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| Sabiya Ali Khan سبا علی خان | |
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| In office 19 June 1994 – 20 August 1995 | |
| Deputy | Ajab Ayaz Nasir |
|---|---|
| President | Faisal Ahmad Khan |
| Preceded by | Mir Bazmi |
| Succeeded by | Tahir Hussain |
| In office 6 August 1976 – 11 December 1992 | |
| President | Nawaz Mansoor Saif Kamal Saeed Ali Shah Wasim Nizar Yakoub Iqbal Ali |
| Preceded by | Rahimuddin Khan Maliq |
| Succeeded by | Mir Bazmi |
10th President of Pakistan
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| In office 12 May 1987 – 4 January 1991 | |
| Prime Minister | Herself |
| Preceded by | Saif Kamal |
| Succeeded by | Nawaz Mansoor |
First Lady of Pakistan
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| In office 19 December 1971 – 24 April 1975 | |
| President | Khalid Shahid Mirza |
| Prime Minister | Faqruddin Khan Pirzada |
Personal details
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| Born | February 26, 1939 Arcot, Madras Presidency, British India (present day Tamil Nadu, India) |
| Died | August 20, 1995 (aged 56) Sillanwali, Punjab, Pakistan |
| Nationality | Pakistani |
| Political party | Pakistani Islamic Nationalist League |
| Spouse | Khalid Shahid Mirza (m. 1964) |
| Relations | Haider Ali Khan (father) Ayesha Ali Khan (mother) |
| Children | Rabia Ali Khan Samar Mirza Maha Khalil Asha Shah |
| Alma Mater | Hamilton College |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Sabiya Ali Khan (26 February 1939 – 20 August 1995; Punjabi: سبا علی خان) was a Pakistani politician and author who served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for 17 years from 1976 to 1992, and again from 1994 till her assassination on August 20, 1995. She was the first woman to head a democratic government in the Muslim world.
A member of the Ali Khan family, Sabiya was born in Arcot in today's Tamil Nadu state of India, where her family stayed during a nationwide recruitment drive throughout British India for the Muslim League. She studied at Hamilton College in New York, and spent her childhood in London before returning to Karachi in 1966 to marry prominent politician and banker Khalid Mirza. She began assiting her husband in his political aspirations, and by 1968, became a senior figure in the Pakistani Nationalist Party. After her husband was elected President of Pakistan in December 1971, she became the First Lady.
After the 1975 Pakistani coup d'état, she fled to Paris, and formally assumed control of the PNP after her husband was sentenced to life imprisonment. In Calais, she met radical Islamist preacher and leader of the powerful Pakistani Islamic League Mehmood Sheikh, and merged their parties to create the Pakistani Islamic Nationalist League, and successfully won the 1976 elections, making her the first female leader of an Islamic country.
Sabiya's conservative right-wing policies were welcomed by the conservative and religious parties, and had a very high public opinion. Using her right-wing support, she crushed all liberal and socialist movements in the country, including effectively outlawing communism from 1981 till 1990. Pakistan tested its nuclear weapons during her reign as Prime Minister, and she used her anti-communist and anti-Soviet antics to improve relations with the United States of America and retard the effects of the economic sanctions imposed on Pakistan. She also formed secret alliances with China to counter India's increasing influence in the region, and it was through Chinese help that the Pakistanis could complete their nuclear weapon program. Domestically, she helped for the upliftment of women, but increased the state sponsored persecution of non-Muslims, especially the Buddhist and Hindu minorities.
Her extensive tenure eventually grew unpopular with the clergy and the military, and as a result, she was deposed in a coup d'état in 1992 while on a state visit to Italy. She then moved to Switzerland and began reorganizing her supporters, and was re-elected Prime Minister in the 1994 elections. Her second premiership was met with severe opposition, and she was ultimately shot dead while campaigning for the upcoming elections in 1996.
Sabiya remains a controversial figure. While her policies for gender equality, welfare and modernization received praises from the West; her regime's lack of human rights, persecution of religious and ethnic minorities, terror funding, Islamisation, and allegations of nepotism, crony capitalism and corruption drew heavy criticism and opposition, from every inch of the globe.
Biography[]
Early life and education[]
Sabiya Ali Khan was born on 26 February,1939 in Arcot in erstwhile British India to Haider Ali Khan, one of the founders of the Islamic Alliance and Ayesha Ali Khan, an agricultural engineer. She was born when her family went to the South Indian city to recruit members for the Islamic Alliance to support the Pakistan Movement. Her family moved backed to their house in New Delhi soon after, and to Mumbai in 1944, where she studied in the Scottish Female Orphanage.
Her family migrated to Karachi following the creation of Pakistan, and she studied in the St Paul's English High School. From 1955 to 1959, she studied an undergraduate course at Hamilton College, and from 1959 till 1963, studied for another undergraduate degree at Somerville College, University of Oxford.
After Oxford, she acquired an MBA from Harvard Business School, and lived with her father in Bern from 1965 till he was appointed President of Pakistan on 12 June 1966. She accompanied her father and her uncle, Mannoon Ali Khan who was Pakistan's Foreign Minister to the United Nations and United States several times, and met several world leaders. She also attended three OIC summits, and met with several leaders of the Muslim world.
Political career[]
Nasir Chaudary's Pakistan[]
She entered politics soon after her father's execution on 10 October 1967, and joined the Pakistani Nationalist Party, which was co-chaired by her husband, Khalid Mirza. As Sabiya Mirza, she led the 1967 Karachi protests, and was arrested and jailed by the military police, sparking a campaign to release her. The military leader, Nasir Chaudary who was backed by the Ali Khan family, was pressured into ordering her release, and she was released after serving three months in captivity.
In 1968, she was arrested again by the military police, and was deported to Afghanistan. She covertly sneaked back into Pakistan, and became a senior figure in the Nationalist Party. She was arrested by the military police again in January 1969, and was moved to a high-security prison in Peshawar. Her husband fled to Riyadh, after his house was attacked by the military and his parents were executed.
After her aunt payed her hefty bail, Sabiya moved to Saudi Arabia to live with her husband. It was at this time at which the civil unrest in East Pakistan grew, resulting in a full-scale confrontation with India. After the Indo-Bangla alliance won the war and Pakistan accepted Bangladesh's independence, Nasir Chaudary was forced to resign by the military junta.
Not wanting a rebellion by the people at the time of low army morale, Chaudary's successor was decided to be civilian Faqruddin Khan Pirzada, who decided to hold elections for the post of the President of Pakistan. Sabiya's husband contested in the elections, and won the majority of the votes, and became the next Pakistani president.
First Lady[]
Her husband was sworn in as the President of Pakistan in the Pakistani embassy in Saudi Arabia, and the couple landed in Islamabad on 20 December, 1971; receiving a grand welcome. As a First Lady, she stayed in Karachi, instead of the capital city of Islamabad.