Martial Law under Field Marshal Ayub Khan [1958-62]Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay On October 7, 1958, President Iskander Mirza abrogated the Constitution and declared martial law in the country. This was the first of many military regimes to ruin Pakistan's history. With this step, the 1956 Constitution was repealed, the ministers were dismissed, the central and provincial assemblies were dissolved and all political activity was prohibited. General Muhammad Ayub Khan, then commander-in-chief of the armed forces, became the chief administrator of martial law. The parliamentary system in Pakistan ended. Within three weeks of assuming office, on 27 October 1958, Iskander Mirza was ousted by General Ayub Khan, who then declared himself president. General Ayub Khan gave himself the rank of field marshal. Corruption had become so widespread within the national and civil administrative systems that Ayub Khan was welcomed as a national hero by the people. Immediately after coming to power, the new military government promised that it would implement reforms across the entire government structure and cleanse the administration of rampant corruption. A thorough screening process of all civil servants was conducted and service records were carefully examined. Civil servants were tried for misconduct by tribunals made up of retired judges of the Supreme Court or High Court. If the allegations are proven, disciplinary actions such as dismissal or compulsory retirement of the public employee could take place. A public official could also be banned from holding any public office for 15 years. As a result of these measures approximately 3,000 officials were dismissed and many others were reduced in rank. The rest of the civil servants were provided with an incentive to work hard. Similarly, a law called the Elective Bodies Disqualification Order, popularly known as EBDO, was enacted for the disqualification of politicians. According to this law, a person could be disqualified from being a member of any elective body until 31 December 1966. According to this harsh law, several politicians such as Suhrawardy and Qayyum Khan were disqualified. The EBDO, particularly its implementation, was severely criticized in legal and political circles across Pakistan. After taking over, Ayub Khan focused on the vexed issue of land reform in West Pakistan. Land reforms included reducing the land ceiling to 1,000 acres for non-irrigated land and 500 acres for irrigated land and with tenure rights granted to tenants. Land exceeding these limits was taken by the government to be distributed among deserving people. Ayub Khan also introduced a comprehensive scheme of local government, popularly known as Basic Democracies. This scheme was implemented through the Basic Democracies Order on 27 October 1959. The Basic Democracies were a pyramid scheme which allowed people to directly elect men they knew to the local Council. , who in turn would elect the top level of administration. Overall, 80,000 rank-and-file Democrats were elected. To lend legitimacy to his government, Ayub Khan used the Grassroots Democrats as a constituency, hold a referendum to obtain the mandate to continue in office as president and to have the authority to frame the future Constitution of Pakistan. The referendum held on 14 February 1960 asked voters "whether they had confidence in President Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan, Hilal-i-Jurat?" With the results of the referendum, Ayub Khan was elected..