Ayub Khan (general) in the context of "President Iskandar Ali Mirza"

East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1956 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, with a coastline on the Bay of Bengal. To distinguish this region from India's state West Bengal (which is also known as "Indian Bengal"), East Pakistan was known as "Pakistani Bengal". East Pakistanis were popularly known as "Pakistani Bengalis". In 1971, East Pakistan became the newly independent state Bangladesh, which means "country of Bengal" or "country of Bengalis" or "land of Bengalis" in the Bengali language. In standard meaning, "desh" refers to a country, but in Bangla local expressions, "desh" also means one's village or countryside, hometown, ancestral heritage, homeland, and they do not have to be a politically formed sovereign country.

East Pakistan was formed with West Pakistan at the reorganization of One Unit Scheme orchestrated by the 3rd prime minister of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali. The Constitution of Pakistan of 1956 replaced the Pakistani monarchy with an Islamic republic. Bengali politician H.S. Suhrawardy served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan between 1956 and 1957 and a Bengali bureaucrat Iskander Mirza became the first President of Pakistan. The 1958 Pakistani coup d'état brought general Ayub Khan to power. Khan replaced Mirza as president and launched a crackdown against pro-democracy leaders. Khan enacted the Constitution of Pakistan of 1962 which ended universal suffrage. By 1966, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman emerged as the preeminent opposition leader in Pakistan and launched the six-point movement for autonomy and democracy. The 1969 uprising in East Pakistan contributed to Ayub Khan's overthrow. Another general, Yahya Khan, usurped the presidency and enacted martial law. In 1970, Yahya Khan organised Pakistan's first federal general election. The Awami League emerged as the single largest party, followed by the Pakistan Peoples Party. The military junta stalled in accepting the results, leading to civil disobedience, the Bangladesh Liberation War, 1971 Bangladesh genocide and persecution of Biharis.

Sardar (Persian: سردار, romanized: Sardâr, pronounced [sæɹˈdɒːɹ]; lit. 'commander, headmaster') is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, kings, and other aristocrats. It has also been used to denote a chief or leader of a tribe or group. It is used as a Persian synonym of the title Emir of Arabic origin.

The term and its cognates originate from Persian sardār (سردار) and have been historically used across Persia (Iran), the Ottoman Empire and Turkey (as "Serdar"), Afghanistan (as "Sardar" for a member of the royal Mohammadzai clan in meaning of noblemen), Mesopotamia (now Iraq), Syria, South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal), Central Asia (in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as "Sardor"), the Caucasus, the Balkans, and Egypt (as "Sirdar").

Mahbub ul-Haq (Urdu: محبوب الحق; (1934-02-24)24 February 1934  – (1998-07-16)16 July 1998) was a Pakistani economist, international development theorist, and politician who served as the minister of Finance from 10 April 1985 to 28 January 1986, and again from June to December 1988 as a caretaker. Regarded as one of the greatest economists of his time, Haq devised the Human Development Index, widely used to gauge the development of nations.

After graduating with a degree in economics from the Government College University in Lahore, he won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge in England, where he obtained a second higher degree in the same field. He later received his PhD from Yale University in the United States and conducted postdoctoral research at the Harvard Kennedy School. Haq returned to Pakistan to serve as the chief economist of the Planning Commission throughout the 1960s. In 1970, after the fall of Ayub Khan, Haq moved to Washington, D.C. to serve at the World Bank as Director of Policy Planning until 1982, where he played a major role in reorienting its approach to assisting development in low-income countries.

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan to use the water available in the Indus River system in the territories of the two countries. The treaty was negotiated by India and Pakistan with the mediation of World Bank, and signed in Karachi on 19 September 1960 by Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistani president Ayub Khan. It classifies six major rivers of the Indus Basin into two categories, and gives India control over the waters of the three "Eastern Rivers"—the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej—which have a total mean annual flow of 33 million acre⋅ft (41 billion m), while control over the three "Western Rivers"—the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum—which have a total mean annual flow of 135 million acre⋅ft (167 billion m), was given to Pakistan.

India received control of roughly 20% of the total water carried by the rivers, while Pakistan received 80%. The treaty allows India to use the water of Western Rivers for limited irrigation use and unlimited non-consumptive uses such as power generation, navigation, floating of property, fish culture, etc. It lays down detailed regulations for India in building projects over the Western Rivers. The preamble of the treaty recognises the rights and obligations of each country for the optimum water use from the Indus system of rivers in a spirit of goodwill, friendship and cooperation. The treaty is also meant to alleviate Pakistani fears that India could potentially cause floods or droughts in Pakistan, especially during a potential conflict.