Post Independence

Pakistan was formed on 14 August 1947 with two Muslim-majority wings in the eastern and northwestern 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 Pakistanâ€”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 whose King had acceeded to India and finally 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 (1958â€“69), who was president during a period of internal instability and a second war with India in 1965. His successor, Yahya Khan (1969â€“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, until he was deposed and later sentenced to death in what accounts to a judicial murder in 1979 by General Zia-ul-Haq, who became the third military president. Pakistan''s secular policies were replaced by Zia''s introduction of the Islamic Shariat legal code, which increased religious influences on the civil service and the military. 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. Over the next decade, she alternated power with Nawaz Sharif, as the country''s political and economic situation worsened.

Pakistan sent 5,000 troops to the 1991 Gulf War as part of a US led coalition and specifically for the defence of Saudi Arabia.[15] Military tension in the Kargil conflict[16] with India in 1999 was followed by a military coup[17] in which General Pervez Musharraf assumed executive powers. In 2001, Musharraf became President after the resignation of Rafiq Tarar. After the 2002 parliamentary elections, Musharraf transferred executive powers to newly elected Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who was succeeded in the 2004 Prime-Ministerial election by Shaukat Aziz.

Leaders Profile

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Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah

Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah''s achievement as the founder of Pakistan, dominates everything else he did in his long and crowded public life spanning some 42 years. Yet, by any standard, his was an eventful life, his personality multidimensional and his achievements in other fields were many, if not equally great. Indeed, several were the roles he had played with distinction: at one time or another, he was one of the greatest legal luminaries India had produced during the first half of the century, an `ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, a great constitutionalist, a distinguished parliamentarian, a top-notch politician, an indefatigable freedom-fighter, a dynamic Muslim leader, a political strategist and, above all one of the great nation-builders of modern times.

Allama Muhammad Iqbal

Iqbal is the best articulated Muslim response to Modernity that the Islamic world has produced in the 20th century. His response has three dimensions. A creative engagement with the conceptual paradigm of modernism at a sophisticated philosophical level through his prose writings, mainly his The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam which present his basic philosophic insights .

His Urdu and Persian poetry which is the best embodiment of poetically mediated thought, squarely in the traditional continuity of Islamic literature and perhaps the finest flowering of wisdom poetry, or contemplative poetry or inspired poetry in the modern times.

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898) was a great visionary, statesman and Muslim reformer of the 19th century, the like of whom is rare. He wanted to make the community and country progressive and take them forward on modern lines. His supreme interest was intellectual development of the people through modern education. He was the first Indian Muslim to contribute to the intellectual and institutional foundation of Muslim modernization in Southern Asia. Interest of community and country was dearer to him rather than anything else.

Sir Syed asked the Muslims of his time not to participate in politics unless and until they got modern education. He was of the view that Muslims could not succeed in the field of western politics without knowing the system.

Liaquat Ali Khan

Liaquat Ali Khan, (born Oct. 1, 1895, Karnal, Indiaâ€”died Oct. 16, 1951, Rawalpindi, Pak.), first prime minister of Pakistan (1947â€“51). Born the son of a landowner, Liaquat was educated at Aligarh, Allahabad, and Exeter College, Oxford. A barrister by profession, like his leader, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, he entered politics in 1923, being elected first to the provincial legislature of the United Provinces and then to the central legislative assembly. He joined the Muslim League and soon became closely associated with Jinnah. By degrees he won first the respect and then the admiration of the Muslim community for his share in the struggle for Pakistan; when independence was won in 1947 and Jinnah became the first governor-general, Liaquat was the obvious choice as prime minister.