Author Description

Perhaps the only politician to straddle the East and West wings of Pakistan, Suhrawardy was well aware of the centrifugal tendencies that threatened to unmake the new nation. As such, his entire career after Independence was devoted to removing the growing misunderstandings between the twowings. Ikramullah shows how the events that culminated in the collapse of democracy and the establishment of military rule in 1958 had their beginnings in the ruling cliques's maneuverings to keep Suhrawardy out of power. Their success, unfortunately, meant the end of efforts to bridge thedifferences between East and West Pakistan which resulted in, just eight years after the death of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the secession of East Pakistan from the West to form the independent state of Bangladesh.