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Governor-General of Pakistan
The Governor-General of Pakistan was the resident representative of the King of Pakistan in Pakistan from 1947 to 1956.
When Pakistan became an independent, self-governing nation in 1947, it initially adopted the constitutional monarchy form of government as a Commonwealth realm dominion. British monarch George VI was proclaimed King of Pakistan, and upon his death his daughter Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen of Pakistan at her coronation.
The monarch appointed a Governor-General, upon the advice of the Prime Minister of Pakistan to serve as de facto Head of State.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, considered Qaid-i-Azam ("Father of the Nation"), intimated to Lord Mountbatten: "when I am Governor-General the Prime Minister will do what I tell him to"--Jinnah is a rare example of executive governorship by a Governor-General.
Jinnah's successors, like most other Commonwealth Governors-General, served as figureheads and did not exercise their virtually unlimited political powers.
The following are Governors-General of Pakistan:
1947 - 1948 Mohammed Ali Jinnah (1876 - 1948)
1948 - 1951 Khwaja Nazimuddin (1894 - 1964)
1951 - 1955 Ghulam Mohammad (1895 - 1956)
1955 - 1956 Iskander Mirza (1899 - 1969)
The office of Governor-General was abolished and replaced by a President of Pakistan when Pakistan became a republic in 1956. Governor-General Iskander Mirza became Pakistan's first president.
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