Ayub Khan

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Ayub Khan محمد ايوب خان
2nd President of Pakistan
In office October 27, 1958 – 1969
Preceded by	Iskander Mirza
Succeeded by	Yahya Khan
3rd Chief of the Army Staff
In office 1958 – 1969
Preceded by	Gen. Sir Douglas David Gracey
Succeeded by	Gen. Musa Khan
Born	May 14, 1907
Died	April 19, 1974

(PA - 10) Muhammad Ayub Khan (Urdu/Pashto: محمد ايوب خان) HJ, NPk (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.

Contents 1 Early years 2 President of Pakistan (1958–1969) 3 Books 4 Family 5 Footnotes 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Early years

Ayub Khan was born in the village of Rehana near Haripur Hazara to a Pashto and Hindko speaking family of the Pashtun Tareen tribe, the first child of the second wife of Mir Dad Khan, who was a Risaldar Major (the senior most non-commissioned rank)in Hodson's Horse, a cavalry regiment of the Royal Indian Army. 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 (modern day Bangladesh) as General Officer Commanding a division that was responsible for the whole East Wing of Pakistan in 1948, for which non-combatant service he was awarded the Hilal-i-Jurat (HJ) and 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. The events surrounding his appointment set the precedent for a Pakistani general being promoted out of turn, ostensibly because he was the least ambitious of the Generals and the most loyal.^[1]

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.

[edit] President of Pakistan (1958–1969)

As a result of his having control of the Pakistan Army, Ayub deposed Mirza on October 27 in a bloodless coup, sending Generals Azam, Burki and Sheikh in the middle of the night to pack Mirza off to exile in England. This was actually welcomed in Pakistan, since the nation had experienced a very unstable political climate since independence. Ayub was persuaded by underlings to award himself the Nishan-e-Pakistan, Pakistan's highest civil award, on the grounds that to award it to other heads of state he should have it himself and also promoted himself to 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. The only difference was that Auchinleck was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal by the British, whereas Ayub was promoted by Pakistanis.

Ayub 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. His main opponent was Fatima Jinnah, the sister of Pakistan's founding father. Despite Jinnah's immense popularity, Ayub 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, improving the economy, but the consequences of cartelization included increased inequality in the distribution of wealth. 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.

The erosion of integrity in the judicial and administrative systems that had commenced under Mirza was accelerated under Ayub. The Army was also brought increasingly into the civil administration of the country, through the appointment of retired Army officers to civilian positions in the Government and the diplomatic corps, as well as through the transfer of junior Army officers, typically Captains, directly into the Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) in 1960-1961-1962. The Army also became a substantial economic and industrial entity through the investments and projects of the Fauji (Army) Foundation, in textiles; sugar; cement; petrochemicals; and consumer goods. Army officers and their families were given housing lots in the most valuable real estate in the largest cities through Defence Housing Societies and schemes in which they were granted purchase of plots at prices substantially below market value. Government agricultural lands were similarly granted along the border with India in the Punjab, in a defense border land scheme on the basis that retired military officers ownership of border lands might constitute a first line of defense against Indian attack.

Despite the Indus Waters Treaty, Ayub maintained icy relations with India. He 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 his rule was the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, which despite a military stalemate, resulted in higher personnel losses for Pakistan than India. He was reported to have said at the outbreak of hostilities, that he would drink his evening tea in Delhi.^[2] The war also adversely affected Pakistan's then rapidly developing economy and it ended in a settlement reached by Ayub at Tashkent, called the Tashkent Declaration. The settlement was perceived by many Pakistanis as a failure and led Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to resign his post and take up opposition to Khan.^[3] The war also increased opposition in East Pakistan where the Awami League headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sought more autonomy for the province. Government corruption and nepotism, in addition to an environment of repression of free speech and political freedoms increased unrest. Criticisms of his sons and family's personal wealth increased, especially his son's actions after his father's election in the allegedly rigged 1964 Presidential elections against Fatima Jinnah is a subject of criticism by many writers. Gohar Ayub, it is said led a victory parade right into the heartland of Opposition territory in Karachi, in a blatantly provocative move and the civil administrations failure to stop the rally led to a fierce clashes between opposing groups with many locals being killed.^[4] Gohar Ayub also faced criticisms during that time on questions of family corruption and cronyism through his business links with his father-in-law retired Lt. General Habibullah Khan Khattak. One Western commentator in 1969 estimated Gohar Ayub's personal wealth at the time at $4 million dollars, while his families wealth was put in the range of $10-$20 million dollars.^[5]

With publications like Zeb-un-Nissa Hamidullah's Mirror criticizing his regime vociferously, Ayub 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, Ayub began to lose both power and popularity. On one occasion, while visiting East Pakistan, there was a failed attempt to assassinate him, though this was not reported in the press of the day.^[6]

At about this time Ayub suffered a cardio-vascular problem and went to Texas, where he was treated by Dr. DeBakey in Houston. It is reported that a clot from his leg caused mental impairment and his determination to stay in power eroded. He handed over increasing authority to his Chief Advisor, Syed Fida Hasan, a senior civil service officer, to the point that he was even made acting President in one of Ayub's trips abroad. Politics started catching up with him and he did not wake up to the value of politics, his little road show backed by billions of dollars in United States aid money headed for a rough patch.The apocryphal story is told of how Ayub Khan, learnt that the nation had turned against him when one of his grandchildren came home chanting "Ayub kutta hai hai" (Ayoub the dog, shame, shame).The child told the grandfather that this was the popular chant at his elementary school though he was too young to know its meaning.

Ayub Khan initiated talks with opposition politicians after 5 months of street protests and in the end handed power to another general.When rioting in the major cities caused a breakdown in law and order, Fida Hasan is reported to have suggested that a referendum should be held. Ayub is reported to have replied that what was happening in the streets was a referendum. But he could never understand why the nation for which he had done so much in terms of military build-up and development turned against him.Ayub Khan's attitude was not very different from that of the British vice-regal apparatus that complained against the ingratitude of South Asians.The natives demanded independence under indigenous leaders who, in British eyes, did not compare favorably with the Raj's track record of laying down railway lines, building irrigation systems, institutionalizing education and developing modern governance.Both Ayub Khan and the British missed out the value of politics, which was defined by Sociologist Max Weber as

"striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state".

Aggravating an already bad situation, with increasing economic disparity in the country under his rule, hoarding and manipulation by major sugar manufacturers resulted in the controlled price of 1 kg sugar to be increased by 1 rupee and the whole population took to the streets.^[7] 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 criticized his rule greatly, said he should do. In 1969, he opened up negotiations with the opposition alliance, except for Maulana Bhashani and Zulfiqar Bhutto. However under increasing pressure from Bhutto and Bhashani who were allegedly encouraged to continue the agitation by elements within the Army, Ayub turned over control of Pakistan to General Yahya Khan on 25 March 1969, whom he had previously appointed to the post of Chief martial law administrator.

In 1971 when war broke out, Ayub Khan was in West Pakistan and did not comment on the events of the war. He died in 1974.

[edit] Books

• An autobiography titled Friends Not Masters was written by Ayub Khan.

[edit] Family

Ayub Khan’s son Gohar Ayub Khan was Pakistan’s Foreign Minister in the Nawaz Sharif government. Gohar’s son and Ayub’s grandson Omar Ayub Khan is Pakistan’s current Minister of State for Finance.

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ The rule of seniority by Kamal Zafar Sunday March 5 2006 The Nation
2. ^ Gohar’s concocted story By Samuel Baid dailyexcelsior
3. ^ Story of Pakistan
4. ^ (Mazari 1999)
5. ^ (Pick April 1969)
6. ^ Hassan Abbas (2004). Pakistan's Drift Into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-1497-9. , pp53
7. ^ Comrade Stalin and the sugar question by Ayaz Amir May 26 2006

[edit] See also

• Politics of Pakistan
• Prime Minister of Pakistan
• Line of Succession to President of Pakistan
• Cold War

[edit] External links

• Chronicles Of Pakistan
• Ayub Khan bio
• Video Clip of Ayub Khan in Paris----use Quick Time Player.
• Video clip of Ayub Khan with General De Gaulle
• Video Clip in Rawalpindi

Military Offices
Preceded by Gen. Sir Douglas David Gracey	Chiefs of Army Staff, Pakistan 1951–1958	Succeeded by General Musa Khan

Presidents of Pakistan
Mirza  | A Khan  | Y Khan  | Bhutto  | Chaudhry  | ul-Haq  | I Khan  | Sajjad  | Leghari  | Sajjad  | Tarar  | Musharraf

Prime Ministers of Pakistan
LA Khan  | Nazimuddin  | Bogra  | Ali  | Suhrawardy  | Chundrigar  | Noon  | A Khan  | Amin  | Z Bhutto  | ul-Haq  | Junejo  | ul-Haq  | B Bhutto  | Jatoi  | Sharif  | Mazari  | Sharif  | Qureshi  | B Bhutto  | Khalid  | Sharif  | Musharraf  | Jamali  | Hussain  | Aziz

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