History of Pakistan (1947–present)

This article is about the history of formation of Pakistan and as a country after 1947. For the history of ancient day Pakistan as a region, see History of Pakistan.

The history of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan begins on 23 March 1956, after the Dominion of Pakistan is dissolved. Pakistan became independent from Great Britain on 14 August 1947, following the Pakistan Movement and eventual partition of British India. The President of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, became Governor-General, and the secretary general of the Muslim League, Liaquat Ali Khan became Prime Minister. Pakistan's political history is closely connected with the struggle of South Asian Muslims to regain power after they lost it to British colonialism.

Independence Movement of Pakistan

Important leaders in the Muslim League highlighted that Pakistan would be a 'New Medina', in other words the second Islamic state established after the Prophet Muhammad's creation of an Islamic state in Medina. Pakistan was popularly envisaged as an Islamic utopia, a successor to the defunct Turkish Caliphate and a leader and protector of the entire Islamic world. Islamic scholars debated over whether it was possible for the proposed Pakistan to truly become an Islamic state.

While the Congress' top leadership had been in prison following the 1942 Quit India Movement, there was intense debate among Indian Muslims over the creation of a separate homeland. The majority of Barelvis and Barelvi ulema supported the creation of Pakistan and pirs and Sunni ulema were mobilized by the Muslim League to demonstrate that India's Muslim masses wanted a separate country. The Barelvis believed that any co-operation with Hindus would be counter productive. On the other hand, most Deobandis, who were led by Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani, were opposed to the creation of Pakistan and the two-nation theory. According to them Muslims and Hindus could be one nation and Muslims were only a nation of themselves in the religious sense and not in the territorial sense. At the same time some Deobandi ulema such as Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, Mufti Muhammad Shafi and Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani were supportive of the Muslim League's demand to create a separate Pakistan.

Muslims who were living in provinces where they were demographically a minority, such as the United Provinces where the Muslim League enjoyed popular support, were assured by Jinnah that they could remain in India, migrate to Pakistan or continue living in India but as Pakistani citizens. The Muslim League had also proposed the hostage population theory. According to this theory the safety of India's Muslim minority would be ensured by turning the Hindu minority in the proposed Pakistan into a 'hostage' population who would be visited by retributive violence if Muslims in India were harmed.

In the Constituent Assembly elections of 1946, the Muslim League won 425 out of 496 seats reserved for Muslims (polling 89.2% of total votes). The Congress had hitherto refused to acknowledge the Muslim League's claim of being the representative of Indian Muslims but finally acquiesced to the League's claim after the results of this election. The Muslim League's demand for Pakistan had received overwhelming popular support from India's Muslims, especially those Muslims who were living in provinces such as UP where they were a minority. The 1946 election in the British Raj was essentially a plebiscite among Muslims over the creation of Pakistan. The Muslim League won 90 percent of reserved Muslim seats and its demand for the creation of an independent Pakistan received overwhelming popular support from the Muslims of India.

The British had neither the will, nor the financial resources or military power, to hold India any longer but they were also determined to avoid partition and for this purpose they arranged the Cabinet Mission Plan. According to this plan India would be kept united but would be heavily decentralized with separate groupings of Hindu and Muslim majority provinces. The Muslim League accepted this plan as it contained the 'essence' of Pakistan but the Congress rejected it. After the failure of the Cabinet Mission Plan, Jinnah called for Muslims to observe Direct Action Day to demand the creation of a separate Pakistan. The Direct Action Day morphed into violent riots between Hindus and Muslims in Calcutta. The riots in Calcutta were followed by intense communal rioting between Hindus and Muslims in Noakhali, Bihar, Garhmukteshwar and Rawalpindi.

The British Prime Minister Attlee appointed Lord Louis Mountbatten as India's last viceroy, to negotiate the independence of Pakistan and India and immediate British withdrawal. British leaders including Mountbatten did not support the creation of Pakistan but failed to convince Jinnah otherwise. Mountbatten later confessed that he would most probably have sabotaged the creation of Pakistan had he known that Jinnah was dying of tuberculosis.

In early 1947 the British had announced their desire to grant India its independence by June 1948. However, Lord Mountbatten decided to advance the date. In a meeting in June, Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad representing the Congress, Jinnah representing the Muslim League, B. R. Ambedkar representing the Untouchable community, and Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs, agreed to partition India along religious lines.

1947–1958: First democratic era

See also: Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, 1953 Lahore riots, 1958 Pakistani coup d'état, Assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, Bengali Language Movement, Nationalism in Pakistan, Pakistan–Soviet Union relations, Rawalpindi conspiracy, and Raisman Program

Main articles: Political history of Pakistan, Dominion of Pakistan, West Pakistan, East Pakistan, and Princely states of Pakistan

1950 documentary about Pakistan

In 1947, the founding fathers of Pakistan agreed to appoint Liaquat Ali Khan as the country's first Prime minister with the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, tenuring as both first Governor-General and Speaker of the State Parliament. Mountbatten had offered to serve as Governor-General of both India and Pakistan but Jinnah refused this offer and opted to become the Governor-General of Pakistan himself.

When Jinnah died of tuberculosis in 1948, Islamic scholar Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani described Jinnah as the greatest Muslim after the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and also compared Jinnah's death to the Prophet's passing. Usmani asked Pakistanis to remember Jinnah's message of Unity, Faith and Discipline and work to fulfil his dream ''to create a solid bloc of all Muslim states from Karachi to Ankara, from Pakistan to Morocco. He [Jinnah] wanted to see the Muslims of the world united under the banner of Islam as an effective check against the aggressive designs of their enemies''.

The first formal step taken to transform Pakistan into an ideological Islamic state was in March 1949 when the country's first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, introduced the Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly. The Objectives Resolution declared that sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to God Almighty. The calls for the Objectives Resolution and the transformation of Pakistan into an Islamic state were led by Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, a respected Deobandi alim (scholar) who occupied the position of Shaykh al-Islam in Pakistan in 1949, and Maulana Mawdudi of Jamaat-i Islami.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Indian Muslims from the United Provinces, Bombay, Central Provinces and other areas of India continued migrating to Pakistan throughout the 1950 and 1960s and settled mainly in urban Sindh, particularly in the new country's first capital: Karachi. The national government of Ali Khan was left to face challenges soon after holding the office. Liaquat Ali Khan established a strong government; his Finance secretary Victor Turner announced the country's first monetary policy by establishing the State bank and federal bureaux of statistics and revenue to improve the statistical finance, taxation, and revenue collection in the country. Territorial problems arose with neighboring Afghanistan over the Durand Line in 1949, and with India over Line of Control in Kashmir which was the theater of the first war between the two countries in 1947.

Diplomatic recognition became a challenging problem when Soviet Union led by Secretary-General Joseph Stalin did not welcome the division which established Pakistan and India. Iran was the first country to recognize Pakistan in 1947. In 1948, Ben-Gurion of Israel sent a secret courier to Jinnah to establish the diplomatic relations, but Jinnah did not given any response to Ben-Gurion.

After gaining Independence, Pakistan vigorously pursued bilateral relations with other Muslim countries and made a wholehearted bid for leadership of the Muslim world, or at least for leadership in achieving its unity. The Ali brothers had sought to project Pakistan as the natural leader of the Islamic world, in large part due to its large manpower and military strength. A top ranking Muslim League leader, Khaliquzzaman, declared that Pakistan would bring together all Muslim countries into Islamistan-a pan-Islamic entity.

The USA, which already did not approve of Pakistan's creation, was against this idea and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee voiced international opinion at the time by stating that he wished that India and Pakistan would re-unite. Since most of the Arab world was undergoing a nationalist awakening at the time, there was little attraction to Pakistan's Pan-Islamic aspirations. Some of the Arab countries saw the 'Islamistan' project as a Pakistani attempt to dominate other Muslim states.

Pakistan vigorously championed the right of self-determination for Muslims around the world. Pakistan's efforts for the independence movements of Indonesia, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Eritrea were significant and initially led to close ties between these countries and Pakistan.

In a 1948 speech, Jinnah declared that "Urdu alone would be the state language and the lingua franca of the Pakistan state", although at the same time he called for the Bengali language to be the official language of the Bengal province; nonetheless, tensions began to grow in East Bengal. Jinnah's health further deteriorated and he died in 1948. Bengali leader, Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin succeeded as the governor general of Pakistan.

Liaquat Ali Khan.

During a massive political rally in 1951, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in Rawalpindi, and Nazimuddin became the second prime minister. Tensions in Eastern Pakistan reached to its climax in 1952, when the East-Pakistani police opened fire on students near the Dhaka Medical College protesting for Bengali language to receive equal status with Urdu. The situation was controlled by Nazimuddin who gave a waiver to Bengali language as equal status, a right codified in the 1956 constitution. In 1953 at the instigation of religious parties, anti-Ahmadiyya riots erupted, which led to many Ahmadi deaths. The riots were investigated by a two-member court of inquiry in 1954, which was criticised by the Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the parties accused of inciting the riots. This event led to the first instance of martial law in the country and began the inroad of military intervention into the politics and civilian affairs of the country.

In 1954, the controversial One Unit Program was imposed by the last PML Prime minister Ali Bogra dividing Pakistan on the German geopolitical model. The same year, the first legislative elections were held in Pakistan, which saw the Communists gaining the control of East-Pakistan. The 1954 elections results clarified the differences in ideology between West and East, with East under the influence of communism nexus of Communist Party allying with Workers Party and the Awami League. The Pro-American Republican Party gained majority in West, ousting the PML government who secured only 10 seats in East.

In a vote of confidence movement in state parliament and promulgation of 1956 constitution which granted Pakistan as Islamic republic, the notable Bengali figures, Huseyn Suhrawardy became the Prime minister leading the communist-socialist alliance, and Iskander Mirza became the first President of Pakistan, both as first Bengali leaders of the country. Just two years later, the military would take control of the nation.

Huseyn Suhrawardy (left) with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Suhrawardy's foreign policy was directed towards the improving fractured relations with the Soviet Union, strengthening and establishing relations with the United States and China after paying first a state visit to both countries. Announcing the new self-reliance program, Suhrawardy began building a massive military and launched the plan of nuclear power program in the West in an attempt to legitimize his mandate in West. Foreign efforts by Suhrawardy led to an assigning of American training program for country's armed forces which met with great opposition in East-Pakistan after his party in East-Pakistan Parliament which threatened to leave the state of Pakistan. Furthermore, Suhrawardy gave verbal authorization of leasing the ISI's secret installation to American CIA to conduct operations in Soviet Union.

Differences in East Pakistan further encouraged the Baloch separatism, and in an attempt to intimidate the communists in East, President Mirza initiated massive arrests of communists and party workers of Awami League in East Pakistan, which damaged the image of West-Pakistan in the East. The Western contingent's lawmakers determinately followed the idea of Westernized Parliamentary form of the democracy when East opted for becoming a socialist state. The One Unit program and centralizing of national economy on the USSR model was met with great hostility and resistance in West, although the Eastern contingent's economy was quickly centralized by Suhrawardy's government. Egoistic problems grew between the two Bengali leaders further damaging the unity of the country, which soon forced Suhrawardy to lose an edge in his own party to the growing influence of cleric Maulana Bhashani. Resigning under a threat of Mirza's dismissal, Suhrawardy was succeeded by I. I. Chundrigar in 1957.

Within two months, Chundrigar was dismissed; followed by Sir Feroz Noon, who proved to be an incapable prime minister. The support for the Pakistan Muslim League led by Nurul Amin began to threaten President Mirza who was unapproved of by the public. In less than two years, Mirza dismissed four elected prime ministers, and was increasingly under great pressure for calling for new elections in 1958.

1958–1971: First military era

Main articles: Cold war, 1958 Pakistani coup d'état, 1960 U-2 incident, Constitution of Pakistan of 1962, Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Tashkent Agreement, History of Pakistani pop music, Bangladesh Liberation War, Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and Instrument of Surrender (1971)

Iskandar Mirza

On October 1958, President Iskandar Mirza issued order for massive naval, air, and troop mobilization of Pakistan Armed Forces all over the country and appointed chief of army staff General Ayub Khan as Commander-in-chief of Pakistan armed forces. In a quick move, President Mirza declared a state of emergency and imposed martial law in 1958, suspended the constitution and dissolved the socialist government in the Eastern wing and the parliamentary government in West Pakistan.

General Ayub Khan, as the Chief Martial Law Administrator, asserted his position all over the country. Within two weeks President Mirza also attempted to dismiss General Ayub Khan. This move backfired on President Mirza who was soon to be relieved from his presidency and exiled to London, United Kingdom in 1958. That same year General Ayub Khan appointed himself to the rank of a five-star Field Marshal and named a new civil-military government under him. Upon becoming the President, Ayub Khan was succeeded by General Muhammad Musa as chief of army staff in 1958.

1962–1969: Presidential republic

Main article: Economic Coordination Committee

Muhammad Ayub Khan.

The parliamentary system came to an end in 1958, following the imposition of martial law. Tales of corruption in the civil bureaucracy and public administration had maligned the democratic process in the country as the public seemed supportive towards the actions taken by General Ayub Khan. Major land reforms were carried out by the military government and it enforced the controversial Elective Bodies Disqualification Order (EBDO) which ultimately disqualified Suhrawardy from holding public office. Ayub Khan introduced a new presidential system called "Basic Democracy", by which an electoral college of 80,000 would select the President, and he also promulgated the 1962 constitution. In a national referendum held in 1960, Ayub Khan secured nationwide popular and ground support for his bid as second President and replaced his military government into civilian constitutional government. In a major development, the capitol infrastructure had been moved to newly planned state capital, Islamabad, all capital work development was relocated from Karachi to Islamabad.

The presidency of Ayub Khan is often dubbed and celebrated as "Great Decade" which highlighted the economic development plans and reforms executed. Under Ayub's presidency, the country took a cultural shift when the pop music industry, film industry and drama industry began to be noticed by the public and became extremely popular in the country during the 1960s. Rather than preferring neutrality, Ayub Khan worked closely to make an alliance with the United States and the Western world to gain support and proceeded to join two formal military alliances, the CENTO in 1955; and the SEATO in 1962, against the Soviet bloc. During this time, the private-sector gained more power to control the national economy, educational reforms, human development and scientific achievements gained a lot of international appraisal from the global community. In 1961, the space program was launched with the continuation of nuclear power program on the other hand. Military aid from the U.S. grew unprecedentedly but the country's national security was severely compromised following the exposure of the secret spy operation launching from Peshawar to Soviet Union in 1960. The same year, Pakistan signed Water treaty with India in an attempt to normalize the relations. The relations with China further strengthened after the Chinese war with India, and both countries signed a boundary agreement which shifted the balance of the Cold War by bringing Pakistan and China closer together while loosening ties between Pakistan and the United States in 1963. In 1964, the Pakistan Armed Forces quelled a suspected pro-communist revolt in Western Pakistan allegedly supported by the Afghanistan and American armoury was used to stop the rebellion. During the controversial 1965 presidential elections, Ayub Khan almost lost the presidential elections to Fatima Jinnah.

In 1965, after Pakistan went ahead with its strategic air-borne mission code named the Operation Gibraltar, India declared a full-scale war against Pakistan. The war, which ended militarily in a stalemate, was mostly fought in West as only mild operations were conducted in East by India. Controversially, the East Pakistani Army did not interfere in the conflict and this brought a great ire in West Pakistan against the Eastern wing. The news of war with India was highly unapproved by the United States which dismayed Pakistan by adopting a policy of denying military aid to both India and Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 over Kashmir and the Rann of Kutch. A positive gain of the treaties was the re-strengthening of Pakistan's close historical bonds with its western neighbors in Asia.

Fatima Jinnah.

A successful intervention of USSR led to signing of Tashkent Agreement between India and Pakistan in 1965. Witnessing the American disapproval and USSR's mediation, Ayub Khan made tremendous efforts to normalize relations with USSR and Bhutto's negotiation expertise led to the Soviet Premier, Alexei Kosygin, visit to Islamabad.

Delivering a blistering speech at the UN General Assembly in 1965, Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with the atomic scientist Aziz Ahmed present there for good measure, Bhutto made Pakistan's intentions clear and loudly announced that: "If India builds the (nuclear) bomb, we will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of own ... We have no other choice". Abdus Salam and Munir Khan jointly collaborated to expand the nuclear power infrastructure, receiving tremendous support from Bhutto. Following such announcement, the nuclear power expansion was given an accelerated after signing a commercial nuclear power plant agreement with GE Canada, and several other agreements with the United Kingdom and France.

Disagreeing with the signing of Tashkent agreement, Zulfikar Bhutto was ousted from the ministry on personal directives of President Ayub Khan in 1966. Dismissal of Bhutto led to a spontaneous mass demonstrations and public anger against Ayub Khan, leading to major industrial and labour strikes in the country. Within weeks, Ayub Khan lost the momentum in the West and his image was destroyed at the public circles.

Amidst further allegations that economic development and hiring for government jobs favoured West Pakistan, the Bengali nationalism began to take a sharp rise and an independence movement began to gather ground in East Pakistan. In 1966, the Awami League led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman presented demanded the provisional autonomy at the Round Table Conference held by Ayub Khan which was forcefully rejected by Bhutto. The influence socialism spectrum began to rise after country's notable economist, Mahbub ul Haq, publishing a report on private-sector's schemes of evading taxation and the few oligarchs control over the national economy. In 1967 Socialist convention attended by country's leftist philosophers and notable thinkers in Lahore, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) was founded with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto becoming its first elected chairman. The Peoples Party's leaders, JA Rahim and Mubashir Hassan, notably announced to "defeat the great dictator with the power of the people."

In 1967, the PPP tapped a wave of anger against Ayub Khan and successfully called for major labour strikes in the country. Criticism on the United States and Ayub Khan further damaged Ayub Khan's authority in the country. By the end of 1968, Ayub Khan forwarded the Agartala Case which led to the arrests of many of Awami League leaders, but was forced to withdraw after a serious provisional uprising in East Pakistan. Under pressured from the PPP, public resentment, and anger against his administration, Ayub Khan resigned from the presidency in poor health and handing over his authority to army commander, a little known personality and heavy alcoholic, General Yahya Khan, who imposed martial law and suspended the constitution, thus dissolving the presidential republic.

1969–1971: Martial law

Main articles: National Security Council of Pakistan and Legal Framework Order, 1970

Witnessing the events and tensions, President General Yahya Khan was deeply aware of the explosive political situation in the country, in 1969. The progressiveness and socialism in the country was rising, and calls for change of regime was gaining momentum. On a television address to the nation, President Yahya Khan announced his intention to hold the nationwide general elections in the following year and set his motion to transfer power to the elected representatives of the people. Earliest authoritative decisions were towards the establishment of National Security Council (NSC) by President Yahya Khan to analyze the military and political situation. Virtually suspending the 1962 Constitution, President Yahya Khan instead issued the LFO Order No. 1970 which brought radical changes in West. Tightening the grip of martial law, the One Unit program was dissolved in West Pakistan, removing the "West" prefix from Pakistan, and direct ballot replaced the principle of parity. Territorial changes were carried out on four provinces of the country, allowing to retain their geographical structures as it were in 1947. The LFO No. 1970 had restored the borders and geographical positions of four provinces as of 1947 and the provincial assemblies and provincial boundaries also were restored. The state parliament, supreme court and major government and authoritarian institutions also regained their status. This decree was only limited to West, it had no effects on East.

General Yahya Khan (left).

Civilians in Ayub Khan's administration were dismissed by the military government appointment of high-profile joint military officers occupying civilian government assignments and posts. The Election Commission (EC) registered a total of twenty-four political parties, and the public meetings attracted many huge crowds. On the eve of the elections in 1970, a cyclone struck East-Pakistan killing approximately 500,000 people, though this event did not deter people from participating in thje first ever general elections. Mobilizing support for the Six Points manifesto, the Awami League secured its electoral support in East-Pakistan. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) asserted itself even more densely; its socialist rationale, "Food, Cloth, and Shelter, and party's socialist manifesto quickly popularized the party in a small span of time. The intellectuals, philosophers, and Bhutto's charismatic personality, were the key factors that contributed to the popularity of PPP. The conservative PML, led by Nurul Amin, raised religious and nationalist slogans all over the country.

Out of a total of 313 seat in the National Assembly, electoral results showed that the Awami League won 167 seats but none from West Pakistan and the PPP won 88 seats but none from East Pakistan. Though Awami League won enough seat to form a government without the need for any coalition, West Pakistani elites refused to handover power to the East Pakistani party. Efforts were made to start a constitutional dialogue. Bhutto asked for share in government saying 'Udhar tum, idhar hum' , means 'You are in east, I am in west'. The PPP's intellectuals maintained that Awami League had no mandate in Western contingent. Although President Yahya Khan invited Awami League for a National Assembly session in Islamabad, he did not hand over the powers to the Awami League form a government due to constant pressure from the PPP. When no agreement seemed to be reached, President Yahya Khan consequently appointed Bengali anti-war activist, Nurul Amin, as Prime Minister with the additional office of the country's first and only Vice-President.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman then launched a civil disobedience movement which effectively paralyzed the state machinery in the East. Convening a round-table conference with Bhutto and Rehman in Dhaka, the talks collapsed and President Yahya Khan ordered an armed action against the Awami League. Operation Searchlight and Barisal, led to a crackdown on East Pakistani politicians, civilians, and student activists in all over the East. An arrested Mujibur Rahman was extradite to Islamabad, while the entire Awami League leadership escaped to India to set up a parallel government. Popular guerrilla insurgency was initiated by the Indian organized and supported Mukti Bahini (lit "freedom fighters"). Millions of Bengali Hindus and Muslims took refuge in Eastern India leading to Indian Prime minister Indira Gandhi announcing support for the Bangladesh liberation war and providing direct "military assistance" to the Bengalis. On March 1971, regional commander, Major Ziaur Rahman of East-Pakistan Army declared the independence of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh on behalf of Mujib.

Pakistan launched pre-emptive air strikes on 11 Indian airbases on 3 December 1971, leading to India's entry on the side of Bangladeshi nationalist forces. Untrained in guerrilla warfare, the Eastern high command quickly scrambled its operational capabilities under its commanders, General Amir Niazi and Admiral Muhammad Sharif. Exhausted, outflanked and overwhelmed, the Eastern high command could no longer continue its fight against the intense guerrilla insurgency, and finally surrendered to the Allied Forces of Bangladesh and India in Dhaka on 16 December 1971. Nearly 90,000 soldiers taken as prisoners of war and the result was the emergence of the new nation of Bangladesh, thus ending 24 years of turbulent union between the two wings. The figures of the Bengali civilian death toll from the entire civil war vary greatly, depending on the sources. Pakistan's official report, by the Hamood-ur-Rahman Commission, placed the figure at only 26,000, while estimates range up to 3 million; the 'million' is attributed to vernacular 'lakh' getting mistranslated in Western media, thus increasing the casualties ten-fold. Discredited by the defeat, President General Yahya Khan resigned and Bhutto was inaugurated as president and chief martial law administrator on 20 December 1971.

1971–1977: Second democratic era

Main articles: Left-wing politics, Karachi labour unrest of 1972, 1970s Operation in Balochistan, Pakistan and its Nuclear Deterrent Program, Hamoodur Rahman Commission, Constitution of Pakistan, List of Pakistani films of the 1970s, Federal Investigation Agency, Defence Committee of the Cabinet (Pakistan), and National Finance Commission Award

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The 1971 war and separation of East-Pakistan demoralized and shattered the nation. President General Yahya Khan handed over the political power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of the Pakistan Peoples Party. With PPP's coming to power, the democratic socialists and visionaries came to the power for the first time in the country's history, under a democratic transition. Bhutto made critical decision after dismissing chiefs of army, navy and the air force while authorized home confinement orders for General Yahya Khan and several of his collaborators. He adopted the East-Pakistan Commission's recommendations and authorized large-scale court-martial of army officers tainted for their role in East Pakistan. To keep the country united, Bhutto launched a series of internal intelligence operations to crack down on the fissiparous nationalist sentiments and movements in the provinces. Proponents of socialism were supported as part of the internal policies and the PPP faced serious challenges, both on internal and foreign fronts.

This period starting from 1971 until 1977 was a period of left-wing democracy, the growth of national spirit, economic nationalization, covert atomic bomb projects, promotion of scientific, literary, cultural activities and the left-wing socialism. Regarded as the period of reconstruction, rehabilitation, re-establishment, and the rise of the left-wing sphere of the country, the new industrial, manpower development, and the labour policies were promulgated in the ending weeks of December 1971. In 1972, the country's top intelligence services provided an assessment on Indian nuclear program, citing the evidences that: "India was close to developing a nuclear weapon under its nuclear programme". Chairing a secret winter seminar in January 1972, which came to be known as "Multan meeting", Bhutto rallied a large numbers academic scientists to build the atomic bomb for national survival. The atomic bomb project brought together a team of prominent academic scientists and engineers, headed by theoretical physicist Abdus Salam, to develop nuclear devices. Salam later won the Nobel Prize for Physics for developing the theory for unification of weak nuclear forces and strong electromagnetic forces.

File:Muhammad Haroon Khan1.jpg

The PPP's democratic socialist and visionaries directed the left oriented policies throughout the 1970s.

The PPP created the 1973 Constitution with the support of Islamists. The Constitution declared Pakistan an Islamic Republic and Islam as the state religion. It also stated that all laws would have to be brought into accordance with the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran and Sunnah and that no law repugnant to such injunctions could be enacted. The 1973 Constitution also created certain institutions such as the Shariat Court and the Council of Islamic Ideology to channel the interpretation and application of Islam.

In 1973 a serious nationalist rebellion also took place in Balochistan province and this led to the harsh suppression of Baloch rebels with the Shah of Iran purportedly assisting with air support in order to prevent the conflict from spilling over into Iranian Balochistan. The conflict ended later after an amnesty and subsequent stabilization by the provincial military administrator Rahimuddin Khan. Bhutto and his government carried out major reforms such as the establishment and development and re-designing of the country's infrastructure, the establishment of the Joint Chiefs Committee (as well Joint Strategic Forces Command), the reorganization of the military, special forces and chain of commands in the military. Steps were taken for democratization of civil bureaucracy, election commission and the political structure, expansion of country's economic and human infrastructure growth, starting first with the agriculture, land reforms, and government-control (nationalization) of major private industries, industrialization and the expansion of the higher education system throughout the country. In 1974, Bhutto succumbed to increasing pressure from religious parties and helped Parliament to declare the Ahmadiyya adherents as non-Muslims. Bhutto's efforts undermined and dismantled the private-sector and conservative approach for political power in country's political setup.

Relations with the United States gradually went down, and completing the gap after normalizing the relations with the Soviet Union, the Eastern bloc, North Korea, China, and the Arab world. With Soviet technical assistance, the country's first steel mill was established in Karachi, which proved to be a crucial step in industrializing the economy. Bhutto promised in a speech to Pakistan's National Assembly that "If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass and leaves, even go hungry. But we will get one of our own, we have no alternative." Alarmed by India's surprise nuclear test in 1974, Bhutto accelerated Pakistan's atomic bomb project. This crash project reached a historical milestone in 1978 when the desired level of production of fissile core material was reached as well as first design of physics package which eventually led to a secret sub-critical testings ("Kirana-I" and "Test Kahuta") in 1983. Relations with India soured and Bhutto launched aggressive diplomatic war and measures against India at the United Nations. Openly targeting Indian nuclear programme on multiple occasions and pushing India on the defense, Bhutto's covertly worked on expanding the atomic bomb project on a shortest time possible.

From 1976 to 1977, Bhutto more densely emphasized his political position and faced an intense and heated diplomatic war with the United States and President Jimmy Carter, who worked covertly to damage the credibility of Bhutto in Pakistan. Bhutto, with his scientist colleague Aziz Ahmed, thwarted any U.S. attempts to infiltrate the atomic bomb programme. In 1976, during a secret mission, Henry Kissinger threatened Bhutto and his colleague using an inhumane language. After the meeting, Bhutto aggressively put efforts to successfully develop the atomic project before the coming elections.

As the country entered 1976, the socialist alliance of Bhutto collapsed, forcing his left-wing allies to form an alliance with right-wing conservatives and Islamists to challenge the power of the PPP. The Islamists started a Nizam-e-Mustafa movement which demanded the establishment of an Islamic state in the country and removal of immorality from society. In an effort to meet the demands of Islamists, Bhutto banned the drinking and selling of wine by Muslims and also banned nightclubs and horse racing.

In 1977, the general elections were held which marked the Peoples Party as victorious but this was challenged by the opposition, which accused Bhutto of rigging the election process. An intensified political disorder took place against Bhutto and Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq took power in a bloodless coup. Following this, Bhutto and his leftist colleagues were dragged into a two-year-long controversial trial in Supreme Court. Bhutto was later executed in 1979, after being convicted of authorizing the murder of a political opponent, in a controversial 4–3 split decision by the Supreme Court.

1977–1988: Second military era

Main articles: Operation Fair Play, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq § Reign as President of Pakistan, Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization, Baloch Insurgency and Rahimuddin's Stabilization, Siachen conflict, Operation Brasstacks, Soviet war in Afghanistan, Operation Cyclone, Death of Zia-ul-Haq, and Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir

See also: New wave of Pakistan rock music (1980-89), Ordinance XX, Hudood Ordinance, Terrorism in Pakistan, Jam Saqi case, Far-right politics, and Fashion in Pakistan

This period of military rule, lasting from 1977 to 1988, is often regarded as a period of great purge and growth of state-sponsored religious conservatism. Zia-ul-Haq committed himself to establishing an Islamic state and enforcing sharia law. Zia established separate Shariat judicial courts and court benches to judge legal cases using Islamic doctrine. New criminal offences (of adultery, fornication, and types of blasphemy), and new punishments (of whipping, amputation, and stoning to death), were added to Pakistani law. Interest payments for bank accounts were replaced by "profit and loss" payments. Zakat charitable donations became a 2.5% annual tax. School textbooks and libraries were overhauled to remove un-Islamic material. Offices, schools, and factories were required to offer praying space. Zia bolstered the influence of the ulama (Islamic clergy) and the Islamic parties, whilst conservative scholars became fixtures on television. 10,000s of activists from the Jamaat-e-Islami party were appointed to government posts to ensure the continuation of his agenda after his passing. Conservative ulama (Islamic scholars) were added to the Council of Islamic Ideology. Separate electorates for Hindus and Christians were established in 1985 even though Christian and Hindu leaders complained that they felt excluded from the county's political process.

Zia's state sponsored Islamization increased sectarian divisions in Pakistan between Sunnis and Shias (due to Zia's anti-Shia policies) and also between Deobandis and Barelvis. Zia-ul-Haq forged a strong alliance between the military and Deobandi institutions. Possible motivations for the Islamization programme included Zia's personal piety (most accounts agree that he came from a religious family), desire to gain political allies, to "fulfill Pakistan's raison d'être" as a Muslim state, and/or the political need to legitimise what was seen by some Pakistanis as his "repressive, un-representative martial law regime".

Although President Zia's long eleven-year rule era features the country's first successful technocracy, but other side, it also features the tug of war between far-leftist forces in direct competition with populist far-right circles. President Zia made strong use of installing high-profile military officers from joint services of joint forces in civilian posts, ranging from central government to provisional governments. Gradually, the socialist influence in the public policies were dismantled disbanded, instead a new system of capitalism was revived with the introduction of corporatization and Islamization. The populist front against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto scattered, with far right-wing conservatives allying with General Zia's government and encouraging the military government crack down on the pro-Soviet left-wing elements in the country. The left-wing alliance led by Benazir Bhutto was brutalized by Zia who took every mean of aggressive measures against the movement. Further, in his time, secessionist uprisings in Balochistan were put down successfully by the provincial governor, General Rahimuddin Khan. In 1984, Zia held a referendum asking the civil society for the support of his religious programme that received overwhelming support and extended the term of General Zia as country's administrator for next five years.

General Zia-ul-Haq (right).

Benazir Bhutto, in the U.S. (1988), became the first female prime minister of Pakistan in 1988.

After Zia assuming power, Pakistan's relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated after Zia renewed strong relations with the United States, whilst accelerated the atomic bomb projects to counter the Soviet communism. Repressive situation in Communist Afghanistan invited the Soviet Union's intervention and President Reagan immediately jumped to help Zia to supply and finance an anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan, using Pakistan as a conduit. Zia's military administration effectively handled national security matters and notably managed the multibillion-dollar aid from the United States. Millions of Afghan refugees poured into the country, fleeing the Soviet occupation and atrocities (some estimate that the Soviet troops killed up to 2 million Afghans and raped many Afghan women). During this time, it was the largest refugee population in the world, which had a heavy impact on Pakistan.

Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province became a base for the anti-Soviet Afghan fighters, with the province's influential Deobandi ulama playing a significant role in encouraging and organising the 'jihad' against the Soviet forces. In retaliation, the Afghan secret police, KHAD, mastered the idea of "terrorism" after carrying out a large number of terrorist operations against Pakistan, which also suffered from an influx of illegal weapons and drugs from Afghanistan. Responding to the terrorism, Zia used "counter-terrorism" tactics after allowing the religiously far-right parties to send thousands of young students from clerical schools to participate in the Afghan Jihad against the Soviet Union.

Problems with India rose up when India attacked and took the Siachen glacier, prompting Pakistan to strike back, leading Indian Army to formalize a controversial military exercise, summoning up to 400,000 troops near Southern Pakistan. Facing an indirect war with the Soviet Union in West, General Zia used the Cricket diplomacy to lessen the tensions between two countries. However he also reportedly threatened India by adding to Rajiv Gandhi: "If your [forces] crossed our border an inch ... We are going to annihilate your (cities)...".

Under pressured by President Ronald Reagan, General Zia finally lifted martial law in 1985, holding non-partisan elections and handpicking Muhammad Khan Junejo to be the new Prime Minister, who readily extended Zia's term as Chief of Army Staff until 1990. Junejo however gradually fell out with Zia as his administrative independence grew; for instance, Junejo signed the Geneva Accord, which Zia greatly frowned upon. As retaliation, a controversy was planned after a large-scale blast at a munitions dump and Prime minister Junejo vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the significant damage caused, implicating several senior generals. In return, General Zia dismissed the Junejo government on several charges in May 1988 and called for elections in November 1988. However, before the elections could ever take place, General Zia died in a mysterious plane crash on 17 August 1988 (See Death of Zia-ul-Haq).

According to Shajeel Zaidi a million people attended Zia ul Haq's funeral because he had given them what they wanted: more religion. A PEW opinion poll found that 84% of Pakistanis favoured making Sharia the official law of the land. Conversely, towards the end of Zia's regime, there was a popular wave of cultural change in the country. Despite Zia's tough rhetoric against the Western culture and music in the country, the underground rock music jolted the country and revived the cultural counter-attack on the Indian film industry. The 1980s fashion such as hairstyles and clothing was very popular in the country and on casual basis at the five-star hotels in the country and near the residence of President Zia-ul-Haq, the rock bands performed Western-influenced rock music, and generally were welcomed by the public and some government elements.

1988–1999: Third democratic era (Benazir–Nawaz)

Main articles: Left–right politics, Pakistan at the 1990 Asian Games, Pakistan and state sponsored terrorism, Atlantique Incident, Civil war in Afghanistan (1996–2001), 1992 Cricket World Cup, Operation Blue Fox, and Culture of Pakistan

See also: Education in Pakistan, Science in Pakistan, Chagai-I, Chagai-II, and Pakistan space program

The 1988 elections results showing left-wing sphere (in red & gray led under BB) in majority.

Democracy returned again in 1988 after the general elections which were held after the death of President General Zia-ul-Haq. The elections marked the return of Peoples Party back into the power whose leader, Benazir Bhutto, became the first female Prime minister of Pakistan as well as the first female head of government in a Muslim-majority country. This period, lasting until 1999, introduced the parliamentary system and competitive two-party democracy in the country, featuring a fierce competition between centre-right conservatives led by Nawaz Sharif and centre-left socialists directed by Benazir Bhutto. The far-left politics and the far-right politics had disintegrated from the political arena with the fall of global communism and the United States lessening its interests in Pakistan. It was during the 1990s when various bands released their highly acclaimed and commercially successful albums which it led to the boom of rock music in Pakistan's music industry. Following the success of Vital Signs and other bands, the rock music bands enormous popularity and success significantly opened a new wave of rock music and opened a modern chapter in the history of Pakistan, bringing the significant shift of country's conservative transformation into semi-Western modernism during the 1990s.

Benazir Bhutto, 2004.

Benazir Bhutto presided over the country during the penultimate times of Cold war, and cemented pro-Western policies due to common distrust of communism. Her government oversaw the successful troop evacuation of Soviet Union from neighboring Communist Afghanistan. Soon after the evacuation, the alliance with U.S. came to end when the secret of a successful clandestine atomic bomb project was revealed to world which led to imposition of economic sanctions by the United States. In 1989, she ordered a military intervention in Afghanistan that brutally failed, leading her to depose the directors of the intelligence services. With offing American aid to the country, she hastily imposed the 7th Plan to restore the national economy while centralizing the economy. Nonetheless, the economic situation worsened when the state currency of Pakistan lost the currency war with India. The country significantly entered in era of stagflation during this period, and her government was soon dismissed by the conservative President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

The 1990 General elections allowed the right-wing conservative alliance, the Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA) led by Nawaz Sharif, to form the government under a democratic system for the first time in history. Attempts to end the stagflation, Sharif launched the privatization and economic liberalisation while on the other hand, adopted a policy of ambiguity on atomic bomb programs. Sharif intervened in Gulf War in 1991, and ordered an operation against the liberal forces in Karachi in 1992. Institutional problems arose with president Ghulam Khan, whose attempt was to dismiss Sharif on the same charges as he had pressed on Benazir Bhutto. Through the Supreme Court judgement, Sharif was restored and together with Benazir Bhutto ousted President Ishaq Khan from the presidency. Later in weeks, Sharif was forced to relinquish office by the military leadership.

Nawaz Sharif, 1998

During the general elections, Benazir Bhutto secured the plurality and formed the government after appointing a hand-picked president for the presidential office and a new cabinet. Approving the appointments of all four-star chiefs of navy, air force, army and chairman joint chiefs, the internal policies were exercised on tough stance to bring political stability in the country; her tough rhetoric her a nickname "Iron Lady" by her rivals. Proponents of social democracy and national pride were supported at an extreme level while the nationalization and centralization of economy continued after the 8th Plan was enacted to end the historical era of stagflation. Her foreign policy made an efforts to balance the relations with the Iran, United States, Western world, and socialist states.

Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), became involved in supporting Muslims around the world. Despite the UN arms embargo on Bosnia, ISI's Director-General Javed Nasir later confessed that the ISI airlifted anti-tank weapons and missiles to the Bosnian mujahideen which turned the tide in favour of Bosnian Muslims and forced the Serbs to lift the siege. Under Nasir's leadership the ISI was also involved in supporting Chinese Muslims in Xinjiang Province, rebel Muslim groups in the Philippines, and some religious groups in Central Asia.

Relations with India and Afghanistan worsened in 1995 when allegations were leveled of Pakistan and other countries providing economic and military aid to the group from 1994 as a part of supporting the anti-Soviet alliance. Pakistan was one of three countries which recognized the Taliban government and Mullah Mohammed Omar as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan. Benazir Bhutto continued her pressure on India, pushing India on to take defensive positions on its nuclear programme. Benazir Bhutto clandestine initiatives modernized and expanded the atomic bomb programme after launching the missile system programs. In 1994, she successfully approached the France for the technology transfer of AIP technology to the country. Focusing on culture development, her policies resulted in shaping the rock and pop music industry in the country, and film industry made its notable comeback after introducing new talent to the public. She exercised tough policies to banned the Indian media in the country, while promoting television industry to produce dramas, films, artist programs, and music, extremely devoting to the country. The grievousness and public angst about the weaknesses of Pakistan education led to large-scale federal support for science education and research in the country by both Benazir and Nawaz Sharif to meet with the competition with India.

The 1997 elections showing right-wing circle (in green) with exclusive mandate in the country.

Despite her tough policies, the popularity of Benazir Bhutto waned after her husband became allegedly involved in the controversial death of Murtaza Bhutto. Many public figures and officials suspected even Benazir Bhutto's involvement in the murder, although there were no proves. In 1996, seven weeks passed this incident, Benazir Bhutto's government was dismissed by her own hand-picked president on charges of Murtaza Bhutto's death.

The 1997 election resulted in conservatives receiving a heavy majority of the vote, obtaining enough seats in parliament to change the constitution, which Prime minister Sharif amended to eliminate the formal checks and balances that restrained the Prime Minister's power. Institutional challenges to his authority - led by the civilian President Farooq Leghari, chairman joint chiefs general Jehangir Karamat, chief of naval staff admiral Fasih Bokharie, and Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah - were put down and all four were forced to resign; Chief Justice Shah doing so after the Supreme Court was stormed by Sharif partisans.

Problems with India further escalated in 1998, when the television media reported the Indian nuclear explosions, codename Operation Shakti. When news flooded in Pakistan, a shocked Sharif called for a national security meeting in Islamabad and vowed that "she (Pakistan) would give a suitable reply to the Indians ...". After reviewing the effects of tests for roughly two weeks, Sharif ordered PAEC to perform a series of nuclear tests at the remote area of Chagai Hills in 1998 itself. The military forces in the country were mobilize at a war-situation level on Indian border.

Internationally condemned, but extremely popular at home, Sharif took steps to control the economy and mobilized all the defence assets of Pakistan by closed all airspace routes by giving red-alerts orders to PAF and Pakistan Navy. Sharif responded fiercely, and defused the international pressure by targeting India for global nuclear proliferation while gave great criticism to the United States for atomic bombings on Japanese cities of Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

If [Pakistan] had wanted, she would have conducted nuclear tests 15–20 years ago ... but the abject poverty of the people of the region dissuaded ... [Pakistan] from doing so. But the [w]orld, instead of putting pressure on (India) ... not to take the destructive road ... imposed all kinds of sanctions on [Pakistan] for no fault of her.....! If (fellow) Japan had its own nuclear capability.. (cities of) ... Hiroshima and Nagasaki would not have suffered atomic destruction at the hands of the ... United States ...

— Nawaz Sharif—Prime minister, on 30 May 1998, televised at PTV,

Under Nawaz Sharif's leadership, Pakistan became the seventh nuclear power country, the first country in the Muslim world, as well as a declared nuclear-weapon state. The conservative government also adopted environmental policies after establishing the environmental protection agency. Sharif too continue Bhutto's cultural policies, though he did allowed Indian channels to be viewed in the country. The next year, Kargil war by Pakistan-backed Kashmiri militants threatened to escalate to a full-scale war and increased fears of a nuclear war in South Asia. Internationally condemned, the Kargil war was followed by Atlantique Incident which came on a bad juncture for the Prime minister Sharif who no longer a hold the public support for his government.

On 12 October 1999, Prime minister Sharif's daring attempt to dismiss General Pervez Musharraf from the posts of chairman joint chiefs and chief of army staff failed after the military leadership refused to accept the appointment of ISI director Lieutenant-General Ziauddin Butt as chairman and army chief. General Musharraf returning to Pakistan from a PIA commercial airliner, Sharif ordered the Jinnah Terminal to be sealed to prevent the landing of the PIA flight, which then circled the skies over Karachi for several hours. A counter coup d'état was initiated, the senior commanders of the military leadership ousted Sharif's government and took over the airport; the flight landed with only a few minutes of fuel to spare. The Military Police seized the Prime Minister's Secretariat and deposed Sharif, Ziauddin Butt and the cabinet staffers who took part in this assumed conspiracy, shifting placed him in infamous Adiala Jail. A quick trial was set in Supreme Court which gave Sharif a life sentence, with his assets being frozen based on a corruption scandal, and he was near receiving the death sentence based on the hijacking case.

1999–2007: Third military era (Musharraf–Aziz)

Main articles: 1999 Pakistani coup d'état; 2001–2002 India-Pakistan standoff; Legal Framework Order, 2002; War in North-West Pakistan; Assassination of Benazir Bhutto; Pakistan's role in the War on Terror; War on Terror; and Lawyers' Movement

The news of the Sharif's dismissal made headlines all over the world and under pressure by the US President Bill Clinton and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, Musharraf succumbed to spare Sharif's life in an agreement facilitated by Saudi Arabia. Departed to Saudi Arabia to be settled in a Jeddah in King Fahd's private residence, Sharif was forced to be out of politics for nearly ten years.

The presidency of Musharraf features the coming of liberal forces in the national power for the first time in the history of Pakistan. Earlier initiatives taken towards the continuation of economic liberalization, privatization, and freedom of media in Pakistan in 1999. The Citibank executive, Shaukat Aziz, returned to country upon Musharraf's request to take the control of the national economy after securing the appointment in Finance ministry in 1999.

After 1999, many rock music bands performed in open stage.

In 2000, the government issued a massive nationwide amnesty to the political workers of liberal parties, sidelining the conservatives and leftists in the country. Reviewing the policy to create a counter cultural attack on India, Musharraf personally signed and issued hundreds of licenses to the private sector to open new media houses and set up channels, free from government influence. On 12 May 2000, the Supreme Court ordered the Government to hold general elections by 12 October 2002. Ties with the United States were renewed by Musharraf who endorsed the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan as reactionary to 9/11 attacks in the United States, in 2001. Confrontation with India continued over the disputed Kashmir, which led to serious military standoff in 2002 after India alleged Pakistan-backed Kashmiri militants laid the attack on Indian parliament in ending month of 2001. Military formations and deployment continued in all over the country during this period, with stationing of XI Corps in North-western Pakistan while the rest of the components were positioned in eastern, southern, and the northern borders of the country.

Attempting to legitimize his presidency and assuring its continuance after the impending elections, Musharraf held a controversial referendum in 2002, which allowed the extension of his presidential term to a period ending five years. The LFO Order No. 2002 was issued by Musharraf in August 2001, which established the constitutional basis for his continuance in office. The 2002 general elections marked the liberals, the MQM, and centrist PML(Q), winning the majority in the parliament to form the government.

General Pervez Musharraf, PA.

The LFO effectively paralyzed the state parliament for over a year. Musharraf asked his parliamentary opponents to reach a concession by December 2003. The Musharraf-backed liberals eventually mustered the two-thirds majority required to pass the 17th Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan. The transformation of the country's political system from parliamentary republic to semi-presidential republic was made through the 17th Amendment which retroactively legitimized Musharraf's 1999 actions and many of his subsequent decrees. In a vote of confidence on January 2004, Musharraf won 658 out of 1,170 votes in the electoral college, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, was elected to the office of President. Soon after his presidential election, Musharraf increased the role of Shaukat Aziz in the parliament and helped him to secure the party nomination for the office of Prime Minister.

With Shaukat Aziz becoming the prime minister in 2004, his regime yielded positive results on economic front and his proposed social reforms were met with resistance. The far-right religious alliance mobilized itself in fierce opposition to Musharraf and Aziz who were dismayed by their Post-9/11 alliance with the United States and endorsement of military support to the U.S. Forces in 2001 campaign in Afghanistan. In over two years, several attempts were survived by Musharraf and Aziz hatched by al-Qaeda including at least two instances where they had inside information from a member of his military administration. On foreign fronts, the allegations of nuclear proliferation further damaged Musharraf and Aziz's credibility when country's scientists were accused of suspected activities of giving and sharing the technology to global atomic proliferation. Repression and subjugation in Tribal line led to a heavy fighting in Warsk between Pakistan Armed Forces and 400 al-Qaeda operatives who were entrenched in several fortified settlements on March 2004. The hunt for Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri was launched in the border-side of the country, contributing in sparking the sectarian violence. This new war forced the government to sign a truce with the militants on 5 September 2006; nonetheless the sectarian violence continued.

Shaukat Aziz.

Since 2001 and onward, Navaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto's popular support was gaining a lot of momentum in the country. In 2007, Sharif made a daring attempt to return from exile but was refrained from landing at Islamabad Terminal. Sharif was forcefully departed to Saudi Arabia on a first given flight, whilst outside the airport there were violent confrontations between Sharif's supporters and the police. This did not deter another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, from returning on 18 October 2007 after an eight-year exile in Dubai and London, to prepare for the parliamentary elections to be held in 2008. While leading a massive rally of supporters, two deadly suicide attacks were carried out in an attempt to assassinate Benazir Bhutto, though she escaped unharmed but there were 136 casualties and at least 450 people were injured.

With Aziz completing his term, the liberal alliance now led by Musharraf was further weakened after General Musharraf proclaimed a state of emergency and sacked the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry along with other 14 judges of the Supreme Court, on 3 November 2007,. The political situation became more chaotic when lawyers launched a protest against this action but they were arrested. All private media channels including foreign channels were banned and Musharraf declared that the state of emergency would end on 16 December 2007. The global financial crises, energy crises, domestic crime and violence further escalated while Musharraf made desperate attempts to contain the political pressure. Stepping down from the military, Musharraf was sworn in for a second presidential term on 28 November 2007.

The 2002 elections resulted with liberals (light green and white) gaining majority in the first time in history of Pakistan.

Popular support for Musharraf declined when Nawaz Sharif, this time accompanied by his younger brother and his daughter, successfully made a second attempt to return from exile; hundreds of their supporters, including a few leaders of their party were detained before the pair arrived at Iqbal Terminal, on 25 November 2007. Nawaz Sharif filed his nomination papers for two seats in the forthcoming elections whilst Benazir Bhutto filed for three seats including one of the reserved seats for women. Departing an election rally in Rawalpindi on 27 December 2007, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a gunman who shot her in the neck and set off a bomb, killing 20 other people and injuring several more. The exact sequence of the events and cause of death became points of political debate and controversy, because, although early reports indicated that Benazir Bhutto was hit by shrapnel or the gunshots, the Pakistan Interior ministry maintained that her death was due from a skull fracture sustained when the explosive waves threw her against the sunroof of her vehicle. The issue remains controversial and the investigations were further conducted by British Scotland Yard. After a meeting in Islamabad, the Election Commission announced that, due to the assassination, the elections, which had been scheduled for 8 January 2008, would take place on 18 February.

The unity symbol of Pakistan, Minar-e-Pakistan, glances in 2005.

The 2008 general elections marked the return of the leftists in the country's power politics, on 18 February 2008. The left oriented, PPP, and conservative PML, won majority of seats together in the election and formed a coalition government; the liberal alliance then finally faded. Yousaf Raza Gillani of PPP became the Prime minister and consolidated his power after ending a policy deadlock in order to lead the movement to impeach the president on 7 August 2008. Before restoring the deposed judiciary, Gillani and his leftist alliance leveled accusation against Musharraf for weakening Pakistan's unity, violating its constitution and creating economic impasse. As momentum on Musharraf gained, President Musharraf began consultations with his close aides on the implications of the impeachment and readily made available himself to reply to the charges levied upon him. Gillani's effective strategy to force Musharraf from presidency succeeded when Pervez Musharraf announced in a very short long televised address to the nation to announce his resignation, ending his nine-year-long reign on 18 August 2008.

2008–present: Fourth democratic era

Main articles: 2008 India Pakistan standoff; Pakistan-U.S standoff 15 September 2008; Afghanistan–Pakistan skirmishes; Urbanisation in Pakistan; and Pakistani general election, 2013

After the 2008 elections, the left-wings circles (in all red) in majority with conservatives (in green) being the second largest.

The unpopular war in Afghanistan, suspension of chief justice, and state emergency had weakened Musharraf and a massive left-wing alliance led by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani ousted Pervez Musharraf. In an indirect election, Asif Zardari succeeded Musharraf and the current period marks the return of the left-right directional politics but also features of the multiparty democracy.

Yousaf Raza Gillani, (2008-2012).

After the elections, Yousaf Raza Gillani presided the country as the Prime minister and headed the collective government, with the winner parties of the four provinces. Gillani proposed the idea of collective leadership with the installment major parties of the four provinces in the government; objections raised by conservative PML-N was replaced with centrist, PML(Q). Presided by Gillani, a major transformation in a political structure was carried out to replace the semi-presidential system into parliamentary democracy system. The Parliament unanimously passed the 18th amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, which signifies the parliamentary democracy in the country. Lessening the powers of the President to dissolve the parliament unilaterally, it turns the President into a ceremonial head of state and transfers the authoritarian and executive powers to the Prime Minister. In 2009-11, Gillani, under pressured from the public and cooperating with the United States, ordered the armed forces to launch military campaigns against Taliban advancing in the country. The joint-forces operations quelled and crushed the Taliban militias in the country but the terrorist attacks continued in elsewhere of the country. The country's media was further liberalized with the banning of the Indian channels, the music, art, and cultural activities were promoted to the national level, devoted to the nationalist spirit.

In 2010 and 2011, the anti-American emotions reached a climax after a CIA contractor killed two civilians in Lahore which further fractured relations with the United States. In the United States as well, the anti-Pakistan sentiment increased after the execution of the secret operation conducted in Abbottabad that killed the Al-Qaeda supremo Osama bin Laden, without the knowledge of Pakistan Government. A strong U.S. criticism was made against Pakistan for supporting a network of hiding al-Qaeda supremo, Gillani called his government to review the foreign policy. Steps were taken by Gillani to block all major supply lines after the NATO attack. Relations with Russia advanced in 2012, following the secret trip of country's foreign minister Hina Khar. Following endless procrastination of Gillani in probing corruption charges as ordered by the Supreme Court, and treating it as contempt of court, the Supreme Court ousted Gillani from the office on 26 April 2012, and was quickly succeeded by Pervez Ashraf.

After the parliament historically completed its term, the general elections held on 11 May 2013 changed the country's political landscape when conservative PML(N) achieved the near-supermajority in the parliament. Nawaz Shareef took the oath and became the prime minister of Pakistan on May 28. As of August 2013, national debates continue over the ongoing sequestration, the country's foreign policy, gun control, taxation, immigration, and anti-terrorism reforms.

See also

• History of Pakistan

References

[[Category:Pakistan Movement