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Pakistan
Ayub Khan, 1958-69
Although Ayub Khan viewed himself as a reformer, he was predisposed
to the benevolent authoritarianism of the Mughal and viceregal
traditions. He also relied heavily on the country's civilian bureaucrats,
who formed the majority of his advisers and cabinet ministers.
Ayub Khan initiated a plan for Basic Democracies, a measure to
create a system of local government from the grass roots (see
Basic Democracies , ch. 1). The Basic Democracies system consisted
of a mulitiered pyramidal hierarchy of interlocking tiers of legislative
councils from the village to the provincial level. The lowest
but most important tier was composed of union councils, one each
for groups of villages having an approximate population of 10,000.
The members of these union councils were called Basic Democrats.
The union councils were responsible for local government, including
agricultural and community development, maintaining law and order
through rural police, and trying minor cases in conciliation courts.
In 1960 the Basic Democrats were asked to endorse Ayub Khan's
presidency and to give him a mandate to frame a new constitution.
Ayub's constitution, promulgated in 1962, ended martial law, established
a presidential form of government with a weak legislature (now
called the National Assembly) and gave the president augmented
executive, legislative, and financial powers. Adult franchise
was limited to the election of Basic Democrats, who constituted
an electoral college for the president and members of the national
and provincial assemblies. This constitution was abrogated in
1969 when Ayub, who by then had lost the people's confidence,
resigned, handing over the responsibility for governing to the
army commander in chief General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan (see
The Ayub Khan Era , ch. 1). Yahya Khan assumed the title of president
and also became chief martial law administrator.
Data as of April 1994
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