1947 - 1958 The Birth

and Turmoil
 The new state faced many challenges. About 8
million Muslim refugees migrated from India to
Pakistan, whose resettlement became the biggest
challenge. There were some provincial politicians
who often defied the authority of the central
government, and frequent communal riots.
Therefore emergency was declared on 27 August
1958 and provinces were asked to absorb more
refugees.
 The heavy work load and surmounting problems
were taking a heavy toll of Jinnah's already
fragile health and before he could amicably
resolved the problems threatening the newly born
state, Jinnah died on 11 September 1948, leaving
the country in a quagmire of political instability
for years to come. Khawaja Nazim ud Din filled
the vacuum.
 The Status of Independent States
 At the time of independence, there were 562 states, of which
14 shared border with Pakistan. As per Indian Independence
Act (section 7) the British hold on all such states ceased with
effect from 14 august 1947 and were allowed to join either of
the two newly independent countries. Of the 14 states, 11
decided to join Pakistan. However the State of Junagadh was
forcibly occupied by India on 8 November 1947. The people
of Baltistan, who were majority Muslims, did not want to be
under the Hindu Dogra rule and announced war of
independence and by 14 August 1948, the are was free from
Dogra rule after fierce clashes with Indian and Dogra army.
 Status of Muslim Majority Kashmir: Kashmir was a
Muslim majority state though under a Sikh ruler who had
bought the state from the British. However its fate
changed with the announcement of Radcliff Award, which
accorded areas , specially of Muslim majority Gurdaspur
to India - the only land route available to India with
Kashmir. This clearly showed the mal intentions hidden in
the Award and soon after the independence, Pakistan and
the Muslims of Kashmir raised concern over this. From
here on the struggle for Kashmir starts, and a bitter
chapter opened in the relations of India and Pakistan,
which despite three wars has not been able to be closed. A
separate page has been added on the subject to bring to
forth many technical and emotional aspects related to the
issue
 Problems in NWFP
 When the 3rd June declaration of independence was announced,
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his elder brother Dr Khan Sahib
(then Chief Minister NWFP) were not happy since they wanted
NWFP to be declared independent and named as
"Pakhtoonistan". Although Jinnah met Ghaffar Khan on 18 June
1947 to persuade him to accept the independence declaration
according to which NWFP was to be merged into the newly
formed state of Pakistan, but the latter refused. When Pakistan
came into being, Muslim League was not in majority in NWFP.
On 15 August 1947, Dr Khan and his cabinet refused to attend
the Pakistan flag hoisting ceremony. Seeing the alienation of the
Congress backed Dr Khan away from Pakistan, Jinnah dismissed
his government on 22 August and Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan, a
veteran politician of NWFP, to form the government.
 The First Cabinet: The first cabinet of Pakistan, was sworn in on 15th
August, which included: Liaquat Ali Khan (Prime Minister, also in charge of
two ministries: Foreign Affairs & Commonwealth Relations, and Defense); I.
I. Chundrigar (Commerce, Industries, and Works); Ghulam Mohammad
(Finance); Abdur Rab Nishtar (Communications); Ghazanfar Ali Khan (Food,
Agriculture, and Health); Jogendra Nath Mandal (Law and Labour); Fazlur
Rahman (Interior, Information, and Education). Quaid-e-Azam also requested
many competent British technocrats to stay: 3 out of the 4 governors were
British - Sir Frederick Bourne (Governor, East Bengal), Sir Francis Mudie
(Governor, West Punjab), and Sir George Cunningham (Governor, N.W.F.P.).
Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah (Governor, Sindh) was the only native
governor, while Balochistan did not have a governor as it was a Governor-
General's province. All chiefs of the armed forces were British too: General
Sir Frank Messervey (Royal Pakistan Army), Air Vice-Marshal Perry-Keane
(Royal Pakistan Air Force), and Admiral Jefford (Royal Pakistan Navy). The
financial advisor to the Governor-General, Sir Archibald Rowland, was also a
British.
 The First Day: On 15th of August, Jinnah was sworn
in as the first governor general of Pakistan, followed
by the swearing in ceremony of his sworn in, along
with the provincial governors. Later, he hoisted the
national flag, and made a broadcast to the nation:
"August 15 is the birthday of the independent and
sovereign state of Pakistan. It marks the fulfillment
of the destiny of the Muslim nation which made great
sacrifices in the past few years to have its homeland."
He also declared: "Our object should be peace within
and peace without... We stand by the United Nations
Charter and will gladly make our full contribution to
the peace and prosperity of the world."
 In February 28, 1948, the Finance Minister
Ghulam Mohammad presented the country's first
annual budget - an event that did not appear a
certainty until a few days ago. The timely loan of
20 Crore Rupees by the Nizam of Hyderabad, and
the release of Pakistan's share in the central assets
by India through the late Gandhi's intervention
saved Pakistan from going bankrupt in its very
first months.
 Much that Jinnah wanted to do for Pakistan, his ailing health
did not allow him not more than 11 months to be with the
fragile state of Pakistan. And on 11 September, 1948 he
breathed his last in Karachi, when he was hurriedly flown in
from Ziarat, nearby Quetta, where he was advised by the
doctors to rest awhile. His funeral took place on a small hill on
Bunder Road, near Guru Mandir, just outside the federal capital
Karachi. Since Pakistan has still not been declared a republic by
its Constituent Assembly, it retained it dominion status and the
Governor-General was formally appointed by His Majesty,
King George VI of England. and on September the 14th 1948,
a royal decree was issued, which read, "His Majesty the King
is pleased to appoint Khwaja Nazimuddin as Acting Governor-
General of Pakistan in the vacancy occasioned by the sad
demise of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah."
 The Successive Governments
 The first government of Pakistan was headed by Prime Minister
Liaquat Ali Khan (above left) who established friendly relations
with the United States when he visited United States in 1950.
Khwaja Nazimuddin (above 2nd from left), who had succeeded
Jinnah as governor-general, became prime minister after
Liaquat's assassination. Ghulam Muhammad became governor-
genera (above 3rd from left). When Nazimuddin attempted to
limit the powers of the governor-general, Ghulam Muhammad
dismissed Nazimuddin and replaced him with Muhammad Ali
Bogra (above 4th from left). In 954, Bogra who had little
support in the new assembly, was replaced by Chaudhri
Muhammad Ali. At the same time, General Sikander Mirza
(above 5th from left) became the fourth and last governor-
general and later first president in 1956.
 Prime Minister Ali remained in office only until
September 1956, when he was unable to retain his
majority in the National Assembly and was
succeeded by Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy
(above 6th from left). However, President Mirza
forced Suhrawardy to resign after he discovered
that the prime minister was planning to support
Firoz Khan Noon, leader of the Republican Party,
for the presidency in the country's first general
elections, scheduled for January 1959.
 The succeeding coalition government, headed by
Ismail Ibrahim Chundrigar (above 7th from left) of
the Muslim League, lasted only two months before it
was replaced by a Republican Party cabinet under
Noon. President Mirza, realizing he had no chance of
being re-elected president, proclaimed martial law on
October 7, 1958. He dismissed Noon's government,
dissolved the National Assembly, and cancelled the
scheduled general elections. General Muhammad
Ayub Khan, commander in chief of the army, was
named chief martial-law administrator. Twenty days
later Ayub forced the president to resign and assumed
the presidency himself.