Pakistan traces
its history back to 2,500 years B.C., when a highly developed
civilization flourished in the Indus Valley. Excavations at Harrappa,
Moenjodaro, Kot Diji and Mehr Garh have brought to light, the evidence of an
advanced civilization existing even in more ancient times. Around 1,500 B.C.,
the Aryans overwhelmed this region and influenced the Hindu civilization, whose
centre moved to Ganges valley, further east. Later, the Persians occupied the
northern region in the 5th century B.C. up to the 2nd century AD. The Greeks
came in 327 B.C., under Alexander of Macedonia, and passed away like a meteor.
In 712 AD, the Arabs, led by Muhammad Bin Qasim, landed somewhere near modern
Karachi and ruled the lower half of Pakistan for 200 years. During this time,
Islam took roots in the soil and influenced the life, culture and traditions of
the people.
In the 10th century AD, began
the systematic conquest of South Asia by the Muslims from Central Asia, who
ruled here up to the 18th century. Then the British came and ruled for nearly
100 years over what is Pakistan now.
Independence Movement
The Muslim revival began
towards the end of the last century when
Sir Syed
Ahmed Khan, a renowned Muslim leader and educationist, launched a movement
for intellectual renaissance of the Muslims of South Asia. In 1930, the
well-known poet-philosopher,
Allama
Muhammad Iqbal, conceived the idea of a separate state for the Muslims of
South Asia. In 1940, a resolution was adopted by the All-India Muslim League,
demanding a separate independent home land for the Muslims. After 07 years of
un-tiring struggle under the brilliant leadership of Quaid-e-Azam (the great
leader)
Muhammad Ali
Jinnah, Pakistan emerged on the world map as a sovereign state, on 14th
August, 1947. |
CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT HISTORICAL EVENTS
This is the summary of important
historical events of the subcontinent.
Ancient Empires
3000-1500 B.C. Harappan culture in the Indus Valley and elsewhere
500-500 B.C.Migrations of
Aryan-speaking tribes; the Vedic Age
550-486 B.C.Life of Gautama
Buddha, founding of Buddhism
320-180 B.C.Mauryan Empire;
Asoka most famous emperor; spread of Buddhism
180 B.C - 150 A.D.Saka dynasties
in Indus Valley and northwest
78-200 A.D. Kushan Empire;
Gandharan art flourishes
300-700 A.D Gupta Empire;
Classical Age in northern India
Coming of
Islam
711Arab Muslims in Sindh
998-1030 Mahmud of Ghazni raids
into the subcontinent from Afghanistan
1192 Muhammad of Ghor defeats
Rajputs
1206 Establishment of Delhi
Sultanate
1398 Destruction of Delhi by
Timur
Mughal Period
1526 Babur victorious in first Battle of Paniput
1530-1556 Wars of succession
1556 Akbar victorious in second
Battle of Paniput
1556-1605 Reign of Akbar the
Great
1605-1627 Reign of Jahangir; in
1612 East India Company opens first trading center
1628-1658 Reign of Shah Jahan
1658-1707 Reign of Aurangzeb
1761 Third Battle of Panipat; an
Afghan victory over a Maratha army
1707-1858 Decline of the Mughal
Empire
British India
1757 Battle of Plassey - British victory over Mughal
forces in Bengal; conventional date for beginning of
British rule in India
1784 William Pitt's India
Act
1799-1839 Sikh kingdom in
the Punjab under Maharaja Ranjit Singh
1830s Institution of
British education and other reform measures
1838-1842
First Afghan war
1843 British annex Sindh,
Hyderabad and Khairpur
1845-49 Sikh Wars;
British annex the Punjab and sell Kashmir, Gilgit, and Ladakh "Package," known
as Kashmir
1857-1858
Uprising, variously known as the first war of independence, the Mutiny,and
the Sepoy Rebellion
1858 British Raj begins
1878-1880 Second Afghan
War
1885 Indian National
Congress formed
1893 Durand Line
established as boundary between Afghanistan and British India
1905 Partition of Bengal
1906 All-India Muslim
League founded
1911 Partition of Bengal
annulled
1919 Montague-Chelmsford
Reforms; Third Afghan War
1935 Government of India
Act of 1935
March 23, 1940 Muslim
League adopts Pakistan Resolution
Pakistan
August 14, 1947 Partition and independence;
Mohammad Ali Jinnah
becomes Governor General; Liaqath Ali Khan becomes Prime
Minister
September 11, 1948 Jinnah
dies; Khwaja Nazimuddin becomes Governor General
October 1951
Liaqath Ali Khan assassinated; Ghulam Mohammad becomes Governor General
August 1955 Ghulam
Mohammad dies; succeeded by Iskander Mirza
October 1955 One Unit
established, incorporating the four provinces of West Pakistan
March 23, 1956
Constitution adopted; Mirza becomes President
October 7, 1958 President
Mirza abrogates constitution, declares martial law
October 27, 1958 Mirza
sent into exile; General Mohammad Ayub Khan begins rule
September 1965 War with
India over KASHMIR ISSUE.
March 25, 1969 Ayub
resigns as result of public pressure; General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan assumes
power.
July 1, 1970 One unit
abolished, four provinces reestablished in West Pakistan
December 1970 First
general elections; Awami League secures majority in East Pakistan & People’s
Party in West Pakistan.
March 25, 1971 East
Pakistan attempts to secede; civil war begins
December 1971 Indo-Pakistani
War; East Pakistan becomes the independent state of Bangladesh; Yahya resigns;
President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto takes charge as the Civilian Martial Law
Administrator.
July 2, 1972 Bhutto and
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi conclude Simla Agreement
August 14, 1973 New
Constitution goes into effect with Bhutto as Prime Minister
February 22-25, 1974
Islam Summit Conference held in Lahore
March 1977 General
elections; massive victory by Bhutto's party evokes widespread rioting and
protest
July 5, 1977 Martial law
proclaimed
September 1978 Mohammad
Zia ul Haq becomes President
April 4, 1979 Bhutto
hanged
March 4, 1981 Provisional
Constitutional Order, which in effect suspended 1973 Constitution
August 12, 1983 President
Zia announces that martial law will be lifted in 1985,
(Martial Law under General Zia-ul-Haq 1977-1985)
Referendum 1984
February 1985 General Elections
Islamization Under General Zia-ul-Haq
The Afghan War Settlement
[1985-88] Muhammad Khan Junejo Becomes Prime Minister
[1985] Historic 8th Amendment is passed
[1988] Death of General Zia-ul-Haq
[1988] Benazir Bhutto Becomes Prime Minister
[1988] Ghulam Ishaq Khan Becomes President
[1990] Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi Becomes Caretaker Prime Minister
[1990] Nawaz Sharif Becomes Prime Minister
[1993] Balakh Sher Mazari Becomes Caretaker Prime Minister
[1993] Moin Qureshi Becomes Caretaker Prime Minister
[1993] Benazir Bhutto Becomes Prime Minister
[1993] Sardar Farooq Legahri Becomes President
[1996] Malik Meraj Khalid Becomes Caretaker Prime Minister
[1997] Nawaz Sharif Becomes Prime Minister
[1997] Thirteenth Amendment is Passed
[1997] Fourteenth Amendment is Passed
[1998] Muhammad Rafiq Tarar Elected as President
[1998] Pakistan: A Nuclear Power
[1999] The Lahore Declaration
[1999] The Kargil Offensive
[1999] Military Comes to Power Again
[June, 2001] Pervez Musharraf becomes President
[2001] Agra Summit
[2001] Local Government System
[2001] September Eleven and Its Aftermath
Referendum 2002
Legal Framework Order 2002
General Elections 2002
[2002] Zafarullah Khan Jamali Becomes Prime Minister: Mir Zafarullah Khan
Jamali was elected the 20th Prime Minister of Pakistan by the newly elected
Parliament on November 21, 2002. President General Pervez Musharraf administered
the oath to the new Prime Minster at the Aiwan-i-Sadr on November 23. He now
heads Pakistan's first civilian government after three years of military rule of
General Pervez Musharraf.
In January 2004 Musharraf sought
and received an unprecedented vote of confidence from a parliamentary
electoral college. In August Shaukat Aziz, a former banker and minister
of finance, took the premiership. Musharraf, however, clearly continued
to hold the reins of power, and despite repeated promises to return the
country to full civilian authority, he announced at the end of the year
that the country was too fragile for him to comply with his own
deadlines. This applied also to the president’s refusal to step down as
head of the armed forces, despite repeated demands by political
opponents that he do so. On the other side of the political spectrum,
Musharraf had to contend with constant attacks from the MMA, who accused
him of seeking to secularize Pakistan. The country continued to be
subject to increasing incidents of sectarian violence, including suicide
bombings at mosques and other public places. Adding to this
human-generated calamity, Pakistan suffered a devastating earthquake
in October 2005 in the Kashmir region that killed tens of thousands
of people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
In early 2007 Musharraf began seeking reelection to the
presidency. However, because he remained head of the military,
opposition parties and then the Pakistan Supreme Court objected on
constitutional grounds. In March Musharraf dismissed Chief Justice
Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, which sparked a general strike of Pakistani
lawyers and outbreaks of violent protest in various parts of the
country; the Supreme Court overturned the dismissal in July, and
Chaudhry was reinstated. In October an electoral college consisting of
the parliament and four provincial legislatures voted to give Musharraf
another five-year term, although opposition members refused to
participate in the proceedings. After the Supreme Court delayed the
pronouncement of this outcome (in order to review its
constitutionality), Musharraf declared a state of emergency in early
November. The constitution was once again suspended, members of the
Supreme Court (including Chaudhry) were dismissed, and the activities of
independent news media organizations were curtailed. Later in the month,
the Supreme Court, reconstituted with Musharraf appointees, upheld his
reelection; Musharraf subsequently resigned his military commission and
was sworn into the presidency as a civilian.
In the fall of 2007 Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto—who had also
been living in exile—were permitted to return to Pakistan, and each
began campaigning for upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for
early January 2008. At the end of December, however, Bhutto was
assassinated at a political rally in Rawalpindi, an act that stunned
Pakistanis and set off riots and rampages in different parts of the
country. Musharraf, having only just lifted the state of emergency, had
to again place the armed forces on special alert, and he was forced to
postpone the election until mid-February.
The outcome of the voting was seen as a rejection of Musharraf and his
rule; his PML-Q party finished a distant third behind the PPP (now led
by Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower), which captured about one-third
of the parliamentary seats up for election, and Sharif’s party, the PML-N,
with about one-fourth of the seats. In March the PPP and PML-N formed a
coalition government. Yousaf Raza Gilani, a prominent member of
the PPP and a former National Assembly speaker, was elected prime
minister.
Disagreements emerged within the governing coalition in the months
following its formation, particularly regarding the reinstatement of the
Supreme Court judges Musharraf had dismissed late the previous year, and
these disputes threatened to destabilize the alliance. Nevertheless, in
August 2008 the coalition moved to begin impeachment charges
against Musharraf, citing grave constitutional violations; on August 18,
faced with the impending proceedings, Musharraf resigned.
Pakistan under Zardari
Conflict within the coalition continued to escalate following
Musharraf’s departure. In light of ongoing differences, including
disputes over Musharraf’s successor, Sharif subsequently withdrew the
PML-N from the governing coalition and indicated that his party would
put forth its own candidate in the presidential elections announced for
early September; however, neither the PML-N nor the PML-Q candidate won
enough support to pose a challenge to Zardari, the PPP’s candidate, and
on Sept. 6, 2008, he was elected president.
Friction between Zardari and Sharif intensified in early 2009 when the
Supreme Court voted to disqualify Sharif’s brother from his position as
chief minister of the Punjab and to uphold a ban prohibiting Sharif
himself from holding political office (the ban stemmed from his 2000
conviction for high crimes). Sharif alleged that the court’s rulings
were politically motivated and backed by Zardari. In addition, the
status of the Supreme Court judges dismissed under Musharraf who had yet
to be reinstated—one of the issues that had undermined the
Sharif-Zardari coalition—remained a major source of conflict between the
two rivals. In March 2009 Sharif broke free of an attempt to place him
under house arrest and headed toward the capital, where he planned to
hold a rally advocating for the reinstatement of the judges. Faced with
this prospect, the government agreed to reinstate Chief Justice Chaudhry
and a number of other Supreme Court judges who had not yet been returned
to their posts. The move was seen as a political victory for Sharif and
a significant concession on the part of Zardari, who is thought to have
opposed Chaudhry’s return because of the possibility that the amnesty
Zardari had received under Musharraf might be overturned. Shortly
thereafter, Sharif’s brother was also returned to his position.
In October 2008 limited trade between the Pakistani- and
Indian-administered portions of Kashmir resumed. It was the first such
commerce in more than 60 years and signaled improved relations between
the two countries.
To be continue...
+Tourist
Guide of Pakistan
+Travel
Maps of Pakistan
+Northern Pakistan
+Kashmir
+Pioneers
of Freedom
+Father
of the Nation
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