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Political Stability in Pakistan: Regionalism

and Role of Cabinet ( 1947-1958)

N aum ana K ir an

Political instability is one of the major problems of Pakistan.Regionalism is the core reason of this instability, which alsoaffected the institution of Cabinet. First ten years of Pakistans life

are very important to explore how this problem originated, deep-rooted and damaged political stability of the country. ThoughPakistan followed British Parliamentary and Cabinet system butinherent weaknesses and colonial traditions did not let Cabinetsystem to flourish in Pakistan on strong lines. During this elevenyears period, seven Pr im e M inisters took over one aft er the ot herwith eight Cabinets, which can be divided into three, types i.e.Single Party Cabinets, National Cabinet (Cabinet of Talent) and

Coalition Cabinets. The objective of this paper is to find out howthe ministers were appointed and what was the role of Region intheir appoint ment to the Cabinet? W hat w ere the inner cir cles inthe Cabinets and which regions of Pakistan mostly represented init? How many rifts occurred among Cabinet colleagues on thebasis of region and what changes were introduced? The wholediscussion would be done phase vise i.e. (i) Single Party Cabinetsfrom 1947 to 54 (ii) National Cabinet 1954-55 and (iii) CoalitionCabinets 1955-58.


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Pakistan Vi sion Vol. 13 N o. 1208

Appointment to the Cabinet and Regionalism

1947-1958Single Party Cabinets (1947-1954)East Pakistanis were always critical towards the fact that they

w ere given l ess represent at ion in the Cabinet than t heir due share.From 1947 to 1954, three Cabinets worked with some changesand some consistencies in the portfolios. Liaquat Ali KhansCabinet was the first one which was appointed by Governor-General Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It included,

L iaquat A li K han (Prime M inister ), Fazlur Rehman, Ibrahim IsmailChundr igar and Jogandar N ath M andal f rom Bengal, Ghazanfar A liK han, M alik G hulam M ohammad, Sir Zafarull ah K han and SirFeroze Khan Noon from Punjab, Abdus Sattar Pirzada from Sindand Sardar Abdur Rab N ishtar fr om N .W .F.P.1 Te first Cabinetwas designed to give a balance of sectional interests and understrong leadership, it was capable of working as a team. 2Later,some internal changes took place and some additions were

introduced like Khawaja Shahbuddin and A.M.Malik from EastBengal and Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani and Chaudhry Nazir Ahmadfrom Punjab and Sardar Bahadur K han fr om N W FP. 3

A lm ost the sam e Cabinet continued under K haw aja Nazim udD in (1951-53), w ho w as appointed as Prim e M inister ( PM ) by t heCabinet, with only one major change. 4Liaquat Ali Khan wasassassinated on 16 October 1951. Governor-General KhawajaNazimuddin called Cabinet meeting to meet with the emergencysit uat ion w here his name as Prime M in ister w as appr oved. H e didnot t r y to r eappoint the Cabinet and felt himself subservient t o theCabinet. The former Finance Minister was promoted to the seatof Governor-General so Choudhury Muhammad Ali wasappoint ed as Finance M inister by Governor -G eneral. D r . IshtiaqHussain Qureshi and Dr. Mahmud Husain were promoted fromthe status of M inisters of State to Cabinet M inisters inNazimuddins Cabinet. 5 N azim ud D in s Cabinet w as dism issed bythe Governor -General in A pr il 1953. In N azim ud D in s w ords ondemand of resignation from the Governor-General I told the


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Pol i t ical Stabi l i t y in Pakistan: Regional ism and Role of Cabinet (19 47 -1 95 8) 209

Governor -G eneral t hat const it ut ionall y and l egall y he had no r ightto make such a demand because he was purely a constitutionalGovernor -G eneral. I also told him that I comm and the confidenceof the Legislative Assembly and the country, and therefore wasentitled to remain in office. The fact that only recently theLegislative Assembly passed my budget by an overwhelmingmajority was a clear proof of the fact that I had the LegislativeAssembly and the country behind me. For these reasons I refusedto tender me and my colleagues resignations. 6 On Nazim udDins refusal he and his Cabinet were dismissed. In the conflict ofregions Punjab-dominated intelligentsia was successful at themoment.

The clash of regions came on the prospect more acutely in1953 t han ever befor e when six out of t hir teen m em bers of N azimud D in s Cabinet , m ost ly belonged to W est Pakistan, expr essedtheir readiness to work in the new Cabinet. They were more

concerned about their self gains than democracy.

7

The thirdCabinet of t his per iod w as or iginated under M uhammad A li Bograin April 1953. The ministers were selected by Governor-GeneralGhulam M ohammad. Bogra w as w orking as ambassador in U .S.A.Six ministers of Nazimuddins Cabinet were continued. Theywere Sir Zafrullah Khan, Ch. Muhammad Ali, Mushtaq AhmadGurmani, Sardar Bahadur Khan and Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi fromthe provinces of W est Pakistan and onl y one fr om East Pakistan ;

Dr. A.M. Malik. The new inductions were A.K. Brohi (Sindh),K han A bdul Q ayyum K han (N W FP), Shoaib Q ureshi (Punjab) andMr. Tafazzal Ali. 8 Bogra s Cabinet included only one M inisterfrom East Pakistan out of ten. This Cabinet was dismissed on 24O ctober , 1954 w ith the dissolut ion of fir st Const it uent Assemblyof Pakistan (CAP).

Cabinet of T alents (1954-55)

The new Cabinet was nominated by Governor-GeneralGhul am M ohammad under Bogra as Prim e M inster . Bogra ssecond Cabinet included almost all new faces. They were M.A.


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Isphahani ( Businessm an), M aj. Gen Iskandar M ir za (M il it ary cumCivil Bureaucrat), Ayub Khan (Commander-in-Chief of theForces), M ir Ghulam A li T alpur (L andlord for m Sindh), D r. K hanSahib (N on-M uslim League Polit ician fr om N .W .F.P), H abibIbrahim Rahimtulah (Former Governor of Punjab), HusseinShaheed Suhrawardy (Leader of Opposition Party), Col. SyedAbid Hussain (Retired from Military), Sardar Mumtaz Ali Khan(Landlord from Punjab) and Abu Hussain Sarkar (OppositionLeader from East Bengal). Ghayasuddin Pathan, ChoudhuryMuhammad Ali and Dr. A.M. Malik were continued from theprevious Cabinet. 9 East Pakistanis were given five out of thirteenseats in this Cabinet.

It was called as Cabinet of all Talents 10 by Muhammad AliBogra as it included all expert s and qual ifi ed to their fiel d. Z ir ing sopinion is that it was non-Muslim League civil-militarycomplex.11 but practically it was civil-military cum Muslim

League and opposit ion par tnership as it included some M uslimLeaguers also l ike Sardar M um taz A li , Rahim tulah and A bidHussain. It was like an official government 12 as worked in thecolonial per iod or l ike viceroy s council before par t it ion. 13

Coalit ion Cabinets (1955-1958)After holding indirect elections 1955, Second Constituent

Assembly of Pakistan, 14 (CAP) was elected. The formulation and

par ty posit ion w as totall y changed in t he Const it uent Assembly ofPakistan as tot al major it y of t he M uslim League was over andAwami League, United Front, Congress, Scheduled CasteFederation and other smaller parties and independents got seats inthe second C onst it uent Assembly o f Pakistan.

Now it was not possible for a single party to establishgovernment, so coalition governments were formed. Meanwhile,

Ghul am M uhammad, w ho w as sent on tw o mont hs leave by t heCabinet, 15 was permanently retired and Iskandar Mirza, who wasalready working as honorary Governor-General, was confirmed


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on his seat. Suhrawardy has mentioned that the suggested namefor new Governor-General as discussed in the Cabinet meetingwas of Iskandar Mirza. In result of voting, there was tie and thedeciding vote w as cast by Ayub K han (D efense M inister), w hichw as in favour of Iskandar M ir za. 16

During this period four coalition governments were formed.First w as for med by t he M uslim League and U nit ed Front underChoudhury Mohammad Ali who was Muslim LeaguePar liamentary Par ty s leader . This Cabinet included fi ve m inistersfrom Muslim League and four from United Front. Each party inUnited Front nominated one minister. Five members of thisCabinet were also members of the previous Cabinet. They wereChoudhury Muhammad Ali, Dr. Khan Sahib, A.K. Fazlul Haq,Habib Ibrahim Rahimtulah and Syed Abid Hussain. 17 The newentries were Kamini Kumar Dutta, Hamid ul Haq Chaudhory,Mr. Nurul Haq Choudhury and Abdul Latif Biswas from East

Pakistan. T he W est Pakistani M inisters w ere Pir A li M . Rashdi,I.I. Chundrigarh, Syed Amjad Ali, M.R. Kayani and AbdusSattar.18 Some changes took place in future months. 19 As thisCabinet included tw o non-M uslim s so it w as considered as non-sectarian Cabinet. Democracy was successful at the moment. 20 Itwas for the first time that equal representation was given to boththe provinces of Paki stan i . e. East Pakistan and W est Paki stan. 21

Choudhry Muhammad Ali resigned in 1956 after whichcoalition government of Awami League and Republicans wasformed under supervision of Suhrrawardy. He was sole EastPakistani politician who could claim himself as leader of nationallevel. It included four Awami League Ministers includingSuhrawardy, Abdul Mansur Ahmed, Abdul Khaliq and DildarAhmed from East Pakistan. Five Republican ministers were MalikFeroze Khan Noon, Syed Amjad Ali, Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur and

M ian Jaffer Shah fr om W est Paki stan. 22 Suhraw ardy claim ed that itwas for the first time in Pakistan that government was formed in


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direct response to parliamentary forces. This governmentobserved pol it ical matur it y and show ed bett er per for m ance. 23

It came to an end in October, 1957. The next coalitiongovernment was formed by four political parties led by MuslimLeague under Prime Ministership of Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar.Huge difference of opinion among coalition partners brought thefate of this Cabinet to an end in December 1957. Its life was lessthan two months even. The ministers of this Cabinet were takenfrom the M uslim League, Republican Par ty, K r ishak Sram ik Par tyand Nizam-e-Islam. This Cabinet consisted of twelve members.The W est Pakistani m inisters fr om Republican Par ty w ere Am jadAli, Malik Feroze Noon, Muzaffar Ali Qizalbash, Ghulam AliTalpur and M ian Jaffer Shah. The M uslim League m ini sters w ereMian Mumtaz Muhammad Khan Dualtana and Yousuf Haroonfr om W est Pakistan and Chudr igar and Fazlur Rehman fr om EastPakistan. Krishak Sramik Partys ministers were Abdul Latif

Bisw as, Lut fur Rehman and M isbahuddin f rom East Pakistan.Nizam-e-Islam ministers, who were included later in the Cabinet,were Nurul Haq and Farid Ahmed. 24 One Minister of State wasfrom Scheduled Caste Federation. It had total 16 ministers andministers of state in l ast days. 25

The next government was formed by Republican Party incoalition with National Awami Party, Krishak Sramik Party

(Hamid ul Haq group), the Pakistan National Congress andScheduled Caste Federation. All smaller parties were East Pakistanbased. The basis of this partnership was continuation of jointelectorates.26 The only powerful party was Republican in thiscoalition so all important portfolios were given to RepublicanParty. The decision-making authority was in hands of single partyonly.27 To some extent, they were somewhere trying to save thesystem also. The M inisters of t his Cabinet w ere Syed Amjad A li ,

Mozaffar Ali Khan Qizilbash, Ghulam Ali Talpur, Mian JaffarShah, H aji M oulabukhsh Soom ro, Basenta K um ar Das, SardarAbdur Rashid, Sardar A mir A zam K han, M .A . K huro from W est


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Pakistan and Abdul Aleem, Ramizuddin Ahmad, Kamini KumarDutta, Mahfuzal Haq, Hamidul Haq Chowdhry, Sahiruddin, A.H.Dildar Ahmad and Nurru Rahman from East Pakistan. The lastthree were included in the Cabinet only five days before itsdismissal. 28

Aw ami L eague was just suppor t ing this governm ent, not par tof the Cabinet, as compromise could not take place on portfoliosdistribution. 29 Zirings opinion is that all Cabinet partners wereopportunists and working to gain personal benefits. 30 I t workedunder Malik Feroz Khan Noon of Republican Party. The totalnumber of ministers of this Cabinet was nine at the time ofinauguration but many changes occurred time and again. Eighteenpersons held portfolios in different months. The more consistentministers were Syed Amjad Ali, Qizalbash, Talpur, Jaffer Shah,Abdul A leem, Ram izuddin Ahmad and K .K . D utt a.

Appoint ment Cr iter ia to the CabinetThe criterion of appointment remained different in the threetypes of G overnments. W hile appointing fi r st Cabinet , w hichactually worked till 1953 with only one major change and someminor changes, Q uaid- i-Azam s best crit er ia w as qual ifi cat ion. H eappointed best available brains on different position. Secondly hetried to give representation to different regions of Pakistan. Heappointed three ministers from East Bengal, four from Punjab and

one each from N W FP and Sindh,31

but it was not the majorcrit er ia. H e also gave weight to m inor it ies as one non-M uslimCabinet Minister was also designated. The third Cabinet of thisperiod was appointed by Malik Ghulam Mohammad whosecriteria were faithfulness of the Ministers towards him. The sixM inisters of the previous Cabinet w ho alw ays m aneuvered againstN azim uddin w er e adjusted in t his Cabinet also.

The second type of Cabinet was also selected by theGovernor-General Ghulam Muhammad. His best criterion was hispersonal relationship and his philosophy of trustworthy


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individuals. He also considered the point that the particularindividuals must be well qualified or at least expert in his specificfield. The precise feature of this Cabinet was presence of militaryas well as bureaucratic elites. Besides them new social group wasadded in t he Cabinet and t hat w as Indust r iali st ; M .A . Isphahaniand Rahim tulah both belonged to this social group. St rong M uslimLeaguers could not take position in the Cabinet. The mostnegative aspect of this Cabinet was that all important portfoliosw ere given to W est Pakistani M inisters, w hich deepened the East -W est divide.

During the third period of Parliamentary experience theappointm ent cr it er ia w ere quite different . D ur ing this peri od, t henomination authority was Prime Minister not the Governor-General and later President. All Cabinets in this period werecoalition, so the coalition partners were always given due share.The names which were given by the coalition partners were added

in the Cabinet. If the coalition was led by Awami League, theAw ami L eague Pr im e M inister had t o accept al l t hose nameswhich were given by Republican Party, or by Nizam-i-Islam Partyor by any other party. The Prime Minister had to depend on hiscoalition partners for nominating his Cabinet ministers. As OneU nit had been int roduced in W est Pakistan, par it y w as m aint ainedbetw een East and W est w ings w hile appo int ing Cabinet m inisters.Equal numbers of ministers were always taken from both wings

during this period. In this period qualification was not the bestcriterion unlike first phases.

T he Inner / K itchen CabinetDuring first period the most influential Cabinet colleagues

were Malik Ghulam Mohammad, Choudhry Mohammad Ali (bothw ere bureaucrats), Sir Zafarull ah K han ( law yer ) all fr om W estPakistan and to some extent Dr. Fazlur Rahman in Liaquats

period who was from East Pakistan. In this period especially afterLiaquats death, these two civil bureaucrats were the mostinfluential or were part of the inner Cabinet. The place of inner


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Cabinet was taken over by Kitchen Cabinet during Nazimuddinsperiod. It was formed by Governor-General which mostlyconsisted of out side forces li ke Ayub K han (Comm ander -in-C hiefof t he for ces) and Iskandar M ir za (Secretary of t he D epar tment ofD efense). It also included som e Cabinet M inisters li ke C houdhryM uhammad A li and Z afar U ll ah K han. This same K it chen Cabinetcontinued dur ing M ohamm ad Ali Bogra s fir st r egime.

During period of Cabinet of Talents, the inner Cabinetincluded civil bureaucrats Choudhry Muhammad Ali, and twomilitary bureaucrats, Ayub Khan and Iskandar Mirza. All of theinner Cabinet M in isters belonged t o W est Pakistan. T hese allformed inner Cabinet not with Prime Minister Bogra, an EastPakistani, but w ith Governor -G eneral M al ik Ghulam M ohammad,a W est Pakistani. D ur ing the last period, the change of m inist r ywas so abrupt and frequent that no permanent inner Cabinetcould be formed. A s all Cabinets w ere coali t ion, so if one Poli t ical

Par ty had Prim e M inister the inner Cabinet consisted of t hemembers of that political party. . In other words decisions of thepolitical leadership of that specific party were normally approved.If the other partners of coalition did not agree coalition wasbroken.

Rift and Changes in the Cabinet; Regionalismthe most impor tant factor

Single Party Cabinets (1947-1954)In the first phase almost all Cabinets faced the problem of rifts

among Cabinet colleagues mostly on the basis of regionalproblems. Liaquat Ali Khans cabinet was clearly divided betweentw o factions; one under Fazlur Rahman (M inister of Indust r ies)and t he second under M ali k Ghulam M ohammad (FinanceM inister ). Fazlur Rahman l ed t he Bengali group and GhulamM ohammad led t he Punjabi group . 32 Malik Ghulam Mohammadand Fazlur Rehman always had difference of opinion. Intemperament , they w ere poles apar t the one as quick and sharpas a rapier and the other as blunt and heavy as a bludgeon. 33 I t is


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also claimed by some historians that the issues were decidedbetween these two and then only negotiated settlement waspresented in the Cabinet to approve as a matter of form. 34 N osettlement could be reached at on the issue of devaluation ofcurrency and conflict between these two personalities becameapparent . Fazlur Rehman t hrough his lett ers to Pr im e M inisteremphasized that Cabinet must not linger on the issue ofdevaluation and must take its decision as early as possible. Hewrote: I must make it quite clear that in my opinion there is aserious danger to the success of our non-devaluation policy ifuncertainty continues any longer. 35 He further insisted thatGhulam M uhammad m ust be emphasized for discussion anddecision on priority basis. The decision finally went in favour ofFazlur Rehman due to which bitterness increased between boththe ministers. 36 In some cases Ghulam Muhammad interfered inthe affairs of the other ministries. Shahab-ud-Din, who was ingroup of Fazlur Rehman, was against this act of Ghulam

Muhammad. Shahab ud din wrote to Prime Minister that GhulamMuhammad must not be permitted to interfere in interiorMinistrys affairs. He wrote that administration of Karachi wasresponsibility of Interior Ministry and that Finance Minister didnot have direct concern w ith it . 37

The same Cabinet division and rifts inherited to the nextPrim e M inister , N azim uddin. H e w as Bengal i and l ed Bengali

faction of the Cabinet. The other group Punjabi also includedsom e very pr om inent non Punjabi f igures fr om W est Pakistan.They were Commander-in-Chief Ayub Khan and DefenseSecretary, Iskander Mirza. Both of them were not part of theCabinet but very close to Governor-General Malik GhulamM uhammad. In a w ay they w ere members of t he kit chen Cabinet .The division within the Cabinet emerged on Foreign policy issues.N azim uddin w as or thodox and against W estern Block. H e did not

want Pakistan to be an ally of USA. He was in favour of Pan-Islamism. On the other side, Punjabi faction which includedGhulam Mohammad, Zafrullah Khan, Iskandar Mirza and Ayub


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Khan, was pro America and insisted on joining defense Pacts withUSA.38Punjabi faction was successful in maneuvering to oustN azim uddin f rom the Governm ent and onl y later w as able to signD efense Pacts w it h U SA.

Another rift raised on the issue of anti-Ahmediya movementbetween Nazmiuddin and Zafrullah Khan (Minister of ForeignAffairs). He wanted that Cabinet of Pakistan must issue astatement to condemn the attacks against Qadiyanis39 butNazimuddin and his group was not ready to do so even oninsistence by Governor-General. 40 This movement was anexcellent example to explain the regionalist tendency in Pakistan.Punjabi Ch ief M inister of Punjab w anted to fail the governm ent ofBengali Pr im e M inister of Pakistan. There w as enough proof thatChief M inister of Punjab suppor ted t he agitat ion by givingsubsidies to the press to promote the cause. According to thePrime Minister, Dualtana channelized the agitation towards the

Centre, because he was not allowed to nominate a Punjabi to theCentral Government, and also because of his opposition to latestFederal Formula. 41 Prime Minister contacted with the ChiefM inisters and Governors of Punjab and N W FP to set t le the issue.Cabinet, during the course of discussion, clarified that thequestion of declaring Ahmediya as non-Muslims could be decidedby the Constituent Assembly and not by the Government, so thisissue must be presented in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.

The government of Nazimuddin could not handle the issuesuccessfully due to non-cooperation of Dualtana. The regionalisttendency was successful at the moment and Nazimuddinsgovernm ent w as dism issed by M ali k G hulam M oham mad. EastPakistanis were unhappy on t he incident.

Bogras Cabinet faced again some rifts of Punjabi and Bengalifactions. Governor-General was Punjabi and selected Bogras

Cabinet on his own. M ost of t he Cabinet colleagues w ereassociated with each other and with the Governor-General. 42 O negroup in his Cabinet continuously remained against Bogra and


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wanted his removal. They were Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani(M inister o f K ashmir A ffair s, States and Front ier Regions andInterior), Sardar Bahadur Khan (Minister of Communications andbrother of Commander in Chief) and Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan(Minister of Food Agriculture, Industries and Commerce); allbelonged t o W est Pakistani p rovinces. 43Bogra could not developclose relationship with his Cabinet colleagues who were mostlyassociated w it h the Governor -G eneral . M ost of t he decisions w eretaken by this group with the approval of the Governor-General.Though Cabinet functioned in the normal way but there wassuspicion that the influential ministers had reached agreement inadvance. 44

Cabinet of T alents (1954-1955)Cabinet of T alents also observed r ift . Suhraw ardy (M ini ster of

Law) did not develop cordial relations with Bogra and mentionedthat he was surrounded by the set of crooks and Fascists 45 in the

Cabinet. He also mentioned that Iskandar Mirza was prominentam ong such fascist s. H e cr it icized t he inf luent ial r ole of W estPakistani Ministers in the Cabinet. This rift could not disturb theworking and could not reach to prominence as Suhrawardysfaction was comparatively weak than civil cum military faction ofthe Cabinet , w hich w as r eal decision-m aking author it y.

Coalit ion Cabinets (1955-1958)

Coali t ion Cabinets fr om 1955 to 1958 had m any factions andrifts. The conflicting issues were majorly regional again includingdisagreement on One Unit, electorate issue etc. Almost allpolitical parties which represented in the Cabinet were regional.No Party could claim herself as national level Political Party.Choudhry Muhammad Alis Cabinet faced great problems afteremergence of Republican Party, which emerged from within theM usl im League. T he M uslim League Par li amentary Par ty decided

to take discipl inary action against Republi cans; the for m er M uslimLeaguers. In place of taking action against them ChoudhryM uhammad A li call ed a meet ing of coalit ion par tners on 27


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August, w here Republ icans w ere also invit ed. O n this issueIbrahim Ismail Chundrigar (Minister of Law) and Pir AliM uhamamd Rashdi (M inister of I nfor m at ion and Br oadcast ing),the M uslim League m inisters of t he Cabinet , resigned fr om theCabinet in protest on 29 August 1956. 46. Rashdi said: PrimeMinister Muhammad Ali was elected to the Constituent Assemblyof Pakistan on t he M uslim League ticket and w as bound by t headvice and majority decision of the Muslim League ParliamentaryParty.47 United Fronts ministers in the Cabinet formed onefaction and had difference of opinion on policy issues. Due to thisfactionali sm, Choudhur y M uham mad A li resigned, though he st il lcommanded confidence of the majority in the ConstituentAssembl y of Paki stan.

Suhrawardys cabinet was combination of conflictingpersonalities. The real conflict was between East Pakistan basedAw ami L eague and W est Pakistan based Republ ican Par ty

M inisters. The conflict ing issue w as O ne Unit . T he Republicanministers started campaign to dismember One Unit and toestabli sh four provinces in W est Pakistan. Sur pr isinglySuhrawardy showed his disagreement towards it. Suhrrawardyinterviewed on Radio and said that it was compulsory to workunder One Unit to avoid any delay in holding elections. Onceelections would be held, the new Constituent Assembly ofPakistan could decide the issue. 48 His other plea was that time

must be given to judge the true value of the experiment.49

Theconflict reached to the point where issue went out of the Cabinetmeet ing s sphere in publ ic discussions. W est Pakistani Republ icanMinister Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur (Minister of Interior) publiclystated that no delay was possible in elections due to end of OneUnit and if delay happened, even then the Republican Party haddecided in favour of dismemberment of One Unit. Being ministerof Suhrawardys Cabinet, he must not issue anti-policy statement.

Suhrawardy could not take disciplinary action against Talpur, andbedlam in Cabinet could not be overcome. U nfor tunat ely, Prim eM inister did not have right to dism iss the m inister of his Cabinet .


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This right reserved with the President only, under constitution ofPakistan 1956. 50 In the mid of October 1957 it seemed that thiscoalition would be broken soon. Suhrawardy announced that hehad majority of the Assembly on his side and would take vote ofconfidence on 24 O ctober 1957. 51

Suhrawardy called a meeting of his Cabinet on 12 October1957 at his residence which was boycotted by Republicanministers. Later they demanded resignation of Suhrawardy. 52 H eonly r esigned under threat of dism issal by t he President .

Ibrahim Ismail Chundr igarh s Cabinet again included m inistersfrom different political parties with conflicting approaches. Themajor coal it ion par tners included t he M uslim League, K r ishakSram ik Par ty (K SP) and Republ ican Par ty. The M uslim Leaguewas strong supporter of separate electorates since beginning. KSPwas strong supporter of joint electorates. Republican Party

adopted middle of the way policy. It appeared on the scene laterthat Republican m inisters comm it ted w it h the M uslim League thatthey would support separate electorates. On the other side, KSPministers claimed that Republican Party gave surety to KSPleadership to support joint electorates. Hamid ul Haq Chodharyemphasized on Republican ministers to support their point ofview. 53 The Ministers who belonged to the Muslim Leagueincluding M ian M um taz M uhammad K han D ualt ana and Yousaf

H aroon fr om W est Pakistan and Chundr igar and Fazlur Rehmanfrom East Pakistan and Krishak Sramik Partys ministers wereAbdul Lat if Bisw as, Lu t fur Rehm an and M isbahuddin fr om EastPakistan continuously issued public statements on the issue ofelectorates. Republican Party ministers including Amjad Ali,Malik Feroze Khan Noon, Muzzaffar Ali Qizalbash, Ghulam AliTalpur and M ian Jaffer Shah kept quiet and just observed thecir cumstances. Cabinet Secretar iat issued a pr ess not e:

The coalition government was formed on agreement by theRepublican Party to support separate electorates.5 4


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The Federal Cabinet of Pakistan approved the decision of

separate electorates. Under Cabinets approval the electoral roleswere also changed. Later Federal Cabinet approved a Billsubstituting separate electorates for joint electorates in theelectorate Act and another Bill to make consequential changes inthe Electorate Rolls Act. 55 Republican Partys ministers did notcare for the decision of the Cabinet and went away from theirpledge, so Chundr igar s governm ent resigned.56

M ali k Feroze Khan N oon w as invit ed by t he President to for mthe next Government . Republican Pr im e M inister N oon s Cabinetwas again divided in groups. Problems remained intact betweenEast Pakistani M in isters fr om K SP and W est Pakistani m inistersfrom Republican Party. KSP leader Hamid ul Huq wanted to getseat in t he Cabinet w hich N oon w as delaying due to pr essure fromSuhrawardy of Awami League. 57 In result of continuous struggle

H amid ul H aq w as given Cabinet por t fol io in A ugust 1958.

58

Another major problem in the Cabinet rose between theAwami League and the Republican Party. Three leaders of theAwami League i.e. Sahiruddin, A.H.Dildar Ahmad and NururRahman took oath as ministers on 2 October 1958 butcompromise could not be reached at on distribution of portfolios.The Awami League ministers wanted portfolios which were

already under control of Republican ministers.59

In result offailure to reach at compromise, Awami League ministers resignedfrom the Cabinet only aft er four days.

The nature of rifts and divisions within the Cabinets mostlyremained aft er regional l ines in all three t ypes of per iods of under-lying study. The ministers belonged to one party from 1947 to1954, so the hold of Prime Minster on his Cabinet was effective

and r ift s remained w it hin t he boundar ies of Cabinet m eetings. TheCabinet of Talent had only one rift and that too was not intense.The coal it ion C abinets int roduced a new t rend in C abinet system


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in Pakistan. The M inisters took their r ift s outside the boundar iesof Cabinet sphere. If t hey had r if t on one issue they star ted i ssuingpublic statement on the said matter which is against norms ofCabinet system. Cabinets normall y consisted of tw o or m ore thantwo political parties. The hold of Prime Minister on the Cabinetwas normally weak. Secondly, Constitution of Pakistan gave rightof dismissal of minister to the President in place of PrimeM inister , so he w as not in posit ion t o take action against theminister, who made the internal Cabinet issues as public. Duringcoalition governments period, individual ministers got strengthand Prime M in ister becam e w eaker.

Relat ionship betw een C abinet and t he Pr im e M inisterThe region of Prime Minister was the most influential factor

in developing the type of r elat ionship betw een Prim e M ini ster andhis Cabinet colleagues especially after Liaquat Ali Khan. Thenature of L iaquat s relat ions w it h his Cabinet w as diff er ent dur ing

and after Quaids death. Quaids control on Cabinet was firmduring his life and Liaquat, too, was always eager to follow theadvices of Quaid but after his death Cabinet was divided into twodist inct sect ions. Som e of W est Paki stani C abinet col leaguesincluding Malik Ghulam Mohammad and Zafar Ali Khan whoconsidered themselves brilliant than Liaquat were not ready tofollow his instructions. On this Liaquat introduced the concept ofvoting to settle the unsettled issues. This practice showed his

weak control on the Cabinet. Some of his ministers startedmaking their support groups in the Constituent Assembly ofPakistan.60

Nazimuddin, an East Pakistani, had lesser control on hisCabinet. In fact he accepted himself as subservient to such aCabinet w hich was dom inated by W est Pakistani M inisters. H esaid immediately after his appointment that The Cabinet has

today given me the onerous responsibility of being PakistansPrim e M inister. 61 H e most ly p layed the role of U m pire instead ofimposing decisions in case of disagreement between two groups.


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H e was least resistant tow ards his Cabinet col leagues. 62 Governor-General Ghulam M uhammad w ho had r ecent ly left t he Cabinetand pr omot ed to the seat of Governor -G eneral, had m ore hold onCabinet than Prime Minister. During both the regimes, Bogracould never emerge as strong head of the Cabinet. He had todepend on his Cabinet colleagues, who were selected byGovernor -G eneral in bot h the cases, for the decision of the issues.The issues were settled even before Cabinet meetings by thisst ronger faction and just for mall y approved by the Cabinet.

Choudhury Muhammad Ali could not develop closerelat ionship w it h his Cabinet . H e was not a poli t ician but a ret ir edcivil bureaucrat. He always found his Cabinet colleagues as men ofpoor caliber and said that they were busy in interminablepolitical maneuvering 63 due to which he was unable toconcentrate on administrative matters.

Suhrawardys relationship with his Cabinet remainedconflicting since beginning. Besides One Unit issue, Suhrawardyintroduced policies which only increased tension in the Cabinet.H e changed t he status of Finance M inister abrupt ly. Previously , hew as very pow er ful . Suhraw ardy r educed his pow er and cont rol onfinances. He started using internal and foreign currency fundsaccording to his ow n choice in place of f inance M inister s w il l. Itwidened the gulf between East Pakistani Prime Minister and his

W est Pakistani coali t ion par tners in the Cabinet w ho finall y madeit im possible for Suhraw ardy t o w ork as Prim e M inister . Secondlyhe was more pro-America even than previous Prime Ministers. Itfurther enhanced grouping not only in Cabinet but also in hispar t y w here a separate group w as for m ed under M aulana AbdulHamid Bhashani. 64

W orking relat ions w ere least among Cabinet col l eagues

during Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigars Premiership. Ministers ofdifferent Political Parties formed groups in the Cabinet whoremained busy in wrangling against each other; Chundrigars hold


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on Cabinet was very weak. The situation was not very muchdifferent during Malik Feroze Khan Noons regime who had tomake compromises on some of the policies of his government dueto pr essure from coali t ion par tners.

ConclusionPakistan remained politically instable from 1947 to1958 and

the most important reason of this instability was regionalism,which affected the formation and working of the institution ofCabinet a lot. If regionalism could be checked this influential andprestigious institution of Cabinet, the future of Pakistan could bedifferent . U nfor tunately it increased w it h the passage of t im e. Theappoint ment crit er ia were quali fi cat ion and experience in the fir stphase which was added by personal relationship in the secondphase. It was quite different in the third phase when partyaffiliation and regional affiliation were the highest criteria. Therifts remained within the boundaries of the Cabinet during first

two phases which did not affect the performance of the Cabinets.These went out for public discussion during the last phase andwere so intense that these became the reason of fall of one or theother Cabinet. The rifts existed in the Cabinet mostly on the basisof regional divisions, which gradually increased and becamereason of dismissal of Cabinets especially during coalitiongovernments.

Although there were two groups in the Cabinet since days ofLiaquat, yet difference of opinion never created major hindrancein taking final decisions. It is also said that in case of difference ofopinion, Liaquat introduced the concept of voting115 which had itspositive and negative impacts both. Cabinet of Talent was uniqueand had more similarity with Colonial Indias system ofGovernment where Governor-General was the real authority.M il it ary Chief (Ayub K han) and an ex-m il it ary general (Iskandar

Mirza) were given prominent and powerful portfolios in theCabinet. T he real d ecision making aut hor it y w as enjoyed by such agroup who were nor representatives of the masses neither


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answerable to the legislature. This system did not fulfillrequirement of a democratic country. Further it enhanced feelingof dissat isfact ion among East Pakistanis.

The Cabinets of the last period of under lying study werecoalition as no party had majority in the Constituent Assembly ofPakistan. Political stability was highly damaged in this period. NoCabinet could work for more than a year, so governmentsperformance was meager. Further, these Cabinets faced a numberof problems relevant to both the provinces on which decisionswere not taken in time and if taken, those were only taken tosatisfy the one or the other coalition partners. This style ofworking of the Cabinets increased political instability in theprovinces, which ultimately led Pakistan towards Martial Law in1958. Almost the same tendency of regionalism and provincialismis observed in present day Pakistan. Intraregional squabbling andinterprovincial rivalry is existed among Sindhis, Baluch and

Pathans. They are mostly against domination of Punjabis.Separatist tendencies are acute among Baluchis. Its time to learnlesson from our own past experiences (1947-58) and to saveourselves fr om comm it t ing new m istakes.

N otes and References

1 M inist r ies of the Federal Governm ent , O fficialRecord prepar ed by Cabinet W ing, N at ionalDocumentation Centre (hereafter called NDC),Islamabad. Rafique Afzal, Pakistan, History andPo l i t ics 1947-71 (Oxford: The University Press,2001),

2 K eit h Call ard, T he Polit ical Stabil it y of Pakistan,

Paci f i c Affairs29 (M arch 1956): 9


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3 M inist r ies of the Federal Governm ent , O ff icial

Record prepared by Cabinet W ing,,NDC,Islamabad.

4 Keith Callard, Pakistan; The Polit ical Study(London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1957),57

5 M inisters of the Federal Governm ent , O fficial

Record prepared by Cabinet W ing, N D C,Islamabad.

6 Dawn19 April 1953

7 Afzal, Pakistan, History and Pol i t ics 1947-71 (O xfor d: T he U niversit y Press, 2001), 117.

8 O fficial Record pr epar ed by Cabinet W ing,N D C, Islamabad.

9 Ibid and H am id Yousuf, Pakistan: A Study ofPolit ical Developments 1947-97 (Lahore: Sang-e-M eel Publicat ions, 1999). 61

10 Callard, Pakistan: A Polit ical Study (London:

George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1957), 67 andDawn31 O ctober, 1954.

11 Lawrence Ziring, Pakistan in the Twentieth CenturyA Pol i t ica l History (Karachi: Oxford UniversityPress, 1997), 169

12 Richard S. W heeler, Governor General s Rul e

in Pakistan Far Eastern Survey24 (Jan 1955) : 4

13 Rashiduzzaman, Pakistan: A Study of Governmentand Poli t i cs, (Dacca: The University Press, 1967)


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14 Choudhary, Constitutional Development in Pakistan

(London: Longman, 1969), and M.Rashiduzzaman, Pakistan: A Study of Governmentand Poli t i cs, 117-18,

15 Cabinet Meeting 4 August, 1955, File No.230/ CF/ 55, C abinet Paper (hereaft er call edC.P), National Documentation Centre (hereaftercall ed N D C), Islamabad.

16 Mohammad H.R. Talukdar, M emoi rs of H useynShaheed Suhrawardy (Dhaka: The University PressLt d., 1987), 90

17 Paki stan T i mes12 A ugust 1955.

18 Ibid

19 O fficial Record Prepared by Cabinet W ing,N D C, Islamabad.

20 Stanley M aron, A N ew Phase in PakistanPolitics, Far Eastern Survey24 (1955): 162.

21 O ne U nit had been int roduced in Pak istan under

w hich W est Pakistani pr ovinces w er e mergedinto One Province to solve many constitutionaland political problems. For more details see, Polit ics of O ne U nit

22 Paki stan T i mes13 September , 1956.

23 Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Political stability

and Democracy in Pakistan, Foreign Affairs 35N O . 3 (A pri l 1957): 425; Rashiduzzam an,Paki stan : A Stu dy of Govern ment and Pol i t i cs, 121


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24 Nawa- i -Waqa t 19 October 1957; Pakistan Times18

October 1957. Details of some ministers aretaken from the record of ministers of CabinetW ing, ND C, Islam abad.

25 Afzal, Pakistan; History and Polit ics, 199 andPakistan Times, 16 D ecember , 1957.

26 Ibid, 201

27 Mushtaq Ahmed, Government and Polit ics inPakistan, ( NewYork: Frederick A. PraegerPublishers,1963 revised) 69

28 M inisters of Federal C abinet, Cabinet W ing,N D C, Islamabad.

29 Talukdar, Memoirs of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy,125.

30 Lawrence Ziring, Pakistan: At the Crosscurrent ofHistory(Lahore: Vanguard, 2004), 78

31 R ichard Sym onds, State-M aking in Pakistan, Far Eastern Survey, 46 .

32 Afzal, Pakistan: History and Polit ics, 95

33 Choudry Mohammad Ail, Emergence of Pakistan(N ewyork: Col umbia U ni versi ty Press, 1 9 6 7 ), 375

34 Allen McGrath, The Destruction of PakistansDemocracy,( Karachi: Oxford University Press,

1996), 55

35 From Minister of Industries, Commerce andW orks to Prim e M inister dated 12 Nov. 1949,


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Confidential F.3(3),PM S/ 49,GO P, PM S

Secretar iat, N D C, Islamabad

36 Allen McGrath, The Destruction of PakistansDemocracy (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 19960,55

37 From Int er ior M inister K haw aja Shahab ud din toPrim e M inister dated 13 February 1949, F. N . 3,

(4) PM S/ 49,N D C, Islamabad

38 Ian Talbot, Pakistan A Modern History, (Lahore:Vanguard Books, 1991) , 141

39 The details of Anti Ahmaddiya Movement aregiven at an appropriate place

40 Ayesha Jalal , The State of Mart ial Rule: The Originsof Pakistans Political Economy of Defence (Lahore:Vanguard , 19 91 , ) 17 3

41 Punjab Report of the Court of InquiryConstituted under Punjab Act 11of 1954 toEnquire into the Punjab Disturbances of 1953,Lahore, 1954 cited in Salamat, Pakistan 1947-

1 9 5 8 , 81

42 Collard, Paki stan: A Pol i t i cal Stu dy, 139

43 Jalal, T he State of M art i a l Rule, 189

44 Collard, Paki stan: A Pol i t i cal Stu dy, 139

45 Jalal , T he State of M art i a l Rul e, 201

46 Ibid, 9 Septem ber 1956


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47 PakistanTimes, 31 August 1956

48 Ahmad, Mart ia l Law sei mart ia l Law Tuk, Urdu(), 382

49 Ahmad, Government and Politics in Pakistan, 65

50 Ahmad, M art ia l Law sei M ar t ia l Law Tuk, 382

5 1 N a w a - i - W a q t , 11 October 1957 and Talukdar,M emoi rs of H ussai n, 119

52 Ibid, 12 O ctober 1957

53 Ibid, 384

54 Paki stan T i mes, 12 D ecember 1957

55 Ibid, 12 D ecember 1957

56 Nawa- i -Waq t , 16 D ecember 1957

57 Suhraw ardy w as suppor t ing N oon s Governm ent .At the same time KSP and Awami League hadfactional r ivalr y and induct ion of H amid ul H aq inthe Cabinet could create problems for hisGovernment.

58 Ahmad, M art i a l Law sea M art i a l Law Tuk, 408

59 Aziz, Party Poli t i cs, 46

60 L. F. Rushbrook W ill iams, The State of Pakistan, (L ondon: Faber and Faber , 1962) , 137-38


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61 From a Speech of N azimudd in broadcast by Radio

Pakistan, 17 October 1951 cited in Ahmed ,Govern ment and Pol i t i cs i n Pakistan , 5 0

62 Ahmed, Govern ment and Pol i t i cs i n Paki stan , 4 5

63 Jalal , The State of M ar t ial Rul e, 233

64 Ahmad, M art i a l Law sea M art i a l Law Tuk, 380

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