Nahas Pasha

Nahas Pasha (Mustafa Nahas Pasha) (nähäs` pä`shä), 1876–1965, Egyptian statesman, leader (1927–52) of the Wafd party. He was premier five times between 1928 and 1952. During World War II the British forced (1942) King Farouk to appoint Nahas as head of a government favorable to the Allies. When he became premier for the last time (1951), he denounced the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of alliance, which he had signed as premier in 1936. Agitation against the British led to rioting in Cairo in Jan., 1952, and Nahas was dismissed by the king. After the king's abdication later in the year, Nahas supported the new Egyptian government, but he was subsequently forced to disband the Wafd. He and his wife were imprisoned in 1953. After their release in 1954 he retired into private life.