1947-2002 (PRESENT DAY)

The Islamic state of Pakistan was born. The primary concern of the new leaders was now to ensure the economic survival of the country. It was no easy task; unlike India, Pakistan had not inherited an organized government. In all areas, the country had to start from the scratch. There was the additional burden of absorbing millions of Mahajirs, refugees from India. But they soon became integrated into the new society, many of them arriving in Karachi which had been abandoned by the Hindus at the time of partition.
East and West Pakistan : Pakistan was geographically unique. No other country in the world was divided into two by 1,600 kilometers of foreign territory. East Pakistan was smaller, comprising of one seventh of the total area but its 45 million people represented 55 percent of the population. The only thing that the two wings really had in common was religion. Linguistically, culturally and economically, there were great differences between East and West Pakistan. The East was the home of Bengali people, the West was made up of a tapestry of peoples and cultures of the four provinces Sindh, Punjab, North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, as well as the semi-autonomous kingdoms of the north.

Kashmir Issue : Much of Pakistan's early history was dominated by the Kashmir issue and this has remained a bone of contention between India and Pakistan ever since. At Independence, Kashmir with its 80 percent Muslim majority still hadn't chosen whether to join India or Pakistan. Kashmir was given to a Hindu Gulab Singh Dogra in 1846 and his descendants had rule ever since. At the time of Independence, Hari Singh was the ruler. Pakistani leaders felt that unless they made the move for Kashmir, they would lose it. Pathan tribes men led a holy war to save their Muslim brothers and invaded the state on 22nd October 1947. Seeing the invaders, Hari Singh panicked and signed the accord by which Kashmir joined India. Indian Prime Minister Nehru sent in 100,000 troops to crush what he claimed was an invasion of Indian territory. United Nations later determined a line of control, by which Azad Kashmir was given to Pakistan and the territories of Baltistan and Ladakh were divided.

Disturbances and Political Unstability : When Jinnah's died in 1948, Pakistan plunged into mourning. He was succeeded by Khwaja Nazimuddin, a distinguished Bengali and with Liaquat Ali Khan as Prime Minister. At this time, Pakistan was in search of a constitution. Liaquat Ali Khan, a believer in a democratic secular state, worked towards presenting a constitution but before he could proceed far, he was assassinated in October 1951. A constitution was finally drawn up in 1956, making Pakistan an Islamic Republic.

In East Pakistan, autonomy movement was on the rise. Military generals were not satisfied by the politicians and they acted in 1958. The constitution was abolished and martial law was declared. Iskandar Mirza, president at that time, was forced to resign and was replaced by General Mohammad Ayub Khan.

Once again, Kashmir issue surfaced. The willingness of the Pakistanis to comply with UN resolution of Kashmiri people deciding their own desting had never been matched by the same kind of enthusiasm on the part of the Indians. In 1964, India refused free vote for the Kashmiris which resulted in a war in August 1965. The war lasted for a merely 17 days. While the war itself came to an inconclusive end, the overwhelming Muslim majority in Kashmir remained subjects of India.

East Pakistan Conflict : Ayub Khan handed over power to Commander-in-Chief General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan in March 1969. It was Yahya Khan's aim to restore parliamentary democracy and he set elections for the following year. In the elections, there were two main contenders; Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, leader of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) which towards the end of 1960s had gained huge popular support in the West, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League, which had emerged as the strongest party in Bengal. Election resulted in PPP winning the majority of seats in the West and Rahman's Awami League winning by big margin in the East. Bengal was in population majority and the League claimed it was in a position to dominate the new National Assembly. The two leaders were on a collision course. The dispute led to strikes and Rahman declaring East Bengal a separate state in March 1971. The government of Pakistan was determined to keep the country intact but Awami League was to break away. But it was all over when India declared war on Pakistan on 12th December 1971. Pakistan sustained a major loss and by directly intervening in the conflict, India had supported the creation of the new independant country of Bangladesh.

Rise and Fall of Bhutto : A rich Sindhi landlord with a western education, Bhutto had been a major figure on the political scene for years. During his regime, country prospered and was set on a course of industrial and agricultural development. He gained popularity in villages and poor industrial areas. He also continued to stay on top on political stage in Pakistan and easily won the next elections held in 1977. The opposition believed that the victory to Bhutto came too easy and street demonstrations were held which suddenly brought unstable political platform. He declared martial law in Karachi, Lahore and Hyderabad. General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq placed Bhutto under house arrest and announced that he was taking over as chief administrator of martial law. Once again, the military found itself ruling Pakistan. Bhutto was death sentenced for suspicion of ordering the murder of political opponent. He was hanged in Rawalpindi on 4th April 1979.

Zia's regime : Zia took over the country and continued to govern the country until his death in 1988. He was a firm believer in law and order. With his help, the country began to orient itself towards the Muslim world. He appointed the Islamic Ideology Council which sought to Islamize the country by bringing existing laws into conformity with Islamic principles.
Zia proceeded with governing the country according to his light. Up until 1983, the provinces remained calm under Zia. In that year, the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy launched a mass campaign for a return of free elections. The movement took off in Sindh and soon took control. There were bombs thrown in Karachi and the province of Sindh was aflame. The Sindh riots made Zia think and he announced that elections would be held in 1985. But before the new assembly event met, Zia ammended the constitution enabling him to dismiss parliament at will. He indeed sacked parliament in 1988. He died soon afterwards.

Continued unstability : In 1988 elections, Ms. Benazir Bhutto became Prime Minister. She is the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. She ruled only for 20 months before the President Ghulam Ishaq Khan relieved her of office in 1990 because of "corruption, nepotism and ineffectiveness." Since then, two major parties have been on the political forefront. One is the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) led by Ms. Benazir Bhutto and the other is Islamic Democratic Alliance (originally formed by Muslim League) led by Punjab's Nawaz Sharif.

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