Iskander Mirza

Sahibzada Sayyid Iskander Ali Mirza, CIE, OBE English IPA: ɪskɑndæɾ əɪiː mi(ə)ɹzə (Bengali: ইস্কান্দার মীর্জা; Urdu: اسکندر مرزا‎; November 13, 1899 – November 13, 1969), was the first President of Pakistan, serving from 1956 to 1958. Prior to that, Mirza was the last Governor-General of Pakistan from 1955 to 1956. A great grandson of Mir Jafar, Mirza was a career army officer, having reached the higher rank of major-general in Pakistan Army.

After a brief stint in the British Indian Army, Mirza joined the Indian Political Service. He became the Joint Defence Secretary of India in 1946. After the establishment of Pakistan in 1947, Prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan appointed Mirza as the first Defence Secretary, one of the most important government positions. He oversaw the Indo-Pakistan war of 1947, and the Balochistan conflict in 1948. Serious disorder and civil unrest sparked in East Pakistan as a result of the Bengali Language Movement in 1952, prompting Prime minister Khawaja Nazimuddin to appoint him as the Governor of the province. He oversaw the success of the One Unit programme in East Pakistan in 1954, and succeeded Malik Ghulam Muhammad as the governor general in 1955. After successfully promulgating the 1956 constitution, he became the first president. His presidency saw great political instability, challenges in foreign policy, and the ouster of four prime ministers in two years. He finally imposed martial law in 1958 after suspending the constitution and dissolving democratic institutions, including the Pakistan Parliament. Mirza has the distinction of being the first to bring in military influence in national politics after he appointed his army chief as chief martial law administrator of the country.

Mirza

Mirza (/ˈmɜːrzə/ or /mɪəˈzɑː/) is a historical title of Persian origin, denoting the rank of a high nobleman or Prince. It is usually defined in English as a royal or imperial Prince of the Blood.

Today, Mirza is used as a name to identify patriarchal lineage to royal aristocracies of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent. Historically, it was used as a title by and signified patriarchal lineage to the imperial families of the Turkish Empire, Persia, Circassia, Shirvan, Mughals (aka Moguls) and Muslim Rajputs. It was also a title bestowed upon members of the highest aristocracies in Tatar states, such as the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan.

Under Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, the Mirzas gained equal rights with the Russian nobility due to their extreme wealth. In return, the Mirzas financed her Russo-Turkish war against the Ottoman Empire. Abdul Mirza was given the title Prince Yusupov, and his descendant Prince Felix Yusupov married a niece of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Giant mouse lemur

The giant mouse lemurs (Mirza) are a genus of strepsirrhine primates. Two species have been formally described; the northern giant mouse lemur (Mirza zaza) and Coquerel's giant mouse lemur (Mirza coquereli). Like all other lemurs, they are native to Madagascar, where they are found in the western dry deciduous forests and further to the north in the Sambirano valley and Sahamalaza Peninsula. First described in 1867 as a single species, they were grouped with mouse lemurs and dwarf lemurs. In 1870, British zoologist John Edward Gray assigned them to their own genus, Mirza. The classification was not widely accepted until the 1990s, which followed the revival of the genus by American paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall in 1982. In 2005, the northern population was declared a new species, and in 2010, the World Wide Fund for Nature announced that a southwestern population might also be a new species.

Giant mouse lemurs are about three times larger than mouse lemurs, weighing approximately 300 g (11 oz), and have a long, bushy tail. They are most closely related to mouse lemurs within Cheirogaleidae, a family of small, nocturnal lemurs. Giant mouse lemurs sleep in nests during the day and forage alone at night for fruit, tree gum, insects, and small vertebrates. Unlike many other cheirogaleids, they do not enter a state of torpor during the dry season. The northern species is generally more social than the southern species, particularly when nesting, though males and females may form pair bonds. The northern species also has the largest testicle size relative to its body size among all primates and is atypical among lemurs for breeding year-round instead of seasonally. Home ranges often overlap, with related females living closely together while males disperse. Giant mouse lemurs are vocal, although they also scent mark using saliva, urine, and secretions from the anogenital scent gland.

Mirza (disambiguation)

Mirza is a Persian royal title.

Mirza may refer to: