Yahya Khan

Title & tenure

3rd President of Pakistan (1969–1971)

In office: 1969 – 1971

Predecessor:

Ayub Khan

Successor:

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Biography

General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan took power from Ayub Khan in 1969 as Chief Martial Law Administrator and President, and presided over Pakistan's first-ever general election on adult franchise, only to see the political and military crisis that followed lead to the country's dismemberment.

Achievements

• Held Pakistan's first general election based on universal adult franchise in December 1970

Key events

• 1970 general election: the Awami League under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won an outright majority nationally, based almost entirely on East Pakistani seats, while the Pakistan Peoples Party under Bhutto won a majority in the West
• Political deadlock over transferring power to the Awami League escalated into a military crackdown in East Pakistan in March 1971 (Operation Searchlight)
• Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: India intervened in the resulting civil war; Pakistani forces in the east surrendered in December 1971, and East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh

Legacy

Yahya Khan's presidency ended in the single greatest crisis in Pakistan's history — the loss of East Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh — and he is held chiefly responsible by most historians for the political and military mishandling that led to it.

How it ended

Resigned in disgrace in December 1971 after the surrender in East Pakistan, handing power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and spent his remaining years largely out of public life under house arrest until his death in 1980.