Iskander Mirza Bio
com.jpg)
Iskander Mirza
Major-General Sahibzada Sayyid Iskander Ali Mirza, December 14, 1898 – November 12, 1969) was the first President of Pakistan, serving from 1956 until being forced out from the presidency in 1958. Prior to that, Mirza was the last Governor-General of Pakistan from 1955 until 1956. A great-grandson of last Nawab of Bengal Mir Jafar,Mirza was the first president of Bengali origin from East-Pakistan, and the retired career army officer, having reach the prestigious higher rank of major-general in Pakistan Army.
Starting his career in the government, Mirza was employed by Prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan in the Ministry of Defence, appointing him as the first Defence Secretary (one of an apex bureaucratic post), overseeing the Indo-Pakistan war of 1947, and the Balochistan conflict in 1948. A serious disorder and civil unrest sparked in East Pakistan as a result of Bengali Language Movement in 1952, prompting Prime minister Khawaja Nazimuddin to appoint him as the Governor of the provisional state, overseeing the success of One Unit programme in East-Pakistan in 1954, and succeeded Malik Ghulam as the Governor-General in 1955. After successfully promulgating the 1956 constitution, Mirza became the first president and also was the first Bengali, to have became the president. But his presidency suffered with great political instability, challenges in foreign policy, and ouster of his four appointed prime ministers in two years. He finally imposed martial law in 1958 after suspending the constitution, further dissolving democratic institutions, including the Pakistan Parliament. Mirza has the distinction of being the first to bring in military influence in national politics after he appointed his army chief as chief martial law administrator of the country.