Pakistan Affairs MCQs – Page 14 (Q131-140)

Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad dissolved Pakistan's first Constituent Assembly in October 1954, just as it was preparing to curb his own sweeping powers through new constitutional amendments. Assembly President Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan challenged the dissolution in court, but the Federal Court, led by Chief Justice Muhammad Munir, controversially upheld the Governor-General's action in 1955 by invoking the 'doctrine of necessity'. This precedent-setting ruling has been widely criticised by legal scholars for legitimising extra-constitutional interventions and setting a troubling pattern later invoked to justify military coups. A second Constituent Assembly was subsequently convened in 1955, which went on to draft Pakistan's first constitution, adopted in 1956.

The One Unit Scheme, introduced in October 1955 under Governor-General Iskander Mirza, merged all of West Pakistan's provinces -- Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then NWFP) and Balochistan -- into a single administrative unit called West Pakistan. The policy was designed largely to create political parity between West and East Pakistan, since East Pakistan alone held a slight majority of the country's total population. It was deeply unpopular among smaller provinces, who felt it eroded their distinct identities and gave Punjab, the largest western province, outsized influence within the merged unit. The scheme remained in place until it was abolished in 1970 under Yahya Khan, restoring the four separate provinces ahead of that year's general elections.

The One Unit Scheme, which had merged West Pakistan's four provinces into a single unit since 1955, was abolished on 1 July 1970 under President Yahya Khan's Legal Framework Order. This restored Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then still called NWFP) and Balochistan as separate provinces ahead of the landmark general elections held later that year. The move reflected long-standing resentment from smaller provinces, who had argued the One Unit arrangement suppressed their distinct linguistic and political identities in favour of Punjab's dominance. Its dissolution came too late, however, to resolve the deeper East-West Pakistan tensions that culminated in Bangladesh's independence just over a year later, in December 1971.

Ayub Khan's imposition of martial law took effect on 7 October 1958, when President Iskander Mirza first proclaimed it before Ayub Khan, then army chief, sidelined Mirza within weeks and assumed the presidency himself by the end of October. This was the first of several martial law periods in Pakistan's history, establishing a pattern of military intervention that recurred under Yahya Khan in 1969, Zia-ul-Haq in 1977 and Musharraf in 1999. Ayub's rule lasted over a decade, during which he introduced the 1962 constitution, the Basic Democracies local government system, and ambitious Green Revolution agricultural reforms. His era ended amid mass unrest in 1968-69, when he handed power to army chief Yahya Khan rather than following the civilian succession process.

The Indus Waters Treaty was signed on 19 September 1960 in Karachi by Pakistani President Ayub Khan and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, following nearly a decade of negotiations that began in the early 1950s. It resolved a dispute over the shared Indus river system by allocating the three western rivers -- Indus, Jhelum and Chenab -- to Pakistan, and the three eastern rivers -- Ravi, Beas and Sutlej -- largely to India. The World Bank played a central mediating role throughout the talks, and continues to serve as guarantor and dispute-resolution mechanism under the treaty's terms. Despite several wars and periods of severe tension between the two countries since, the treaty remained largely intact for decades, widely regarded as one of the most durable water-sharing agreements in the world.

The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 was signed between Pakistan and India, settling the allocation of the Indus river system's waters after the two countries had disputed control since partition in 1947, when the border split a river network that had never respected such divisions. Under the treaty, Pakistan received the lion's share of the system's flow through the three western rivers, reflecting its greater dependence on the Indus basin for agriculture. The agreement survived the 1965 and 1971 wars between the two nations, testament to its unusually robust dispute-resolution mechanisms. In April 2025, following the Pahalgam attack, India announced it was holding the treaty in abeyance, marking the most serious challenge yet to an agreement Pakistan maintains cannot be unilaterally suspended.

The Indus Waters Treaty was brokered by the World Bank, whose president at the time, Eugene Black, played a pivotal role in mediating nearly a decade of negotiations between Pakistan and India starting in the early 1950s. The Bank not only facilitated the talks but also helped arrange substantial international funding for new canals and replacement dams, including Pakistan's Mangla and Tarbela dams, to compensate for the loss of eastern river waters. This financial and diplomatic backing was crucial in making the final agreement politically acceptable to both governments. The World Bank continues to play a formal role today, appointing neutral experts and arbitration panels to resolve technical disputes, such as disagreements over Indian hydropower projects on the western rivers.

The second Indo-Pakistani War began in August-September 1965, triggered after Pakistan launched Operation Gibraltar, an attempt to infiltrate fighters into Indian-administered Kashmir to incite a local uprising, which prompted a full-scale Indian military response. The 17-day war saw major tank battles, notably around Chawinda in Sialkot, one of the largest tank engagements since World War II, alongside heavy fighting near Lahore. The conflict ended in a UN-brokered ceasefire, followed by the Tashkent Declaration in January 1966, mediated by the Soviet Union. Pakistan commemorates the war annually on Defence Day, 6 September, honouring the armed forces' resistance during the conflict.

The Tashkent Declaration was signed on 10 January 1966 in Tashkent, then part of the Soviet Union, ending the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War through Soviet mediation led by Premier Alexei Kosygin. The agreement committed both countries to withdraw forces to pre-war positions and restore diplomatic and economic relations, but it made no mention of Kashmir, the war's underlying cause, leaving many Pakistanis feeling it failed to secure gains commensurate with the conflict's cost. The perceived diplomatic setback significantly damaged President Ayub Khan's domestic standing and is often cited as fuelling the unrest that eventually forced him from power in 1969. Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had helped negotiate the deal, publicly distanced himself from it afterward, using the backlash to build his own political career.

The Tashkent Declaration was signed by Pakistani President Ayub Khan and Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, formally ending the 1965 war under Soviet-mediated talks in January 1966. In a tragic twist, Shastri died of an apparent heart attack in Tashkent just hours after signing the agreement, making him the only Indian prime minister to die in office outside India. He was succeeded as Indian premier by Indira Gandhi, who later led India through the 1971 war with Pakistan and signed the subsequent Simla Agreement with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972. Shastri is remembered in India for his wartime slogan 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan' ('Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer'), reflecting his focus on both defence and agricultural self-sufficiency.