- West Pakistan
Infobox Former Pakistan subdivision
subdivision = West Pakistan
capital =Lahore
area = 803,940
languages =Urdu
established = 14 August 1955
abolished = 1 July 1970
footnotes =West Pakistan was the popular and sometimes official (1955–1970) name of the western wing of
Pakistan until 1971, when the eastern wing became independent asBangladesh . The politically dominant western wing was composed of three Governor's provinces (North-West Frontier Province , Punjab and Sind), one Chief Commissioner's province (Baluchistan), theBaluchistan States Union , several otherprincely states (notably Bahawalpur,Chitral ,Dir , Hunza,Khairpur and Swat), the Federal Capital Territory (aroundKarachi ) and the tribal areas.The eastern wing formed the single province of
East Bengal (including the formerAssam district ofSylhet ), which despite having over half of the population had a disproportionately small number of seats in the Constituent Assembly. This inequality of the two wings and the geographical distance between them was believed to be holding up the adoption of a new constitution. To diminish the differences between the two regions, the government decided to reorganise the country as two distinct provinces under the One Unit policy announced by Prime MinisterChaudhry Muhammad Ali on 22 November 1954.History
The province of West Pakistan was created in 14 October 1955 by the merger of the provinces, states and tribal areas of the western wing. The province was composed of twelve divisions and the provincial capital was established at
Lahore . The province ofEast Bengal was renamed East Pakistan with the provincial capital atDhaka . The federal government moved in 1959 fromKarachi toRawalpindi (provisional capital untilIslamabad was finished), whilst the federal legislature moved to Dhaka.West Pakistan formed a seemingly block but with marked linguistic and ethnic distinctions and the One Unit policy was regarded as a rational administrative reform which would reduce expenditure and eliminate provincial prejudices. However with the military coup of 1958, trouble loomed for the province when the office of Chief Minister was abolished and the President took over executive powers for West Pakistan. The province of West Pakistan was dissolved in July 1970 by President
Yahya Khan .General elections held in December 1970 saw the
Awami League underMujibur Rahman win an overall majority of seats in parliament (all but two of the 162 seats allocated to East Pakistan). The Awami League advocated greater autonomy for East Pakistan but the military government did not permit Mujibur Rahman to form a government. On 25 March 1971, West Pakistan began acivil war to subdue the democratic victory of East Pakistanis. This began the war between the Pakistani military and theMukhti Bahini . The resulting refugee crisis led to the intervention byIndia , eventually leading to the surrender of thePakistani Army . East Pakistan suffered a genocide of its Bengali population. East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh on 16 December 1971. The term West Pakistan became redundant.Government
The office of Governor of West Pakistan was a largely ceremonial position but later Governors wielded some executive powers as well. The first Governor was
Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani , who was also the lastGovernor of West Punjab .The Chief Minister of West Pakistan was the chief executive of the province and the leader of the largest party in the provincial assembly. The first Chief Minister was
Dr Khan Sahib who had served twice as Chief Minister of theNorth-West Frontier Province prior to independence. The office of Chief Minister was abolished on 1 July 1970 when PresidentYahya Khan took over the administration of West Pakistan.The twelve divisions of West Pakistan province were
Bahawalpur ,Dera Ismail Khan , Hyderabad, Kalat,Khairpur , Lahore,Malakand ,Multan ,Peshawar ,Quetta , Rawalpindi, andSargodha ; all named after their capitals except the capital of Malakand was Saidu, and Rawalpindi was administered from Islamabad. The province also incorporated the formerOman i enclave ofGwadar following its purchase in 1958, and the former Federal Capital Territory (Karachi) in 1961; the latter forming a new division in its own right.ee also
*
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
*Bangladesh Liberation War
*Partition of India
*West Pakistan High Court References
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