Military rule in Pakistan

When Ghulam Muhammad was the governor general, he had implicit faith in General Ayub Khan who bided his time even when Ghulam Muhammad was bedridden, paralysed and could hardly speak. When he was taken to London for treatment, he telephoned Ayub Khan in Rawalpindi and spoke with him for fifteen minutes. Ayub Khan did not understand anything that Ghulam Muhammad had said and when the governor general had rung off, Ayub Khan telephoned Iskander Mirza, the defence secretary, in Karachi, to tell him that the governor general had telephoned him from London and that he had not understood a word. Iskander Mirza replied, “Don’t worry, he has just spoken with me too. I did not understand anything either, except that he had a very satisfactory talk with you.�
Martial Law, or the types of governments we have had in Pakistan, for most of the time in Pakistan’s history has been the rule of the army, and it is unnatural that a civilian should rule the country when there is martial law. Therefore, the martial law of Iskander Mirza was an unnatural situation. Real power laid with Ayub Khan, and Iskander Mirza, therefore had to go. Ayub Khan made himself a Field Marshal â€" who never retires â€" and had implicit faith in Yahya Khan, whom he was grooming as his successor. Yahya Khan’s brother was the head of the Civil Intelligence and fed the president with exaggerated reports about the deterioration in the law and order situation in the country and eventually created an atmosphere around the president that led him to hand over power to General Yahya Khan.