West Pakistan

Province of West Pakistan
مغربى پاکستان (Urdu)
Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān
পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান
(Bengali)
Pôścim Pākistān
1955–1970
Flag of West Pakistan
Flag
Seal of West Pakistan
Seal
Anthem: Qaumi Taranah
Location of West Pakistan (dark green)[a], the rest of Pakistan (light green)[b] and territories claimed by the federal government (pink)[c]
Location of West Pakistan (dark green)[a], the rest of Pakistan (light green)[b] and territories claimed by the federal government (pink)[c]
StatusAdministrative unit of Pakistan
CapitalLahore
Official languages
Native languages
Demonym(s)
  • Pakistani
  • West Pakistani
GovernmentSelf-governing wing subject to the federal government
Chief Ministers 
• 1955–1957
Abdul Jabbar Khan
• 1957–1958
Abdur Rashid Khan
• 1958[d]
Muzaffar Ali Qizilbash
Governors 
• 1955–1957
Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani
• 1957–1960
Akhter Husain
• 1960–1966
Amir Mohammad Khan
• 1966–1969
Musa Khan
• 1969[e]
Yusuf Haroon
• 1969–1970
Malik Nur Khan
• 1970–1971
Attiqur Rahman[f]
LegislatureLegislative Assembly
Historical eraCold War
14 October 1955
1 July 1970
Area
• Total
796,096 km2 (307,374 sq mi)
Population
• 1951 census
33,740,000[2]
CurrencyPakistani rupee
Time zoneUTC+05:00
Preceded by
Succeeded by
1955:
West Punjab
Sind Province
North-West Frontier Province
Baluchistan Province
Bahawalpur State
Khairpur State
Kalat State
Las Bela State
Kharan State
Makran State
1958:
Gwadar (Omani Territory)
1961:
Federal Capital Territory
1969:
Amb State
Swat State
Dir State
Chitral State
1967:
Islamabad Capital Territory
1970:
Punjab
Sindh
North-West Frontier Province
Balochistan
Today part ofPakistan

West Pakistan was the western province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1970, covering the territory of present-day Pakistan.[1] Its land borders were with Afghanistan, India and Iran, with a maritime border with Oman in the Gulf of Oman in the Arabian Sea.

Following its independence from British rule, the new Dominion of Pakistan was physically separated into two exclaves, with the western and eastern wings geographically separated from each other by India. The western wing of Pakistan comprised three governor's provinces (the North-West Frontier, West Punjab and Sind), one chief commissioner's province (Baluchistan) along with the Baluchistan States Union, several independent princely states (notably Bahawalpur, Chitral, Dir, Hunza, Khairpur and Swat), the Karachi Federal Capital Territory, and the autonomous tribal areas adjoining the North-West Frontier Province.[1] The eastern wing of the new country—known as East Pakistan—comprised the single province of East Bengal (which included the former Assamese district of Sylhet and the Chittagong Hill Tracts).

West Pakistan was the politically dominant division of the Pakistani union, despite East Pakistan making up more than half of its population. The eastern wing also had a disproportionately small number of seats in the Constituent Assembly. This administrative inequality between the two wings, coupled with the major geographical distance between them, was believed to be delaying the adoption of a constitution for Pakistan. To aid in diminishing the differences between the two regions, the Pakistani government decided to reorganize the country into two distinct provinces under the One Unit policy announced by then Pakistani Prime Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Ali on 22 November 1954.

In 1970, the President of Pakistan General Yahya Khan enacted a series of territorial, constitutional and military reforms. These established the provincial assemblies, state parliament, as well as the current provisional borders of Pakistan's four official provinces. On 1 July 1970, West Pakistan was abolished under the Legal Framework Order of 1970, which dissolved the One Unit policy and restored the four provinces.[1] This order had no effect on East Pakistan, which retained the geopolitical position established in 1955.[1] The following year saw a major civil war erupt between West Pakistan and Bengali nationalists in East Pakistan. After a full-scale military intervention by India in support of the Bengali freedom fighters and after West Pakistan's subsequent defeat, the exclave of East Pakistan seceded from its union with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as the new People's Republic of Bangladesh.


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  1. ^ a b c d e "West Pakistan Established as One Unit [1955]". Story of Pakistan, West Pakistan. June 2003. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  2. ^ Report Archived 20 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine