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In ancient times, the area that now comprises Pakistan marked the farthest reaches of the conquests of Alexander the Great.
It was also the home of Buddhist Ghandaran culture. It was not until 1947 and the independence of India, that Pakistan acquired
nationhood. Under pressure from Indian Muslims led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah – considered to be the ‘father of the nation’ –
the British created a separate Muslim state. Originally, it consisted of two parts, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West
Pakistan (now a single unitary state), separated from each other by 1600km (1000 miles) of Indian territory. Jinnah, the leading
Muslim inside the Indian Congress party that led the independence struggle (see India section), became the new country’s first president.
In contrast to India, democracy failed to take root and Pakistan suffered prolonged periods of military rule. The first of
these came in 1958, when martial law was declared and political parties abolished. The martial law ‘co-ordinator’, General
(later Field Marshall) Ayub Khan, became President in 1960. He was replaced in 1969, by the Commander-in-Chief of the army,
General Agha Muhammed Yahya Khan, who resisted demands for autonomy by the eastern region of the country, where civil war
broke out in 1971. The intervention of the Indian army on the side of the secessionists eventually secured an independent
Bangladesh, leaving a truncated Pakistan in the west. Democratic civilian Government followed the defeat and President Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto took over as President from the discredited military regime.
In 1977, however, the military again took power in a coup and re-established martial law under General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq.
Bhutto was executed in 1979. Military rule continued until the death of General Zia in a plane crash in 1988, after which
a democratic constitution and civilian Government were re-instituted.
A decade of revolving-door civilian politics followed in which the main participants were Ali Bhutto’s daughter Benazir, and
Mohammed Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA). The IDA was essentially a military creation, designed
to maintain their influence as far as possible over national politics. Benazir Bhutto took over the leadership of her father’s
old party, the Pakistan People’s Party. Sharif and Bhutto contested four elections – all tainted by extensive political violence
- during the next 10 years, winning two each. Both Bhutto Governments and the first Sharif Government were dismissed by presidential
decree for the same reasons: incompetence, nepotism and corruption. Little if any headway was made in tackling Pakistan’s
huge political and economic problems. The second Sharif administration also came to a premature end but this time it was the
military who intervened after having stood on the sidelines in increasing frustration for the previous 10 years.
The trigger was Pakistan’s controversial nuclear weapons programme. This had begun in 1971, after Pakistan’s defeat by India,
and progressed steadily with Chinese assistance thereafter. Pakistan is now believed to possess at least a handful of nuclear
warheads and the means of delivery. In 2004, the head of the programme, Abdul Qadir Khan, was revealed to have organised the
sale of nuclear technology and expertise to several other countries, including Iran and Libya. This has caused a crisis in
relations with the West at a sensitive time: Pakistan is a vital ally in the American-led "war on terror".
The original motivation for the nuclear programme was ensuring parity with India, which has also developed its own nuclear
weapons. The Indo-Pakistan conflict is a central feature of Pakistani politics, particularly with regards to the attitude
and posture of the military. At its heart is the long-running dispute over the status of Kashmir which, although it has a
majority Muslim population, became part of India (rather than Pakistan) in the 1947 partition. There have been regular small-scale
engagements between the Indian and Pakistani armies in the border region, as well as frequent attacks by guerrilla forces
(variously backed by either side). The two sides have almost come to war on several occasions. Given the possible consequences,
urgent high-level diplomacy, usually involving the USA or the Russian Federation, has been deployed to force the antagonists
to back down. More recently the two sides have been talking and in February 2004 agreed on a "road map" which has hopefully
began the process towards a path to a final settlement. No resolution has yet been found but both Governments have pledged
their commitment to peace. A proposed bus route that would link the disputed territory is the latest initiative in the drive
for peace.
The most recent period of serious tension between Pakistan and India occurred in 1998-99 and culminated in the end of the
second Sharif Government. Sharif had authorised the military to carry out a series of nuclear tests. International reaction
was swift and vehement; wide-ranging, crippling sanctions followed. The army, however, was determined to adopt a more aggressive
stance towards India. Over the next 12 months, Sharif came under intense diplomatic and economic pressure to bring the army
to heel. In August 1999 he conceded. This triggered a series of clashes between Sharif and his army chief of staff, General
Pervez Musharraf. In October 1999, with the army’s patience exhausted, Musharraf led a coup against the Sharif Government.
Unusually for a senior Pakistani general, Musharraf is a Mohajir, the name given to the descendants of refugees from India
who moved to Pakistan after partition. The coup was generally popular among the people and, despite routine condemnation from
abroad and suspension from the Commonwealth, Musharraf was given time to stabilise the country and try and tackle the endemic
corruption and chronic mismanagement. Then, in 2001, events in neighbouring Afghanistan – Pakistan’s other major foreign policy
interest – put Pakistan at the centre of the world stage and provided an unexpected political and economic opportunity.
The 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon in the USA drew an immediate and massive response from
the US Government. Its targets were the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda (The Base) organisation and its host, the Taleban regime. Pakistan had been intimately involved with the creation of the Taleban
(roughly ‘students of Islam’), most of whom had fled from Afghanistan and enrolled in Government-backed mudrassas (Islamic colleges). The graduates were recruited into the mujahidin guerrilla formations fighting the Soviet invaders. These veterans, who had since relocated into the southern provinces of
Afghanistan, formed the core of the Taleban movement. Moreover, the Pathans of Pakistan, who are especially well represented
in the military, are closely linked to the Pashtun, Afghanstan’s largest ethnic group, who also made up most of the Taleban.
The US demand for assistance in deposing the Taleban thus put the Pakistani Government in something of a quandary, although
General Musharraf quickly decided to back the USA. The decision paid immediate economic dividends in the lifting of the 1998
sanctions and the promise of a substantial financial aid package. Senior officers suspected of active sympathy for the Taleban
were edged out. Within weeks, the Taleban had been driven from power.
At home, the Musharraf Government sought to establish its popular legitimacy by holding elections for the National Assembly,
as well as a referendum on his Presidency, in October 2002. These returned General Musharraf – now partially reinvented as
a civilian President – while his supporters took control of the national assembly. However, his pro-American stance has made
him extremely unpopular among parts of Pakistani society. In the last two years he has been the target of at least a dozen
assassination attempts. Otherwise, his position appears reasonably secure for the time being. Until the emergence of a plausible
untainted civilian political leader, Musharraf is probably the best that Pakistan can expect.
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Overview 
