Topic summary
Dominion of Pakistan
Bangladesh
India
The Dominion of Pakistan, officially Pakistan, was the Pakistani state between 1947 and 1956, when it existed as an independent federal dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations. It was established on 14 August 1947 when it became independent from British India under the Indian Independence Act 1947 of the British parliament, which also established an independent Dominion of India on 15 August. The dominion ceased to exist on 23 March 1956, when the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan adopted a constitution which established Pakistan as a republic.
The new dominion consisted of those presidencies and provinces of British India which were allocated to it in the Partition of India. Until 1947, these regions had been ruled by the United Kingdom as a part of the British Empire.
Its status as a federal dominion ended in 1956 with the completion of the constitution of Pakistan, which established the country as a republic. The constitution also administratively split the nation into West Pakistan and East Pakistan. Until then, these provinces had been governed as a singular entity, despite being separate geographic exclaves. Eventually, the East became Bangladesh and the West became Pakistan.
During the year that followed its independence, the new country was joined by the princely states of Pakistan, which were ruled by princes who had previously been in subsidiary alliances with the British. These states acceded to Pakistan one by one as their rulers signed Instruments of Accession. For many years, these states enjoyed a special status within the dominion and later the republic, but they were slowly incorporated into the provinces.