History never dies. It is reborn every minute of every day.
DEDICATED TO THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD.
“...the tension in Islam between between authoritarian rule and democracy has favoured authoritarianism, largely because in the original Pakistan...it was impossible to build up effective power from below and hence the formal structures of the state became the critical source of power for the society.” -Lucian, W. Pye, 'Asian Power and Politics'
TAG: Prime Minister-elect Raza Gillani will inherit a forty year old battle between the posts of prime minister and president. Musharraf, however, must remember that his constitutional power as president to dismiss the prime minister must, according a 2003 amendment by his own regime, be approved by the Supreme Court. Will it be the old, legitimate supreme court recalled by Gillani? Or the present lap dog supreme court appointed by Musharraf?
IN THE NEWS: PRESIDENT MUSHARAFF SWEARS IN PAKISTAN PEOPLE'S PARTY'S RAZA GILLANI AS NEW PRIME MINISTER. AFTERWARD, IN PARLIAMENT, CHEERING MPs WHO HAD ELECTED GILLANI P.M., BOO MUSHARRAF, INSISTING HE STEP DOWN. GILLANI HAS PROMISED TO REINSTATE THE SUPREME COURT JUDGES FIRED BY MUSHARRAF FOR THROWING THE LEGALITY OF HIS PRESIDENCY INTO QUESTION. MEANWHILE, U.S. OFFICIALS ARE MEETING WITH GILLANI AND WITH PPP'S PARLIAMENTARY ALLY NAWAZ SHARIF, LEADER OF THE PML-N- TO MAKE CERTAIN THEY STAY THE COURSE IN THE WAR AGAINST THE TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA.
Islamabad
REAR-VIEW MIRROR:
1958: General Ayub Khan takes power in a coup and abolishes the post of prime minister.
1973: The position of prime minster is reinstated and made vastly more powerful by President Ali Bhutto who then takes the position himself.
1985- after being abolished by dictator Zia Ul Haq in 1977, the post of prime minister is brought back, but subject to the much greater powers of the president under the 8th amendment.
2003- according to Musharraf's 17th amendment, the president can only dismiss the prime minister and the assembly with the approval of the Supreme Court.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The post of Prime Minister and its power relations with the presidency have always been controversial in Pakistan. After its creation, in 1947, the position of prime minister grew to include executive powers. Pakistan had inherited a British-made Indian constitution with a Governor General as Head of State, of which the first was Pakistan's founder Mohammed Jinnah. The early heads of state repeatedly removed Pakistan's prime ministers. In 1956, Pakistan was finally given a constitution which proclaimed it an Islamic republic. Two years later, in 1958, the country's short-lived democracy ended when President Ayub Khan took power in a coup d'etat and the position of Prime Minister was abolished. In 1969, Khan resigned. In 1971, the secular, nationalist and populist Ali Bhutto inhertited the presidency when President Yahya Khan resigned. Bhutto revived and strengthened the position of prime minister in 1973, then took the position himself. In 1977, after taking power in a coup d'etat, President and army chief Zia Ul Haq promptly abolished the post of prime minister once again. In 1985, the post of prime minister was brought back when the assembly appointed Muhammed Khan Junejo to the position. But the 8th amendment gave the president the power to dismiss both the prime minister and the assembly without consulting the former. In 1988, General Zia Ul Haq was killed in plane crash, rumoured to be an assassination. In the same year, Benazir Bhutto was elected prime minister. Repeatedly,however, the post of president would be used to oppose and to dismiss the prime minister and the assembly, forcing new elections. In 1990 Bhutto was ousted on charges of corruption. She was succeeded as prime minister by Nawaz Sharif, chief councillor of Punjab province. But in April, 1993, Sharif was himself dismissed by the president. He was reinstated by the judiciary but after corruption allegations he had to resign along with the president in July. That year, Bhutto was elected Prime Minister once again, only to be dismissed by President Leghari on new charges of corruption and mismanagement. In 1997, the tables were turned. Sharif was once again elected prime minister and used his overwhelming majority to strip the president of his constitutional power to dismiss the Prime minister. Sharif made the the position of Prime Minister all-powerful, indeed unassailable to the point of dissenting from the Chief Justice. As a result, the president resigned and the supreme court justice was removed. In 1998, in response to social unrest, Sharif suspended many civil liberties and set up military courts. On October 12, 1999, Sharif's government was overthrown by Musharraf in a military coup. In December, 2003, by the 17th amendment, the power of the president to dismiss the prime minister and the assembly was partially restored by the Musharraf government but made subject to approval by the Supreme Court. On February 18, the PPP and the PML-N swept parliamentary elections, reducing Musharraf's PML-Q. With the election of the PPP's Raza Gillani as prime minister, Musharraf will have to hope that Gillani will not succeed in his vow to reinstate Supreme Court chief Choudhury and the other justices. Because if he does, Gillani will then have the supreme court backing he needs to dismiss President Musharraf.
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IN A NUTSHELL: In Pakistan the post of president has, more often than not, been close to the army and conservative vested interests. The post of prime minister, elected by the assembly, has been more representative of popular and democratic forces. Pakistan's conservative constitution still favours the president, giving the post the power to dismiss the prime minister and the assembly. Only twice have there been significant attempts to empower the post of prime minister at the expense of the president. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto succeeded in 1973 and Nawaz Sharif in 1997. In the end, however, both were overthrown by dictators.
Zulfikar Ali Bhuttto
THEN AND NOW: In 1971, President Yahya Khan resigned, handing his presidency over to PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto thus became Pakistan's first civilian president. However, he brought in a new constitution which shifted power from the post of president to that of prime minister and the body which elected it, the assembly. Taking advantage of the change, Bhutto resigned as president and himself became prime minister. 37 years later, Raza Gillani of the PPP is elected Prime Minister, a post which no longer has the power given it by Ali Bhutto.
CONTENTS: SCROLL DOWN FOR:
DISTANT BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS
RELEVANT DATES
RECENT BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS
.PREVIOUS ENTRIES
REMOTE BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS
LOCATION OF NOTE:
PROFILE:
CROSS-CENTURY SUMMARY
EYEWTNESS
PRESENT SITUATION
PLUS CA CHANGE
CURIOSITY
TIMELINE FOR THE HISTORY OF
DISTANT BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS: While India began to fall under British control after 1840, the northwestern or Pakistan region, which was mostly Muslim, wasn't formally acquired until the late 19th century. The western, or Pakistan region, had been relatively content under the British Raj but it was the Muslmis of northern India who fared less well and consequently formed the Muslim League which distinguished itself from the larger and mostly Hindu Indian National Congress. Thus the Muslims who would in future make up Pakistan, were radicalized. Throughout the 1930s, the Muslim League, led by Mohammed al Jinnah, was increasingly alarmed by the power and size of the Hindu INC. In 1940, with the Lahore Resolution, the League declared that if the lot of Muslims didn't improve, Indian Muslims would move for secession. When India became independent in 1947, the Muslim League, rather than share an India dominated by the vastly Hindu INC and a Hindu majority, seceded to form thestate of Pakistan in the western region of Baluchistan, Punjab and the Northwest Frontier.
Pakistan's Governor General was Mohammed al Jinnah.
Two things were highly significant. The first was that Pakistan's raison d'etre was religious; it was formed as a Muslim state. Secondly, Pakistan inherited a British-made Indian constitution which was inadequate to a region which, despite being Muslim was ethnically diverse. Pakistan then had a Governor General or Head of State, of which the first was Jinnah himself. The early heads of state removed many of Pakistan's prime ministers.
In 1956, Pakistan was finally given a constitution which proclaimed it an Islamic republic. Two years later, in 1958, the country's short-lived democracy ended when President Ayub Khan took power in a coup d'etat and the position of Prime Minister was abolished. The tension between democracy and dictatorship would inform all of Pakistan's future history, west-leaning secular groups tending toward democracy while Muslim religious parties, alarmed by the threats of modern secularism, tending toward dictatorship. The idea of an Islamic State, meanwhile, seemed to be the only solution for an ethnically divided country. The result, time and again, was to be a dictatorship, to some degree Islamic. Yet that did little to solve Pakistan's most deep-seated political problem- how do you define Muslim in a society in which no one agrees on the definition of what it is to be Muslim? But Islam, undefined, remained the shibboleth. Never a marginal force, Islamic radicalism was always close to the centre of power, whether in the army, in government or in the official opposition. The pattern of secular and Muslim rivalry increased. The secular, nationalist and populist Ali Bhutto was elected President. He revived and strengthened the position of prime minister in 1973, then took the position himself. In 1977, he was overthrown by the Islamist General Zia Ul Haq for dividing the country on his platform of "Islamic socialism." Ul Haq promptly abolished the post of prime minister once gain. Though Islam would never find an official definition, attempts at secularized forms of Islam would only feed the electoral power of the religious zealots who wanted to exploit the very practice of democracy brought in by westernized elites, to form a state along the lines of a 7th century Caliphate. Nevertheless, Bhutto's family was to become a political dynasty and the accepted spearhead of the secular opposition.
Meanwhile, the ever shifting priorities of US foreign policy arrived at support for the Islamic Mujehadeen of Afghanistan in their resistance to the Soviet invasion of 1979. Ul Haq's Islamist regime received backing by Washington in return for help in arming and training the Afghan rebels. In 1978, Ali Bhutto was executed after being charged with corruption and murder. (In 1982 Raza Gillani entered politics when he was elected chairman of the district council of Multan in south Punjab). Bhutto's daughter, the Oxford-educated Benazir Bhutto inherited the mantle of leader of the secular opposition and in 1984 and led the PPP or Pakistan People'd Party. She and her husband, Asif Ali Zardan like her father, would endure periods of arrest and exile and repeated charges of corruption by Islamist parties and governments. In 1985, the post of prime minister was brought back when the assembly appointed Muhammed Khan Junejo to the position. But the 8th ammendment gave the post of president the power to dismiss both the prime minister and the assembly without consulting the former. In 1988, General Zia Ul Haq was killed in plane crash, rumoured to be an assassination. In the same year, Benazir Bhutto was elected prime minister. Repeatedly, the post of president would be used to oppose and to dismiss the prime minister and the assembly, forcing new elections. In 1990 Bhutto was ousted on charges of corruption. She was succeeded as prime minister by Nawaz Sharif, chief councillor of Punjab province. But in April, 1993, he was dismissed by the president. He was reinstated by the judiciary but after corruption allegations he had to resign along with the president in July. In 1993 Benazir Bhutto was re-elected. Meanwhile, the MML, a powerful alliance of religious parties, was expressly formed by the ISI to block the election of any secular party as well as to gather or to fabricate corruption charges against Benazir Bhutto. In 1996, Bhutto was duly dismissed, again on charges of corruption. In 1997, Sharif was once again elected prime minister and used his overwhelming majority to strip the president of his constitutional power to dismiss the Prime minister. Sharif made the the position of Prime Minister all-powerful, indeed unassailable to the point of dissenting from the Chief Justice. As a result, the president resigned and the supreme court justice was removed. In 1998, in response to social unrest, he suspended many civil liberties and set up military courts. Throughout his career he had already had several run-ins with chiefs of the military. In 1998, Sharif appointed General Musharraf to head the army. But Sharif angered the army by resisting pressure to give it political power, pulling it out of confrontation with India in Kashmir at the behest of the United States and dismissing its head, General Pervez Musharraf. In February 1999, Sharif signed the Lahore Declaration to normalize relations with India. Under pressure from US president Clinton, he withdrew the army from confrontation with India in Kashmir. Electricity shortages led him to put the army in charge of water and power but rumours of selling out to the generals led him to fire Musharraff. On October 12, 1999, Sharif's government was overthrown by Musharraf in a military coup. Charged with conspiracy, he faced criminal charges when the Saudi kingdom intervened and he was allowed to go to exile in Saudi Arabia. In 1999, Musharraf took power in a bloodless military coup and Sharif went into exile. After Al Qaeda's attacks on the United States on 9/11, Musharraf was coerced into supporting Washington's War on Terror, a campaign which would in fact amount to a war against radical Islam in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The US invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban obliging Musharraf to take up its fight against the Taliban resistance as well as al Qaeda, which had taken refuge in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal agencies. Musharraf, still presiding over an army which was at least in part Islamist and traditionally allied with the religious parties, as well as powerful Islamist elements in the ISI intelligence service, has had to walk a tightrope, on the one hand supporting Washington against the Taliban and al Qaeda and on the other, placating the religious parties and Islamist elements in his own government. In 2002, the ISI helped to form 'the King's party' (PML-Q) or the coalition of relgious parties that won Musharraff his electoral majority that year. If anything he needed them on side while he fought the Taliban for Washington. In December, 2003, by the 17th amendment, the power of the president to dismiss the prime minister and the assembly was partially restored but made subject to approval by the Supreme Court. Marsharraf sent the army into Waziristan after the Taliban in the winter of 2003-2004. They were so badly mauled by the Taliban and its tribal alllies among the Mahsuds and Waziris that two peacve deals were stuck, in 2004 and February 2005, leaving Waziristan and effective Taliban "Emirate". By a September 2006 peace deal, by which the Waziristan Taliban would restrict their operations to Afghanistan and refrain from attacking Pakistani forces , Pakistan withdrew its troops to their bases. In Kashmir, meanwhile, Musharraf has cracked down on Islamist Kashmir separatists and made half-hearted attempts to stop the Afghan Taliban insurgency from hiding out in Pakistan. Faced on the other hand with a strong moderate, secular movement, he was forced, nevertheless, to turn his attention to the development of a powerful Islamist cell in the Red Mosque, in central Islamabad, right under the nose of his intelligence agencies. bloc which has in turn prevented him from cracking down too hard on the Taliban.
RELEVANT DATES:
1935- the Government of India Act is established and will become Pakistan’s constitution in 1947.
1947- Britain agrees to the formation of an independent Pakistan, separate from India.
15 August- Pakistan becomes independent, comprising Sindh, Punjab and North-West Frontier with the Durand line remaining as the border between the two nations. The border still cuts through the region of the Pashtun people- despite Afghan claims on the entire Pashtun region, which includes much of the Baluchistan region of western Pakistan. Before departing the British had drawn the frontier between west Pakistan and India in haste, forcing bordering principlalities to join either India or Pakistan. Mohammed Jinnah is Pakistan’s first president.
1956- Pakistan, heretofore governed by the Government of India Act, is proclaimed an Islamic republic and gets its own constitution.
1958- Ayub Khan, frustrated by the democratic process, takes power in a coup d’etat, abolishing Pakistan’s newfound constitution and democracy.
1958- Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Benazir's father) joins cabinet as minister of commerce.
1963- Ali Bhutto becomes foreign minister
1967- after expulsion from cabinet, Ali Bhutto founds his own secular democratic party.
1971 -Zulfikar Ali Bhutto elected president- begins in a populist, socialist regime. He brings in nationalization and financial independence from the US.
1977- right wing and Islamist opposition to Bhutto leads to a military coup by General Zia Ul-Haq.
1977-1984 after returning from her education at Oxford, Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Ali Bhutto is sentenced to house arrest.
1978-1988 Zia Ul Haq becomes president, imposes martial law, prohibits political activity and introduces Sharia.
1978- Prime Minister Ali Bhutto is arrested by Zia Ul Haq's regime on charges of corruption and murder.
1979- April 4- after being sentenced to death, Bhutto is hanged.
1982- Raza Gillani elected chairman of the district council of Multan in south Punjab.
1984- Benazir Bhutto exiled to England with her mother. Benazir Bhotto founds the PPP, the Pakistan People’s Party.
1986- Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan and campaigns for fair elections. She marries in 1987.
1988- President Zia Ul-Haq dies at Dhaka in a plane crash.
1988- Aslam Beg, chief of the Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) forms a coalition of religious parties (the IJI) against canddiate Benazir Bhutto. When the relgious coaltion loses, the ISI throws its support behind her rival, Nawaz Sharif, then Chief Minister of Punjab.
1988- Benazir Bhutto elected Prime Minister. She takes Pakistan back into the Commonwealth.
1990- constant challenges from a conservative presidency leads to the dismissal of Benzir’s Bhutto’s government. She is pursued with corruption charges in a campaign believed to be orchestrated by the ISI. She is charged with corruption. Her husband is placed under arrest for corruption.
1990- behind the scenes, the ISI brokers another coalition against Bhutto and raises large amounts of money to back Sharif.
-Nawaz Sharif succeeds Benazir Bhutto as prime minister.
1991- unrest in Sindh. Meanwhile Benazir Bhutto goes on an international lecture tour
1990s- internal instability due to constant charges of political corruption.
1993- Benazir Bhutto leads opposition to Nawaz Sharif,
-Bhutto elected prime minister of a coalition government. Her regime is plagued by crime, the drugs trade, separatist unrest in Balushistan and Sindh and tribal unrest in the north west frontier.
1996- Benazir Bhutto’s government is dismissed by President Leghari on new charges of corruption and mismanagement.
-1997- Feb. Benazir Bhutto is defeated in elections. She is succeeded by Nawaz Sharif and becomes leader of the opposition.
-Sharif removes a constitutional amendment which gives the president the power to dismiss the prime minister.
1998- Sharif resists pressure from the army to allow the generals a say in government.
Oct. Sharif introduces Sharia or Muslim religious laws throughout the country.
1999- Sharif orders the removal of military forces from Kashmir.
1999- Benazir Bhutto removed as a member of parliament and along with her husband is tried, fined and sentenced for corruption.
-Benazir Bhutto chooses self-imposed exile in Dubai, later in London
1999- Premier Nawaz Sharif, though democratically elected, begins to establish Islamic law throughout the country, despite widespread protest.
-Sharif withdraws the army from Kashmir and dismisses its head, General Musharraf, angering the army.
-General Musharraf takes power in a military coup. Musharraf suspends the constitution, asserts control over the judiciary and parliament.
-Nawaz Sharif agrees to go into exile as an alternative to facing criminal charges.
2001- after the 9/11 attacks, Washington coerces Musharraf into supporting the US War on terror. But this gains Pakistan badly needed international loans..
-PPP member Raza Gillani convicted by Musharraf's anti-corruption court of making illegal government appointments. He serves five years in jail. The PPP claims the prosecution was aimed at forcing PPP members to join the Musharraf government.
2002- after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban are pushed into the border tribal areas of Baluchistan.
-Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) helps to form the the King's Party a coalition of Pakistan Muslim parties to back Musharraf's 2002 presidential election capaign. The MMA, a large alliance of religious parties, the King's Party and Bhutto's PPP are the largest parties in parliament.
-many believe the MMA was patched together by the ISI to support Musharraf.
-the MMA forms an alliance with the 'King;s party' to back Musharraf in the elections.
-Musharraf wins presidential elections. He gains 5 more years in office in a referendum criticized as unconstitutional and biased. He awards himself sweeping new powers.-2002- Musharraf election.
-Musharraf gains 5 more years in office in a referendum seen to be rigged and unconstituional. He awards himself new, sweeping powers.
-after Musharraf is elected, an amendment known as the 'legal framework order' gives him a five year term plus power over many civil institutions and the power to dismiss national and state assemblies. The MMA is indispensable in getting the 'Legal Framework Order' passed into law. The parliament becomes Musharraf's instrument.
-parliament is deadlocked with increased power from the religious parties.
2004-2005- due to losses in the Waziristan offensive against the Taliban and al Qaeda, Pakistan makes various peace deals with local Taliban-supporting tribes. The Taliba effectively control Waziristan.
2007- -January- tensions increase around the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad.
-9 March-mass protests follow Musharraff’s suspension of Pakistan’s Chuef Justice Iftakar Mohammed Choudhury for abuse of power. Chouhury has been probing the armed forces about cases of missing persons.
-11 July- after a week-long stand off, security forces storm and seize the Red Mosque, killing over 80 militants.
-in the wake of the assault on the red Mosque, Waziristan and Pakistan erupt in revenge suicide and bomb attacks. In response to the violence and to US threats to pursue the Taliban inside Pakistan, Musharraf resume the military campaign inside Waziristan.
-20 July- the Supreme Court reinstates Justice Choudhury
-August- Benazir Bhutto holds secret talks with Musharraf about returning to Pakistan to form a partnership with him in upcoming elections providing he resgins from the army.
-Aug. 23- the Supreme Court decides Nawaz Sharif can return to Pakistan.
Sept. 8- General Musharraf has Sharif arrested upon his return to Pakistan. Sharif is exiled again to Saudi Arabia- in defiance of the Supreme Court's August ruling.
-14 September- Bhutto says she will return from exile in London in mid-October.
-16 September- Pakistan's electoral commission amends a clause stating that a government servant cannot run for office without first being retired from their position for two years. A public servant can now run without leaving office. The amended clause would allow President Musharraf to run again for president. Musharraf's term as president expires November 15.
-18 September- presidential lawyers say that Musharraf will step down as army chief only if he is elected president.
-Oct. 5-in a deal with Musharraf opposition PPP leader Benazir Bhutto agrees to abstain rather than to boycott the Pakistan election if the charges against her are dropped before she returns from exile in London.
-Oct. 6- Musharraf sweeps the elections.
-Oct. 12- 2 suicide bombs directed at Bhutto's convoy from airport, kill donzens, upon her return from British exile.
-November- Musharraf declares emergency rule claiming Islamist threats to the government. Opponents charge him with attempting to lengthen his dictatorship as he uses the emergency to sack the Supreme Court on the eve of its decision about the legitimacy of his election as president while still chief of the army.
-Bhutto placed under house arrest as she plans a march against emergency rule.
-Musharraf says he will work with Bhuttto.
-Musharraf brings in a caretaker government.
-the chief election commissioner determines that elections for Prime Minister will be held on January 8, 2008.
-the election commission ratifies Musharraf's second five-year term in office.
-Nawaz Sharif allowed to return from exile.
-Musharraf hands over command of the Armed Forces to General Ashfaq Kayani.
-Bhutto says she may boycott the January 8 election.
-December 15- Musharraf ends the state of emergency, restores constitution.
-December 27- Bhutto is shot to death as suicide bombers hit her retinue after a rally in Rawalpindi.
2008- January -Musharraf postpones January 8 elections to February 18 due to instability.
-20 police killed at an anti-Musharraf rally outside the High Court in Lahore.
-Feb 18- the PPP and the PML-N sweep parliamentary elections, reducing Musharraf's PML Q.
The PPP's Asif Bhutto and the PML-N's Nawaz Sharif consider a coalition to oust Musharraf.
RECENT BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS. In January, 2007, tensions developed around the Islamist Red Mosque. Then, in the spring, mass protests erupted against Musharraf's firing of Pakistan's chief justice, Iftakar Mohammed Choudhury on charges of misusing his post. Choudhury, an activist judge, had often demanded the investigation of the country's intelligence services on the issue of missing persons and other matters involving military rule. It appears the anger about his dismissal was shared both by Islamist and democratic opponents of the government. Meanwhile, weeks of conflict involving Pakistan's Islamist extremists finally culminated in the army's assault on the Red Mosque and the killing of most of its radical defenders which led in turn to counter-attacks by Islamists all around the counrty. To make matters worse for Musharraf, the Supreme Court reinstated Choudhury. With Musharraff weakened by the Choudhury and Red Mosque affairs, Benazir Bhutto, in exile in England, chose the moment to gamble on a return to Pakistan by offering Musharraff a political partnership. As sole viable opposition leader it seemed a wise move. Moreover the return of her old adversary, Nawaz Sharif was nipped in the bud when when Musharraf had him arrested and exiled again at the airport September 8. The future of Pakistan is more likely being played in the Supreme Court than it is on the electoral field. On September 16, the court declared that a civil servant, contrary to former rulings can run for office without a mandatory two years absence from his post- clearing the way for Musharraf to run in elections. He had to abide by a promise to resign his army post upon taking office. He had to honour a pledge for Benazir Bhutto to return to Pakistan on October 17 free of corruption charges in return for having her her PPP party abstain instead of voting against him. Such was the atmosphere in Pakistan that Bhutto, arriving from exile in Britain, narrowly escaped death from a suicide attack on her convoy. On November 3, Musharraf declared a state of emergency allegedly on the grounds of a conspiracy from religious militants, though it was generally believed that he was merely lengthening his rule; and indeed he used the emergency to sack supreme court justices before they made a decision on the legitimacy of his election victory while still in uniform. Many of his political opponents were imprisoned; all political activity was banned; there was a crackdown on the media and Bhutto was placed under temporary house arrest to prevent her from leading a rally against the state of emergency. Musharraf promised elections for the post of Prime Minister on January 8, but most doubted that they would be free and fair. On December 15 he ended the state of emergency and restored the constitution, causing some question as to whether the state of emergency had indeed been imposed because of a threat from militants. On December 27, Bhutto, while campaigning in Rawalindi, was assassinated in a suicide bombing. Nawaz Sharif was the only significant candidate left standing in what appeared to an opposition vacuum, until the PPP declared Bhutto's 19 year old son her successor at the head of the party with her widowed husband Asif Ali Zardari acting as regent in what seems more than ever to be a dynasty. Sharif, meanwhile, instructed his own party to boycott the January vote. Suspicions that Musharaff, through negligence or conspiracy allowed the assassination to happen, resulted in widespread rioting verging on anarchy. At the beginning of 2008, Musharraf postponed the election from January 8 to February 19 on grounds of bad security. In the run-up to the elections, suicide bombings took dozens of lives. The intention, most likely, was to prevent what was almost certain to be the return of moderate secular and moderate religious parties to power. Nevertheless, Pakistan had the courage to vote. On February 18, the PPP and the PML-N swept parliamentary elections, reducing Musharraf's PML-Q. The PPP's Asif Bhutto and the PML-N's Nawaz Sharif gradually brokered a coalition to oust President Musharraf. With the election of the PPP's Raza Gillani as prime minister, Musharraf will have to hope that Gillani will not follow through on his pledge to reinstate Supreme Court chief Choudhury and the other justices. Because if he does, Gillani will then have the supreme court backing he needs to dismiss President Musharraf.
The Red Mosque
REMOTE BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS: From ancient times, the region of the Indus river lay at the frontier between invasion from west and central Asia and the empires of the Indian subcontinent. In the third millenium BC, the Aryans invaded from Central Asia. The Indus, which runs southward from the highlands of Central Asia and forms northwest India's natural border with continental Asia, would provide a route of invasion and migration into India for millennia to come. In the fourth and third centuries BC, the Maurya empire of the Indian subcontinent governed the region as far as Afghanistan. In the early centuries AD, the region of the Indus was invaded and ruled by the Kushans of Central Asia. Thenceforward, southeastward expansion from Asia would form the pattern up until British rule in the 19th century. In 711, Arabs invaded, establishing Islam in the region of Pakistan. Mahmud of Ghazni an Afghan warlord of the Abbasid Caliphate, continued the pattern of conquest from the northwest, conquering Sindh, crossing the Indus and plundering northern India. In the 13th century, the Mongol invasions penetrated the region from the north. In the early16th century, a Central Asian Muslim warlord took the region again. Babur established his rule from central Asia to northern India and founded the empire of the Moghuls which would last until British rule. The late 16th century saw a rare reversal of the pattern in which the Moghul emperor Akbar, from his base in northern India, reconquered Sindh and Afghanistan- establishing enlightened rule and an attempted synthesis of Hinduism and Islam. In the eighteenth century, even as Britain began to colonize India, Persian and Afghan Muslim warlords established brief empires extending south and east across the Indus and into northern, Moghul India. With the British occupation of Sindh, West Punjab, Baluchistan and the Northwest in the late 19th century, the old pattern of conquest from the northwest ended.
Akbar
LOCATION OF NOTE: Multan, south Punjab, ancestral home of Prime Minister Raza Gillani and his forbears. A minor industrial center, Multan has seen some recent economic progress. In 1848, the city became a British colonial possession. Gillani himself is descended from Sayed Musa Pak, a great 19th century Multan spiritual leader of Sufi Shia Islam. With the formation of Pakistan in 1947, Multan became part of the Province of Punjab. Multan is one of the oldest cities in South Asia, its name derived from a sun god of the pre-Muslim period. In 326 BC, Multan was conquered by Alexander the Great. It was then included in the Maurya and Gupta empires. In AD 641, it was visited by the great Buddhist scholar, Hsuan-Tsang. It fell to Muslim conquest by Muhammed Bin Qassim in the 8th century and then became famous for its Sufi shrines. Afterward, lying as it did on the main invasion route from Central Asia to India, it saw a lot of violence. The Turkic Afghan warlord Mahmud of Ghazni took Multan in 1005 and Tamerlane conquered it in 1398. It was ruled by the Moghul emperors and knew peace throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Great building projects were undertaken in the 18th century but Afghan warlords such as Ahmad Shah Durrani took the city throughout the late 18th century. Multan was then ruled by Pashtun chieftans. In 1818, the Sikh leader, Ranjit Singh took the city which was ruled by Sikhs until was taken by the British in 1848.
Multan 1895
PROFILE: Zulfakir Ali Bhutto, (1928-1979) father of Benazir Bhutto and member of the powerful Rajput Bhutto dynasty that owned immense estates in Larkana, Sindh where Bhutto was born. He was educated at Berkeley and at Oxford before becoming a lawyer in Karachi in 1953. In 1958, he joined the cabinet of General Ayub Khan as Minister of Commerce. Khan appointed him Foreign Minister from 1963 to 1966 but Bhutto broke ranks by adopting a policy distancing Pakistan from the U.S. and India and moving closer to China and the USSR. He persuaded Khan to send troops into Kashmir, starting the Indo-Pakistan war and opposed the Tashkent boundary agreement by which the war was ended. After explusion from the cabinet, he founded the Pakistan People's Party in 1967, publicly criticized Khan for dictatorship and was imprisoned in 1968-69. In 1969 he became President Yahya Khan's foreign minister and deputy Prime Minister before Khan brought in democratic elections in 1970. A skilled politician and powerful personality, Bhutto and his PPP party swept West Pakistan in1970 but he and Yahya Khan refused to listen to the Awami League which represented a large number of seats secured for East Pakistan. The civil war followed. Resigning president Yahya Khan handed his presidency to Bhutto in 1971 and Bhutto became Pakistan's first civilian president on a populist, socialist platform in the wake of the secession of East Pakistan. He nationalized many Pakistani industries and brought in a new constitution which shifted power from the post of president to that of prime minister. Taking advantage of the change, Bhutto resigned as president and became prime minister. However, he became increasingly authoritarian and his support began to unravel. He dismissed the government of Baluchistan for sedition and passed a law outlawing political parties on arbitrary grounds. His PPP was on the way to becoming Pakistan's sole political party. Having made promises to the poor, the began to support landowners and big business instead. He used his increased power to ban the Awami party, the only real opposition to the PPP. Still, he made modest progress for the urban poor. Throughout, he relied on support from the military, whose chief, General Zia Ul Haq he had himself appointed. In 1973 the oil crisis and the OPEC embargo caused economic chaos in the country despite his social and economic reforms. A political rival from within the PPP was murdered in 1974, a crime that would come back to haunt him four years later. In 1977 he secured a large majority but it is generally agreed that he rigged the vote against the Pakistan National Alliance, a union of nine opposition parties which would have won a fair vote. Massive rioting followed. Bhutto agreed to new elections but General Zia Ul Haq, who already had a dim view of Bhutto's secular, socialist and economic policies, took advantage of charges of vote-rigging, corruption and of the 1974 murder of Bhutto's PPP political rival to have him deposed. Bhutto's daughter, Benazir, upon returning home from studying at Oxford was placed under house arrest. Throughout the summer and fall of 1978, Ali Bhutto was arrested and released, declaring throughout that General Zia U Haq would not dare touch him. On October 24 he was charged with attempted vote rigging, corruption and murder and convicted by the High Court in Lahore in March. On April 4, 1979, Bhutto was found guilty and hanged.CROSS-CENTURY SUMMARY: The Pakistan region formally belongs to the Asian continent proper, while the adjoining Indian subcontinent has remained in many ways separate. Though invasions have mostly been conducted from Asia southward into the subcontinent itself, India retained the religion of Hinduism which had arrived from Asia as the Vedic relgion with the earliest Aryan conquests. Ever since, central and southern India have remained culturally distinct from Asia proper and no southward invasion ever succeeded in complete cultural control of the Hindu subcontinent. Islam, which arrived at the Indus in the early eighth century, would never spread much further than northern India. The Moghuls, who invaded from Central Asia in the 16th century and ruled the Pakistan area and India until the 19th century, formally established Islam in the Indus and in northern India, but never in all of India proper. The independence of Hindu India, combined with colonial European ideas of ethnic nationalism resulted in the separation of a northwestern Muslim state of Pakistan from a Hindu state in the subcontinent. Religous tensions, niherited from the time of secession and intensified with the Sunni revival of the 1980s and 1990s, have combined with the fragility of Pakistani democracy to produce almost chronic political instability.
EYE-WITNESS: From the 'New York Times', 1998: Nawaz Sharif tables a motion to make Pakistan into a formally Islamic State- one year after gathering almost dictatorial power around his post of prime minister: "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif proposed a law today to create an Islamic order in Pakistan and establish a legal system based on the Koran. The constitutional amendment was condemned by human rights groups, opposition politicians and constitutional experts. With Mr. Sharif controlling a two-thirds majority in Parliament, however, the amendment is likely to pass with little difficulty. The country's opposition, led by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said an Islamic state would deepen strife in a country where religiously motivated violence has killed hundreds of people. Civil libertarians accused the embattled Mr. Sharif of using Islam to buttress his power. ''In the name of Islam, Nawaz Sharif is trying to perpetuate a fascist rule,'' said Asma Jehangir, a prominent human rights activist and lawyer. In a speech to Parliament, which was carried on national television, Mr. Sharif promised a ''true Islamic welfare state.'' He said all laws would be based exclusively on the Koran, the Muslim holy book, as well as the Sunnat, which are writings of Mohammed. ''Simple changes in laws are not enough,'' Mr. Sharif said. 'I want to implement complete Islamic laws where the Koran and the Sunnat are supreme.' Under the amendment, the federal Government would be 'obliged' to enforce prayers five times a day and collect annual tithings. The Prime Minister sought to assure minorities -- who make up barely 5 percent of the country's 140 million people -- and women that the new Islamic laws would not violate their rights. His emphasis on education for women appeared to be an attempt to allay concerns that Pakistan's version of Islamic law would be the same as Afghanistan's, where the Taliban rule. But Mr. Jehangir warned that militant Muslims will use the new law to impose their brand of Islam.While the current legal system is rooted in British common law, Pakistan already has taken tentative steps toward Islamic rule. Since the late 1970's, for example, there have been laws stipulating that four male witnesses are required for rape prosecutions. The same law also provides the death penalty by stoning for the crime of having sex outside of marriage. 'The more Islam is used for political ends, the more it will fuel sectarianism because of Islam's many interpretations,' said Naveed Qamar, deputy leader of the opposition and a member of Ms. Bhutto's party. Hundreds of people have been killed in attacks between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims here. While most Pakistanis are Sunni Muslims who generally get along with their Shiite brethren, there are militant members of both sects who routinely clash. There also were accusations that Mr. Sharif was trying to divert attention from serious economic troubles, made worse by sanctions that followed Pakistan's explosion of six nuclear devices in May. The underground explosions were conducted after India exploded five such devices."
-THE NEW YORK TIMES, August 29th, 1998.
PRESENT SITUATION: President Musharraf insists on working with the Pakistan People's Party and Nawaz Sharif's PML-N in a "spirit of reconciliation." If Prime Minister Gillani manages to reinstate the original Supreme Court judges, as promised, including chief justice Choudray, President Musharraf will have lost any hope of Supreme Court approval for sacking the Prime Minister.
PLUS CA CHANGE: Frequently, Pakistani politicians have succeeded to the post of prime minister only to face presidents who opposed them and had the power to fire them. Ayub Khan not only dismissed but abolished the post of prime minister. Benazir Bhutto was twice dismissed by a president. Nawaz Sharif faced down a president during his own term as prime minister. It remains to be seen how Prime Minister Gillani will fare faced with opposition from President Musharraf who once had Gillani thrown in jail.
CURIOSITY: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's rise to power was eccentric: handed the presidency from retiring President Yahya Khan, he changed the constitution to create a more empowered and populist post of prime minister. Having done so, Bhutto succeeded in resigning the presidency and taking the new post of prime minister himself.
TIMELINE FOR THE HISTORY OFPAKISTAN:
-the region west of India encompassing what is now Baluchistan, the Northwest Frontier, West Punjab and Sindh.
3000-1750 BC- the highly developed civilization of Mohenjo-Daro on the Indus River.
1500 –600 BC- migration of Indo-Aryan peoples into western and northern India. Vedic religion develops.
540-512- Persian conquests of northwest India.
327- Alexander the Great takes parts of northwest India.
The Mauryas
321-185 BC- the Mauryan empire- the subcontinent’s first state system which stretches from Afghanistan to southern India.
303 BC- the Greek successor to Alexander, Seleucus is expelled from northwest India and Afghanistan as Changragupta Maurya extends an empire of the central Ganges up to Kabul, Herat and Kandahar.
269-232 BC- 3rd Mauryan ruler, Ashoka, establishes Buddhism in the region.
The Kushans
1-200 AD- the Central Asian Kushan empire rules from north India to Afghanistan to Central Asia.
-the Kushans, caught between pressure from the Hsiang-Nu Chinese in the east and Persia in the west, invade Afghanistan and Sind before conquering part of northern India. The route southeast from central Asia to the Gangetic plain of northern India will be used for repeated invasions, the invaders always coming from the Afghan region and the north.
140 AD- Under Kanishka, the Kushan Empire extends into northern India. Afghanistan is divided between the Kushan Empire on the North and the Parthian empire to the south.
67 AD- the Kushan people, having prevailed from among the Yue Chi, form in force on the northern edges of Afghanistan and displace the Suren dynasty from northern India.
230 AD- the Kushan Empire dissolves into principlalities which rule until 400.
Islam
650 (circa) the Pratihara kingdom stops the Arabs of Sindh from overrunning Rajasthan.
711- Muslim Arabs conquer the Indus valley.
800- Western Afghanistan is the Khorasan region of the Abbasid Empire. Eastern Afghanistan, including Kabul and Kandahar is in the non-Islamic tribal region of the Indus. There is already a circular trade route anticipating the modern ring road from Kandahar to Kabul in the east to Balkh in the north and to Herat in the west.
1020- Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030), an East Afghanistan Turkic warlord and mercenary for the Abbasid Muslims, is granted autonomy, as 'Sultan' to form his own dynasty.
1000-1027- in 17 raids, Mahmoud of Ghazni conquers a brigand's empire stretching from Kurdistan through Sindh to the Indus. Mahmoud's campaigns are against the Shia Fatimids and non-Muslims like Buddhists and Hindu India. Has a reputation as a bloodthirsty tyrant.
1173-1206- Muhammad of Ghur, another Turkic warlord from Central Asia, also takes Sindh, crosses the Indus, conquering all of northern India and establishing a capital at Delhi which is to remain the capital of Muslim India. His sultanate will last until the arrival of the Moghuls in 1526.
1221- Gengis Khan and the Mongols penetrate the Punjab region.
1296-1306- a subsequent Mongol invasion of northern India is repelled by the sultans of Delhi.
1300- the Valley of the Indis is ruled by the Delhi Sultanate.
1346-1564- Vijayanagar: the last Hindu resistance to Muslim rule.
1398- the central Asian Warlord, Tamerlane, takes Sindh, crosses the Indus and sacks Delhi.
The Moghuls.
1483- the Muslim conqueror Babur fails to establish a kingdom in his native Uzbekistan and instead takes Herat and Kandahar, making them the centre of his future empire.
1545- Kabul is annexed as a Moghul military and administrative area.
1526-761- the region was ruled by the Moghul Emperors.
1526- Babur, the first Moghul, invades India, takes the Gangetic plain and founds the Moghul Empire in India.. A Central Asian warlord, his Moghul empire includes Afghanistan and India.
1540-1545- Babur’s son Humayun loses control to the Afghan chieftan Sher Shah.
1546- battle of Panipat: Humayun’s son Akbar the Great recovers the area from the Afghans, extending it to Deccan.
1542-1605- in a rare reversal of the pattern of invasion, Akbar reasserts control over northern India and crosses the Indus to conquer Sindh and Afghanistan. Liberal and enlightened, he establishes tolerance and attempts to form a synthethis of Hinduism and Islam called the Divine Faith.
1585- the Sikhs are autonomous in the region of Lahore, Pakistan.
1658-1707- the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb pushes the boundaries of the empire southward.
The Marathas- coastal Western India.
1659- Shivaji (1627-1680) gathers local hill-dwellers of Bijapur against the Moghuls. The Moghuls send a force against him but he defeats them.
1660s- Shivaji gains power- his locality growing as a “robber state” by extracting protection money.
1674-1680- Shivaji makes himself Raja of Maratha kingdom in west India as the Moghul empire declines.
-the Emperor Aurangzeb’s defence of the Muslims at the expense of the Hindus leads to war with the Marathas.
The British
1700-1800- the British consolidate their trading power in India through the East India company, taking advantage of the weakened Moghul emperor, Aurangzeb, and make India a British colony.
Nadir Shah
1738- Nadir Shah of Persia invades Afghanistan and northern India, his empire lasting only until his assassination in 1747.
Ahmad Shah
1747- Ahmad Shah (of the Saddozai family, Abdali clan) commander of Nadir's body guard, takes the name Durrani, meaning 'Pearl of the Age' and establishes the Durrani dynasty of Afghanistan, unites varied tribes in southern Afghanistan around their common link: the Pashtun language. He invades the Gangetic plain of India conquering and weakening the last Moghul emperor Aurangzeb. The modern Afghan nation begins to take shape. His empire extends from near the Caspian Sea to India.
-1750- under British and Afghan pressure, the Moghul empire shrinks to an area around Delhi.
-in west, coastal India, the Maratha empire becomes a confederacy of leading local families: Bhonsle, Gaekwad, Holkar and Sindia) under hereditary ministers (Peshwas).
-the Peshwa of Maratha asks for British intervention to settle an internal dispute.
1761- Ahmad Shah defeats the Marathas of India at Panipat
1775-82- first British-Maratha war.
1803-1805- second British-Maratha war.
1818- the Marathas destroyed in a third war with the British.
British Acquire Sindh, Punjab.
-1840s- the region fell under British rule.
1849- -the British atke over the Frontier region from the Sikhs. the Deputy Commissioner, Dera Ismail Khan (NWFP)and Bannu controls all political matters in Waziristan- even though the tribes of neighbouring North Waziristan are under the sovereignty of the Kabul government.
-in Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan, two Pashtun tribes, the Waziris and the Mahsuds use the mountainous region to resist British rule.
1860- 3000 Mahsud tribesmen attack a British regiment base in Tank (present South Waziristan).
1876- Baluchistan becomes a British protectorate.
-birth of Mohammed Jinnah.
1890- the British acquire west Punjab.
1893- the British acquire northern Balushistan.
1893-November , the Emir of Afghanistan signs a treaty renouncing all claims to Waziristan and the North West Frontier territories.
1893- the Durand line forms the limit of British territorial expansion into the Pashtun territories of Afghanistan. The Pashtun region, which had once defined Afghanistan, is split by the new boundary with Afghanistan. Western Pakistan is ceded to British India.
The Durand Line cuts through both Baloch and Pashtun tribes.
1894-95- Extensive British military operations against tribal insurgents in Waziristan.
1904- large scale disturbances in SouthWaziristan resulting murder of the Political Agent and Militia Commandant at Sarwakai
1906- founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Jinnah, joins the Indian National Congress.
1910- North Waziristan is made by the British into a full fledged agency
- the Durand line allows for the border territory of Waziristan to be autonomous, outside of effective British rule. Instead, the British ruled by paying subsidies to tribal chieftains.
-otherwise, the Pakistan region remains generally loyal to the British Raj; its inhabits fare relatively well under the British Raj and are well represented in the army and in government.
-but in northern India, where Muslims fare less well, the Muslim League is formed. Its leader, Jinnah, demands greater rights for Indian Muslims.
1913- in India, Mohammed Jinnah joins the Muslim League.
1915- because of the stresses of World War I, the Brtish make a peace deal in Waziristan. But instead, Waziri tribes attack, inflicting heavy losses on the British. The British retalliate with aerial ombardment.
1919- British road building and fortification i Waziristan only results in more bloody tribal attacks.
1919- the Third Afghan War. Pashtun tribes under Afghan warlord Ananullah, on both sides of the Durand line, defeat the British. The British concede nationhood to Afghanistan by the Treaty of Kabul. Ananullah attempts westernizing reforms.
The Hindu Indian National Congress vs. the Muslim League.
1930s- Ghandi’s vastly Hindu Indian National Congress, makes it more urgent for the Muslims in the north to form some sort of defensive association.
-as Muslims become marginalized, Mohammed Jinnah steps up the rhetoric of the Muslim League.
1931- seeing little hope in the face of the INC, Jinnah resigns.
1935- Jinnah returns to the Muslim League under popular pressure and reorganizes it along nationalist lines.
1935- the Government of India Act is established and will become Pakistan’s constitution in 1947.
1937- the Muslim league fares badly in Indian elections.
1940, March 23- The Pakistan or Lahore Resolution- Muslims declare that if their lot doesn’t improve, they’ll move toward creating a separate homeland. This is especially popular in the Muslim majority states of the northwest.
1945-1946- the Muslim league makes a powerful showing in provincial elections in India.
-Lord Mountbatten urges the secession of Pakistan.
Indian Independence, Formation of Pakistan.
1947- India becomes independent.
1947- Britain agrees to the formation of an independent Pakistan, separate from India.
-on partition of the sub-continent , the tribal leaders of Waziristan agreed to be a part of Pakistan, but with special terms and conditions.
15 August- Pakistan becomes independent, comprising Sindh, Punjab and North-West Frontier with the Durand line remaining as the border between the two nations. The border still cuts through the region of the Pashtun people- despite Afghan claims on the entire Pashtun region, which includes much of the Baluchistan region of western Pakistan. Before departing the British had drawn the frontier between west Pakistan and India in haste, forcing bordering principlalities to join either India or Pakistan.
-As Governor General, Mohammed Jinnah is Pakistan’s first head of state.
-East Pakistan formerly East Bengal, 1000 miles distant, is included in the new Pakistan.
-an exodus of about 5 million Sikhs and Hindus from West Pakistan into India.
1947- after much bloodshed, the western region separates from India to from the independent Muslim state of West Pakistan, and, on the other side of India in East Bengal, of East Pakistan.
-tension develops between populous East Pakistan and the dominance of West Pakistan which has the vast majority of educated government personnel
-North West Pakistan remains restive because of a history of devout Islam and relative autonomy under the British, while Pnjab has a history of close participation in the British administration.
-unable to find a constituion to govern its discordant entities, Pakistan will be governed by the Government of India act until 1956.
-August 14, 1947- death of Mohammed Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.
Pakistan-Afghan Tensions
-Afghan king Zahir Shah claims the Pathan (western Pashtun) state from Pakistan. Meanwhile, he extracts support from both the US and the Soviet Union
--the Waziristan tribes, led by the Faqir of Ipi, receive arms from Afghanistan which agitates for a fully independent Pashtunistan of all pashtun borderlands, including Waziristan.
-but Waziristan frnally becomes part of Pakistan with Pakistani independence. Pakistan still rules Waziristan as the British did, with subsidied paid to tribal chieftains.
1948 -Afghanistan opposes formation of Pakistan, refusing to accept the Durand line- starting rivalry between them.
-Pakistan moves thousands of Pashtuns into the border area as a bulwark between Baluchis and Afghanistan
Kashmir
-the Raja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, a Hindu, finds himself ruling an area with a Muslim majority. After a Pakistan-supported Muslim uprising in west Kashmir, India offers help, provided that Kashmir then becomes part of India. Pakistan, angey that it wasn;t consulted, supports the Muslim insurgents.
1949- the UN brokers a caesefire in Pakistan’s skirmish with India over Jammu and Kashmir. A planned UN-sponsored pleiscite over the fate of the area is never held.
1949- Cease-fire Line of Control (LOC) drawn between Kashmir and Pakistan
1950- Ayub Khan appointed first chief of the Pakistan military.
1956- Mar 23- Pakistan, heretofore governed by the Government of India Act, is proclaimed an Islamic republic and gets its own constitution.
1958- Oct 7- President Iskander Mirza annuls the constitution and declares martial law, turning powers over to army chief Ayub Khan.
Ayub Khan
1958- Ayub Khan, frustrated by the democratic process, takes power in a coup d’etat, abolishing Pakistan’s newfound constitution and democracy.
1958- Zulfikar Ali Bhutto joins cabinet as minister of commerce.
1962- Ayub Khan brings in a new constitution enacting "basic democracy" or local democracy while abolishing democracy at the national level.
1963- Ali Bhutto becomes foreign minister.
1965- war breaks out as India occupies Muslim Kashmir. Russia’s Kosygin brokers a caese-fire.
1967- after expulsion from cabinet, Ali Bhutto founds his own secular democratic party.
1969- Ayub Khan resigns due to economic difficulties.
1970- democratic elections. Yahya Khan is president/
Civil War with East Pakistan
1971- When East Pakistan’s Awammi league wins the elections, West Pakistan, under Yahya Khan refuses to recognize the result. East Pakistan breaks away from West Pakistan in a civil war and becomes independent as Bangladesh.
-the civil war embraces Kashmir. India intervenes on behalf of Mujibur Rahman and the Awami League.
-fighting breaks out on the western India-Pakistan frontier.
Ali Bhutto
-Zulfikar Ali Bhutto elected president- begins in a populist, socialist regime. He brings in nationalization and financial independence from the US.
1972- India prevails in an uneasy peace. Cease-fire line between Kashmir and Pakistan (Line of Control) reasserted. Under the Simla agreement both sides agree to settle future disputes by negotiation.
1973- due to the OPEC oil crisis, Pakistan is thrown into economic turmoil.
1974- India tests its first nuclear bomb.
General Zia Ul Haq overthrows the Bhuttos
1977- right wing and Islamist opposition to Bhutto leads to a military coup by General Zia Ul-Haq.
1977-1984 after returning from her education at Oxford, Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Ali Bhutto is sentenced to house arrest.
1978- Prime Minister Ali Bhutto is arrested by Zia Ul Haq's regime on charges of corruption and murder.
July 5- Bhutto is released.
July 29- Bhutto begins campaigning for his return to power.
Sept 3- Bhutto is re-arrested and freed on bail September 13.
Sept 17- Bhutto is imprisoned.
Oct 24.- Bhutto is tried for vote rigging, corruption and the murder of a political opponent.
1979- April 4- after being sentenced to death, Bhutto is hanged.
1978-1988 Zia Ul Haq becomes president, imposes martial law, prohibits political activity and introduces Sharia.
On behalf of U.S., Pakistan backs the Afghan Mujehadeen against the Soviets.
1979- Zia ul Haq repairs US relations by backing the US- supported Afghan Muhehadeen against the Soviet invasion. US support leads to high economic growth throughout the 1980s.
-Pakistan takes on 3 million Afghan refugees.
1984- Benazir Bhutto exiled to England with her mother. Benazir takes leadership of the PPP, the Pakistan People’s Party.
-the US arms Pakistan to back the Afghan Mujehadeen against the Soviet Union. This escalates the arms race between India and Pakistan.
-Quetta, Baluchstan becomes a base for Afghan Mujehadeen fighting the Societs.
-Sunni radical madrassas of Pakistan supported by Saudi Arabia, that began in the 1980s- were seen as a bulwark against Iran. They in turn gave rise to the Taliban. So the taliban arose from the confrontnation of Saudi Arabia with Iran.
-in south Asia, Shia were assertive- so India and pakistan (largest Shia pop at 30 million, after Iran) became the battleground of Saudi-Iranian rivalry in the 80s and 90s.
-India and Pakistan have both acquired nuclear weapons.
1986- the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is established and relieves tension between the two nuclear powers.
Return of Benazir Bhutto
1986- Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan and campaigns for fair elections. She marries in 1987.
1980s-1990s- Islamist groupb Lashkar-e-Toiba first fights Soviets in Afghanistan then switches to Kashmir
1988- President Zia Ul-Haq killed at Dhaka in a plane crash.
-Ul Haq’s successor, President Ishaq Khan brings back democracy.
Benazir Bhutto Prime Minister.
1988- Aslam Beg of the Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) forms a coalition of religious parties (the IJI) against Bhutto. When the relgious coaltion loses, the ISI throws its support behind her rival, Nawaz Sharif, then Chief Minister of Punjab.
1988- Benazir Bhutto elected Prime Minister. She takes Pakistan back into the Commonwealth.
1990- constant challenges from a conservatrive presidency leads to the dismissal of Benzir’s Bhutto’s government. She is charged with corruption charges in an offensice believed to be backed by the ISI. Her husband is also placed under arrest for corruption.
Bhutto Ousted.
1990- ISI brokers another coalition against Bhutto and raises large amounts of money to back Sharif gainst Bhutto
-Nawaz Sharif succeeds Benazir Bhutto as prime minister in an election believed to have been rigged with the assistance of the ISI.
1991- unrest in Sindh. Meanwhile Benazir Bhutto goes on an international lecture tour
1990s- internal instability due to constant charges of political corruption.
Bhutto re-elected.
1993- Benazir Bhutto leads opposition to Nawaz Sharif,
-Bhutto elected prime minister of a coalition government. Her regime is plagued by crime, the drugs trade, separatist unrest in Balushistan and Sindh and tribal unrest in the north west frontier.
- after her election, Bhutto is forced to relinquish all decision-making on nuclear matters to the army, in return for its support.
-Bhutto goes on to purge much of the military general staff of ISI supporters. As a result the military chief, Aslan Beg, (a loyalist of the one-time Zia Ul Haw distatorship) gets her excluded from all military decision-making.
-Harkat ul Ansar for Kahsmir Liberation, founded with the help, arms and training of the ISI-. It is a fusion of two Afhgan Jihadist groups Harkat ul Jihad al-Islami and Harkat ul Mujahideen. The leader of harkat ul Absar si Amjad Farooqi.
-the British-made Durand line lapses after 100 years.. Tribal leaders don’t recognize it. It is said to be "marked out on water'. Pakistan wants Kabul to accept the line. Kabul is reluctant to lose its claim to "south Pashtunistan." (Balushistan)
1994- the Taliban, bolstered and supported (and some say, founded) by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) in Quetta, Pakistan,- crosses into Afghanistan and takes Kandahar .
-the Taliban refuse to accept the Durand line that determines the border with Pakistan.
Bhutto Dismissed.
-1995- Bhutto encourages the formation of the Taliban, seeing it as a friendly Muslim party that will link Pakistan to trade with Central Asia.
1996- Benazir Bhutto’s government is dismissed by President Leghari on new charges of corruption and mismanagement.
1997- Feb. Benazir Bhutto is defeated in elections. She is succeeded by Nawaz Sharif and becomes leader of the opposition.
-Sharif removes a constitutional amendment which gives the president the power to dismiss the prime minister.
1998- Sharif resists pressure from the army to allow the generals a say in government.
Oct. 1- Sharif brings in Islamic law.
1999- Benazir Bhutto removed as a member of parliament and along with her husband is tried, fined and sentenced for corruption.
-Benazir Bhutto chooses self-imposed exile in Dubai.
1999- Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, though democratically elected, puts water and power under the control of the army.
-Sharif begins to establish Islamic law throughout the country, despite widespread protest.
-Sharif withdraws the army from Kashmir and dismisses its head, General Musharraf, angering the army.
-Musharraf dismisses Sharif. Sharif agrees to go into exile rather than face criminal charges.
General Musharraf seizes power.
-General Musharraf takes power in a military coup. Musharraf suspends the constitution, asserts control over the judiciary and parliament.
The Lahore Declaration and Renwed Problems in Kashmir.
1999-Lahore Declaration. India and Pakistan swear to settle differences by negotiation.
1999- 600 Islamic militia from Pakistan occupy Indian Kashmir, provoking retaliatory air strikes from India.
9/11: Musharaff Sides with Washington.
2001- after the 9/11 attacks, Washington coerces Musharraf into supporting the US War on terror. But this gains Pakistan badly needed international loans.
-India and Pakistan mass troops along the LOC as tensions build again in Kashmir.
-to placate angry Islamists, Musharraf takes a softer policy on Kashmir.
-PPP member Raza Gillani convicted by Musharraf's anti-corruption court of making illegal government appointments. He serves five years in jail. The PPP claims the prosecution was aimed at forcing PPP members to join the Musharraf government
-Dec 13, - attack on Indian parliament carried out by Pakistan-based militant groups, Jaish e Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba
2002- after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban are pushed into the border tribal areas of Baluchistan.
-Pakistan begins a troop build-up along the border with Afhganistan.
-Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) helps to form the the King's Party a coalition of Pakistan Muslim parties to back his election as president. The MMA, a large alliance of religious parties, the King's Party and Bhutto's PPP are the largest parties in parliament.
-many believe the MMA was patched together by the ISI to support Musharraf.
-the MMA forms an alliance with the 'King;s party' to back Musharraf in the elections.
Musharraf Consolidates Power, extends Dictatorship,
-Musharraf wins presidential elections. He gains 5 more years in office in a referendum criticized as unconstitutional and biased. He awards himself sweeping new powers.-2002- Musharraf election.
-after Musharraf is elected, an amenndment known as the 'legal framework order' gives him a five year term plus the power over many civil institutions and the power to dismiss national and state assemblies. The MMA is indispensable in getting the 'Legal Framework Order' passed into law. The parliament becomes Musharraf's instrument.
-Musharraf bans the Islamist groups Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
-Parliamentary elections result in a deadlock with increased power for the religious parties.
-Pakistan tests missiles that have nuclear capability.
Daniel Pearl.
-Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is murdered in Karachi by decapitation while investigating local links to the 9/ll attack. His killer , Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh of the
Jaish e Mohammed Islamist group is later arrested and executed.
The Islamist Threat and the ISI
2003- the Northwest Frontier Province votes for Sharia law.
-when Misharraf considers cracking down on the Taliban, his main supporter, the MMA sponsors mass demonstrations and thretens to withdraw its support
-Washington asks the ISI to hand over al Qaeda militants, but the ISI only hands over foreign Al Qaeda foot soldiers.
-ceasefire between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.
-Dec. attempt on Musharraf’s life as his motorcade is bombed.
-2003-2004- winter. The Pakistan army launches assaults against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Waziristan.
2004- nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan admits to having leaked nuclear secrets to North Korea. He is placed under house arrest to placate Washington.
-Sunni-Shia violence in Karachi.
-March and June offensives against al Qaeda in the Afghan border area.
-Musharraf extends his term as head of the army.
- assassination attempt on Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
-afer Islamist leader Amjad Farooqi is killed in shoot out with police in Karachi, Matiur Rehman takes his place.
-Matiur Rehman -alleged to have been involved in bombing of the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi.
2004-2005- due to losses in the Waziristan offensive against the Taliban and al Qaeda, Pakistan makes various peace deals with local Taliban-supporting tribes. The Taliba effectively control Waziristan.
-Dec. 2005- Abu faraj al-Libbi- al Queada leader No. 3- involved in an attempt on Musharraff at Rawalpindi. Libbi is arrested in Mardan. Matiur Rehman is wanted in connection ith the same plot.
-July 2005- Rehman invovled in another plot on Musharraf- disrupted by police.
2005- Baluchistan tribal militants bomb natural gas plant, forcing its closure.
-after July transit bombings in London, 200 militants from radical madrasas and elsewhere are detained in Pakistan
-an earthquake kills tens of thousands in Muzaffarabad.
2006- Pakistani civilians killed in a US missile strike near the Pakistan border in Waziristan.
15-17 Feb.- Afghan President Karzai visits Musharaff to ask him to stop Taliban infiltration from Pakistan. Karzai identifies Afghan commaders in Quetta among other areas of Pakistan. Musharraf says Afghan intelligence is unreliable and complains to Karzai about weapons smuggling into Bluchistan.
-Feb-March- Sunni-Shia violence in Karachi.
-March- attack on the US consulate kills State Dept FSO David Foy . Matiur Rehman is a leading suspect in planning the attack. Jundullah, reportedly led by Rahaman, may have been involved.
mid-July- Pakistani gov't orders crackdown on Taliban: police arrest more than 200 Afghans in Baluchistan- allegedly many were not Taliban.
The London Airline Terror PLot.
-Aug. 2- Pakistani security arrests Rashid Rauf in attempted London airline bombings. Still at large, his superior, Matiur Rehman worked as deputy for Amjad Farooqi’s Harkat ul Ansar- for Kahsmir Liberation
-Pakistan's SSG discovers through the arrest of Rashid Rauf that Lakshar –e- Toiba is linked to a terror group in the UK. Lashkar-e-Toyaba is also blamed for the Mumbai train bombings in July.
-many of the 9 London airline plot suspects arrested in Pakistan are 'facilitators' linked to Jiash e Mohammed and Lashkar e Toiba which provide safe houses and funds.
-Sept- Pakistan signs a treaty in Waziristan with the Taliban, promising that the army will withdraw to its bases, provided that the Taliban restrict their attacks to Afghanistan.
-Oct. -many of the British Pakistanis later suspected in the August 2006 attempted airline bombings in London travelled to Muzaffarabad as humanitarian earthquake relief in Jamiat ud Dawa, whose umbrella organization is Lashakr e Toiba. Membrs of the al Qaeda-linked Jundullah, a Pakistani terror group took them to training camps in Waziristan before returning to relief camps.
Oct. -raid on a seminary in Bajaur in the border tribal agencies, kills up to 80. Anti-government protests follow.
-Oct. -many of the British Pakistanis later suspected in the August 2006 attempted airline bombings in London travelled to Muzaffarabad as humanitarian earthquake relief in Jamiat ud Dawa, whose umbrella organization is Lashakr e Toiba. Membrs of the al Qaeda-linked Jundullah, a Pakistani terror group took them to training camps in Waziristan before returning to relief camps.
The Red Mosque.
2007- Pakistan rejects US claims that al Qaeda members are hiding in Pakistan.
-January- tensions increase around the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad.
-Feb-April- local tribes in Waziristan turn against foegin Taliban fighters for criminal activities and disrupting public order.
-Feb- the Mariott hotel in Islamabad is bombed.
-the New-Dehhi, India-Lahore Pakistan train is bombed, killing 68, mostly Pakistanis.
Musharraf Dismisses Chief Justice Chaudhoury
-9 March-mass protests follow Musharraff’s suspension of Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftakar Mohammed Choudhury for abuse of power.
-March-April- 250 killed in clashes between South Waziristan tribesmen and al Qaeda militants.
April- protests increase against the dismissal of Justice Chouhury.
-12 May- several killed in rival demonstrations in Karachi over the dismissal of Justice Choudhury.
The Red Mosque
-June- followers of Islamabad’s Red Mosque Islamist leader al-Ghazi attempt to impose Sharia law on the city.
-11 July- after a week-long stand off, security forces storm and seize the Red Mosque, killing over 80 militants.
-in the wake of the assault on the red Mosque, Waziristan and Pakistan erupt in revenge suicide and bomb attacks. In response to the violence and to US threats to pursue the Taliban inside Pakistan, Musharraf resume the military campaign inside Waziristan.
-20 July- the Supreme Court reinstates Justice Choudhury
-9 August- Musharraf decides against emergency rule.
The Return of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
-23 Aug. the Supreme Court decides exiled oppostion leader Nawaz Sharif can return to Pakistan.
Sept. 8- General Musharraf has Sharif arrested upon his return to Pakistan. Sharif is exiled again to Saudi Arabia- in defiance of the Supreme Court's August ruling.
-14 September- Bhutto says she will return from exile in London in mid-October.
-16 September- Pakistan's electoral commission amends a clause stating that a government servant cannot run for office without first being retired from their position for two years. A public servant can now run without leaving office. The amended clause would allow President Musharraf to run again for president. Musharraf's term as president expires November 15.
-18 September- presidential lawyers say that Musharraf will step down as army chief only if he is elected president.
-Oct. 5-in a deal with Musharraf opposition PPP leader Benazir Bhutto agrees to abstain rather than to boycott the Pakistan election if the charges against her are dropped before she returns from exile in London.
-Oct. 6- Musharraf sweeps the elections.
-almost 200 are killed in fighting in North Waziristan as government forces fight Taliban and Taliban and al-Qaeda-aligned Islamist groups.
Attempt on Bhutto Upon her Return.
-Oct. 12- 2 suicide bombs directed at Bhutto's convoy from airport, kill donzens, upon her return from British exile.
-November- Musharraf declares emergency rule claiming Islamist threats to the government. Opponents charge him with attempting to lengthen his dictatorship as he uses the emergency to sack the Supreme Court on the eve of its decision about the legitimacy of his election as president while still chief of the army.
-Bhutto placed under house arrest as she plans a march against emergency rule.
-Musharraff says he will work with Bhuttto.
-Musharraf brings in a caretaker government.
-the chief election commissioner determines that elections for Prime Minister will be held on January 8, 2008.
-the election commission ratifies Musharraf's second five-year term in office.
-Nawaz Sharif allowed to return from exile.
-Musharraf hands over command of the Armed Forces to General Ashfaq Kayani.
-Bhutto says she may boycott the January 8 election.
-December 15- Musharraf ends the state of emergency, restores constitution.
Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
-December 27- Bhutto is shot to death as suicide bombers hit her retinue after a rally in Rawalpindi.
2008- January -Musharraf postpones January 8 elections to February 18 due to instability.
-20 police killed at an anti-Musharraf rally outside the High Court in Lahore.
-the army kills 90 tribal militants in South Waziristan.
Victory of the PPP and the PML-N in Parliamentary Elections.
-Feb 18- the PPP and the PML-N sweep parliamentary elections, reducing Musharraf's PML Q.
The PPP's Asif Bhutto and the PML-N's Nawaz Sharif consider a coalition to oust Musharraf.:
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