PRESIDENTS OF PAKISTAN

Major General Iskander Mirza

AUGUST 07, 1955 - OCTOBER 27, 1958

He received his military training at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, England. In the 1930's and early 1940's, Mirza occupied important posts in the colonial administration of Orissa and the North West Frontier Province in British India. From 1948 to 1952 he served as Secretary to the Government. In 1954, he was appointed Governor of East Pakistan and from 1954 to 1955 he was Minister for Interior. He was the last Governor-General from September 1955 to March 1956 before Pakistan established its first constitution, replacing the Governor-General with the President, making him the first President of Pakistan, from March 1956 to 24 October 1958.

Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan

OCTOBER 27, 1958 - MARCH 25, 1969

Ayub Khan graduated from the Aligarh Muslim University and received military training at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, England. He commanded a battalion on the Burma Front during the Second World War. In January 1951, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army, and in 1954 became Minister of Defence. He was appointed Chief Martial Law Administrator on 7 October 1958, after Iskander Mirza initiated martial law, thereafter staging a further coup against Mirza on 27 October and seizing the office of President for himself. In 1959, he awarded himself the title of Field Marshal and in 1960 was confirmed as President of Pakistan by means of a referendum. Ayub Khan ruled under martial law until 1962 and subsequently under his own tailor-made constitution until 1969.

He was re-elected for a second term in 1965 under a system of indirect elections known as "Basic Democracy". However, the widespread public enthusiasm shown to the Combined Opposition Parties (COP) candidate who was none other than Fatima Jinnah, sister of the Quaid-i-Azam, shook the confidence of the Ayub regime.

The Rann of Kutch and Kashmir Wars took place during his term (1965). He signed the Tashkent Declaration (1966), after which his popularity declined. Major demonstrations against the Ayub Khan government began across a widening spectrum of groups in different regions in 1968. The vociferous public demands for democratic political institutions, social justice and regional autonomy unnerved Ayub Khan.

General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan

MARCH 25, 1969 - DECEMBER 20, 1971

General Agha Muhammad Yahaya Khan was born on 4 February 1917. He was commissioned into the Army on 15 July 1939. General Yahaya Khan, during the course of his military career, attended a number of professional courses at various military institutions. He was employed on various command, staff and instructional appointments. He remained Colonel Commandant of the Corps of SSG and Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment of Artillery and Baloch. He was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army from 18 September 1966 to 20 September 1971.

General Yahaya Khan was awarded the Persian Symbol after completion of six months service of Staff College Quetta, 1939-47 Star, Africa Star, Defence Medal, War Medal, Pakistan Medal, Coronations Medal-1953, Tamgha-i-Difa, Sitara-Pak, Hilal-i-Jurat, Sitara-i-Harb and Hilal-i-Pak.

General Yahaya Khan remained in War Services in Wazirstan, Cyprus, Eritrea, North Africa and Palestine. General Yahaya Khan passed away on 8 August 1980 at the age of 63.

Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

DECEMBER 20, 1971 - AUGUST 14, 1973

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto served as the fourth President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and as the ninth Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977. He was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan. His daughter Benazir Bhutto also served twice as Prime Minister.

Bhutto was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States and University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. He was noted for his economic initiatives and authoring Pakistan's nuclear programme. He was executed in 1979 after the Supreme Court of Pakistan sentenced him to death for allegedly authorizing the murder of a political opponent. The perception is that this was a politically motivated judicial murder.

Mr. Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry

AUGUST 14, 1973 - SEPTEMBER 16, 1978

Mr. Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry was President of Pakistan from 1973 to 1978. He graduated from the Punjab University in 1927 and became a lawyer by profession. From 1944 to 1958, he was a member of the Muslim League. In 1948, he became Minister for Education and Health in the Punjab Government. Chaudhury served as Speaker of the West Pakistan Assembly from 1956 to 1958 and was one of the leading members of the Pakistan Peoples Party from 1967 to 1977. He became Pakistan's President in 1973 and was at first retained in that office by General Zia-ul-Haq when he seized power in July 1977. However, he was forced to retired from office in 1978, when General Ziaul Haq assumed the mantle of President.

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

SEPTEMBER 16, 1978 - AUGUST 17, 1988

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was President of Pakistan from 13 September 1978 to 17 August 1988. After the military coup of 5 July 1977, Zia-ul-Haq became the Chief Martial Law Administrator. His period in office was noted for the unjust trial and execution of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and for Pakistan's campaign against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It also brought forth a plethora of legislation regarded as primitive and unfair to women and minorities, the spread of addiction to hard drugs, the growth of ethnic and sectarian tensions, and the breakdown of law and order. His death in a plane crash in 1988 marked the end of his Presidency.

Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan

AUGUST 17, 1988 - JULY 18, 1993

The responsibilities of leading the nation at a most critical juncture in its history fell on Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan's shoulders in the aftermath of President General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq's death in a plane crash on 17 August 1988. As the then Chairman of the Senate, he assumed the office of Acting President in accordance with the Constitution and declared forthwith that general elections would be held in the country on the previously schedule date of 16 November 1988 for the National Assembly and 19 November 1988 for the Provincial Assemblies. He was elected as President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on 12 December 1988, with vast and varied experience in public service, spread over nearly half a century, demonstrating tested wisdom, and proven commitment to constitutional-ism and rule of law.

Mr. Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari

NOVEMBER 14, 1993 - DECEMBER 02, 1997

President Leghari was born on 2 May 1940 and went to school at Aitchison College, Lahore in 1949. After graduating from school in 1958 he received a bachelor's degree (Honours) from the Punjab University in 1960 and a master's degree (Honours) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University (St Catherine's College).

On return to Pakistan, he competed successfully in the Central Superior Services Examination and worked in the Civil Service of Pakistan in various field and secretariat positions from 1964 to 1973. He resigned in 1973 to enter politics and joined the Pakistan Peoples Party with which he remained until his election as President. In the 1977 General Elections, he was elected to the National Assembly from his ancestral constituency in Dera Ghazi Khan. He was also inducted into the Federal Cabinet of Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Minister for Production. In the 1993 General Elections, Mr. Leghari again returned to the National Assembly with an overwhelming majority. He was appointed Foreign Minister, but he only held this title for a few weeks before he was nominated by a number of political parties as their candidate for President. He was elected President by a large margin.

Mr. Muhammad Rafiq Tarar

JANUARY 01, 1998 - JUNE 20, 2001

On 1 January 1998, Muhammad Rafiq Tarar took the oath of office as the ninth President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Muhammad Rafiq Tarar was born on 2 November 1929 in the village of Pir Kot in District Gujranwala near Lahore. After graduating from Islamia College, Gujranwala in 1949, Mr. Tarar secured his law degree from the University Law College, Lahore in 1951. The same year he was enrolled as a pleader. In October 1955, he was enrolled as an advocate in the Lahore High Court. Mr Tarar started his career as a judge when, in October 1966, he was appointed Additional District and Sessions Judge from the Bar. Before his election as President, he was a Senator elected un-opposed on the Pakistan Muslim League ticket in March 1997.

General (R) Pervez Musharraf

JUNE 20, 2001 - AUGUST 18, 2008

Pervez Musharraf assumed the Office of the Chief Executive on 12 October 1999. He was sworn in as the eleventh President of Pakistan on 20 June 2001 and concurrently held with it the Office of Chief Executive until 23 November 2002. He left the office of Chief of Army Staff and took oath for his second term as civilian President on 29 November 2007. He resigned on 18 August 2008 in view of an impending impeachment.