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A Glimpse of Pakistani
History
Britain ruled the Indian subcontinent from
1756 to 1947, when it transferred power to both an independent India and an
independent Pakistan. Pakistan came into existence in two parts: West Pakistan,
coextensive with the country's present boundaries, and East Pakistan, now known
as Bangladesh.
The partition of India and Pakistan resulted in a large demographic shift of
Hindus and Sikhs to India and Muslims to Pakistan, causing a bitterness between
the two countries that was exacerbated by the disputed status of 562 widely
scattered polities, called princely states. Most of these states joined either
India or Pakistan, but three—Hyderābād, Junagadh, and Kashmīr—chose
not to join either. From 1947 to 1948, India forcibly annexed the territory of
both Junagadh and Hyderābād, both of whose Muslim princes ruled over
mostly Hindu populations. When the Hindu ruler of Kashmīr, whose subjects
were largely Muslims, decided to join India, a war broke out between India and
Pakistan. Without a resolution of the dispute, India has continued to occupy
about two-thirds of Kashmīr, and tension remains.
From 1947 to 1951, Pakistan's first government functioned under chaotic
conditions and failed to gain popular support. This political uncertainty
continued with no stable majority party in the National Assembly until 1958,
when General Muhammad Ayub Khan, commander in chief of the armed forces, assumed
the presidency.
Ayub ruled Pakistan almost absolutely for more than ten years, and his regime
made some notable achievements, including the introduction of land reforms
intended to diminish feudal relationships in the countryside. However, the basic
problems of Pakistani society remained, notably the divisions between East and
West Pakistan. Tension mounted as East Pakistan's leading politician, Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, insisted on a federation under which East Pakistan would be
virtually independent. In 1971 Pakistan's army went into action against East
Pakistan, and fighting ensued until India finally intervened later that year. In
1972 East Pakistan became Bangladesh, with an independent government.
In 1973 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became Pakistan's prime minister. Bhutto, working to
reorganize national life, nationalized basic industries and businesses,
instituted land reforms that benefited tenants and middle-class farmers, and
removed the armed forces from the process of decision making. However, he was
overthrown and killed in a coup staged by General Muhammad Zia Ul-Haq in 1977.
Zia assumed the presidency in 1978 and established the Sharia (Islamic law) as
the law of the land.
After Zia was killed in an accident in 1988, a civil servant, Ghulam Ishaq Khan,
was appointed president, and Benazir Bhutto, leader of the PPP, became prime
minister. Bhutto was the first woman to head a modern Islamic state. However, in
1990 President Ishaq Khan dismissed her, charging misconduct. In time, the
charges against Bhutto were resolved, and in 1993 she was again named prime
minister. In the 1990s Pakistan was beset by increasingly tense relations with
India over the disputed Jammu and Kashmīr territory, as well as by domestic
unrest, which caused frequent violence between rival political, religious, and
ethnic groups.
In early 1997 Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party lost a national election and
Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League became prime minister.
In 1999 Nawaz Sharif was overthrown in a
military coup and General Pervaiz Musharaff became Chief executive claiming to
bring integrity, solidarity & economical uplift.
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