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Chaudhry Mohammad Ali, the finance minister, to be prime minister. This, in turn, led to Mirza being created the first president of Pakistan in 1956. Over the next two years, Mirza consolidated his power by engineering the resignation of Prime Minister Ali and then both of his successors. In 1958, faced with increasing opposition to his re-election for a second term, Mirza dismissed the government and declared martial law.
However, Mirza’s appointment of fellow Sandhurst alumnus, Ayub Khan as chief martial law administrator, effectively co-head of state, proved to be his undoing. It took Khan just three weeks of chaotic joint rule to conclude that power lay with the military and, in effect, him. On the night of 26th October 1958, Mirza was arrested in the presidential palace and exiled to England. With his assets in Pakistan seized by the state, Mirza eked out an existence in London running a small hotel. When admitted to hospital, he told his wife, ‘We can’t afford medical treatment, so just let me die’. After his death in November 1969, the government of Pakistan refused to allow his remains to be buried at home, so the Shah of Persia gave him a state funeral in Tehran.
Iskander Mirza was the central figure in the early years of Pakistan. His background as a colonial administrator led him to regard the people as incapable of participating in democracy, with government best achieved through autocratic means. Indeed, his machinations as president ultimately led to the active involvement of the military in Pakistani politics, which is still felt today.
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