The Governor-General of Pakistan was the resident representative of the 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 initially adopted the constitutional monarchy form of government 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"), 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 but did exercise their virtually unlimited political powers when the deemed fit which was mostly related to dissolving the parliament.

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.