Ayub Khan Era-I: The Martial Law “Revolution” - 2/2 (1958-62)
Athar Osama July 23rd, 2007
By: Athar Osama
Socio-Economic and Political Reforms of Ayub’s Era-I (1958-62)
With the power firmly in the hands of the Chief Martial Law Administrator, he set upon the task of creating country of his vision. Feldman (1967, p. 44) describes the state of the President’s mind in the following words:
“He knew that he was expected to collaborate unstintingly with a government confessedly authoritarian, claiming to derive its sanction from the necessities of a desperate situation and promising, unequivocally, to justify itself by a resolute purification of public life, by a program of indispensable reforms, and by adoption of a fresh constitution which would adequately and appropriately satisfy the citizen’s right to speak and participate in his country’s affairs”
Ayub Khan adopted an essentially technocratic mode of government depending upon a number of committees and commissions to help in policy formulation. In all, the Martial Law Administration, during its entire tenure, set up as many as 25 different commissions to deliberate on policy matters within a wide variety of domains. These included:
- Company Law Commission - Constitution Commission - Credit Inquiry Commission
- Education Reform Commission - Federal Capital Commission - Finance Commission
- Food & Agriculture Commission - Franchise Commission - Jute Inquiry Commission
- Land Reforms Commission - Land Revenue Commission - Manpower Commission
- Law Reform Commission - Maritime Commission - Medical Reforms Commission
- Pay & Services Commission - Police Commission - Press Commission
- Price Commission - Scientific Commission - Social Evils Commission
- Sport, Culture, Art, & Literature Com. – Sugar Commission - Taxation Inquiry Commission
- Textile Inquiry Commission
The sheer scope of the subjects that these commissions dealt with makes one wonder about the volume of policy work carried out in the early years of Ayub Khan’s era. It also makes one think as to how, without carrying out these necessary reforms in a whole variety of different areas, the country was being run in the preceding nine years of its existence. Clearly, not every one of the commissions formed during Ayub Khan’s regime undertook work of equal importance, nor did they achieve similar results, but the fact that the government was able to devote its attention to all these areas cannot escape one’s attention.
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