Willful Iskandar Mirza

Pakistan’s chequered history is full of controversial characters willful enough to try to mould events according to their preferences. Iskandar Mirza was the quintessential colonial administrator who dabbled in politics with an administrative mindset. Hailing from West Bengal, he was the subcontinent’s first Muslim to be trained at the Imperial Military Academy at Sandhurst. Of Persian ancestry he descended from a line of soldiers but his career made him to work in the civil administration in the elite Indian political service that mostly dealt with princely states and tribal areas.

Known for his strong personality and no-nonsense administrative style, he became an important part of various ruling cliques that governed Pakistan and nurtured a close relationship with Ayub Khan, the first Pakistani chief of the army.

He could conveniently identify with the perceptions of the armed forces as he kept his army connection intact, very unusually, got regularly promoted as an army officer reaching the two-star position of major general while serving on civilian positions in civilian clothes. He and Ayub Khan shared their thoughts about the needs of the new state and came to a common understanding on the course the nation must follow.

True to his colonial mindset, Iskandar Mirza displayed little patience with politicians and often aired his views about the ongoing rivalry between combative political organisations. For Mirza, and no less so Ayub, the first imperative lay in promoting national unity even if that meant curtailing the activities of political elements as well as religious zealots. By a quirk of fate Mirza gained unprecedented political ascendancy and he was brought in as the governor general and then became president when Pakistan was declared a republic.

Believing that political conflict only added to the state’s weakness, President Iskandar Mirza was determined to maneuver the politicians toward common goals or nullify their actions altogether. Although General Ayub’s sentiments were similar but he wanted more time to establish the army as an efficient fighting machine and hence left the political strategising to his colleague.

Mirza was a staunch believer in the theory and practiced of nation-state and was deadly against those who showed less than total commitment. He was particularly outspoken in his criticism of the religious political leaders and their parties because they had insisted on framing the public discourse in theological terms.

Iskandar Mirza was not comfortable with the parliamentary system though he acceded to the pressures imposed by the constitution. He played for time and prepared for future and surrounded himself with strong personalities who could be expected to act in accordance with his ideas. His choice for the leadership of the new One Unit of West Pakistan was the frontier leader and opponent of the Muslim League, Dr. Khan Sahib.

Mirza pulled another rabbit out of his hat when with the collaboration of Dr. Khan Sahib and the politician from Punjab Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani, he prompted the formation of the Republican Party. When PM Chaudhry Mohammad Ali learned that many large Punjabi landlords had left Muslim League, he accused Mirza of betrayal and quit his office.

This was the first instance of a politically engineered party formation that became an unfortunate practice of Pakistani politics. Mirza also became the first non-elected state official to manipulate political scenario and this practice also became a device in the hands of the opportunist establishment and was used very frequently distorting the entire governance structure of the country.

Despite attaining supreme administrative authority Mirza still needed political legitimacy and he brought in HS Suhrawardy as Prime Minister. Suhrawardy started attempting to create a coalition between the West Pakistani Republicans and East Pakistan’s Awami League as such alliance seemed to satisfy Suhrawardy’s long quest for true parity between the two wings of Pakistan. Both Mirza and Suhrawardy were Bengalis but they were from the old Bengali families who spoke Urdu and identified more with the western wing of Pakistan than with East Pakistan.

However, their partnership did not continue for long as Suhrawardy had to go when the 1956 Suez crisis and his insensitive reaction

Unfortunately for Iskandar Mirza, Ayub Khan was no less incensed by Mirza’s opportunism and unabashed ambition. Whereas Mirza, to some extent, was constrained by the political ambience, Ayub had no difficulty in separating himself from it. As a civilian in a constitutional system, Mirza needed to play at politics but Ayub could avoid doing so with the result that both of them started to travel on different paths.

Ayub was fully aware that any civilian-led coercive action would certainly require active army support and started to it created unrest in the country compelling him to resign. Mirza sidestepped responsibility and allowed Suhrawardy to bear the brunt of the assault on government policy. Mirza demonstrated how quickly he could form still another unlikely coalition. Political double-dealing and the curious gyrations in Pakistani politics had reached an intolerable level with Mirza playin the game as well as anyone, but his more serious thoughts were riveted on the necessity for a civilian-led military coup. The main issue here was that Mirza had to contend with General Ayub Khan, who had also displayed increasing distress over Pakistan’s sustained instability. Ayub had become even more disillusioned with the behaviour of the country’s politicians.

Unfortunately for Mirza, Ayub Khan was no less incensed by Mirza’s opportunism and unabashed ambition. Whereas Mirza, to some extent, was constrained by the political ambience, Ayub had no difficulty in separating himself from it. As a civilian in a constitutional system, Mirza needed to play at politics but Ayub could avoid doing so with the result that both of them started to travel on different paths. Ayub was fully aware that any civilian-led coercive action would certainly require active army support and started to think what was there for the army in such a situation. By this time Ayub had started to develop his own theory of governance whose first postulate was to discard all the political baggage. This was unfortunately an era of coups with many of them, particularly Egypt and Iraq, that proved successful and encourage military leaderships of the recently decolonised countries of the third world.

On the other hand, Mirza started accumulating more executive power and brought in a minor figure II Chundrigar as prime minister who could only last for two months and his government was dismissed and a fellow Republican and feudal leader, Malik Firoz Khan Noon, was called to form still another government. Noon’s cabinet included politicians from all the significant political parties of East and West, except Islamist political parties but Firoz Khan Noon neither had control over events nor could he manage affairs in the parliament. Totally dependent on the military establishment he too yearned for an end to the political charade.

The civilian-led military coup came after the army carried out against the rebellious Kalat state and the very next day on 6 October 1958 the army seized control of the radio and telegraph stations in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Dacca, constitution was abrogated and all legislatures were banished. The imposition of martial law was a reality and given the speed with which the country was brought under army decree it had no doubt been planned well in advance of the action.

Mirza remained President and Ayub was named the country’s Chief Martial Law Administrator but it was obvious that dual leadership was hardly likely to succeed. Mirza was good in intrigue but did not have the capability of long-term planning and, fatally enough, did not command support of the army. Ayub Khan’s role was Mirza’s major obstacle and indeed it tended to make the President redundant.

True to his nature, Mirza immediately started intriguing against Ayub who was a sharper foe and a tough cookie and refused to play along and physically forced Mirza out of country to exile in London ending his meteoric career.