Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy (1956-1957)
In
1956, the Awami League formed a coalition with Pakistan's Republican
Party to unseat the previous government.
Suhrawardy became the fifth Prime
Minister of Pakistan and
the second premier under the 1956 Constitution of Pakistan.
Suhrawardy was known as a pro-American politician.
He also cultivated pragmatic ties with Communist
China. Suhrawardy supported the
American-led Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)
and the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO).
He was not keen on nonalignment which
was strongly pursued by neighboring India. In domestic policy, Suhrawardy
addressed issues of nuclear
energy, foreign aid utilization, food policy,
the One Unit framework, and building up the military. His staunchly pro-Western
foreign policy was opposed by Bengali radicals led by Maulana Bhashani who
caused a split in the Awami League. However, Suhrawardy was elected as
President of the Awami League. His cabinet included Feroz Khan Noon and Abul Mansur Ahmed among
others.
One Unit
Initially
promising to review the One Unit framework
in the 1956 constitution, Prime Minister Suhrawardy later backtracked. At
the National
Assembly, Prime Minister Suhrawardy faced
pressure from provincialists over the One Unit. West Pakistani provincialists
wanted to restore the previous four
provinces of Sind, Balochistan, Punjab and
the North
West Frontier Province. Large
rallies were held in West Pakistan against the One Unit. Prime Minister
Suhrawardy, however, did not pay attention to the issue. While East
Pakistanis also objected to the One Unit for renaming East Bengal as East
Pakistan, opposition among ethnic groups to the One Unit was stronger in West Pakistan.
Joint electorate
Suhrawardy's one-year tenure was unable to introduce the joint electorate. Since 1932, elections in Pakistan's provinces were held under the "separate electorate" system of dividing seats in parliament among religious groups in accordance with the colonial-era Communal Award. Abolishing the joint electorate was a key demand of the Awami League. At the National Assembly, the Awami League initiated constitutional reforms to restore the joint electorate system but faced opposition from the Muslim League.
Nuclear energy
Suhrawardy
established the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC).
He appointed Dr. Nazir
Ahmad as its chairman. Suhrawardy
supported the Atoms for Peace initiative. Suhrawardy
also released funds to import a nuclear swimming
pool reactor from America in 1956.
Economic policy and foreign aid
In
1956, Prime Minister Suhrawardy halted the National Finance Commission (NFC)
programme to allocate taxed revenue equally
between East and West Pakistan.
Suhrawardy relied heavily upon U.S. aid to the country to meet food shortages,
and asked the U.S. president to ship wheat flour and rice on a regular basis to
Pakistan. In East Pakistan, there were reports of another
widespread famine, in which, wheat, potatoes, and rice were being sent from the
U.S. and West Pakistan's Fauji
Foundation to East Pakistan on a regular basis.
The central government led
by Suhrawardy focused on the implementation of the planned economy.
His relations with the stock
exchange and the business
community deteriorated when he announced
distribution of the US$10
million ICA aid between
West and East, and establishing the shipping corporation at the expense of West
Pakistan's revenues. Massive labour strikes broke out in West
Pakistan against his economic policy in major cities of Pakistan. Eventually
leaders of the stock exchange met with President Mirza to
address their concerns and issues.
Foreign policy
Suhrawardy
coined the phrase friendship to all, malice to none which
was later adopted as Bangladesh's foreign policy. Suhrawardy is also
considered to be one of the pioneers of Pakistan's foreign
policy aimed, directed, and set towards
excessively supporting the United States and their cause,
a policy that was pursued by the successive administrations. On 10 July
1957, Prime Minister Suhrawardy paid an official visit to the United States
where he met with President Dwight
Eisenhower and accepted his request to lease
out an air force base to
the United
States Air Force that would be in use for the signals
intelligence purposes against the Soviet Union.
The 1960 U-2 incident severely
compromised the national security of
Pakistan when Soviet Union eventually discovered the base through
interrogating its pilot.
In return, the United States distributed ~US$ 2.142
billion in shape of giving the supersonic F-104 Starfighter and M48 Patton tanks
and dispatching the assistance group to
the Pakistan's military. Suhrawardy's
party, the Awami League, split over his signing of the US-Pakistan military
pact, with Maulana Bhasani leaving
to form the National
Awami Party (NAP).
Prime
Minister Suhrawardy was invited by the Soviet Union for an informal
visit but he declined.
In
1956, Prime Minister Suhrawardy became the Pakistan's first Prime Minister to
visit China.
Suhrawardy's
India policy was at times critical. He demanded a fair share of
water sharing on transboundary rivers.
Suhrawardy
visited Afghanistan and
pledged to work for regional peace, decolonization and stability.
Suhrawardy
also visited Japan and
felt the East Asian country was model to emulate in development.
He
addressed a joint sitting of the Philippines Congress
during which he expressed support for SEATO and
continued to call for decolonization.
Resignation
Suhrawardy's
short-lived premiership came to an end when he resigned under pressure from
President Iskander Mirza in
1957.
