The presidential election of January 1965 results…
1965 CE
The presidential election of January 1965 results in a victory for Ayub Khan but also demonstrates the appeal of the opposition.
Four political parties merge to form the Combined Opposition Parties (COP).
These parties are the Council Muslim League, strongest in Punjab and Karachi; the Awami League, strongest in East Pakistan; the National Awami Party, strongest in the North-West Frontier Province, where it stands for dissolving the One Unit Plan; and the Jamaat-i-Islami, surprisingly supporting the candidacy of a woman.
The COP nominates Fatima Jinnah (sister of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Quaid-i-Azam, and known as Madar-i-Millet, the Mother of the Nation) their presidential candidate.
The nine-point program put forward by the COP emphasizes the restoration of parliamentary democracy.
Although Fatima Jinnah mounts a spirited challenge, Ayub Khan wins 63.3 percent of the electoral college vote.
His majority is larger in West Pakistan (73.6 percent) than in East Pakistan (53.1 percent).
Also elected is a national assembly of 156 members, with East and West Pakistan each allocated 75 seats, and six seats reserved for women, who had previously been denied the vote under Islamic strictures.
As the 1965 elections demonstrate, those who equate constitutional government with parliamentary democracy oppose the presidential system of government.
The Soviet Union strongly disapproves of Pakistan's alliance with the United States, but Moscow is interested in keeping doors open to both Pakistan and India.
Ayub Khan is able to secure Soviet neutrality during the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War.
Minor migrational shifts occur between India and West Pakistan following the border hostilities
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