Pakistan: state of turmoil
Pakistan: state of turmoil
Aug 14, 1947: Pakistan gets independence.
Sept 11, 1948: Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, known as Qaid-e-Azam, dies.
Oct 17, 1951: Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan is shot dead at a rally in Rawalpindi.
March 23, 1956: Constituent Assembly adopts the name of Islamic Republic of Pakistan and first Constitution.
Oct 7, 1958: Governor-general Iskander Mirza abrogates constitution, enforces martial law with General Ayub Khan as Chief Martial Law Administrator and bans political parties.
Oct 24, 1958: Ayub Khan becomes Prime Minister.
Feb 17, 1960: Ayub Khan (right) becomes first elected President.
April 28, 1962: Elections for new national assembly are held under so-called "basic democracy" system.
March 26, 1969: General Yayha Khan imposes martial law, dissolving national and provincial assemblies.
Dec 3-17, 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.
Dec 20, 1971: Yahya hands power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who becomes chief martial law administrator of West Pakistan.
April 20, 1972: Martial law is lifted and an interim Constitution enforced.
April 10, 1973: Parliament approves new Constitution.
July 4, 1977: Army chief General Mohammad Zia-ul Haq seizes power, arrests Bhutto and declares martial law.
April 4, 1979: Bhutto is hanged on disputed conviction for conspiring to commit a political murder.
Feb 25, 1985: Zia holds non-party elections and names Mohammad Khan Junejo the Prime Minister.
Dec 30, 1985: Martial law lifted.
Aug 17, 1988: Zia and many senior military officers die in plane crash near Bahawalpur.
Nov 16, 1988: Benazir and her Pakistan People's Party win 39 per cent of vote in elections.
Aug 6, 1990: President Ghulam Ishaq Khan sacks her government. Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi is named caretaker prime minister until general elections in October 1990.
Nov 6, 1990: Nawaz Sharif is elected Prime Minister.
April 18, 1993: President Ishaq Khan dismisses Sharif government.
Oct 19, 1993: Benazir becomes Prime Minister for the second time after winning general elections.
Nov 5, 1996: President Farooq Leghari sacks Benazir, dissolves Parliament and calls elections for February 3.
Feb 3, 1997: Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party wins general elections by a landslide margin.
Feb 17, 1997: Sharif becomes Prime Minister for second time.
Dec 2, 1997: President Farooq Leghari resigns after a six-month legal battle to have Sharif investigated for misuse of power.
May 28, 1998: Pakistan conducts five nuclear tests in response to India's tests.
Oct 18, 1998: Pakistan and India end their first peace talks in a year agreeing to meet next February in New Delhi.
April 15, 1999: Benazir and her husband are sentenced in absentia to five-year jail terms on charges of corruption.
Oct 12, 1999: Chief of Army Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Gen. Pervez Musharraf stages a coup, suspends Constitution and assumes the additional title of Chief Executive of Pakistan. PM Sharif imprisoned.
June 20, 2001: Gen Pervez Musharraf names himself President.
April 30, 2002: Musharraf wins another five years in office in a referendum criticised as unconstitutional.
Aug 24, 2002: President Musharraf grants himself sweeping new powers, including the right to dismiss an elected parliament.
Nov 23, 2002: Mir Zafarullah Jamali sworn in as Prime Minister.
Aug 23, 2004: Shaukat Aziz is sworn in as prime minister.
March 9, 2007: President Musharraf suspends the Chief Justice Ifthikar Mohammed Chaudhry, triggering a wave of anger across the country.
July 20, 2007: Supreme Court reinstates Chief Justice Chaudhry (left).
Sept 10: Ex-PM Nawaz Sharif arrested and deported to Saudi Arabia hours after his arrival in Islamabad.
Oct 18: Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan after self-imposed exile.
Oct 18: A suicide bombing in a crowd welcoming Benazir Bhutto kills 143 people and injured approximately 550 others in Karachi.
Nov 3: General Musharraf declares Emergency and suspends the Constitution.
Nov 28: Musharraf hands over control of military.
Nov 25: Former premier Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after eight years of exile.
Dec 15: Musharraf lifts Emergency, exactly six weeks after imposing it.