10/19/23, 5:03 PM Ayub Khan Reforms (1958-1969) | GCE O Level | Interesting Facts

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OTHER O LEVEL PAKISTAN STUDIES

Ayub Khan Reforms (1958-1969) | GCE

O Level | Interesting Facts

By waleedgohar August 20, 2020  0

General Muhammad Ayub Khan was an army general who seized

control from another President of Pakistan, Iskander Mirza.

Ayub Khan reforms are important to study because they have had a
significant impact to date.

Ayub Khan came into power in 1958 as the chief martial law
administrator after imposing martial law. There were various reasons
why was martial law declared and how did it affect the future of
Pakistan.

Ayub Khan reforms

If you want to know about the regime (rule) of Ayub Khan, you will love
the comprehensive resources I am about to share with you. But first,
let’s study the reforms of Ayub Khan.

Table of Contents

1. Ayub Khan reforms

1.1. Agricultural reforms:

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1.2. Industrial reforms:
1.3. Administrative reforms:
1.4. Social, Health and Educational reforms:
2. FAQ’s:
2.1. What was the Green Revolution by Ayub Khan?
2.2. Who was Ayub Khan (general)?
2.3. Conclusion:

Ayub Khan reforms

Agricultural reforms:

The 1958 to 1969 era of Ayub Khan is known as the decade of

progress in Pakistan, and this is for a reason – the developments that
took place.

Ayub Khan introduced several reforms in agriculture. He limited the

holdings of the land and he attempted to modernize agriculture as
well.

For this purpose, he fixed the limit that no one could possess less than
12.5 acres of land (because he wanted to increase the agricultural
productivity) and more than 500 acres of irrigated and 1000 acres of
unirrigated land.

Moreover, Ayub Khan provided several incentives to the farmers in

order to modernize agriculture. He decided to provide loans to the
farmers so that they could purchase tractors and insecticides and
pesticides in order to increase the agricultural output.

However, this proved to be a problem (later) as well. Let me tell you

why.

This is because the (many) poor farmers were unable to repay the
loans. This is the reason why many farmers faced a lot of problems
when it came to agriculture.

Further Reading:

War of Independence Notes | 1857 to 1858

Round Table Conferences | Best Notes

Power Resources | GCE O Level | Interesting Notes

Overall, Ayub Khan reforms led to a 15% increase in the GNP (Gross
National Product) of Pakistan. The reason why Ayub Khan introduced
these reforms is that the wealthy landowners possessed massive land
holdings while the poor tenants possessed unusually less land.

This created serious problems as the agricultural output was not

satisfactory. These reforms ensured that people should have at least
that amount of land that can lead to some sort of production.

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To summarise, some of the agricultural reforms of Ayub Khan were:

He limited land holdings.

He gave loans to farmers (to modernize agriculture).
Dams were built to facilitate agriculture.

This takes us to some other reforms of Ayub Khan such as Industrial,

educational, health, social and administrative.

Industrial reforms:

Ayub Khan introduced some industrial reforms in order to increase the

export and reduce the import to enhance Pakistan’s economy.

For this purpose, Ayub Khan decided to provide incentives to attract

foreign investors. One of the incentives includes the Export Bonus
Scheme (EBS) which manage to attract foreign as well as local
investors.

Moreover, Ayub Khan managed to open more industries in Pakistan for

the sake of employment and fulfilling the local demands. Several, oil
and gas development projects were also started.

This was the time when Pakistan built three large dams in order to
provide irrigation water to facilitate agriculture. Hydroelectric power
plants were also set up in order to deal with the electricity crisis of
Pakistan.

Moreover, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey came into an economic alliance

which is known as the regional cooperation for development (RCD).
This was a project between the three Muslim countries to facilitate the
development in the three countries. The project was started in 1964.

Furthermore, Pakistan with the assistance of Chinese aid managed to

build several large scale industries. Therefore, the industrial reforms
of Ayub Khan decreased the inflation rate in Pakistan and this was the
time when the economy of Pakistan flourished.

However, a disadvantage is that this led to the occupation of 66% of

industries and 80% of banking and insurance companies of Pakistan
by only 22 families.

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This created serious resentment among the people of East Pakistan

(present-day Bangladesh) because these 22 families were mostly from
West Pakistan (present-day Islamic Republic of Pakistan).

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

Summary:

Export Bonus Scheme (EBS) was introduced.

Industries were opened.

An economic alliance with Turkey and Iran was created.

Administrative reforms:

In this part, we are going to discuss the 1962 constitution and the
shifting of capital from Karachi to Islamabad. Therefore, let’s start with
that straight away.

Due to the martial law imposed in 1958 by the government of Ayub

Khan, the 1956 constitution was abrogated. General Muhammad Ayub
Khan devised a committee for the formation of the constitution of
Pakistan.

Thus, the 1962 constitution was introduced that came up with a

presidential form of government. Under the constitution, the president
could not be removed unless peached.

The constitution introduced the concept of basic democracies for the

election of the president. Let’s see what this concept was.

The basic democracy was a system in which the electoral college

would appoint the President of Pakistan (who was to be a Muslim and
no less than the age of 35). The electoral college would consist of
80,000 basic democrats who were selected by the vote on people on
the district, tehsil, division and provincial level.

Under this, the vote on confidence was held and Ayub Khan was
declared the next president of Pakistan based on the 95% votes

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declaring confidence in Ayub Khan.

Note: Now you might be wondering, why was this system (basic
democracy) introduced? According to Ayub Khan, this was a matter
of “adult franchise”.

This means that he had a lack of faith in the public.

I hope that this four-tier structure has been explained. So, it is time to
move on and discuss the shifting of capital.

There were various reasons why Ayub Khan changed the capital of
Pakistan. Below are some of the points you can take into
consideration.

Karachi was vulnerable to attacks during war condition

because of the presence of the sea around it. Islamabad
however, was a landlocked city.

Ayub wanted to get near the army headquarters which

was located in Rawalpindi.

Ayub Khan wanted to get near to Punjab and KPK (Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa) because these provinces provided the
largest amount of troops in the Pakistan army.

The temperature of Islamabad was pleasant enough to

work.

Islamabad was a city that could be developed according

to Ayub’s plan (because Islamabad was undeveloped at
that time).

The government officials began to involve themselves in

the profitable trade in Karachi instead of their work.
Therefore, Ayub found it incumbent to shift the capital
from Karachi to Pakistan.

Karachi was becoming overcrowded due to the massive

increase in population. Therefore, it seemed sensible to
move the capital to a place where the population was
less.

Social, Health and Educational reforms:

The contributions of Ayub Khan in the sectors such as health and

education is also worth discussing.

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Although population control schemes were introduced they could not

be effective as they were not carried out on a large scale and they
were widely opposed by some sectors of Pakistan.

Ayub Khan opened several schools and colleges and a new curriculum
for the textbooks was introduced which he thought would be
beneficial. Several centres for the training of doctors and nurses were
also opened because of the shortage of experienced medical staff in
Pakistan.

These reforms were successful to some extent because they had

some positives and some flaws.

Related: Population and Employment | Pakistan Studies Notes

Now when you know how Ayub Khan flipped the government of
Iskander Mirza and came as the chief martial law administrator and
introduced several reforms, it is time to wrap up the lesson.

FAQ’s:

What was the Green Revolution by Ayub Khan?

The Green revolution represents the success of Ayub Khan

agricultural reforms as they brought about a large increase in the
production of food grains (such as rice and wheat).

Who was Ayub Khan (general)?

Muhammad Ayub Khan was the second president of the Islamic

Republic of Pakistan. He conducted the first successful coup in the
country and seized the presidency from Iskander Mirza in 1958.

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Conclusion:

With this, Ayub Khan reforms have been discussed and certain other
aspects regarding the era of Ayub Khan (1958-1969) has also been
addressed.

Now it is on you to decide that whether the tenure of Ayub Khan

brought stability and prosperity or his policies brought about some
problems as well. The choice is yours.

Thank You very much for reading and staying with me till the end and
stay tuned for more.

CIE GCE O Level

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