the constitution of 1962.
Q 3. What was the Democratic Action Committee?
REFORMS OF AYUB KHAN

Constitutional Reforms:
● Introduced Basic Democracies (B.Ds)
● The President & the National Assembly would be elected by B.Ds.
● The President could not be removed unless impeached.
● The President would nominate the Cabinet, Judiciary and Provincial Governors.
● Urdu & Bengali would be the National Language.
● The President and the Speaker of the National Assembly post would rotate between West
& East Pakistan.
● Sessions of the National Assembly would be held both in Dhaka and Islamabad.
● The new capital, Islamabad was established near Rawalpindi in 1960.

Industrial Reforms:
● Loans were taken from U.S.A, Germany and U.K to keep up the pace of industrialization
in the country.
● An Oil Refinery was established at Karachi in 1962.
● The Mineral Development Corporation was set up for the exploration of mineral deposits.
● The Economic Union was formed in 1964 with Turkey & Iran with the Title as Regional
Cooperation for Development (R.C.D). It was formed to improve ties in trade, commerce
and industry.
● The Export Bonus Scheme was set up to give incentives to traders to enhance exports.
● The Economic growth rate was 7%.

Agricultural Reforms:
● Land consolidation law – land must not be less than 12.5 acres for commercial farming.
The maximum ceiling of land is 500 acres for irrigated land and 1000 acres for
unirrigated land.
● Confiscated lands were distributed among small farmers – resulting in increase in field.
● Loans, for building tube wells, for farmers.
● Loans for farmers to buy agricultural machineries.
● 3 major dams were constructed.
● Cultivable area increased.
 
Social & Educational Reforms: 
● New curricula for schools.
● New schools and colleges were constructed.
● Shelters were constructed to accommodate 75000 refugees.
● Factory owners were forced to provide accommodation to their workers.
● A Family planning programme was initiated with the help of the American government.
● More Medical and Nursing schools were established.
 
 
 
 
Foreign Policies:  
● In 1960 Ayub Khan visited Washington D.C. and agreed to give Air Bases of Pakistan
to U.S.A.
● In 1960 U.S.S.R blamed Pakistan for U-2 incident which embarassed Ayub’s government
in the comity of nation.
● In 1961 Ayub signed agreement with U.S.S.R for oil exploration in Pakistan.
● U.S.S.R also gave Pakistan a loan of £11 million.
● Further he convinced U.S.S.R to be neutral over Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and
India.
● In 1962 during China India war , U.S. gave military support to India which annoyed
Pakistan and further brought Pakistan and China closer to one another.
● In 1963 Ayub got border issue resolved with China .
● In the same year China gave Pakistan an interest free loan of $60 million. Further China
became the largest purchaser of Pakistani cotton
● In 1963 China gave business to P.I.A to provide domestic flights in China.
● In 1964 Ayub convinced China to support Pakistan over Kashmir dispute against India.
● In 1965 during Indo-Pak war China offered military and diplomatic support to Pakistan
against India .
● In 1966 Pakistan participated in a peace conference hosted by U.S.S.R at Tashkent and
signed an agreement with India to return all areas captured by Pakistan army during
Indo-Pak war of 1965.
● In 1968 Ayub convinced U.S.S.R to supply arms to Pakistan.

REASONS FOR THE DOWNFALL OF AYUB KHAN

Industrial Reforms:
● East Pakistanis were annoyed as more Industries were set up in West Pakistan.
● Only 22 families owned 66% of Industries and 80% of Banks in Pakistan. Out of those 22
families, 20 were from the West Pakistan. East Pakistanis had resentment of the very fact.
 

Family Laws:
● Family planning program was initiated with help of US aid which annoyed the religious
and tribal factions all across Pakistan.
● A new law was promulgated which allowed men to marry second time only after seeking
permission from the first wife. This was opposed by the religious class.
 

Tashkent Agreement:
● Ayub signed a peace agreement with the Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri at
Tashkent in a peace conference hosted by U.S.S.R. in January 1966. Through the very
peace accord, he returned all captured areas, conquered by Pakistan in the war of 1965, to
India without seeking a solution to the Kashmir dispute.
 

Agartala Conspiracy:
● A leader of Awami League Sheikh Mujeeb-ur-Rehman was arrested for conspiring with
India against Pakistan in a secret meeting held at Agartala . This meeting was held
between the intelligence agency of India and sheikh Mujeeb-ur-Reehmana in a small
village in India on the border of East Pakistan. This made Shiekh Mujeeb to gain
immense popularity in East Pakistan. He further used his popularity to make Ayub
notorious amongst the masses.
 

Bhutto’s role
● The Foreign Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto resigned from the Cabinet due to poor political
relations with Ayub after the Tashkent agreement. He then established Pakistan People’s
Party, a political organization and campaigned against Ayub Khan which made Ayub
further unpopular amongst the people.
 

Inflation:
● Prices of general commodities were raised during Ayub’s rule. This made people protest
against the government.
 

Constitution of 1962:
● The constitution gave immense powers to the President. He had the right to choose the
senior officials and the cabinet. No law could be passed by the parliament without
President’s consent.
● There was no real role of East Pakistan’s politicians in administering their country as
there was no fair power sharing between the two wings.
 

Democratic Action Committee:

● All political parties made an alliance against Ayub’s government known as Democratic
Action Committee. They wanted Ayub to immediately resign and further demanded to
revert Pakistan to parliamentary form of democracy.
 

Elections of 1965:
● Ayub Khan was accused of rigging the results of presidential elections of 1965 in which
he got 64% votes against Fatima Jinnah.