Pakistan Independence Day
1045
The East Pakistan Awami League, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly taking 153 of the 163 seats allotted to East Pakistan. The opening session of the National Assembly, scheduled to meet in Dhaka in March 1971, was postponed by Yahya Khan twice, who then cancelled the election results, banned the Awami League, and imprisoned Sheik Mujib in West Pakistan on charges of treason. East Pakistan declared its independence as Bangladesh on March 26, 1971, but was placed under martial law and occupied by the Pakistani army.
Consequentially, around 10 million refugees fled to India and hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in the civil war. Supporting Bangladesh, India and on December 3, 1971, sent troops into East Pakistan. Following a two-week war between Pakistan and India, Pakistani troops in East Pakistan surrendered on December 16, 1971, and a cease-fire was declared.
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President Iskander Mirza abrogated the constitution and granted power to the army under General Muhammad Ayub Khan in October 1958. Ayub subsequently assumed presidential powers (in 1960 he was elected to a five-year term), abolishing the office of prime minister and ruling by decree. He was elected to a five-year term in 1960.
A vigorous land reform and economic development program began under Ayub Khan’s regime, and a new constitution, which provided for a federal ...
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the governor-general of the new nation and Liaquat Ali Khan the first prime minister. Violence and slaughter among Hindus and Muslims came between independence and the task of developing the new nation. Disturbances in Delhi were only a prelude to the slaughter in the Punjab, where the Gurdaspur district had been partitioned to give India access to Kashmir.
Efforts of Mohandas K. Gandhi prevented widespread killing in partitioned Bengal despite violence ...
A 1917 photograph of the West Wharf in Karachi.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2011
A very old view of the Sindh Arts College in Karachi.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2011
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