Ayub Khan's Military Coup

On October 7, 1958, President Iskander Mirza, with the backing of General Muhammad Ayub Khan, declared martial law in Pakistan, abrogating the constitution that had been adopted just two years earlier. Twenty days later, Ayub Khan turned on Mirza himself, exiling the president to London and assuming full control. It was Pakistan's first military coup, but it would not be the last — the army would seize power three more times (1969, 1977, 1999). Ayub Khan styled himself "Field Marshal" and ruled for eleven years, implementing what he called "Basic Democracies" — a tiered electoral system that concentrated power in his hands. His decade saw rapid economic growth (the "Decade of Development"), the construction of Islamabad as a new capital, and the 1965 war with India over Kashmir. But his authoritarian rule suppressed political opposition, deepened the economic disparity between West and East Pakistan, and set the precedent that the army, not elected civilians, was the ultimate arbiter of Pakistani politics.