One Unit Scheme of West Pakistan: A Critical Evaluation

Abstract

The One Unit was a geopolitical programme initiated by the legislature of Pakistan driven by then-Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra on 22 November 1954, with the end goal to unravel the constitutional standoff pending since 1947. The program was accepted to be enacted after the legislature confronted trouble of administrating the two unequal commonwealths of Pakistan separated by more than a thousand miles. To diminish the disparities between the two wings, the programme merged the Four Provinces of West Pakistan into a single unit similar to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). .It was an effective thought but due to carpet conspiracies fell prey to mutual trust deficit, deceptions, leg pulling of our politicians and couldn't see the light of the day. When executed it brought about acrimony between East and West Pakistan, which later on culminated in the dismemberment of Pakistan. . At long last, President General Yahya Khan forced Legal Framework Order No. 1970 to end One Unit Scheme and re-established the old status of the Four Provinces as of August 1947 . Baring the few ,majority of the historians of Pakistan believe that if this venture had been actualized before, the division of Pakistan could have been stayed away from, for some more years.