Recent History
Pakistan was formed on August 14, 1947 with two Muslim-majority wings in the eastern and north-western regions of South Asia, separated by Hindu-majority India, and comprising the provinces of Balochistan, East Bengal, the North-West Frontier Province, West Punjab and Sindh. The partition of British India resulted in communal riots across India and Pakistan—millions of Muslims moved to Pakistan and millions of Hindus and Sikhs moved to India. Disputes arose over several princely states including Jammu and Kashmir which led to the First Kashmir War (1948) ending with Pakistan and India each occupying large parts of the state. From 1947 to 1956, Pakistan was a Dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations. The republic declared in 1958 was stalled by a coup d'etat by Ayub Khan (1958–69), who was president during a period of internal instability and a second war with India in 1965. His successor, Yahya Khan (1969–71) had to deal with the cyclone which caused 500,000 deaths in East Pakistan. Economic and political dissent in East Pakistan led to violent political repression and tensions escalating into civil war (Bangladesh Liberation War) and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and ultimately the secession of East Pakistan as the independent state of Bangladesh.
Civilian rule resumed from 1972 to 1977 under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but he was deposed by General Zia-ul-Haq, who became the third military president. The secular policies of the past were replaced by Zia's introduction of the Islamic Shariat legal code, and increased religious influences on the civil service and the military. Muhammad Khan Junejo was elected in 1985 as Prime Minister, but with the death of General Zia in a plane crash in 1988, Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was elected as the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan. Military tensions in the Kargil conflict with India in 1999 were followed by a military coup in which General Pervez Musharraf assumed executive powers. In 2001, he became President after the resignation of Rafiq Tarar and after the 2002 parliamentary elections, transferred executive powers to newly elected Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who was succeeded in 2004 by Shaukat Aziz. On 8 October 2005, a powerful earthquake of magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale struck the northern mountains of Pakistan and neighbouring regions in India and Afghanistan with the official death toll on 8 November standing at 87,350 and an estimated 3.3 million left homeless in Pakistan.
Longer Historical Perspective
The modern state of Pakistan was created in 1947, but the region has an extensive ancient history that overlaps with the histories of Ancient India, Iran and Afghanistan. The region was a crossroads of historic trade routes, including the Silk Road, and was settled over thousands of years by many groups including Dravidians, Indo-Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Kushans, and Arabs. The earliest evidence of humans is pebble tools of the Soan Culture in the Punjab province between 500,000 to 100,000 years ago. The Indus region was the site of several ancient cultures including Mehrgarh, one of the world's earliest towns, and the Indus Valley Civilisation at Harrappa and Mohenjo-Daro. The Indus Valley Civilisation collapsed in the middle of the second millennium BCE and was followed by the Vedic Civilisation which extended over much of northern India and Pakistan. Successive empires and kingdoms ruled the region from the Achaemenid Persian empire around 543 BCE, to Alexander the Great in 326 BCE and the Mauryan empire. The Indo-Greek Kingdom of Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab from 184 BCE, establishing the Greco-Buddhist period with advances in trade and culture and the city of Taxila (Takshashila) became a major centre of learning.
In 712 CE, the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab, setting the stage for several successive Muslim empires including the Ghaznavid Empire, the Ghorid Kingdom, the Delhi Sultanate and the glorious Mughal Empire. During this period Sufi missionaries played a pivotal role in converting a majority of the regional population to Islam. The gradual decline of the Mughal Empire in the early eighteenth century provided opportunities for the Afghans, Balochis and Sikhs to exercise control over large areas until the British East India Company gained ascendancy over South Asia.
