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Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan with President Harry S. Truman during his 1950 visit to the United States.
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Liaquat Ali Khan, Jinnah's close associate, remained prime minister after his death. Although Khan attempted to frame a constitution, wrangling over issues such as Islam's role in the state and the power of the central government vis-à-vis the provinces continued; then, in 1951, he was assassinated. As a result, the nation was still governed by British colonial law (the 1935 Government of India Act) and witnessed a succession of prime ministers (six between 1951 to 1958) who, given the sustained regional and ethnic disputes, especially between East and West Pakistan, were unable to maintain a legislative majority in the Constituent Assembly (the central authority) and ensure that democracy took root, even following the adoption of the nation's first constitution in 1956. It established Pakistan as an Islamic republic with a parliamentary system of government comprised of two administrative units, which had been set up in 1955 -- West Pakistan, formed by the merger of its four provinces, and East Pakistan; installed a central authority, now called the National Assembly; and included directives on creating a state that followed Islamic tenets. Iskander Mirza became the country's first president. However, the preceding years of political instability and corruption, compounded by an economic downturn in the mid-1950s, resulted in a military takeover of the state in 1958.
photo: National Archives
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