History of Pakistan

The history of Pakistan, which, for the period preceding the nation's founding in 1947, overlaps with that of Afghanistan, India, and Iran, traces back to the beginnings of human life in South Asia.

The oldest evidence of palaeolithic hominid activity in South Asia (dating backing 200,000 to 400,000 years) was discovered in the Soan River valley of Pothohar, Punjab, Pakistan. The evidence—the Soan Culture—was in the form of pebble tools scattered along the river. In addition, Pakistan lies on the postulated first southern coastal migration route of anatomically modern Homo sapiens out of Africa, and so may have been inhabited by modern humans as early as 60,000–70,000 years ago.

The ancient lands of modern-day Pakistan served as the northwestern frontier of the ancient South Asian world. As the meeting point between the Indian subcontinent and the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau, the area served as South Asia's gateway to the Middle East and Central Asia, and resulted in ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversification.

The 5,000 year history of urban civilization in South Asia goes back to the Indus Valley Civilization. The Indus valley's proximity to Central and West Asia made it possible for the Indus Valley Civilization to maintain cultural, commercial and political relationships with the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Elamite civilizations. In addition, the Indus civilization is believed to have had maritime contact with ports as far away as South India.

For further details on each period, please consult the main articles mentioned at the beginning of each section and subsection.

The Neolithic age

Mehrgarh

Main article: Mehrgarh

Mehrgarh was an ancient settlement in the Balochistan region of Pakistan and is an important archaelogical site for the earliest neolithic settlements in that region. After archaeological excavations in 1974, it has also been cited as the earliest known farming settlement of South Asia (Jarrige et al). The earliest evidence of settlement dates from 7000 BCE. It is also cited for the earliest evidence of pottery in South Asia. Archaeologists divide the occupation at the site into several periods.

In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo (i.e. in a living person) was found in Mehrgarh. According to the authors, "Here we describe eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan that dates from 7,500-9,000 years ago. These findings provide evidence for a long tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in an early farming culture."

Sometime between 2600 and 2000 BC, the city seems to have been largely abandoned. Since the Indus Valley Civilisation was in its initial stages of development at that time, it has been surmised that the inhabitants of Mehrgarh migrated to the fertile Indus valley as Balochistan became more arid due to climatic changes.

The Bronze age

Indus Valley civilization

Main article: Indus Valley Civilization

Mohen-jor-Daro, 80 km southwest of Sukkur, was center of Indus Valley Civilization 2600 BCE-1700 BCE

The Indus Valley civilization (c. 3300-1700 BCE) was one of the most ancient civilizations, on the banks of Indus River. The Indus culture blossomed over the centuries and gave rise to the Indus Valley Civilization around 3000 BCE. The civilization spanned much of what is today Pakistan, but suddenly went into decline around 1800 BCE. Indus Civilization settlements spread as far south as the Arabian Sea coast of India, as far west as the Iranian border, and as far north as the Himalayas. Among the settlements were the major urban centers of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, as well as Dholavira, Ganweriwala, Lothal, and Rakhigarhi. The Mohenjo-daro ruins were once the center of this ancient society. At its peak, some archeologists opine that the Indus Civilization may have had a population of well over five million.

The Indus Valley civilisation has been tentatively identified as proto-Dravidian, however, the Indus Valley script has not been definitively deciphered. To date, over a thousand cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the Indus River valley in Pakistan and western India.

The Kulli culture was a prehistoric culture in Southern Balochistan (Gedrosia), ca. 2500 - 2000 BCE. The culture was named after an archaeological site discovered by Sir Aurel Stein. Several settlement sites are known to have existed there however very few were excavated. Some of them have the size of small towns and are similar to those of the Indus Valley Civilization. The house are built of local stone. Agriculture was the economical base of this people. At several places dams were found, providing evidence for a highly developed water management. The pottery and other artifacts are similar to those of the Indus Valley Civilization and it not sure whether the Kulli culture is a local variation of the Indus Valley Civilization or an own culture complex.

Vedic Period

Main article: Vedic period

Map of early Iron Age Vedic culture after Witzel (1989). Realms or tribes are labelled black, Foreign tribes mentioned in early Vedic texts purple, Vedic schools green. Rivers are labelled blue. The Thar desert is marked orange.

Although, the Indus Valley Civilization flourished in much of current-day Pakistan for over 1500 years, it disappeared abruptly around 1700 BCE. It has been conjectured that a cataclysmic earthquake might have been the cause, or, alternately, the drying up of the Ghagger-Hakra river. Soon thereafter, Indo-Aryan tribes from the Central Asian steppes poured into the region.

Mainstream scholarship places the Vedic culture into the second and first millennia BCE. Historical records emerged only after the end of the Vedic period and remain scarce throughout the first millennium CE. The end of the Vedic period is marked by linguistic, cultural and political changes.

Some historians claim that "while settled in the Punjab the Aryans had not yet become Hindu.... The distinctive Brahmanical System appears to have been evolved after the Sutlej had been passed. To the east of Sutlej the Indo-Aryans were usually safe from foreign invasions and free to work out their own rule of life undisturbed." None the less, Hindus believe that it was on the banks of the Sindhu river that the first sacrificial offerings were made by the early Brahmanas.

Persian and Greek invasion

Achaemenid empire

Main article: Achaemenid dynasty

Achaemenid empire at its greatest extent

The part of ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan was ruled by the Persian Achaemenid Empire (c.520 BCE) during the reign of Darius the Great until Alexander the Great's conquest. It became part of the empire as a satrapy that included the lands of present-day Pakistani Punjab, the Indus River, from the borders of Gandhara down to the Arabian Sea, and other parts of the Indus plain. According to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, it was the most populous and richest satrapy of the twenty satrapies of the empire. It was during the Persian rule that name India was coined. When the Indus River valley became the eastern most satrapy of Persians, they named it because of the Indus River. Vedic Aryans called the area Saptha Sindhu with the main river was called Sindhu. Persians had difficulty in pronouncing s, called it Hindu. As per the inscriptions of Darius, they called the satrapy Hindush. Greeks took this name from Persians and called the river Indus and the region India. Herodotus (490-425? BCE), in his book "The Histories", described this satrapy of Darius as India. Achaemenid rule lasted about 186 years. The Achaemenids used Aramaic script for the Persian language. After the end of Achaemenid rule, the use of Aramaic script in the Indus plain was diminished, although we know from Asokan inscriptions that it was still in use two centuries later. Other scripts, such as Kharosthi (a script derived from Aramaic) and Greek became more common after the arrival of the Macedonians and Greeks.

Alexander's empire

Main article: Alexander the Great

Map of Alexander's empire.

The interaction between Hellenistic Greece and Buddhism started when Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor, the Achaemenid Empire and ancient Pakistan in 334 BCE, defeating Porus at the Battle of the Hydaspes (near modern-day Jhelum) and conquering much of the Punjab region. Alexander's troops refused to go beyond the Beas River — which today runs along part of the Indo-Pakistan border — and he took most of his army southwest, adding nearly all of ancient Pakistan to his empire. Alexander created garrisons for his troops in his new territories, and founded several cities in the areas of the Oxus, Arachosia, and Bactria, and Macedonian/Greek settlements in Gandhara, such as Taxila, and Punjab. The regions included the Khyber Pass — a geographical passageway south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush mountains — and the Bolan Pass, on a trade route connecting Drangiana, Arachosia and other Persian and Central Asia areas to the lower Indus plain. It is through these regions that most of the interaction between South Asia and Central Asia took place, generating intense cultural exchange and trade.

Greco-Buddhist period

Main articles: Gandhara and Greco-Buddhism

Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Græco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between the culture of Classical Greece and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the fourth century BCE and the fifth century CE. Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic (and, possibly, conceptual) development of Buddhism, and in particular Mahayana Buddhism, before it was adopted by Central and Northeastern Asia from the 1st century AD, ultimately spreading to China, Korea and Japan.

The Magadha empire

Main article: Magadha Empire

Amongst the sixteen Mahajanapadas, the kingdom of Magadha rose greatly under a number of dynasties that reached a peak under the power of Asoka Maurya. The kingdom of Magadha had emerged as a major power following the subjugation of two neighbouring kingdoms, and possessed an unparalleled military.

The Mauryan dynasty

Main article: Mauryan Empire

The Mauryan dynasty lasted about 180 years, nearly as long as Achaemenid rule, and began with Chandragupta Maurya, not to be confused with Chandragupta I of the much-later Gupta Dynasty. Chandragupta Maurya lived in Taxila and met Alexander and had many opportunities to observe the Macedonian army there. He raised his own military using Macedonian tactics to overthrow the Nanda Dynasty in Magadha. Following Alexander's death on June 10, 323 BCE, his Diadochi (generals) founded their own kingdoms in Asia Minor and Central Asia. General Seleucus set up the Seleucid Kingdom, which included the Pakistan region. Chandragupta Maurya, taking advantage of the fragmentation of power that followed Alexander's death, invaded and captured the Punjab and Gandhara. Later, the Eastern part of the Seleucid Kingdom broke away to form the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (third century–second century BCE).

Chandragupta's grandson Asoka (273-232 BCE), is said to have been the greatest of the Mauryan emperors. Ashoka the Great was the ruler of the Mauryan empire from 273 BCE to 232 BCE. A convert to Buddhism, Ashoka reigned over most of South Asia and parts of Central Asia, from present-day Afghanistan to Bengal and as far south as Mysore. He converted to the Buddhist faith following remorse for his bloody conquest of the kingdom of Kalinga in Orissa. He became a great proselytiser of Buddhism and sent Buddhist emissaries to many lands. He set in stone the Edicts of Asoka. In the region which is now Pakistan, nearly all of the Asokan edicts are written either in the Aramaic script (Aramiac had been the lingua franca of the Achaemenid Empire) or in Kharosthi, a script derived from Aramaic.

Brhadrata, the last ruler of the Mauryan dynasty, ruled territories that had shrunk considerably from the time of emperor Ashoka, but he was still upholding the Buddhist faith. He was assassinated in 185 BCE by his general Pusyamitra Sunga, who made himself the ruler and established the Sunga dynasty. The assassination of Brhadrata and the rise of the Sunga empire led to a decline of Buddhism and a resurgence of Hinduism.

The Golden Age

From 2nd century BC to 5th century CE the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent came under continuous invasions of different Turko-Iranian, Bacterians, Sakas, Parthians, Kushans, and Huns.

During those centuries ethnic composition of the region remained in flex until the 7th century, when it was stabilized. Rajputs, Jats, and Gujjars became integral part of the population. With the mixing of the Iranian people, a physical feature became predominated in the Baloch region which resemble to Iranic or other Caucasoid races to the west. This made people of the Baloch region distinct from the rest of the South Asia. These Caucasoid physical features beccome more prominent with the movement of Pakhtuns and Balochis.

It is surmised that Iranian tribes existed in western Pakistan during a very early age and that Pakhtun tribes were inhabitants around the area of Peshawar prior to the period of Alexander the Great as Herodotus refers to the local peoples as the "Paktui" and as a fearsome pagan tribe similar to the Bactrians. Iranian Balochi tribes did not arrive at least until the first millennium CE and would not expand as far as Sindh until the 2nd millennium.

Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

Main article: Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

The founder of the Indo-Greek Kingdom Demetrius I (205-171 BCE), wearing the scalp of an elephant, symbol of his conquest of South Asia.

The invasion of northern India in 180 BCE by the king Demetrius (the son of theGreco-Bactrian king Euthydemus) went as far as Pataliputra and established an Indo-Greek kingdom that lasted nearly two centuries, until around 10 BCE. To the south, the Greeks captured Sindh and nearby Arabian Sea coastal areas. The invasion was completed by 175 BCE, and the Sungas were confined to the east, although the Indo-Greeks lost some territory in the Gangetic plain. Meanwhile in Bactria, the usurper Eucratides overcame the Euthydemid dynasty, killing Demetrius in battle.

Menander I was one of the Greek kings of the Indo-Greek Kingdom in ancient Pakistan from 155 to 130 BCE. He had been a general under King Demetrius, who was killed in battle. As a general, Menader drove the Greco-Bactrians out of Gandhara and beyond the Hindu Kush, becoming king shortly after his victory. Menander's territories covered the eastern dominions of the divided Greek empire of Bactria (from the areas of Panjshir and Kapisa) and extended to the modern Pakistani province of Punjab, with diffuse tributaries to the south and east, possibly even as far as Mathura. Sagala (modern Sialkot) became his capital and prospered greatly under Menander's rule. Menander is one of the few Bactrian kings mentioned by Greek authors, among them Apollodorus of Artemita, who claimed that he was an even greater conqueror than Alexander the Great. Strabo says Menander was one of the two Bactrian kings who extended their power farthest into South Asia. Sagala (modern Sialkot) became his capital and propered greatly under Menander's rule. His reign was long and successful (c.155 BCE - c.80 BCE). Generous findings of coins testify to the prosperity and extension of his empire.

Tetradrachm of Menander I in Greco-Bactrian style (Alexandria-Kapisa mint).
Obv: King Menander throwing a spear.
Rev: Athena with thunderbolt. Greek legend: BASILEOS SOTIROS MENANDROY "King Menander, the Saviour".

The Milinda Pañha, a classical Buddhist text, praises Menander, saying that "as in wisdom so in strength of body, swiftness, and valour there was found none equal to Milinda in all India".

Menander's empire survived him in a fragmented manner until the last independent Greek king, Strato II, disappeared around 10 CE. The Indo-Greeks suffered a new attack from the descendants of Eucratides around 125 BCE, as the Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles, son of Eucratides, was fleeing from the invasion of the Yuezhi in Bactria and trying to relocate in Gandhara. The Indo-Greeks retreated to their territories east of the Jhelum River as far as Mathura, and the two houses coexisted in the northern South Asia. Various kings ruled into the beginning of the first century CE, as petty rulers (such as Theodamas) and as administrators, after the conquests of the Scythians (see also Indo-Scythians), Parthians (see also Indo-Parthians) and Yuezhi, a Central Asian people possibly of Tocharian origins who founded the Kushan dynasty.

Indo-Greek kingdom

Main article: Indo-Greek kingdom

The Indo-Greek Kingdom (or sometimes Greco-Indian Kingdom) covered almost all regions of Pakistan from 180 BCE to around 10 CE, and was ruled by a succession of more than thirty Greek kings. The kingdom was founded when the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius who invaded Pakistan and India in 180 BCE, creating an entity which seceded from the powerful Greco-Bactrian Kingdom centred in Bactria (today's northern Afghanistan).

The last known mention of an Indo-Greek ruler is suggested by an inscription on a signet ring of the 1st century CE in the name of a king Theodamas, from the Bajaur area of Gandhara, in modern Pakistan. No coins of him are known, but the signet bears in kharoshthi script the inscription "Su Theodamasa", "Su" being explained as the Greek transliteration of the ubiquitous Kushan royal title "Shau" ("Shah", "King").

Indo-Scythians

Main article: Indo-Scythians

The Indo-Scythians are a branch of the Indo-European Sakas (Scythians), who migrated from southern Siberia into Bactria, Sogdiana, Kashmir and finally into Arachosia and Pakistan then India from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century BCE. They displaced the Indo-Greeks and ruled in northern India from Gandhara in Pakistan to Mathura.

Indo-Parthians

Main article: Indo-Parthian Kingdom

File:Taxila Pakistan juillet 2004.JPG

View from the Jaulian World Heritage Site (Taxila).

The Indo-Parthian Kingdom was established during the 1st century CE, by a Parthian leader named Gondophares, in today's Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India. The Kingdom's capital was Taxila, (Pakistan)[1].

Kushan Empire

Main article: Kushan Empire

The kingdom was founded by King Heraios, and greatly expanded by his successor, Kujula Kadphises. Kadphises' son Vima Takto conquered territory now in India, but lost much of the western parts of the kingdom, including Gandhara, to the Parthian king Gondophares. The rule of Kanishka I, the fourth Kushan emperor, who flourished for at least 28 years from c. 127, was administered from a winter capital in Purushapura (now Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan) and a summer capital in Bagram (then known as Kapisa).

The rule of the Kushans linked the seagoing trade of the Indian Ocean with the commerce of the Silk Road through the long-civilized Indus Valley. At the height of the dynasty, the Kushans loosely oversaw a territory that extended to the Aral Sea through present-day Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan into northern India. The loose unity and comparative peace of such a vast expanse encouraged long-distance trade, brought Chinese silks to Rome, and created strings of flourishing urban centers. Kanishka is renowned in Buddhist tradition for having convened a great Buddhist council in Kashmir. This council is attributed with having marked the official beginning of the pantheistic Mahayana Buddhism and its scission with Nikaya Buddhism. Kanishka also had the original Gandhari vernacular, or Prakrit, Mahayana Buddhist texts translated into the high literary language of Sanskrit. Along with the Indian king Ashoka, the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Milinda), and Harsha Vardhana, Kanishka is considered by Buddhism as one of its greatest benefactors.

The art and culture of Gandhara, at the crossroads of the Kushan hegemony, are the best known expressions of Kushan influences to Westerners. The interaction of Greek and Buddhist cultures continued over several centuries until it ended in the fifth century CE with the invasions of the White Huns (see also Indo-Hephthalites), and later the expansion of Islam. During the remaining centuries before the coming of Islam in 711, the White Huns, Indo-Parthians, and Kushans shared control of what is today Pakistan with the Sassanid Persian empire which dominated much of western and southern Pakistan.

The Gupta Empire

Main article: Gupta Empire

The Gupta Empire arose in northern India around the second century CE and much of what is today Sindh made up the northwesternmost province of the empire. The era of the Guptas was marked by a local Hindu revival, although Buddhism continued to flourish.

Indo-Sassanians

Main article: Indo-Sassanians

The Sassanian empire of Persia, who were close contemporaries of the Guptas, began to expand into the north-western part of ancient India (now Pakistan), where they established their rule. The mingling of Indian and Persian cultures in this region gave birth to the Indo-Sassanian culture, which flourished in the western part of the Punjab and the areas now known in Pakistan as the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan. The last Hindu kingdom in this region, the Shahis, also may have arisen from this culture.

The Middle Age

Arab Rule

Main article: Caliph

The Age of the Caliphs

Prior to the 8th century the region was dominated by native rulers in the east and the Sassanid Persians in the west. During this period, another event occurred which would drastically transform the region, the coming of Islam. A Syrian Muslim chieftain named Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the region early in the 8th century (712) and extended Umayyad rule to the Indus River. Like Alexander the Great, Qasim travelled and subdued the region from Sindh to Kashmir. Muhammad Bin Qasim, himself a youth of only 20, managed this feat by leading a small force of only 6,000 Syrian tribesmen and reached the borders of Kashmir within three years.

Muhammad Bin Qasim's conquests up to Kashmir could not be sustained by the Muslim Arabs for very long. Umayyad rule stretched too far and any further conquests without consolidation would prove futile. From Lisbon, Portugal to Lahore in the Punjab were the apogee of this vast Muslim empire. Upon Muhammad Bin Qasim's departure to Baghdad, the extent of Muslim rule shrank to Sindh and southern Punjab, where consolidation took place and conversion to Islam was widespread, especially amongst the native Buddhist majority. In many regions several non-Muslim groups (largely Buddhists and Hindus as well as others further north) remained numerous north of Multan. However, from the 8th century onwards, the Umayyad territory in South Asia was divided into two parts: the northern region comprising the Panjab remained under the control of Hindu kingdoms, while the southern areas remained under Muslim control and comprised Multan, Sindh, and Balochistan until Mahmud Ghaznavi appeared on the scene and conquered all of what is today Pakistan. During this 300-year period (712-1000) both the northern and southern parts had their own independent governments --- the latter owing nominal allegiance to the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphs. During the Arab rule, the territories of Pakistan were known as 'Sindh' and India was known as 'Hind'.

The Ghaznavid Dynasty

Main article: Ghaznavid Empire

Mahmud and Ayaz
The Sultan is to the right, shaking the hand of the sheykh, with Ayaz standing behind him. The figure to his right is Shah Abbas I who reigned about 600 years later.
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran

In 1001 Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi defeated Jeebal the king of Kabulistan and marched further into Peshawer and in 1005 made it the center for his forces. From this strategic location Mahmud was able to capture Panjab in 1007, Tanseer fell in 1014, Kashmir was captured in 1015 and Qanoch fell in 1017. By 1027 Sultan Mahmud had captured Pakistan and parts of northern India.

On 1010 Mahmud captured what is today the Ghor Province (Ghor) and by 1011 annexed Balochistan. Sultan Mahmud had already had relationships with the leadership in Balkh through marriage and its local emir Abu Nasr Mohammad offered his services to Sultan Mahmud and offered his daughter to Muhammad son of Sultan Mahmud. After Nasr’s death Mahmud brought Balkh under his leadership. This alliance greatly helped Mahmud during his expeditions into Pakistan and northern India.

In 1030 Sultan Mahmud fell gravely ill and died at the age of 59. Sultan Mahmud was an accomplished military commander and speaker as well as a patron of poetry, astronomy, and math. Mahmud had no tolerance for other religions however and only praised Islam. Universities were formed to study various subjects such as math, religion, the humanities and medicine were taught, but only within the laws of the Sharia. Islam was the main religion of his kingdom and the Perso-Afghan dialect of Dari language was made the official language.

Ghaznavid rule in Pakistan lasted for over one hundred and seventy five years from 1010 to 1187. It was during this period that Lahore assumed considerable importance as the eastern-most bastion of Muslim power and as an outpost for further advance towards the riches of the east. Apart from being the second capital and later the only capital of the Ghaznavid kingdom, Lahore had great military and strategic significance. Whoever controlled this city could look forward to and be in a position to sweep the whole of East Punjab to Panipat and Delhi.

By the end of his reign, Mahmud's empire extended from Kurdistan in the west to Samarkand in the northeast, and from the Caspian Sea to the Yamuna. All of what is today Pakistan and Kashmir came under the Ghaznavid empire. The wealth brought back to Ghazni was enormous, and contemporary historians (e.g. Abolfazl Beyhaghi , Ferdowsi) give detailed descriptions of the building activity and importance of Lahore, as well as of the conqueror's support of literature.

Often reviled as a persecutor of Hindus (and in many cases Hindu temples were looted and destroyed) much of Mahmud's army consisted of Hindus and some of the commanders of his army were also of Hindu origin. Sonday Rai was the Commander of Mahmud's crack regiment and took part in several important campaigns with him. The coins struck during Mahmud's reign bore his own image on one side and the figure of a Hindu deity on the other.

Mahmud, as a patron of learning, filled his court with scholars including Ferdowsi the poet, Abolfazl Beyhaghi the historian (whose work on the Ghanavid Empire is perhaps the most substantive primary source of the period) and Al-Biruni the versatile scholar who wrote the informative Ta'rikh al-Hind ("Chronicles of India"). It was said that he spent over four hundred thousand golden dinars rewarding scholars. He invited the scholars from all over the world and was thus known as an abductor of scholars. During his rule, Lahore also became a great center of learning and culture. Lahore was called 'Small Ghazni' as Ghazni received far more attention during Mahmud's reign. Saad Salman, a poet of those times, also wrote about the academic and cultural life of Muslim Lahore and its growing importance.

The Islamic sultanates

Muhammad of Ghor

Main articles: Muhammad Ghori and Rajput

Muhammad Ghori was a Perso-Afghan conqueror from the region of Ghor in Afghanistan. Before 1160, the Ghaznavid Empire covered an area running from central Afghanistan east to the Punjab, with capitals at Ghazni, a city on the banks of Ghazni river in present-day Afghanistan, and at Lahore in present-day Pakistan. In 1160, the Ghorids conquered Ghazni from the Ghaznevids, and in 1173 Muhammad was made governor of Ghazni. He raided eastwards into the remaining Ghaznevid territory, and invaded Gujarat in the 1180s, but was rebuffed by Gujarat's Solanki rulers. In 1186-7 he conquered Lahore, ending the Ghaznevid empire and bringing the last of Ghaznevid territory under his control.

In 1191, he invaded the territory of Prithviraj III, the Chauhan Rajput Emperor of Ajmer and Delhi, who ruled much of present-day Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab, but was defeated at Tarain, near Bhatinda, by Govinda-raja of Delhi, Prithviraj's vassal. Being brought before Prithviraj he was pardoned and allowed to return to Ghor on promising no further trouble. The following year Muhammad Ghori assembled 120,000 horsemen and once again invaded the Kingdom of Ajmer. Muhammad's army met Prithviraj's army again at Tarain, and this time Muhammad was victorious; Govinda-raja was slain, Prithviraj captured and subsequently executed, and Muhammad advanced on Delhi, capturing it soon after. Within a year Muhammad controlled northern Rajasthan and the northern part of the Ganges-Yamuna Doab. Muhammad returned east to Ghazni to deal with the threat to his eastern frontiers from the Turks and Mongols, but his armies, mostly under Turkish generals, continued to advance through northern India, raiding as far east as Bengal.

Muhammad returned to Lahore after 1200 to deal with a revolt of the Rajput Ghakkar tribe in the Punjab. He suppressed the revolt, but was killed during a Ghakkar raid on his camp on the Jhelum River in 1206. Upon his death, his most capable general, Qutb-ud-din Aybak took control of Muhammad Ghori's Indian conquests and declared himself the first Sultan of Delhi.

Delhi Sultanate

Main article: Delhi Sultanate

Muhammad's successors established the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, while the Mamluk Dynasty (mamluk means "slave" and referred to the Turkic slave soldiers who became rulers throughout the Islamic world) in 1211 (however, the Delhi Sultanate is traditionally held to have been founded in 1206) seized the reins of empire. The territory under control of the Muslim rulers in Delhi expanded rapidly. By mid-century, Bengal and much of central India was under the Delhi Sultanate. Several Turko-Afghan dynasties ruled from Delhi: the Mamluk (1211-90), the Khalji (1290-1320), the Tughlaq (1320-1413), the Sayyid (1414-51), and the Lodhi (1451-1526). As Muslims extended their rule into southern India, only the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar remained immune, until it too fell in 1565. Although some kingdoms remained independent of Delhi in the Deccan and in Gujarat, Malwa (central India), and Bengal, almost all of the area in Pakistan came under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate.

The sultans of Delhi enjoyed cordial relations with Muslim rulers in the Near East but owed them no allegiance. The sultans based their laws on the Quran and the sharia and permitted non-Muslim subjects to practice their religion only if they paid the jizya or head tax. The sultans ruled from urban centers--while military camps and trading posts provided the nuclei for towns that sprang up in the countryside. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the sultanate was its temporary success in insulating the South Asia from the potential devastation of the Mongol invasion from Central Asia in the thirteenth century, which nonetheless led to the loss of Afghanistan and western Pakistan to the Mongols (see the Ilkhanate Dynasty). The sultanate ushered in a period of Indian cultural renaissance resulting from the stimulation of Islam by Hinduism. The resulting "Indo-Muslim" fusion left lasting monuments in architecture, music, literature, and religion. In addition it is surmised that the language of Urdu (literally meaning "horde" or "camp" in various Turkic dialects) was born during the Dehli Sultanate period as a result of the mingling of Sanskritic prakrits and the Persian, Turkish, Arabic favored by the Muslim invaders of India. The sultanate suffered from the sacking of Delhi in 1398 by Timur (Tamerlane) but revived briefly under the Lodhis before it was conquered by the Mughals in 1526.

The Early Modern Period

During the start of the 16th to the 19th century CE saw the arrivals of the moghal empire, which played a huge role in the development of the region not only economically but also culturally.

The Mughal Empire

Main articles: Mughal Empire and Babur

The founder of the Mughal Empire, Emperor Babur

The arrival of people from the Central Asian nations such as the Turks and Mongols was a significant turning point in the history of present-day Pakistan. The Qalandars (wandering Sufi saints) from Central Asia, Persia and Middle East preached a mystical form of Islam that appealed to the Buddhist and Hindu populations of Pakistan. The concepts of equality, justice, spiritualness, and secularism of the Sufi strain of Islam greatly attracted the masses towards it. The Sufi orders or triqas were established gradually, over a period of centuries. Present-day Pakistan was a place of great cultural and religious diversity. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate in South Asia. The Muslim Sufi missionaries played a pivotal role in converting the millions of native people to Islam.

The Mughals were the descendants of Persianized Central Asian Turks (with significant Mongol admixture) and would establish a formidable empire over the breadth of South Asia and beyond. The Mughal Empire included modern Pakistan and reached as far north as eastern Afghanistan and as far south as southern India. It was one of the three major Islamic empires of its day and sometimes contested its northwestern holdings such as Qandahar against invasions from the Uzbeks and the Safavid Persians. Although the first Mughal emperor Babur favored the cool hills of Kabul, his conquests would lay the foundations for a dynasty that would hold sway over South Asia for over two centuries. Most of his successors were capable rulers and during the Mughal period the Shalimar Gardens were built in Lahore (during the reign of Shah Jehan and the Badshahi Mosque was erected during the reign of Aurangzeb. However, Aurganzeb was a controversial emperor, who was accused for his persecution of those that refused to convert to Islam. Dangerous criminals were at times set free because they were Muslims. The advent of a tax on Non-Muslims and the foreceful conversions of Hindu and Sikh communities in the Pakistan region created laid the building blocks for a region that was going to have a large Muslim majority. Aurangzeb was also known for his desecration and destruction of particular symbolic Hindu temples as well as the execution of the 9th Guru of Sikhism. One notable emperor, Akbar the Great was both a capable ruler and an early proponent of religious and ethnic tolerance and favored an early form of multiculturalism.

Pakistan still bears architectural monuments built by the Mughal emperors. During the Mughal period, the cities of Delhi (present-day India) and Lahore (present-day Pakistan) were made the capitals of the empire. The Taj Mahal and other architectural marvels were the results of the growth of Islamic culture and rule over the South Asia. The Mughals also implemented federal regulations including taxation, social welfare reforms, justice, development of the transport and agricultural system and water canals. The mansabdar system gained prominence during the Mughal Empire and was used to implement a form of ranking military official and landowners throughout the empire and in many ways inspired similar systems in other major Islamic empires of the day such as the Ottoman Empire's tanzimat reforms.

Durrani Empire

Main articles: Durrani Empire and Nadir Shah

File:Ahmad Shah Durrani.jpg

Ahmad Shah Durrani (died 1772)

In 1739 Nadir Shah attacked India and after defeating the Mughal Emperor Mohammed Shah (Rangeela) claimed Punjab (from Lahore westward), the North-West Frontier Province, Balochistan and Sind as provinces of his Empire. Upon the death of Nadir Shah one of his generals, a Pashtun named Ahmed Shah Abdali (who late changed his name to Ahmad Shah Durrani) established the kingdom of Afghanistan in 1747 and made Pakistan part of his newly created state. He claimed Kashmir, Peshawar, Daman, Multan, Sindh and Punjab up to the Sutlej.

When the Abdali kingdom weakened early in the 19th century due to internecine warfare, the Abdali kingdom began to decline and an independent kingdom arose in Punjab headed by the Sikh leader Ranjit Singh. The British who had established their control over Delhi in 1803 warned Ranjit Singh not to try to impose his authority on the Sikh Sardars of East Punjab i.e., beyond Sutlej. As for Sind, from as early as the last days of Aurangzeb, it had begun to assert its independence and a succession of semi-independent dynasties under the Daudpotas, Kalhoras and Talpurs continued to rule over this province till British conquest in 1843 AD Meanwhile, Balochistan came under the sway of the Khan of Kalat with a few coastal cities such as Gwadar coming under the control of the Sultan of Oman.

The Punjab

Main articles: Sikh Empire and Ranjit Singh

In the early 19th century, the Mughal empire and the Afghan Durrani empire weakened in power. Taking advantage of the situation, Sikhs conquered most of the Punjab, and parts of Kashmir and Eastern Afghanistan. Sikh warrior Ranjit Singh defeated the Afghans and took the title of Maharaja (High King) of the Punjab and eventually sovereign of the Sikh empire, stretching from within the shadows of Delhi to beyond Peshawar, with his capital at Lahore. It was also the last territory of South Asia to fall to the British Empire mainly due to the betrayal by its top Dogra Generals, during the two bloody Anglo-Sikh wars in 1845-6 and 1848-49. The outcome was a very narrow victory for the British resulting in the annexition of the Punjab and the fall of Sikh rule.

Colonial era

Main article: Anglo-Sikh wars

During the middle of the second millennium, several European countries, such as Great Britain, Portugal, Holland and France were initially interested in trade with South Asian rulers including the Mughals and leaders of other independent Kingdoms. The Europeans took advantage of the fractured kingdoms and the divided rule to colonize the country. Most of India came under the crown of the British Empire in 1857 after a failed insurrection, popularly known as the First War of Indian Independence, against the British East India Company by Bahadur Shah Zafar. Present-day Pakistan remained part of British South Asia until August 14, 1947.

The Anglo-Afghan wars and the Great Game

Main articles: Anglo-Afghan wars and History of Balochistan

Political cartoon depicting the Afghan Amir Sher Ali with his "friends" Britain & Russia (1878)

The two Anglo-Afghan wars that involved Pakistan directly took place in 1839 and again in 1842 and 1878 and resulted in the eventual loss of Pashtun/Afghan territory to the expanding British Indian empire. Following the 2nd Anglo-Afghan war, a tenuous peace resulted between Afghanistan and the British empire based in India. Decades later, what is today western Pakistan would come to be annexed by the British.

For Afghan ruler Abdur Rahman Khan, delineating the boundary with India (through the Pashtun area) was far more significant, and it was during his reign that the Durand Line was drawn. Under pressure, Abdur Rahman agreed in 1893 to accept a mission headed by the British Indian foreign secretary, Sir Mortimer Durand, to define the limits of British and Afghan control in the Pashtun territories. Boundary limits were agreed on by Durand and Abdur Rahman before the end of 1893, but there is some question about the degree to which Abdur Rahman willingly ceded certain regions. There were indications that he regarded the Durand Line as a delimitation of separate areas of political responsibility, not a permanent international frontier, and that he did not explicitly cede control over certain parts (such as Kurram and Chitral) that were already in British control under the Treaty of Gandamak.

The Durand Line cut through both tribes and villages and bore little relation to the realities of topography, demography, or even military strategy. The line laid the foundation, not for peace between the border regions, but for heated disagreement between the governments of Afghanistan and British India, and later, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The issue revolves around the Pashtun nationalist movement known as Pashtunistan.

During much of the 19th century, the British and Russian Empires engaged in what came to be known as the Great Game as both sides intrigued over Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Often arming local Pashtun and Tajik tribesmen, both sides sought to undermine the other, while the rulers of Afghanistan were able to maintain some measure of independence in-spite of the loss of territories to the east to British India.

The British Raj

The British Empire at its zenith in 1919. India and other countries of the subcontinent under British dominion are highlighted in purple.

Main articles: British Raj and Muslim League

The first proponents of an independent Muslim nation began to appear in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century under the British Raj. Following the first War for Indepdence, the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885. Some Muslims felt the need to address the issue of the Muslim identity within India, leading to Sir Syed Amir Ali forming the Central National Muhammadan Association in 1877 to work towards the political advancement of the Muslims. The organisation declined towards the end of the nineteenth century but was replaced in 1906 by the All-India Muslim League. Although the League originally demanded constitutional guarantees for Muslims, several factors including sectarian violence prompted a reconsideration of the League's aims. The All India Muslim League was founded on the sidelines of the 1905 conference of the Muslim Anglo-Oriental Conference. This party was not, right until 1940, separatist. The idea of a separate nation was mooted in humor, satire and on the fringes of the political milieu.

Pakistan movement

Main article: Pakistan Movement

By 1930, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who ultimately led the movement for a separate state, had despaired of Indian politics and particularly of getting mainstream parties like the Congress (of which he was a member much longer than the League) to be sensitive to minority priorities. Among the first to make the demand for a separate state was the writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who, in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that he felt that a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated South Asia. The Sindh Assembly passed a resolution making it a demand in 1935.

Iqbal, Jauhar and others then worked hard to draft Mohammad Ali Jinnah to lead the movement for this new nation. Jinnah later went on to become known as the Father of the Nation, with Pakistan officially giving him the title Quaid-e-Azam or "Great Leader".

Pakistan Resolution

Main article: Lahore Resolution

In 1940, Jinnah called a general session of the All India Muslim League in Lahore to discuss the situation that had arisen due to the outbreak of the Second World War and the Government of India joining the war without taking the opinion of the Indian leaders. The meeting was also aimed at analyzing the reasons that led to the defeat of the Muslim League in the general election of 1937 in the Muslim majority provinces. Jinnah, in his speech, criticised the Congress and the nationalist Muslims, and espoused the Two-Nation Theory and the reasons for the demand for separate Muslim homelands. Sikandar Hayat Khan, the Chief Minister of the Punjab region, drafted the original Lahore Resolution, which was placed before the Subject Committee of the All India Muslim League for discussion and amendments. The resolution, radically amended by the subject committee, was moved in the general session by Shere-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Huq, the Chief Minister of Bengal, on 23 March and was supported by Choudhury Khaliquzzaman and other Muslim leaders. The Lahore Resolution ran as follows:

That the areas where the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the Northwestern and Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute 'independent states' in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.

The Resolution was adopted on 23 March, 1940.

Origin of Name

The name was coined by Cambridge student and Muslim nationalist Choudhary Rahmat Ali. He devised the word and first published it on January 28, 1933 in the pamphlet Now or Never [2]. He saw it as an acronym formed from the names of the "homelands" of Muslims in South Asia. (P for Punjab, A for the Afghan areas of the region, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Balochistan, thus forming 'Pakstan.' An i was later added to the English rendition of the name to ease pronunciation, producing Pakistan.) The word also captured in the Persian language the concepts of "pak", meaning "pure", and "stan", meaning "land" or "home", thus giving it the meaning "Land of the Pure". All Arabic-speaking countries refer to Pakistan as Bakstaan (باکستان), as the Arabic language lacks the phoneme [p].

Partition of the British Indian Empire

Main article: Partition of India

As the British granted independence to their dominions in India in mid-August 1947, the two nations joined the British Commonwealth as self-governing dominions. The partition left Punjab and Bengal, two of the biggest provinces, divided between India and Pakistan. In the early days of independence, more than two million people migrated across the new border and more than one hundred thousand died in a spate of communal violence. Non-Muslims who lived in Pakistan were forced the leave the area, which was one major factor in causing a violent reaction amongst the populations of the newly founded nations. The partition also resulted in tensions over Kashmir leading to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Main article: Pakistan

Pakistan's independence was won through a democratic and constitutional struggle. Pakistani political history is divided into alternating periods of authoritarian military government and democratic civilian/parliamentary rule. Since independence, Pakistan has also been in constant dispute with India over the territory of Kashmir. The Kashmir dispute has complicated relations between Pakistan and India. In addition, Pakistan has been at odds with Afghanistan over the Pashtunistan issue for much of its history as well.

Military coup and wars (1956-1968)

Just two years following the formation of a Constitution and a declaration as an Islamic Republic, the military took control of the nation in 1958. Field Marshall Ayub Khan also started Basic Democracy in which the people elected electors who in turn voted to select the President. He nearly lost the national elections to Fatima Jinnah. During Ayub's rule, relations with the United States and the West grew stronger. A formal alliance including Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey was formed during the Ayub Khan period and was called the Baghdad Pact (later known as CENTO), which was to defend the Middle East and Persian Gulf from Soviet designs. Pakistan engaged in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 with India over Kashmir and the Rann of Kutch.

The War of 1971 and Separation of Bangladesh

Main article: Bangladesh Liberation War

File:PAK1971.JPG

The two wings of Pakistan in 1970; East Pakistan obtained independence in 1971 as Bangladesh.

Between 1947 and 1971, Pakistan consisted of two parts, West Pakistan and East Pakistan, geographically separated with India in between. During the 1960s, there was a rise in Bengali nationalism, and allegations that economic development and government jobs favoured West Pakistan. An independence movement in East Pakistan began to gather ground.

After a nationwide uprising in 1969, Ayub Khan stepped down and handed over power to General Yahya Khan who promised general elections to be held at the end of 1970. On the eve of the 1970 elections, approximately 500,000 people died when a cyclone hit East Pakistan on 12 November, 1970. Despite the tragedy, elections went on, and the results showed a clear division between the Eastern and the Western provinces of the country. The Awami League led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won a majority in the National Assembly, with 167 of the 169 East Pakistani seats, but with no seats from West Pakistan, where the Pakistan Peoples Party led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, won 85 seats in the National Assembly. Khan and Bhutto refused to hand over power to Mujib. Meanwhile, Mujib initiated a civil disobedience movement, strongly supported by the general population of East Pakistan and most of its government workers. A round-table conference between Yahya, Bhutto and Mujib was convened in Dhaka, and after it ended without a solution, the Pakistani Army started Operation Searchlight, an organized and brutal crackdown on the East Pakistani army, police, politicians, innocent civilians and students in Dhaka. Mujib and many other Awami League leaders were arrested, while others fled to India. On March 27, 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman, a decorated Bengali war-veteran of the East Bengal Regiment of Pakistan Army, declared the independence of Bangladesh on behalf of Mujib. The crackdown broadened and later escalated into a guerrilla warfare between the Pakistani Army and the Mukti Bahini-Bengali "freedom fighters". Although the killing of Bengalis was mostly unsupported by the people of West Pakistan, it continued for 9 months. India supplied the Bengali rebels with arms and training, and also hosted more than 10 million Bengali refugees who fled the turmoil. The Indian Army officially joined the war (Indo-Pakistani War of 1971), and launched a massive assault into East Pakistan, where, by that time, the Pakistani Army led by General A. A. K. Niazi, had been weakened and exhausted. Being outflanked by the Indian Army and overwhelmed, it surrendered to the Indian Army-Mukti Bahini joint command on December 16, 1971, in one of the largest surrenders since WW2 - as nearly 90,000 soldiers become PoWs. Meanwhile, the Indian army invaded parts of West Pakistan, but returned the lands captured in the Shimla Agreement as a gesture of goodwill. The official figure of Bengali civilian death toll from the war is reported to be 3 million, although some other sources put the number between 1.25 to 1.5 million. The result was the emergence of the new nation of Bangladesh. Discredited by the defeat, President Gen. Yahya Khan resigned.

Civilian rule and the 1973 Constitution

Civilian rule returned after the war when General Yahya Khan handed over power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. In 1972, Pakistani intelligence learned that India was close to developing a nuclear bomb, and in response, Bhutto formed a group of engineers and scientists, headed by nuclear scientist Abdus Salam - who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics -to develop nuclear devices. In 1973, Parliament approved the 1973 Constitution. Pakistan was alarmed by the Indian nuclear test of 1974, and Bhutto promised that Pakistan would also have a nuclear device "even if we have to eat grass and leaves." During Bhutto's rule, a serious rebellion also took place in Balochistan and led to harsh suppression of Baloch rebels with purported assistance from the Shah of Iran lending air support in order to avoid a spilling over the conflit into Sistan Balochistan in Iran. (The escalating conflict would later end after an amnesty and subsequent stabilization by provincial military ruler Rahimuddin Khan.) Elections were held in 1977, with Bhutto winning. Bhutto's victory was challenged by the opposition, which accused him of rigging the vote. General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq took power in a bloodless coup, Bhutto was later executed, after being convicted of authorizing the murder of a political opponent, in a controversial 4-3 split decision by Pakistan's Supreme Court.

Military Rule and Front-line state in the anti-Soviet struggle

Main articles: Baghdad Pact, Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization, and Baloch Insurgency and Rahimuddin's Stabilization

Pakistan had been a US ally for much of the Cold War, from the 1950s and as a member of CENTO and SEATO. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan renewed and deepened the US-Pakistan alliance. The Reagan administration in the United States helped supply and finance an anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan, using Pakistan as a conduit. In retaliation, the KHAD, under Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah, carried out (according to the Mitrokhin archives and other sources) a large number of terrorist operations against Pakistan, which also suffered from an influx of weaponry and drugs from Afghanistan. In the 1980s, as the front-line state in the anti-Soviet struggle, Pakistan received substantial aid from the United States and took in millions of Afghan (mostly Pashtun) refugees fleeing the Soviet occupation. The influx of so many refugees - believed to be the largest refugee population in the world - had a heavy impact on Pakistan and its effects continue to this day.

Also under the new military ruler President Zia-ul-Haq's Martial Law dictatorship the following initiatives were taken:

• Strict Islamic law was introduced into the country's legal system by 1978, contributing to current-day sectarianism and religious fundamentalism, as well as instilling a sense of religious purpose within the youth.
• Pakistan fought a war by proxy against the Communists in Afghanistan in the Soviet-Afghan War, greatly contributing to the eventual withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.
• Secessionist uprisings in Balochistan were put down by the province's authoritarian Martial Law ruler, General Rahimuddin Khan, who, due to Martial Law, ruled for an unprecedented seven years.
• The socialist economic policies of the previous civilian government, which also included aggressive nationalisation, were gradually reversed; and Pakistan's Gross National Product greatly rose to among the highest in the world.

General Zia lifted Martial Law in 1985, holding partyless elections and handpicking Muhammad Khan Junejo to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan, who rubber-stamped Zia's being Chief of Army Staff till 1990. Junejo however gradually fell out with Zia as his politically administrative independence grew. Junejo also signed the Geneva Accord, which Zia greatly frowned upon. After a large-scale blast at a munitions dump in Ojhri, Junejo vowed to bring those responsible for the significant damage caused to justice, implicating several senior generals.

President Zia, infuriated, dismissed the Junejo government on several charges in May 1988. He then called for the holding of fresh elections in November. General Zia-ul-Haq never saw the elections materialize however, as he died in a plane crash on August 17 1988, which was later proven to be highly sophisticated sabotage, the perpetrators of which remain unproven.

Civilian democracy

Benazir Bhutto at a Pakistan Peoples Party event in Newark, CA, 28 September 2004.

From 1988 to 1999, Pakistan was ruled by civilian governments, alternately headed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who were each elected twice and removed from office on charges of corruption. Economic growth declined towards the end of this period, hurt by the Asian financial crisis, and economic sanctions imposed on Pakistan after its first tests of nuclear devices in 1998. The Pakistani testing came shortly after India tested nuclear devices and increased fears of a nuclear arms race in South Asia. The next year, the Kargil Conflict in Kashmir threatened to escalate to a full-scale war. During the late 1990s, Pakistan was one of three countries which recognized the Taliban government and Mullah Mohammed Omar as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan. Allegations have been made of Pakistan, and other countries providing economic and military aid to the group from 1994 as a part of supporting the anti-Soviet alliance. It is alleged that some post-invasion Taliban fighters were recruits, drawn from Pakistan's madrassahs.

In the election that returned Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister in 1997, his party received a heavy majority of the vote, obtaining enough seats in parliament to change the constitution, which 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, military chief Jehangir Karamat and Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah were put down and all three were forced to resign, Shah doing so after the Supreme Court was stormed by Sharif partisans.

1999 coup

Main article: 1999 Pakistani coup d'état

File:Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan in UN.jpg

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif

On 12 October, 1999, Sharif attempted to dismiss army chief Pervez Musharraf and install ISI director Khwaja Ziauddin in his place. Musharraf, who was out of the country, boarded a commercial airliner to return to Pakistan. Senior Army generals refused to accept Musharraf's dismissal. Nawaz Sharif ordered the Jinnah International Airport (Quaid-e-Azam International Airport) to prevent the landing of the airliner, which then circled the skies over Karachi. In a coup, the generals ousted Sharif's administration and took over the airport. The plane landed with only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and General Pervez Musharraf assumed control of the government. General Musharraf arrested Nawaz Sharif and those members of his cabinet who took part in this conspiracy. President Clinton felt that his pressure to force Nawaz Sharif to withdraw Pakistani forces from Kargil in Indian-controlled Kashmir was one of the main reason for Nawaz Sharif's disagreements with the Pakistani army. President Clinton and King Fahd pressured General Musharraf to exile Nawaz Sharif in Saudi Arabia and guaranteeing he would not be involved in politics for five years. General Musharraf later expelled Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia. Nawaz Sharif lived in Saudi Arabia for more than six years before moving to London in 2005.

The twenty first century

File:Un musharraf.jpg

General Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan, addressing the UN General Assembly on November 10, 2001

On May 12, 2000 the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered Pervez Musharraf to hold general elections by October 12, 2002. In an attempt to legitimize his presidency and assure its continuance after the impending elections, he held a national referendum on April 30, 2002, which extended his presidential term to a period ending five years after the October elections. General Musharraf continues to hold post of the army chief.

General elections were held in October 2002 and the centrist, pro-Mushararraf PML-Q won a plurality of the seats in the Parliament. However, parties opposed to Musharraf's Legal Framework Order effectively paralyzed the National Assembly for over a year. The deadlock ended in December 2003, when Musharraf and some of his parliamentary opponents agreed upon a compromise, and pro-Musharraf legislators were able to muster the two-thirds supermajority required to pass the Seventeenth Amendment, which retroactively legitimized Musharraf's 1999 coup and many of his subsequent decrees. In a vote of confidence on January 1 2004, Musharraf won 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, was elected to the office of President.

While economic reforms undertaken during his regime have yielded some results, social reform programmes appear to have met with resistance. Musharraf's power is threatened by extremists who have grown in strength since the September 11, 2001 attacks and who are particularly angered by Musharraf's close political and military alliance with the United States, including his support of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, and his liberal views on reforming Islam. Musharraf has survived assassination attempts by terrorist groups believed to be part of Al-Qaeda, including at least two instances where the terrorists had inside information from a member of his military security detail. Pakistan continues to be involved in a dispute over Kashmir, with allegations of support of terrorist groups being leveled against Pakistan by India, while Pakistan charges that the Indian government abuses human rights in its use of military force in the region. That both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons makes this dispute a source of special concern for the world community. This led to a nuclear standoff in 2002 when militants (supposedly backed by the ISI) attacked the Indian parliament. In reaction to this and following diplomatic tensions, India and Pakistan deployed 500,000 and 120,000 troops to the border respectively. While the Indo-Pakistani peace process has since made progress, it is sometimes stalled by infrequent terrorist activity in India (including the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings which investigators traced back to the Pakistani ISI). Pakistan also has been accused of contributing to nuclear proliferation; indeed, its leading nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted to selling nuclear secrets, though he denies any governmental knowledge of his activities.

The Pakistani government sent thousands of troops into the region of Waziristan in 2002 to hunt for bin Laden and other al-Qaeda fugitives. In March 2004, heavy fighting broke out at Azam Warsak, near the South Waziristan town of Wana, between Pakistani troops and an estimated 400 militants holed up in several fortified settlements. It was speculated that bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri was among those trapped by the Pakistani Army. (see Waziristan War). On September 5 2006 a truce was signed with the militants (who call themselves the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan) in which the rebels were to cease supporting cross-border jihadist attacks on Afghanistan in return for a general ceasefire and a hand-over of border patrol and check-point responsibilities formerly handled by the Pakistan Army. See Waziristan accord for details.

Additional References

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• Allchin, Bridget and Raymond Allchin. 'The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
• Baluch, Muhammad Sardar Khan. 'History of the Baluch Race and Baluchistan' (Stuttgart, Germany: Steiner Verlag, 1987).
• Banuazizi, Ali and Myron Weiner (eds.). 'The Politics of Social Transformation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan' (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1994).
• Bhutto, Benazir. 'Daughter of the East' (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1988).
• Bosworth, Clifford E. 'Ghaznavids' (South Asia Books, 1992).
• Bryant, Edwin. 'The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
• Cohen, Stephen P. 'The Idea of Pakistan' (Washington D.C.: Brookings Institute Press, 2004).
• Dupree, Louis. 'Afghanistan' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).
• Elphinstone, Mountstuart. 'An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India' (London 1815, New Dehli: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1998).
• Esposito, John L. 'The Oxford History of Islam' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
• Gasciogne, Bamber and Christina Gasciogne. 'A Brief History of the Great Moguls' (Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2000).
• Gauhar, Altaf. 'Ayub Khan: Pakistan's First Military Ruler' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).
• Hardy, Peter. 'The Muslims of British India' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972).
• Hopkirk, Peter. 'The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia' (New York: Kodansha International, 1990).
• Iqbal, Muhammad. 'The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam' (Kazi Publications, 1999).
• Jaffrelot, Christophe. 'A History of Pakistan and Its Origins' (London: Anthem Press, 2002).
• Kenover, Jonathan Mark. 'Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
• Mallory, J.P. 'In Search of the Indo-Europeans' (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1989).
• Moorhouse, Geoffrey. 'To the Frontier: A journey to the Khyber Pass' (New York: Henry Holt Company, 1984).
• Olmstead, A.T. 'History of the Persian Empire: Achaemenid period' (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1948).
• Reat, Ross. 'Buddhism: A History', (Jain Publishing Company, 1996).
• Sidkey, H. 'The Greek Kingdom of Bactria' (Ohio: University Press of America, 2000).
• Smith, Vincent. 'The Oxford History of India' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981).
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• Welch, Stuart Cary. 'Imperial Mughal Painting' (New York: George Braziller, 1978).
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• Wolpert, Stanley. 'Jinnah of Pakistan' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984).
• Ziring, Lawrence. 'Pakistan in the Twentieth Century: A Political History' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).

External links

• History of Pakistan
• Story of Pakistan
• Pakistan on Encarta
• Coins and Antiquities of Pakistan- from the Waleed Ziad Collection

See also

• Historical regions of Pakistan
• A Short History of Pakistan
• Places in Pakistan with Hindu and Sikh Populations before 1947