Pakistan (National flag)
The flag was officially introduced in 1947. It is based on the Muslim League
flag from 1906 with the addition of the white stripe, which represents the
country's minority of Hindus, Christians and Buddhists. The green color
stands for prosperity, the white for peace, the crescent symbolizes progress,
and the star stands for enlightenment.
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Pakistan (Prehistory)
The oldest finds of tools are up to 400,000-500,000 years old and include pebble
tools belonging to the Soan complex, named after sites on the terraces of
the Soan River in northern Punjab. Traces of early, pre-ceramic farming from
approximately 7000 BC has been found at Mehrgarh in eastern Baluchistan. In the
Baluchistan and the Indus Valley were found in the 4th millennium BC. farming
communities, where they grew wheat and barley and had domestic animals such as
beef, sheep, goats and donkeys, but also hunted gazelles. These often extensive
settlements formed the basis of the Indus culture from the middle of the 3rd to
the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. with its highly developed urban
community. During this culture began the cultivation of rice and cotton; the
oldest cotton fabrics known at all are found in Mohenjo-daro. The domestic
animals included horse, mule and camel. The decline of the Indus culture
occurred gradually and may be due to both societal and environmental
factors; eventually the cities are destroyed by attack. The Indus culture in
southern Pakistan was followed by the Jhukar culture, which represents a
cultural decline. In northern Pakistan, another material culture emerged with
painted gray pottery. After 1000 BC the iron was introduced, and at the same
time relations with Iran and Afghanistan are traced.
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Pakistan (History)
The early history of Pakistan and North India are closely related, see
also India (history). What is today Pakistan was, to varying degrees, under the
control of various Indian empires such as the Mauryad
Dynasty approximately 320-approx. 185 BC and the Gupta Dynasty approximately 320-approx. 570. In the
early 700-t. forced Muslim conquerors into the area, but it was not until the
establishment of the Delhi Sultanate in 1206 that the Muslim rulers created
lasting state formations outside Sindh in present-day Pakistan. From 1526 a new
period began with major empires under the princes of the Mughal Empire, among
which Aurangzeb gained control of the largest area.

British influence began in the 1750's, and in the 1840's Punjab and Sindh were
conquered, while direct British rule was imposed after Britain in 1858 had made
British India a crown colony. The idea of establishing Pakistan as a separate
national home for Muslims in British India originated in the 1930's and was
enforced by the Muslim League under Muhammad Ali Jinnahs.leadership in the
partition of India in 1947. The northwestern regions with Muslim majority as
well as the territories that today make up Bangladesh, East Pakistan, were
annexed by Pakistan, while the bulk of the other British possessions fell to the
new state of India. The division led to some of the most extensive migrations of
people in recent times, as Hindus and Sikhs fled Pakistan to India, and Muslims
the opposite way. It is estimated that it involved more than 10 million. people,
and in the wake of the division, extensive massacres followed on both sides with
up to 1 million. killed. That same year, fierce fighting broke out along the
border between West Pakistan and India as well as in Kashmir, which had a Muslim
majority but whose Hindu prince preferred to join India. It resulted in the
first of three wars between the two countries and a division of Kashmir, which
none of the countries has ever recognized. Pakistan and India returned to war in
1965 and 1971; the demarcation of Kashmir, however, remained almost
unchanged. The conflicts with India spurred Pakistan to forge closer ties with
China and the United States.
Since 1947, Pakistan has been plagued by conflicts between different national
groups, each with its own language and culture. In the period up to 1971, the
Bengalis in eastern Pakistan fought for increased autonomy and a larger share of
economic resources. After the 1970-71 elections, the Bengalis' largest party,
the Awami League, won, majority in the new parliament, and it escalated the
conflict because the largest party in West Pakistan, the Pakistan People's Party
(PPP), refused to hand over government power to the Bengalis. The army was
deployed in eastern Pakistan in March 1971 in an attempt to suppress the
uprising. This led to fierce fighting, which ended with India's military
intervention in December 1971; this paved the way in the same year for the
creation of independent Bangladesh. Both before and after the partition of
Pakistan in 1971, there have also been conflicts between national groups in the
western part of the country. Pashtuns and Baluchis have repeatedly turned
against the dominance of the Punjabis, and the most extreme ones have demanded
independence. In the southern province of Sindh, there have been calls for
increased independence from the Punjabi-dominated government in Islamabad, but
internal strife in Sindh has often overshadowed the opposition to the federal
government. The national strife, together with conflicts between country and
city as well as disagreements about the role of Islam in society, have made it
difficult to govern the country in a democratic way. The powerful Islamic
fundamentalists have often neglected democratic procedures to secure greater
influence, and so have several of the major parties. The conflicts have
repeatedly led the military to intervene and take over government power, first
in 1958 under Mohammad Ayub
Khan, who was replaced in 1969 by General Mohammad Yahya Khan. After the loss of
East Pakistan, he resigned, handing over government power to the leader of the
PPP,Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The military regained power in 1977 under
General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, who in 1979 had Bhutto executed. During
Zia-ul-Haq's reign, Islam became more important, as e.g. a special federal
Islamic court was established. Zia-ul-Haq died in a plane crash in 1988, after
which parliamentary rule was reintroduced. The elections of the same year gave a
majority to Bhutto's daughter, Benazir Bhutto, who thus became the first woman
to enter the government of a Muslim country. Neither Benazir Bhutto nor his
successor, Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, who became prime minister in 1990 as leader of
Pakistan's Muslim League, however, managed to create political
stability. Benazir Bhutto regained government power in 1993, but had to
relinquish it to Nawaz Sharif in 1997.
The post-1988 period has been marked by escalating conflicts between
political parties, all of which have used non-parliamentary means to achieve
their goals, and national antagonisms as well as social tensions have
exacerbated instability, particularly in Karachi. The period has also been
marked by major economic problems, which were exacerbated by the Gulf War in
1991, which led to rising expenses for the large oil imports and also to the
loss of considerable income from the many Pakistanis who had work in the Gulf
region. The country's economy came under pressure again after conducting atomic
bomb tests in the spring of 1998; they were conducted in response to Indian test
explosions. It increased the transition between Pakistan and the United States,
which had been close allies, especially during the Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan in 1979-89.
Nawaz Sharif was ousted as head of government in a bloodless military coup in
1999 after he sought to dismiss army chief Pervez Musharraf. He then took power
and was proclaimed president in 2001; in April 2002, Musharraf was elected
president for a five-year referendum. On the basis of Musharraf's support for
the United States and the fight against terrorism, the country obtained very
significant assistance from, among others, USA. Together with Musharraf's
liberalization programs launched in 2000, this is the background for solid
growth in the Pakistani economy of approximately 7% of GDP.
In foreign policy, relations with India remain a problem, first and foremost
in the Kashmir issue. It led to regular acts of war on the armistice line at
Kargil in Kashmir in 1999, and in 2002 India threatened a regular invasion. The
infiltration of militant Muslims from Pakistan into the Indian part of Kashmir
has intensified the antagonism. India further claims that the Kashmir-based
Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba has been behind several terrorist acts
in India. Since 2003, however, real peace negotiations have been underway
between arch-rivals - optimism is symbolized at the opening in 2005 of a
direct bus route between the countries.
Presidents |
1956-58 |
Iskandar Mirza |
1958-69 |
Mohammad Ayub Khan |
1969-71 |
Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan |
1971-73 |
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto |
1973-78 |
Fazal Elahi Chaudhri |
1978-88 |
Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq |
1988-93 |
Ghulam Ishaq Khan |
1993 |
Wasim Sajjad |
1993-97 |
Farooq Ahmed Leghari |
1997-98 |
Wasim Sajjad |
1998-2001 |
Mohammad Rafiq Tarar |
2001-08 |
Pervez Musharraf |
2008- |
Asif Ali Zardari |
Pakistani Kashmir was hit in 2005 by a major earthquake that killed over
70,000 and left millions homeless.
Musharraf's active support for the United States following the terrorist
attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, led to widespread unrest and
discontent among Pakistani fundamentalist groups supporting the Taliban regime
in Afghanistan. Pakistan is considered one of the main hotbeds of militant
Islamism; in particular, the border areas with Afghanistan are effectively out
of the control of the central government (see also Waziristan). Furthermore, the
security service ISI has repeatedly been accused of supporting radical Islamists
with training and financial means. It has been interpreted as an attempt to
weaken India's position in Kashmir. In 2007, there was a violent clash between
the military and militant Muslims around the Red Mosque in Islamabad. In an
attempt to create a broad political front against the religious forces, former
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto traveled to the country in late 2007 to run in the
parliamentary elections, but she was assassinated in December 2007. Along with
the continuing rise in terrorist activities, it threw Pakistan out. in a very
serious crisis. The parliamentary elections in February 2008 were won by the
opposition parties Pakistan Peoples Party, PPP, and the Muslim League with Nawaz
Sharif. Together, the parties formed a government under Prime Minister Yusuf
Raza Gilani of the PPP. The government has chosen to give the fight against
terrorism the highest priority. Domestically, they lashed out at President
Musharraf by releasing the Supreme Court justices Musharraf had previously
placed under house arrest. Musharraf resigned as president in August 2008 when
it became clear that the government would accuse him of abuse of office and
breach of the constitution.
The confrontation with radical Islamists in the form of Pakistani Taliban
intensified during 2009. At the beginning of the year, the government tried to
conclude a peace agreement with the Islamists by actually handing over to them
the province of Swat, which introduced Islamic law. Soon after, Taliban groups
began attacking other parts of Pakistan from Swat, after which the army launched
a large-scale attack into the province. It triggered a colossal influx of
refugees, as more than two million. civilians were displaced by the fierce
fighting. The Taliban militia had imposed a brutal terrorist regime in the
province, and the army's fight against the Islamists had strong support among
the people of Pakistan, including among the displaced from Swat.
In the summer of 2010, large parts of Pakistan were hit by extensive floods
associated with the monsoon rains. About 14 million people were affected by the
disaster when their homes were destroyed, their fields flooded, or
otherwise. The government was criticized for a completely inadequate effort,
while the army and Islamist groups organized emergency aid in the affected
areas. However, it was difficult to organize a joint effort, as the affected
areas stretched from northwestern Pakistan to the southern part of the
country. Roads and bridges were largely washed away and it was difficult, due to
the heavy rain, to deploy aircraft.
Pakistan's relations with the United States have been strained. The Americans
managed to track down and kill the wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden in
Abbottabad, Pakistan without the Pakistani government having been notified in
advance. In addition, there have been extensive attacks by US drones, so-called
drones, against militant Islamists in the mountains up to Afghanistan. In
addition to the Taliban, a large number of civilians have also been killed in
the attacks.
In the May 2013 election, the Muslim League led by the returning Nawaz Sharif
won an election victory and he became head of government again. A lawsuit has
since been filed against Musharraf.
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