Pakistan: Somewhere in the midst of Nowhere

The only Muslim nuclear power with its declared nuclear weapons is the world’s 36th largest country by area with its sixth largest population in the world. The country is the 26^th largest economy as per GDP by purchasing power parity and 45^th in terms of nominal GDP. It has the seventh largest standing Armed forces which are considered as a regional and middle power. Irrespective of its Statistics Pakistan is considered as one of the world’s most sensitive country which posses importance due to various geo-political reasons. A tested friend of the world’s super power the USA, Pakistan has always deserved a special attraction of the world’s politicians.

Though the name Pakistan was taken by the Pamphlet published by Chowdhury Rahmat Ali’s “Now or never” where he proposed the name taken from the acronym of five then British provinces, Punjab, North West Frontier Province, kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan. Actually it was Pakstan and i was introduced for the easements of pronunciation. Chowdhury Rahmat Ali wrote “Thirty million Muslim Brethern who live in Pakstan. This is the myth as well as fact about the “Land of the pure”.

Pakistan achieved freedom on 14^th August 1947 i.e., one day before India. Though the country is officially named as Islamic Republic of Pakistan it is widely known as Islami Jumhuriayah yi Pakistan. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, widely known as Quaid-e-azam is the father of the nation and the first Governor of the country. It must be mentioned here that Pakistan is the world’s first nation state. The country was created on the basic of religion. It was the first of it’s kind.

Pakistan’s bad luck started very early after its birth i,e., is after the death of Jinnah on 11^th September 1948 i.e., after only one year one month of it’s birth. Jinnah’s Lieutenant Liquate Ali Khan the then Prime Minister, became the centre of the power though Khawaja Nazimuddin Ahmed became the Governor. Liquate Ali Khan was not as efficient as Jinnah and he has no command over the people like Jinnah. So the country was fallen in a deep trouble. The Military power rose day by day. Liquate Ali Khan died on 16^th October 1951.

Khawaja Nazimuddin became the Prime Minister of Pakistan and Malik Ghulam Mohammad became the Governor General. Khawaja Nazimuddin died on 17^th April 1953. Mohammad Ali of Bogra came to the power but remained only to the 11^th August 1955. Chowdhury Mohammad Ali came to the power and remained 12^th September of 1956. Hussein Shaheed Suhrawardy came to the power and stayed till 17^th October 1957. He handed over the power to the first President Iskandar Mirza who assumed this post on March 23, 1956 and remained til October 27, 1958. He became President at the time of Premier Chowdhury Mohammad Ali in 1956 when constitution of Pakistan was adopted and lost the power to the Military General Ayub Khan.

The twist of politics started. The Civil rule was sent to the exile. Ayub Khan ruled Pakistan with an iron hand till his surrender on 25th March 1969 i.e., about a decade he ruled the country. During his period the opposition leaders suffered a lot. Actually, question of creating Bangladesh got a shape during this powered. He was ousted by a mass movement of 1969.

Gen. Yahya came to the power and stayed till 20^th December 1971. Then Zulfikar Ali Bhutto widely knows as “Zulfi” came to the power. During the period of Yahya the bloody birth of Bangladesh occurred through a severe freedom fighting. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto stayed till 13^th August, 1973 as President and 5^th July 1977 as Premier. Actually, Bhutto was the key person and centre of the power since 1970 general election i.e., before the freedom fighting started.

After Bhutto, Mohammad Khan junejo came to the power. During this period Gen. Zia-ul-Hauqe became president and stayed till 19^th August 1988. Ghulam Ishaq became the President and stayed till 14^th November 1993 and stayed till 2^nd December 1997. Wasim Sayed became President and stayed only one month i.e., 1^st January 1998. Then Rafiq Tarar came to the power and he stayed till 20 June 2001 when Parvez Musarraf came to the power. He stayed till 18^th August 2008 and ousted by people uprising. Miah Mohammad Sumroo came to the power only for 21 days i.e., 7^th December 2007. Then Asif Ali Zardari of PPP came to the power. Zardari became president on 9^th September 2008.