DiplomacyThe alliance era
Martial law, and Ayub Khan takes power
Pakistan's first military takeover brought to power the general who would lead the alliance with Washington for a decade.
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Proclamation
Martial Law
The constitution abrogated
President Iskander Mirza
Proclamation
Martial Law
The constitution abrogated
President Iskander Mirza
What happened
On 7 October 1958 President Iskander Mirza issued a proclamation abrogating Pakistan's 1956 constitution, dismissing the central and provincial governments, dissolving the national and provincial assemblies, banning political parties and imposing martial law. He appointed the army commander, General Mohammad Ayub Khan, as Chief Martial Law Administrator. Three weeks later, on 27 October, Mirza resigned and Ayub assumed the presidency himself1,2.
The American reaction
Washington raised no serious objection. At a National Security Council meeting on 30 October, CIA Director Allen Dulles described Ayub's takeover as the logical result of the earlier coup and said it was likely to improve the situation in the country generally1. Ayub was already well known to American officials: as army commander he had been one of the strongest advocates of the alliance3. According to the historian Ayesha Jalal, Western officials were told at the outset that the new regime would be more firmly pro-Western than its predecessors and would not let domestic politics distract Pakistan from its international commitments4.
Different perspectives
Supporters of the coup, in Pakistan and abroad, argued that years of unstable parliamentary government had paralysed the state. Critics, then and since, have seen 1958 as the moment the army established its dominance over Pakistani politics, and have argued that American military aid strengthened the institution that took power4. Historians such as Ayesha Jalal have examined how the alliance with the United States shaped the balance between the army and civilian politicians in the 1950s4.
Why it mattered
Ayub ruled until 1969. His decade in power coincided with the closest years of the alliance - and with its unravelling after 19623.
Sources
- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Volume XV, Editorial Note 332, Office of the Historian, US Department of State · Primary document
- 1958 Pakistani military coup, Wikipedia · Reference
- The United States and Pakistan, 1947–2000: Disenchanted Allies (Dennis Kux), Woodrow Wilson Center Press / Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001 · Scholarly
- The Struggle for Pakistan, Chapter 4 (Ayesha Jalal), Harvard University Press (chapter hosted by Columbia University, South Asia Institute), 2014 · Scholarly
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