Governor-General of Pakistan

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The Governor-General of Pakistan was the resident representative of King George VI in Pakistan from 1947 to 1952 and then Queen Elizabeth II from 1952 until 1956 when Pakistan was proclaimed a republic.

When Pakistan became an independent, self-governing nation in 1947, it, like post-independent India, provisionally continued to use the Government of India Act 1935, as its written constitution until a post-independence constitution could be drafted; by default this contemplated the continuation of the constitutional monarchy as a Commonwealth realm dominion.

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 Quaid-e-Azam ("Father of the Nation"), informed Lord Mountbatten: "when I am Governor-General the Prime Minister will do what I tell him to" -- however Jinnah's rapidly declining health made the issue moot.

Like most other Commonwealth Governors-General the Governor-General of Pakistan had little practical power, and served in a mostly figurehead capacity.

The office of Governor-General was replaced by the office of President of Pakistan when Pakistan became a republic in 1956. The then Governor-General, Iskander Mirza, became Pakistan's first president.