Editing East Pakistan (section)

===One Unit and Islamic Republic===
[[File:HSS and Eisenhower.jpg|thumb|Suhrawardy (middle) with US President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] and Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]]]]

In 1955, Prime Minister [[Mohammad Ali Bogra]] implemented the [[One Unit]] scheme which merged the four western provinces into a single unit called West Pakistan while East Bengal was renamed as East Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pakistan - Political decline and bureaucratic ascendancy |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Pakistan/Political-decline-and-bureaucratic-ascendancy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107105103/https://www.britannica.com/place/Pakistan/Political-decline-and-bureaucratic-ascendancy |archive-date=7 November 2018 |access-date=27 January 2023 |website=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref>

Pakistan ended its dominion status and adopted a [[Constitution of Pakistan of 1956|republican constitution]] in 1956, which proclaimed an Islamic republic.<ref>{{Cite web |date=29 August 2024 |title=PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY |url=https://na.gov.pk/en/content.php?id=75 |access-date=29 August 2024 |website=National Assembly of Pakistan}}</ref> The populist leader [[Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy|H. S. Suhrawardy]] of East Pakistan was appointed prime minister of Pakistan. As soon as he became the prime minister, Suhrawardy initiated legal work reviving the joint electorate system. There was strong opposition and resentment to the joint electorate system in West Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rais |first=Rasul |date=2024 |title=Religious Radicalism and Security in South Asia |url=https://dkiapcss.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/PagesfromReligiousRadicalismandSecurityinSouthAsiach19.pdf |access-date=29 August 2024 |website=Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies}}</ref> The Muslim League had taken the cause to the public and began calling for the implementation of a separate electorate system. In contrast to West Pakistan, the joint electorate was highly popular in East Pakistan. The tug of war with the Muslim League to establish the appropriate electorate caused problems for his government.{{Citation needed|date= February 2022}}

The constitutionally obliged National Finance Commission Program (NFC Program) was immediately suspended by Prime Minister Suhrawardy despite the reserves of the four provinces of West Pakistan in 1956. Suhrawardy advocated for the USSR-based Five-Year Plans to centralise the national economy. In this view, East Pakistan's economy would be quickly centralised and all major economic planning would be shifted to West Pakistan.{{Citation needed|date= February 2022}}

Efforts leading to centralising the economy were met with great resistance in West Pakistan when the elite monopolist and the business community angrily refused to adhere to his policies.{{Citation needed|date= February 2022}} The business community in Karachi began its political struggle to undermine any attempts of financial distribution of the US$10&nbsp;million ICA aid to the better part of East Pakistan and to set up a consolidated national shipping corporation. In the financial cities of West Pakistan, such as [[Karachi]], [[Lahore]], [[Quetta]], and [[Peshawar]], a series of major labour strikes against the economic policies of Suhrawardy were supported by the elite business community and the private sector.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Singh |first=Dr Rajkumar |date=2020-01-10 |title=Sea of difference between East and West Pakistan |url=https://thekootneeti.in/2020/01/10/sea-of-difference-between-east-and-west-pakistan-op-ed-dr-rajkumar-singh/ |access-date=2022-04-22 |language=en-US |archive-date=15 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815060446/https://thekootneeti.in/2020/01/10/sea-of-difference-between-east-and-west-pakistan-op-ed-dr-rajkumar-singh/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Furthermore, in order to divert attention from the controversial One Unit Program, Prime Minister Suhrawardy tried to end the crisis by calling a small group of investors to set up small businesses in the country. Despite many initiatives and holding off the NFC Award Program, Suhrawardy's political position and image deteriorated in the four provinces in West Pakistan. Many nationalist leaders and activists of the Muslim League were dismayed by the suspension of the constitutionally obliged NFC Program. His critics and Muslim League leaders observed that with the suspension of the NFC Award Program, Suhrawardy tried to give more financial allocations, aids, grants, and opportunities to East Pakistan than West Pakistan, including West Pakistan's four provinces. During the last days of his Prime ministerial years, Suhrawardy tried to remove the economic disparity between the Eastern and Western wings of the country but to no avail. He also tried unsuccessfully to alleviate the food shortage in the country.<ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |date=1 July 2003 |title=H. S. Suhrawardy Becomes Prime Minister |url=https://storyofpakistan.com/h-s-suhrawardy-becomes-prime-minister/ |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=[[Story Of Pakistan]] |language=en-US |archive-date=27 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127180629/https://storyofpakistan.com/h-s-suhrawardy-becomes-prime-minister/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Suhrawardy strengthened relations with the United States by reinforcing Pakistani membership in the [[Central Treaty Organization]] and the [[Southeast Asia Treaty Organization]]. Suhrawardy also promoted relations with the [[China|People's Republic of China]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, China, Volume III - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1955-57v03/d220 |access-date=27 January 2023 |website=history.state.gov |archive-date=27 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127180430/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1955-57v03/d220 |url-status=live }}</ref>

His contribution in formulating the 1956 constitution of Pakistan was substantial as he played a vital role in incorporating provisions for civil liberties and universal adult franchise in line with his adherence to the parliamentary form of liberal democracy.{{Citation needed|date= February 2022}}