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An acronym for Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh and BaluchisTAN, Pakistan was created in 1947 as a Muslim state. The violent partition of the British Indian Empire into India and Pakistan remains unresolved (especially K the part). At the time, Pakistan included West Pakistan as well as East Pakistan, which would become Bangladesh after a 1971 civil war.
A country of great linguistic and ethnic diversity, Pakistan follows only Indonesia in Muslim population. For most of its history, Pakistan has been governed as a military dictatorship. Even during interludes of democracy, the Army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have wielded a majority of power. In 1998, Pakistan tested nuclear weapons, following India in doing so by only a few weeks. A. Q. Khan, the father of the national nuclear program, is known to have sold nuclear secrets on the international black market. To this day he lives under house arrest, but is in fact a celebrated national hero. |
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Upon being sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988 at the age of 35, Benazir Bhutto became the first female head of state in the modern Muslim world.
Her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto founded the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and was President and then Prime Minister from 1971-1977. He was deposed by General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq in 1977 and hanged two years later.
Following the execution of her father, Benazir was put under arrest and exiled by General Zia. Shortly after the mysterious death of General Zia in 1988 (popular legend has it that his airplane, which was carrying the American ambassador, was blown up by a crate of exploding mangoes), Bhutto returned and the PPP won the largest bloc in elections. |
