Iskander Mirza
Syed Iskander Ali Mirza or Iskander Mirza ( Urdu اسکندر مرزا, Bengali : ইস্কান্দার মীর্জা ; * November 13, 1899 in Murshidabad , Bengal ; † November 12, 1969 in London ) was the last Governor General of the Dominion Pakistan (from October 6, 1955 to March 23, 1956) and the first President of the "Islamic Republic of Pakistan ".
Life
Mirza was a Shiite Muslim . He grew up in Bombay , where he attended Elphinstone College , then went to the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst , UK , where he was the first graduate from the Indian subcontinent to graduate. In 1920 he joined the British Indian Army . He only served six years in the army, then he went into civil administration ( Indian Political Service ) and made a career there. He served in Abbottabad , Bannu , Nowshera and Tank , among others . 1933-1940 he was political agent at the Khyber Pass , then Deputy Commissioner in Peshawar (1940), political agent in Orissa (1945-1946), Deputy State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense of India (1946-1947). As such he was responsible for the division of the British Indian Army into the future armies of India and Pakistan .
After the founding of Pakistan , Mirza became the new nation's defense minister , as he was the highest-ranking Muslim official in India.
In 1954, the Pakistani government appointed him Governor of East Pakistan , where he was supposed to bring order to the politically distressed province. This was followed by his appointment as Minister of the Interior and the Border Regions in the cabinet of Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra . In 1955 he became the acting Governor General and finally the last Governor General.
Iskander Mirza was married twice, most recently to the Iranian Nahid Mirza, who had previously been the wife of the Iranian military attaché in Pakistan.
In 1956 he became the first president of the young Pakistan, which, however, was politically very unstable during his presidency, which was also expressed in four different prime ministers in two years.
Realizing in 1958 that the 1956 Constitution was only contributing to political instability, Mirza triggered the military coup in Pakistan in 1958 on October 7 to introduce a new constitution that was "better suited to the characteristics of the Pakistani people." He appointed the commander-in-chief of the Pakistani Army , General Muhammed Ayub Khan , to be the administrator of martial law . In doing so, however, he had forfeited his own political legitimacy and was forced out of the presidential palace less than three weeks later, first to Quetta , then into exile in London. Ayub Khan declared himself president on October 27, 1958.
Death in exile in London
Thereafter Mirza lived in exile in London until 1969. There he died on November 12th - the day before his 70th birthday - of a heart attack. Since the government of Pakistani President Yahya Khan refused to give him a burial in his own country, his body was flown to Tehran , where the Shah of Persia granted him a state funeral.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Ghulam Muhammad |
Governor General of Pakistan 1955–1956 |
––– |
| ––– |
President of Pakistan 1956–1958 |
Muhammed Ayub Khan |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mirza, Iskander |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mirza, Syed Iskander Ali |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | last Governor General of the Dominion Pakistan and first President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 13, 1899 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Murshidabad , Bengal |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 12, 1969 |
| Place of death | London |