East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, covering the territory of the modern country Bangladesh. The province was restructured and renamed from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, with a coastline on the Bay of Bengal. East Pakistanis were popularly known as "Pakistani Bengalis"; to distinguish this region from India's state West Bengal, East Pakistan was known as "Pakistani Bengal". In 1971, East Pakistan became the newly independent state Bangladesh, which means "country of Bengal" or "country of Bengalis" in Bengali language.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, popularly known by the honorific prefix Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman, activist and diarist. As a politician, Mujib had held continuous positions either as Bangladesh's president or as its prime minister from April 1971 until his assassination in August 1975. Mujib successfully led the Bangladeshi independence movement and restored the Bengali sovereignty after over two centuries following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, for which he is honoured as the 'Father of the Nation' in Bangladesh. In 2011, the fifteenth constitutional amendment in Bangladesh referred to Sheikh Mujib as the Father of the Nation who declared independence; these references were enshrined in the fifth, sixth, and seventh schedules of the constitution. His Bengali nationalist ideology, socio-political theories, and political doctrines are sometimes called Mujibism.
The Bangladesh Awami League, often simply called the Awami League or AL, is one of the major political parties in Bangladesh. The oldest existing political party in the country, Awami League successfully lead Bangladesh to the independence. One of the two most dominant parties in the country, along with its archrival Bangladesh Nationalist Party, it has been the ruling party since 2009, and has since been described as authoritarian.
Sahibzada Iskandar Ali Mirza was a Pakistani politician, statesman and military general who served as the Dominion of Pakistan's fourth governor-general of Pakistan from 1955 to 1956, and then as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan's first president from 1956 to 1958.
Nurul Amin was a Pakistani politician and jurist who served as the eighth prime minister of Pakistan from 7 December to 20 December 1971. His term of only 13 days as prime minister was the shortest served in Pakistani parliamentary history. He was also the only vice president of Pakistan.
Chaudhry Muhammad Ali was a Pakistani politician and statesman who served as the fourth prime minister of Pakistan from 1955 until his resignation in 1956. His government transitioned Pakistan from a British Dominion to an Islamic Republic.
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was a Pakistani Bengali barrister and politician. In Bangladesh, Suhrawardy is remembered as a pioneer of Bengali civil rights movements, later turned into Bangladesh independence movement, and the mentor of Bangladesh's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He is also remembered for his performance as the Minister for Civil Supply during the Bengal famine of 1943. In India, he is seen as a controversial figure; indirectly responsible for the 1946 Calcutta Killings.
Abdus Sattar was a Bangladeshi statesman. A leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), he served as the president of Bangladesh from 1981 to 1982, and earlier as the vice president. A jurist by profession, Abdus Sattar held numerous constitutional and political offices in British India, East Pakistan and Bangladesh. He was a cabinet minister, supreme court judge, and chief election commissioner.
Sir Malik Feroz Khan Noon, best known as Feroze Khan, was a Pakistani politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Pakistan from 16 December 1957, until being removed when the President Iskandar Ali Mirza imposed martial law, though he himself got ousted in the 1958 Pakistani military coup.
Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar was a Pakistani politician who served as the sixth prime minister of Pakistan, appointed in this capacity on 17 October 1957. He resigned due to a vote of no confidence on 11 December 1957, against him.
Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq, popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla, was a Bengali lawyer and politician who presented the Lahore Resolution which had the objective of creating an independent Pakistan. He also served as the first and longest Prime Minister of Bengal during the British Raj.
Events from the year 1956 in Pakistan.
Events from the year 1957 in Pakistan.
The United Front was a coalition of political parties in East Bengal which contested and won Pakistan's first provincial general election to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly. The coalition consisted of the Awami Muslim League, the Krishak Praja Party, the Ganatantri Dal and Nizam-e-Islam. The coalition was led by three major Bengali populist leaders- A. K. Fazlul Huq, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Maulana Bhashani. The election resulted in a crushing defeat for the Muslim League. Veteran student leader of East Pakistan Khaleque Nawaz Khan defeated sitting Prime Minister of East Pakistan Mr. Nurul Amin in Nandail Constituency of Mymensingh district and created history in political arena. Nurul Amin's crushing defeat to a 27 years old young Turk of United Front effectively eliminated the Muslim League from political landscape of the then East Pakistan with United Front parties securing a landslide victory and gaining 223 seats in the 309-member assembly. The Awami League emerged as the majority party, with 143 seats.
Abul Mansur Ahmad was a Bangladeshi politician, writer, and journalist.
Ataur Rahman Khan was a Bangladeshi lawyer, politician and writer, and served as Chief Minister of East Pakistan from 1 September 1956 – March 1958, and as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 30 March 1984 to 9 July 1986.
Fazlul Quader Chowdhury was a Bengali politician who served as the 5th speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan from East Pakistan. He belonged to Ayub Khan's Convention Muslim League. He was also the Acting President of Pakistan from time to time when Ayub Khan left the country. His elder brother Fazlul Kabir Chowdhury was the leader of the opposition in East Pakistan assembly. Quader was preceded by Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan of Awami League.
The history of East Bengal and East Pakistan from 1947 to 1971 covers the period of Bangladesh's history between its independence as a part of Pakistan from British colonial rule in 1947 to its independence from Pakistan in 1971.
The 1958 Pakistani military coup was the first military coup in Pakistan that took place on 27 October 1958. It resulted in the toppling of Iskandar Ali Mirza, the president of Pakistan, by Muhammad Ayub Khan, the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army.
The Chundrigar government also known as the Chundrigar administration was the seventh government and cabinet of Pakistan formed by Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar on 18 October 1957 after the resignation of the previous prime minister, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.
