- Sahibzada Iskander Ali Mirza (Urdu: skhndr mrz;Bengali: iskaandaar mirjaa); 13 November 1899 - 13 November 1969), CIE, OSS, OBE, was the first President of Pakistan, elected in this capacity in 1956 until being dismissed by dictator Ayub Khan in 1958. The great grandson of Siraj ud-Daulah, Mirza was educated at the University of Mumbai before attending the military academy in Sandhurst in the United Kingdom. After a brief military service in the British Indian Army, he joined the Indian Political Service and spent the majority of his career as a political agent in the Western region of the British India until elevated as joint secretary at the Ministry of Defence in 1946. After the independence of Pakistan as result of the Partition of India, Mirza was appointed as first Defence Secretary by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, only to oversee the military efforts in first war with India in 1947, followed by failed secessionism in Balochistan in 1948.

After the legislative elections held in 1954, the Awami League had been successfully negotiating with the Muslim League for a power-sharing to form the national government against the Republican Party. By 1958, I.I. Chundrigar and A.Q. Khan had successfully reorganized the Muslim League that was threatening the reelection and political endorsement for Mirza for the second term of his presidency. Furthermore, the Republican Party presided by Prime Minister Sir Feroze Khan had been under pressured over the electoral reforms issue at the National Assembly. Upon witnessing these developments, President Mirza ordered the mass mobilization of the military and imposed emergency in the country after declaring the martial law against his own party's administration led by Prime Minister Feroze Khan by abrogating the writ of the Constitution and dissolving the national and provisional assemblies on the midnight of 7/8 October 1958. In morning of 8 October 1958, President Mizra announced via national radio that he was introducing a new constitution "more suited to the genius of the Pakistan nation", as he believed democracy was unsuited to Pakistan "with its 15% literacy rate". Upon abdicating, Mirza took the nation into confidence, saying that: Three weeks ago, I (Iskander Mirza) imposed martial law in Pakistan and appointed General Ayub Khan as Supreme Commander of the [Armed Forces] and also as Chief Martial Law Administrator.... By the grace of God... This measure which I had adopted in the interest of our beloved country has been extremely well received by our people and by our friends and well wishers abroad... I have done best to administer in the difficult task of arresting further deterioration and bringing order out of chaos... In our efforts to evolve an effective structure for future administration of this country... Pakistan Zindabad, Pakistan Zindabad! This martial law imposed by country's first Bengali president was the first example of martial law in Pakistan, which would continue until the dissolution of East Pakistan in 1971. Iskander Mirza appointed then-Army Commander of the Pakistan Army, General Ayub Khan, as the Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA), which proved his undoing within three weeks.

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