CHRONOLOGY-Main events in Pakistan since independence
14 Aug 2007 09:12:32 GMT Source: Reuters
Aug 14 (Reuters) - Pakistan marked 60 years of independence on Tuesday, celebrating the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Here is a chronology of major events during the last six decades: Aug. 14, 1947 - Muslim Pakistan comes into being from the partition of India at the end of British rule. Sept. 1948 - Pakistan's founder and first governor-general, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, dies. Oct. 1951 - Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan is shot dead. Oct. 1958 - Governor-General Iskander Mirza enforces martial law with General Ayub Khan as Chief Martial Law Administrator. Ayub Khan later assumes the presidency and sacks Mirza. Sept. 1965 - India-Pakistan war over disputed Kashmir region. March 1969 - General Yahya Khan takes over from Ayub Khan. Dec. 1970 - Elections are held under which Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto wins in West Pakistan but the Awami League wins nearly all seats in East Pakistan, giving it an overall majority. Yahya and Bhutto refuse to allow the Awami League to form a government. Dec 1971 - India and Pakistan fight war over East Pakistan, which ends in surrender of 90,000 Pakistani troops and leads to the creation of Bangladesh. - Yahya hands power over to Bhutto, who takes over as prime minister in 1973. 1977 - Army chief General Zia-ul-Haq seizes power. April 1979 - Bhutto is hanged on disputed conviction for conspiring to commit a political murder. Aug. 1988 - Zia dies in plane crash. Nov. - Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfiqar, wins elections. 1990 - President Ghulam Ishaq Khan sacks Bhutto's government, accusing it of corruption and abuse of power. Nawaz Sharif is elected prime minister. 1993 - Ishaq Khan dismisses Sharif's government, accusing it of corruption. Bhutto becomes prime minister again. Nov. 1996 - President Farooq Leghari sacks Bhutto and calls elections, which are won by Sharif. May 1998 - Pakistan conducts nuclear tests in response to similar tests by India. Oct. 1999 - Army Chief Pervez Musharraf seizes power in a bloodless coup. He is sworn in as president and head of state in June 2001. Sept. 2001 - Pakistan withdraws support for Afghanistan's Taliban regime in favour of U.S.-led war on terror after 9/11. Dec. - India and Pakistan come close to war after New Delhi blames Pakistan-based Kashmiri militants for an attack on the Indian parliament. April 30, 2002 - Musharraf wins a controversial referendum on extending his rule for five more years. Nov. 2003 - Pakistan announces ceasefire in Kashmir and India reciprocates. March 9, 2007 - Musharraf's suspension of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on charges of misconduct sets off protests by lawyers and opposition politicians. Chaudhry is reinstated by the top court in July. July 10 - At least 102 people are killed in a military operation to crush a Taliban style movement at a mosque in Islamabad. A spate of retaliatory suicide attacks follow.
