Early years and personal life

Ayub Khan was born on 14 May 1907, in Haripur British India, in the village of Rehana in the Haripur District in the Hazara region of the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa). He was ethnically a Pakhtun(or Pathan) of the Tareen tribe, although a Hindko speaker. He was the first child of the second wife of Mir Dad Khan Tareen, who was a Risaldar-Major (senior regimental noncommissioned officer) in Hodson's Horse, a cavalry regiment of the pre-independence Indian Army. For his basic education, Ayub was enrolled in a school in Sarai Saleh, Later he was moved to a school in Haripur, where lived with his grandmother. He enrolled at Aligarh Muslim University in 1922, but did not complete his studies there, as he was accepted into the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Military career
Ayub Khan did well at Sandhurst and was given an officer's commission in the Indian Army on 2 February 1928 and then joined the 1st Battalion of the 14th Punjab Regiment (Sherdils), later known as 5th Punjab Regiment. During the Second World War, he served as a Lieutenant Colonel on the Burma front, commanding the 1st Battalion of 14th Punjab Regiment. Following the war, he joined the fledgling Pakistani Army as the 10th ranking senior officer (his Pakistan Army number was 10). He was promoted to Brigadier and commanded a brigade in Waziristan and then in 1948 was sent with the local rank of Major General to East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) as General Officer Commanding of 14th Infantry division responsible for the whole East Wing of Pakistan, for which non-combatant service he was awarded the Hilal-i-Jurat (HJ). He returned to West Pakistan in November 1949 as Adjutant General of the Army and then was briefly Deputy Commander-in-Chief.

Commander-in-Chief
Ayub Khan succeeded General Sir Douglas Gracey as Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army on 17 January 1951, becoming the first native Pakistani general to hold that position. Therefore, he superseded two of his seniors, Maj Gen Muhammed Akbar Khan and Maj Gen N.A.M. Raza. Ayub Khan was promoted to C-in-C only due to the death of Maj Gen Iftikhar Khan, who was nominated as the first native C-in-C, but died in an air-crash en route to his C-in-C training in the UK. Iskandar Mirza, Secretary of Defence, was instrumental in Ayub's promotion, commencing a relationship in which Mirza became Governor General of the Dominion of Pakistan and later President of Pakistan, when it became a republic on 23 March 1956. The events surrounding his appointment set the precedent for a Pakistani general being promoted out of turn, ostensibly because he was the least ambitious of the Generals and the most loyal. Three months before the end of his tenure as Commander-in-Chief, Ayub Khan deposed his mentor, Iskandar Mirza, Pakistan's President, in a military coup - after Mirza had declared martial law and made Ayub martial law commander.

Defence Minister
He would later go on to serve in the second cabinet (1954) of Muhammad Ali Bogra as Defence Minister, and when Iskander Mirza declared martial law on 7 October 1958, Ayub Khan was made its chief martial law administrator. Azam Khan (general), Nawab Amir Mohammad Khan and Sandhurst trained General Wajid Ali Khan Burki were instrumental in Ayub Khan's Rise to power. This would be the first of many instances in the history of Pakistan of the military becoming directly involved in politics

President of Pakistan (19581969)

After the collapse of the Cabinet of I I Chundrigar, Feroz Khan Noon formed the Cabinet with the support of Republican Party, Awani Party and Krishk Sramik Party, Iskandar Mirza was bit distressed by this alliance, because in next general elections Suhrawardy and Noon were dreaming about becoming Prime Minister and President respectively. On the other side, in West Pakistan Muslim League had become very popular due to leadership of Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan. These events were against Iskandar Mirza hence he was willing to dissolve even Pakistan's one unit for his advantage . Hence he declared Martial Law on midnight of 7 and 8 October 1958 abrogating the 1956 constitution, Ministers were dismissed, Central and Provincial governments and assemblies were dissolved and he appointed C-in-C (Commander in Chief) General Ayub khan to lead the country with him. Similarly, as a result of his having control of the Pakistan Army, Ayub deposed Mirza on 27 October in a bloodless coup, sending Generals Wajid Burki, Azam, and Sheikh in the middle of the night to pack Mirza off to exile in England. This was actually welcomed in Pakistan, since the nation had experienced a very unstable political climate since independence. In 1960, he held an indirect referendum of his term in power. Functioning as a kind of electoral college, close to 80,000 recently elected village councilmen were allowed to vote yes or no to the question: "Have you confidence in the President, Field Marshal Mohammed Ayub Khan?" Winning 95.6% of the vote, he used the confirmation as impetus to formalise his new system. In July 1961, Ayub paid a visit to the United States, accompanied by his daughter Begum Nasir Akhtar Aurangzeb. Highlights of his visit included a state dinner at Mount Vernon, a visit to the Islamic Center of Washington, and a ticker tape parade in New York City.[16]

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

Main article: Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 The turning point in his rule was the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, and it ended in a settlement reached by Ayub at Tashkent, called the Tashkent Declaration. The settlement was perceived negatively by many Pakistanis and led Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to resign his post and take up opposition to Khan.[24] According to Morrice James, "For them [Pakistanis] Ayub had betrayed the nation and had inexcusably lost face before the Indians."[25] The war also increased opposition in East Pakistan [Now Bangladesh] where the Awami League headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sought more autonomy for the province. General Ayub Khan, who had assumed office of the commander in chief in 1951, supported Governor General Ghulam Muhammad when he dismissed the first constituent assembly on the grounds "The constituent assembly being power hungry and having a tendency of being corrupt." Moulvi Tamizuddin, the first speaker of the assembly, challenged the dismissal (he had to take a rickshaw, wear a burka and

go through Sindh court backdoor to seek justice for a nation). Sindh court accepted the appeal but the Federal Court dismissed the Sindh court judgment as the "Doctrine of necessity". Later on the decision has been the basis of all autocratic adjustments in Pakistan.

Joint Defence Union with India

In 1959, his interest in building defence forces diminished when President Ayub Khan made an offer of joint defence with India during the Sino-Indo clashes in October 1959 in Ladakh, in a move seen as a result of American pressure and lack of understanding of Foreign affairs[26]

Death
In 1971 when war broke out, Ayub Khan was in West Pakistan. He presented himself for fighting in war but government turned him down on account of his age and ill-health[citation needed]. He did not comment on the events of the war. He died in 1974[citation needed]. Ayub Khans eldest son Gohar Ayub Khan was Pakistan's Foreign Minister in the Nawaz Sharif government and his grandson Omar Ayub Khan was briefly Pakistans Minister of State for Finance. His daughter Begum Nasim Aurangzeb was married to Miangul Aurangzeb, the Wali of Swat.[37]