history of Pakistan

Many of the earliest artifacts found in South Asia have been unearthed in what is now Pakistan, particularly in the Soan valley near modern Rawalpindi. These crude stone tools, including…

…Afghans had sought asylum in Pakistan, and another 1.5 million had fled to Iran. The mujahideen were eventually able to neutralize Soviet air power through the use of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles supplied by the Soviet Union’s Cold War adversary, the United States.

…support and again to interest Pakistan and the United States in Afghan security. Despite his efforts, on the night of December 24, 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Amin and many of his followers were killed on December 27.

…insurgent leaders who lived in Pakistan with missiles fired from remotely piloted drones. The CIA program of targeted killings was publicly denied by U.S. officials but was widely acknowledged in private. Pakistani officials in turn denounced the strikes in public but privately approved of them as long as civilian casualties…

Pakistan offered to mediate Afghan peace talks, but Pakistan’s ultimate attitude toward the Taliban remained a matter of great controversy. In February 2010, Pakistani security forces arrested the Afghan Taliban’s second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a move interpreted by many U.S. officials as a reflection…

…province nor an agency of Pakistan but has a government of its own that is regarded by Pakistan as “independent,” even though it is protected by and economically and administratively linked to Pakistan. It has an area of approximately 650 square miles (1,680 square km) and consists of an arc…

Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, and Pakistan—which took place April 18–24, 1955, in Bandung, Indonesia. In all, 29 countries representing more than half the world’s population sent delegates.

Although the boundaries of East Bengal were based ostensibly on religion, they did not entirely reflect it. Owing to disagreements between the Hindu and Muslim contingents of the commission tasked with delimiting the province, the frontiers were ultimately determined by the head…

…the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. The raj succeeded management of the subcontinent by the British East India Company, after general distrust and dissatisfaction with company leadership resulted in a widespread mutiny of Indian soldiers (known as sepoys) in 1857, causing the British to reconsider the structure of…

…and composed of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. Until March 1959 the organization was known as the Middle East Treaty Organization, included Iraq, and had its headquarters in Baghdad.

…by the governments of India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain. The United States, Japan, and a number of Southeast Asian, East Asian, and Pacific countries joined later. The plan came into full operation in 1951. Its name was changed following the end of participation by several newly…

When India and Pakistan were granted independence in 1947, they became members of the Commonwealth. In 1949 India announced its intention to become a republic, which would have required its withdrawal from the Commonwealth under the existing rules, but at a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in…

…governor-general for India and for Pakistan. The filling of these posts necessitated a departure from normal practice because there could be no ministers to formally advise the crown until a governor-general had been appointed and ministers had taken office. In these circumstances the leaders of the Congress Party and the…

…reconfigured after the partition of Pakistan and India in 1947 in order to support the establishment of an Islamic state in Pakistan.

Jinnah had originally been dubious about the practicability of Pakistan, an idea that the poet and philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal had propounded to the Muslim League conference of 1930, but before long he became convinced that a Muslim homeland on the Indian subcontinent was…

…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. In this post his achievements were outstanding. If Jinnah founded Pakistan, Liaquat established it, laying down the main lines of policy, domestic and foreign,…

…and after the formation of Pakistan in 1947 the league became Pakistan’s dominant political party. In that year it was renamed the All Pakistan Muslim League. But the league functioned less effectively as a modern political party in Pakistan than it had as a mass-based pressure group in British India,…

…the ability of India and Pakistan to become declared nuclear powers in 1998 without any serious international penalty—and indeed by India establishing its own special arrangements as part of a bilateral deal with the United States in 2008.

…the choice between India and Pakistan, opted for Pakistan in a plebiscite. Ghaffar Khan then advocated Pakhtunistan—the concept of an independent Pashtun state, drawn from both the Pakistan and Afghan frontier districts. The Pakistan government suppressed both this movement and the Red Shirts.

of Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The treaty came into force on February 19, 1955. Pakistan withdrew in 1968, and France suspended financial support in 1975. The organization held its final exercise on February 20, 1976, and formally ended on…

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates gave formal recognition to the Taliban government after the fall of Kabul, but the movement was denied Afghanistan’s seat at the UN and came under vigorous international criticism for its extreme views—with regard to women in particular—and…