Military history of Pakistan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The military history of Pakistan encompasses an immense panorama of conflicts and struggles extending for more than 2,000 years across areas including modern Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, and the greater Indian subcontinent

Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

, although Pakistan as a modern nation-state

Nation-state

The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...

itself dates only from post 1947.

The military holds a significant place in the history of Pakistan

Pakistan

, as the Pakistani Armed Forces have played and still continue to play a vital role in the Pakistani establishment

Establishment (Pakistan)

The Establishment is a term used commonly by Pakistani political scientists and also by political scholars and analysts around the world for the powerful military-dominant oligarchy in Pakistan...

and shaping of the country since its inception. Although Pakistan was founded as a democracy after the independence of the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

from British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

, the military has remained one of the country's most powerful institutions and has on occasion overthrown democratically elected governments on the basis of mismanagement and corruption. Successive governments have made sure that the military was consulted before they took key decisions, especially when those decisions related to the Kashmir Conflict

Kashmir conflict

The Kashmir conflict is a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region, the northwesternmost region of South Asia....

. Political leaders of Pakistan's fragile democracy know that the military has stepped into the political arena before at times of crisis through Coup d'état to establish military dictatorships, and could do so again.

The Military was created in 1947 by division of the British Indian Army

British Indian Army

The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...

and was given units who had a long and cherished history during the British Raj such as the Khyber Rifles

Khyber Rifles

The Khyber Rifles is a para-military force forming part of the modern Pakistan Army's Frontier Corps. Dating from the late nineteenth century the regiment provided the title and setting for a widely read novel, King of the Khyber Rifles....

, and had seen intensive service in World War I and World War II. Many of the early leaders of the military had fought in both world wars.

The military draws on inspiration from the rich combat history that has occurred on Pakistani soil and uses example of sacrifice and perseverance to embolden troops, and has named medals of valor, nickname for combat divisions, and indigenous weapons; Such as the short-range ballistic missile

Missile

Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...

s Ghaznavi

Ghaznavi

Ghaznavi Missile is a short range ballistic missile with an optimal range of 290 km, produced by Pakistan and named after the 11th century Afghan conqueror Mahmud of Ghazni. The missile has a length of 9.64m, diameter of 0.99 m, launch weight of 5256 kg and is powered by a single stage solid fuel...

, which is named in honour of Mahmud of Ghazna who founded the Ghaznavid Empire

Ghaznavid Empire

The Ghaznavids were a Persianate Muslim dynasty of Turkic slave origin which existed from 975 to 1187 and ruled much of Persia, Transoxania, and the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. The Ghaznavid state was centered in Ghazni, a city in modern-day Afghanistan...

, and ruled from 997 to 1030.

Since independence, the military has fought three major wars with India

India

and several minor border skirmishes with Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. It has also fought a limited conflict at Kargil

Kargil War

The Kargil War ,, also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control...

with India after acquiring nuclear capabilities. After 9/11, the military is engaged in a protracted low intensity conflict along Pakistan's western border with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

militants, as well as those who support or provide shelter to them.

In addition, Pakistani troops have also participated in various foreign conflicts usually acting as United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

peacekeepers. At present, Pakistan has the largest number of its personnel acting under the United Nations with the number standing at 10,173 as of 31 March 2007.

Ancient empires

The region of Pakistan formed the most populous and richest satrapy of the Persian Achaemenid Empire

Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...

for almost two centuries, starting from the reign of Darius the Great (522-485 BCE). The first major conflict erupted when Alexander the Great overthrew the Achaemenid empire in 334 BCE, and marched eastwards. Eventually, after defeating King Porus in the fierce Battle of the Hydaspes (near modern Jhelum), he conquered much of the Punjab region

Punjab region

The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...

. But, his battle weary troops refused to advance further into India to engage the formidable army of Nanda Dynasty

Nanda Dynasty

The Nanda Empire originated from the region of Magadha in Ancient India during the 5th and 4th centuries BC. At its greatest extent, the Nanda Empire extended from Bengal in the east, to Punjab in the west and as far south as the Vindhya Range...

and its vanguard of trampling elephants, new monstorities to the invaders. Therefore, Alexander proceeded southwest along the Indus valley. Along the way, he engaged in several battles with smaller kingdoms before marching his army westward across the Makran desert towards modern Iran. Alexander founded several new Macedonian/Greek settlements in Gandhara

Gandhara

Gandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...

and Punjab

Punjab (Pakistan)

Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...

.

As Alexander the Great's Greek and Persian armies withdrew westwards, the satrap

Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....

s left behind by Alexander were defeated and conquered by Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and its first genuine emperor...

who founded the Maurya Empire

Maurya Empire

The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in ancient India, ruled by the Mauryan dynasty from 321 to 185 BC...

which ruled the region from 321 to 185 BC. The Mauryas Empire was itself conquered by the Sunga Empire

Sunga Empire

The Sunga Empire or Shunga Empire was a royal Indian dynasty from Magadha that controlled vast areas of the Indian Subcontinent from around 185 to 73 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pusyamitra Sunga, after the fall of the Maurya Empire...

which ruled the region from 185 to 73 BCE. Other regions such as the Khyber Pass

Khyber Pass

The Khyber Pass, is a mountain pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan.The Pass was an integral part of the ancient Silk Road. It is mentioned in the Bible as the "Pesh Habor," and it is one of the oldest known passes in the world....

was left unguarded, and a wave of foreign invasion followed. The Greco-Bactrian king, Demetrius

Demetrius I of Bactria

Demetrius I was a Buddhist Greco-Bactrian king . He was the son of Euthydemus and succeeded him around 200 BC, after which he conquered extensive areas in what now is eastern Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan thus creating an Indo-Greek kingdom far from Hellenistic Greece...

, capitalized and he conquered southern Afghanistan and Pakistan around 180 BC, forming the Indo-Greek Kingdom

Indo-Greek Kingdom

The Indo-Greek Kingdom or Graeco-Indian Kingdom covered various parts of the northwest regions of the Indian subcontinent during the last two centuries BC, and was ruled by more than 30 Hellenistic kings, often in conflict with each other...

. The Indo-Greek Kingdom ultimately disappeared as a political entity around 10 AD following the invasions of the Central Asian Indo-Scythians. Their empire morphed into the Kushan Empire

Kushan Empire

The Kushan Empire originally formed in the early 1st century AD under Kujula Kadphises in the territories of ancient Bactria on either side of the middle course of the Oxus in what is now northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and southern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.During the 1st and early 2nd centuries...

who ruled until 375 AD. The region was then conquered by the Persian Indo-Sassanid empire who ruled until 565 AD before the entire Sassanid Empire

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...

was conquered by the Arabs including the region of modern Pakistan.

Arab conquests

In 712 CE, a Syrian Muslim chieftain called Muhammad bin Qasim

Muhammad bin Qasim

Muhammad bin Qasim Al-Thaqafi was a Umayyad general who, at the age of 17, began the conquest of the Sindh and Punjab regions along the Indus River for the Umayyad Caliphate. He was born in the city of Taif...

conquered most of the Indus region (stretching from Sindh

Sindh

Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...

to Multan

Multan

Multan , is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about from Islamabad, from Lahore and from Karachi...

) for the Umayyad

Umayyad

The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...

empire. In 997 CE, Mahmud of Ghazni

Mahmud of Ghazni

Mahmud of Ghazni , actually ', was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty who ruled from 997 until his death in 1030 in the eastern Iranian lands. Mahmud turned the former provincial city of Ghazni into the wealthy capital of an extensive empire which covered most of today's Iran,...

conquered the bulk of Khorasan

Greater Khorasan

Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...

, marched on Peshawar in 1005, and followed it by the conquests of Punjab (1007), Balochistan (1011), Kashmir (1015) and Qanoch (1017). By the end of his reign in 1030, Mahmud's empire extended from Kurdistan in the west to the Yamuna

Yamuna

The Yamuna is the largest tributary river of the Ganges in northern India...

river in the east, and the Ghaznavid dynasty lasted until 1187. In 1160, Muhammad Ghori conquered Ghazni from the Ghaznavids and became its governor in 1173. He marched eastwards into the remaining Ghaznavid territory and Gujarat in the 1180s, but was rebuffed by Gujarat's Solanki

Solanki

The Solanki was a royal Hindu Indian dynasty that ruled parts of western and central India between the 10th to 13th centuries. A number of scholars including V. A. Smith assign them Gurjar origin....

rulers. In 1186-7, he conquered Lahore, bringing the last of Ghaznevid territory under his control and ending the Ghaznavid empire. Muhammad Ghori returned to Lahore after 1200 to deal with a revolt of the Rajput Ghakkar tribe in the Punjab. He suppressed the revolt, but was killed during a Ghakkar raid on his camp on the Jhelum River in 1206. Muhammad Ghori's successors established the first Indo-Islamic dynasty, the Delhi Sultanate

Delhi Sultanate

The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...

. The Mamluk

Mamluk

A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...

Dynasty, (mamluk means "slave
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

" and referred to the Turkic slave soldiers who became rulers throughout the Islamic world), seized the throne of the Sultanate in 1211. Several Turko-Afghan dynasties ruled their empires from Delhi: the Mamluk (1211–90), the Khalji (1290–1320), the Tughlaq

Tughlaq dynasty

The Tughlaq dynasty of north India started in 1321 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the throne under the title of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq. The Tughluqs were a Muslim family of Turkic origin...

(1320–1413), the Sayyid

Sayyid

Sayyid is an honorific title, it denotes males accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husain ibn Ali, sons of the prophet's daughter Fatima Zahra and his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.Daughters of sayyids are given the titles Sayyida,...

(1414–51) and the Lodhi

Lodhi

Lodhi is a Batani Pashtun tribe mainly found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were part of a wave of Pashtuns who pushed east into what is today Pakistan. Often accompanying the Timurids who conquered South Asia, the Lodhi established themselves during the Islamic period as a Muslim ruling class...

(1451–1526). Although some kingdoms remained independent of Delhi - in Gujarat, Malwa (central India), Bengal and Deccan - almost all of the Indus plain came under the rule of these large Indo-Islamic sultanates. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the sultanate was its temporary success in insulating South Asia from the Mongol invasion from Central Asia

Chagatai Khanate

The Chagatai Khanate was a Turko-Mongol khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan , second son of the Great Khan Genghis Khan, and his descendents and successors...

in the thirteenth century; nonetheless the sultans eventually lost Afghanistan

Afghanistan

and western Pakistan to the Mongols

Mongol Empire

The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...

(see the Ilkhanate

Ilkhanate

The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate , was a Mongol khanate established in Azerbaijan and Persia in the 13th century, considered a part of the Mongol Empire...

Dynasty).

Mughal Empire

From the 16th to the 19th century CE the formidable Mughal empire

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

covered much of India. In 1739, the Persian emperor Nader Shah

Nader Shah

Nāder Shāh Afshār ruled as Shah of Iran and was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty. Because of his military genius, some historians have described him as the Napoleon of Persia or the Second Alexander...

invaded India, defeated the Mughal Emperor Muhammed Shah, and occupied most of Balochistan and the Indus plain. After Nadir Shah's death, the kingdom of Afghanistan was established in 1747, by one of his generals, Ahmad Shah Abdali and included Kashmir, Peshawar, Daman, Multan, Sind and Punjab. In the south, a succession of autonomous dynasties (the Daudpota

Daudpota

- History :The Daudpota Abbasi's are Arabic origin and descent from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib , , a paternal uncle and Sahabi of Muhammad as well as a progenitor of the Abbasi Khalifa of Baghdad and Qahira. Sultan Ahmad II, son of Shah Muzammil of Egypt left that country and arrived in Sind...

s, Kalhoras

Kalhora Dynasty

Kalhora Dynasty or Kalhoro Dynasty ; ruled Sindh and other parts of present day Pakistan. This dynasty was founded by Kalhora tribe that ruled Sindh from 1701 to 1783...

and Talpurs

Talpur dynasty

The Talpur dynasty was a dynasty of the Talpur tribe that conquered and ruled Sindh, and other parts of present-day Pakistan, from 1783 to 1843. The Talpur army defeated the Kalhora Dynasty in the Battle of Halani in 1783 to become rulers of Sindh. The Talpur dynasty was defeated by the British...

) had asserted the independence of Sind, from the end of Aurangzeb's reign. Most of Balochistan came under the influence of the Khan of Kalat, apart from some coastal areas such as Gwadar

Gwadar

Gwadar also known as Godar is a developing port city on the southwestern Arabian Sea coast of Pakistan. It is the district headquarters of Gwadar District in Balochistan province and has a population of approximately 50,000.Gwadar is strategically located at the apex of the Arabian Sea and at the...

which were ruled by the Sultan of Oman

Oman

Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...

. The Sikh Confederacy

Sikh Confederacy

The Sikh Empire was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The empire, based around the Punjab region, existed from 1799 to 1849. It was forged, on the foundations of the Khalsa, under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh from a collection of autonomous Punjabi Misls...

(1748–1799) was a group of small states in the Punjab which emerged in a political vacuum created by rivalry between the Mughals, Afghans and Persians. The Confederacy drove out the Mughals, repelled several Afghan invasions and in 1764 captured Lahore. However after the retreat of Ahmed Shah Abdali, the Confederacy suffered instability as disputes and rivalries emerged. The Sikh empire (1799–1849) was formed on the foundations of the Confederacy by Ranjit Singh

Maharaja Ranjit Singh (Punjab)

Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.-Early life:...

who proclaimed himself "Sarkar-i-Wala", and was referred to as the Maharaja of Lahore. His empire eventually extended as far west as the Khyber Pass

Khyber Pass

and as far south as Multan. Amongst his conquests were Kashmir in 1819 and Peshawar in 1834, although the Afghans made two attempts to recover Peshawar. After the Maharaja's death the empire was weakened by internal divisions and political mismanagement. The British annexed the Sikh empire in 1849 after two Anglo-Sikh wars.

British Raj

The British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

lasted from 1858 to 1947, the period when India was part of the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

. After the mutiny, the British took steps to avoid further rebellions taking place including changing the structure of the Army. They banned Indians from the officer corp and artillery corp to ensure that future rebellions would not be as organized and disciplined and that the ratio of British Soldiers to Indians would be drastically increased. Recruiting percentages changed with an emphasis on Sikhs and Ghurkas whose loyalties and fighting prowess had been proven in the conflict and new caste and religious based regiments were formed.

The World wars

During WWI the British Indian Army fought in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli, and France and suffered very heavy casualties.

The British Indian Army's strength was about 189,000 in 1939. There were about 3,000 British officers and 1,115 Indian officers. The army was expanded greatly to fight in World War II. By 1945, the strength of the Army had risen to about two and a half million. There were about 34,500 British officers and 15,740 Indian officers. The Army took part in campaigns in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

, North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

, Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

, Malaya

British Malaya

British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...

, Burma, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

and Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It suffered 179,935 casualties in the war (including killed (24,338), wounded (64,354), missing (11,762) and POW (79,481) soldiers). Many future military officers and leaders of Pakistan fought in these wars.

Birth of the modern Military

On June 3, 1947, the British Government announced its plan to divide British India between India

India

and Pakistan

Pakistan

and the subsequent transfer of power to the two countries. The division of the British Indian Army occurred on June 30, 1947 in which Pakistan received six armored, eight artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

and eight infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

regiments compared to the forty armored, forty artillery and twenty one infantry regiments that went to India. The Partition Council which chaired by the Viceroy of India Lord Mountbatten of Burma

Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma

Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS , was a British statesman and naval officer, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...

, the leaders of the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

had agreed that the British Indian Army of 11,800 officers and 500,000 enlisted personnel, be divided to the ratio of 64% for India and 36% for Pakistan.

Pakistan was forced to accept a smaller share of the armed forces as most of the military assets such as weapons depots, military bases were located inside India and those that were in Pakistan were mostly obsolete and it also had a dangerously low ammunition reserve of only one week. By August 15, 1947, both India and Pakistan had operational control over their armed forces.

The Pakistani Armed Forces initially numbered around 150,000 men, many scattered around various bases in India and needing to be transferred to Pakistan by train. The independence created large scale communal violence in the India . Armed bands of militants detained and attacked the trains and massacred Indian military personnel and their families in Pakistan. In total, around 7 million Muslims migrated to Pakistan and 5 million Sikhs and Hindus to India with over a million people dying in the process.

Of the estimated requirement of 4,000 officers for Pakistani Armed Forces, only 2,300 were actually available. The neutral British officers were asked to fill in the gap and nearly 500 volunteered as well as many Polish and Hungarian officers to run the medical corps.

By October 1947, Pakistan had raised four divisions in West Pakistan

West Pakistan

West Pakistan , common name West-Pakistan , in the period between its establishment on 22 November 1955 to disintegration on December 16, 1971. This period, during which, Pakistan was divided, ended when East-Pakistan was disintegrated and succeeded to become which is now what is known as Bangladesh...

and one division in East Pakistan

East Pakistan

East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...

with an overall strength of ten infantry brigades and one armored brigade with thirteen tanks. Many brigades and battalions within these divisions were below half strength, but Pakistani personnel continued to arrive from all over India, the Middle East and North Africa and from South East Asia. Mountbatten

Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma

and Supreme Commander Claude Auchinleck

Claude Auchinleck

Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, GCB, GCIE, CSI, DSO, OBE , nicknamed "The Auk", was a British army commander during World War II. He was a career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, where he developed a love of the country and a lasting affinity for the soldiers...

had made it clear to Pakistan that in case of war with India, no other member of the Commonwealth

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

would come to Pakistan's help.

The war of 1947

Pakistan had its first taste of war almost immediately in the First Kashmir War where it sent its forces into Kashmir. Kashmir, had a Muslim majority population, but the choice of which country to join was given to the Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir he was not able to decided whether to join India or Pakistan. The newly created Pakistani Army was then sent in disguise to start a Muslim revolt along with Muslim troops from the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces. By late October, the overthrow of the maharaja seemed imminent. He sought military assistance from India, for which he sign an instrument of accession with India. The Army was pushed back by the Indians but not before occupying the northwestern part of Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

(roughly 40% of Kashmir) which Pakistan still controls, the rest remaining under Indian control except for the portion ceded by Pakistan to China

U.S. Aid

With the failure of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

to persuade India to join an anti-communist pact, it turned towards Pakistan which in contrast with India was prepared to join such an alliance in return of military and economic aid and also to find a potential ally against India

India

. By 1954, the Americans

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

had decided that Pakistan

Pakistan

along with Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

and Iran would be ideal countries to counter Soviet influence. Therefore Pakistan and USA signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement and American aid began to flow in Pakistan. This was followed by two more agreements. In 1955, Pakistan joined the South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) and the Baghdad Pact later to be renamed as Central Asian Treaty Organization (CENTO

Cento

Cento is a city and comune in the province of Ferrara, part of the region Emilia-Romagna . In Italian "cento" means 100.-History:The name Cento is a reference to the centuriation of the Po Valley...

) after Iraq left in 1959.

Pakistan received over a billion dollars in military aid from United States between 1954 and 1965. This aid greatly enhanced Pakistan's defense capability as new equipment and weapons were brought into the armed forces, new military bases were created and existing ones were expanded and upgraded and two new Corps commands were formed. Shahid M Amin, who has previously served in the Pakistani foreign service, writes in his book Pakistan's foreign policy: A reappraisal that "It is also a fact, that these pacts did undoubtedly secure very substantial US military and economic assistance for Pakistan in its nascent years and significantly strengthened it in facing India, as seen in the 1965 war.""

American and British advisers trained Pakistani personnel and the USA was allowed to set up bases within Pakistan's borders to spy on the Soviet Union. In this period, many future Pakistani presidents and generals went to American and British military academies that lead to the development of the Pakistani army on Western models, especially the British one.

After Dominion status ended in 1956 with the formation of a Constitution and a declaration of Pakistan as an Islamic Republic, the military took control in 1958 and held power for more than 10 years. During this time, Pakistan had developed close military relations with many Middle Eastern countries to whom Pakistan sent military advisers and this relationship continues to the present day.

First Military Rule

Since its independence, the democratic system has been disturbed by the Pakistan Army's generals. In 1951, the Military Intelligence

Military Intelligence of Pakistan

In Pakistan Defence Forces, the Directorate-General for the Military Intelligence , is a Pakistan Defence Forces intelligence agency and that is responsible for the military counter-intelligence. It also refers specifically to the intelligence components of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Unlike the...

foiled a conspiracy

Rawalpindi conspiracy

The Rawalpindi Conspiracy was an attempted coup d'etat against the government of Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1951. The conspiracy was the first of many subsequent coup attempts against elected governments in the history of Pakistan...

against the government of first Prime minister

Prime Minister of Pakistan

The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...

Liaqat Ali Khan. The M.I. under Major-General Syed Shahid Hamid

Syed Shahid Hamid

Major General Syed Shahid Hamid MBE HJ MC was a 2 star general in the Pakistan Army and a close associate of President Field Marshal Ayub Khan who played an important and an instrumental role in bringing Field Marshal Ayub Khan to power in the 1958 coup d'état that overthrew the government of...

arrested Major-General Akbar Khan, along with other senior officers. Akbar was subsequently court-martialed was relieved from his service. On October 16th of 1951, Liaqat Ali Khan was assassinated by Afghan national Said Akbar, hired by the United States and Pakistan Army. After his death, the political turmoil further destabilized the country. In 1958, retired Major-General and President Iskander Mirza took over the country and deposed the government of Prime minister Feroz Khan Noon

Feroz Khan Noon

Malik Sir Feroz Khan Noon, KCSI, KCIE, Kt was a politician from Pakistan.-Early life:Born on 18th of June 1893 at village Hamoka,tehsil Khushab, Punjab. He was educated at Aitchison College, Lahore....

, and declared first martial law on October 7, 1958. President Mirza personally appointed his close associate General Ayub Khan as the Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army. However, Khan ousted Mirza shortly when he became highly dissatisfied by Mirza's policies. It was said that, at that time when Khan took over the control, Ayub Khan had slapped Mirza and disrespected him and night to pack Mirza off to exile in England. Now as President and Commander-in-Chief Ayub Khan himself appointed him as 5-star Field Marshal and built up the relationship with the United States and the West. A formal alliance including Pakistan

Pakistan

, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

was formed and was called the Baghdad Pact (later known as CENTO), which was to defend the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

and Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

from Soviet communists designs. Ayub Khan used ISI and M.I. for the first time to keep an eye on Fatima Jinnah

Fatima Jinnah

Fatima Jinnah , was one of the figurative and pioneering woman figure in Pakistan Movement and was the younger sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. An active political figure in the movement for independence from the British Raj, she is commonly known in Pakistan as Khātūn-e...

during the 1965 Presidential elections

Pakistani presidential election, 1965

Presidential elections were held in Pakistan on 2 January 1965. The vote was held amongst the 80,000 "basic democrats", who were members of the urban and regional councils....

, his son Gohar Ayub Khan played a major and controversial role in elections. Khan also rigged the elections by forcing Election Commission

Election Commission of Pakistan

The Election Commission of Pakistan is an independent and autonomous constitutional body charged with the function of conducting transparent, free, fair and impartial elections to the National and Provincial Assemblies. The holding of elections to the office of the President and the Senate are,...

to announced him as a winner.

After the indecisive war of 1965, Pakistani people accused Field Marshal Ayub Khan of betraying the cause of Kashmir

Kashmir

and he was forced to resign. In 1967, Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...

, a nuclear engineer who was the head of Reactor Division at the IAEA, notified Bhutto on the status of Indian nuclear programme. Sensing the seriousness, Bhutto arranged a meeting between Khan and Ayub Khan. However, Ayub Khan deferred to start the nuclear deterrence capability on economic ground bases as he said: "If we [Pakistan] ever need the [atom] bomb, we [Pakistan] will buy it off the shelf". After the meeting, Bhutto remained in touch with Munir Ahmad Khan and began to lobby for the nuclear weapons. Later, Bhutto used Abdus Salam to get the approval of first nuclear power plant, KANUPP-I, from Ayub Khan. This was approved by Ayub Khan against the wishes of his own military government. However, Ayub Khan began to vetoed other proposals made by Abdus Salam to strengthened the nuclear energy programme. After Ayub Khan's departure, Abdus Salam and Munir Ahmad Khan were safely silenced. However, Bhutto continued to maintain relationship with both Munir Khan and Abdus Salam at the mean time.

As Bhutto began lobbying for nuclear development, Ayub Khan immediately removed Bhutto as his Foreign minister as a part of conspiracy, a conspiracy that was planned by Bhutto's rival Jurist Mushtaq Hussain. In return, Bhutto launched a People's Party of Pakistan and tapped a wave of anti-Ayub Khan movement in both West and East Pakistan. Pressured and demoralized, Ayub Khan handed over the control of the country to his younger brother and Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army General Yahya Khan

Yahya Khan

General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan Qizilbash, H.Pk, HJ, S.Pk, psc was the third President of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971, following the resignation of Ayub Khan...

in 1969. General Khan, designated himself as Chief Martial Law Administrator, installed a military government with in Pakistan. He also appointed Vice-Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan

Syed Mohammad Ahsan

Vice-Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan HQA, SPk, DSO, was a senior three-star admiral who was the 4th Chief of Naval Staff of Pakistan Navy from October 20, 1966 to August 31, 1969...

as Martial Law Administrator of East Pakistan. Khans' military government promised to hold on a general election within 2 years.

Yahya Khan presided the country over the disastrous 1971 Winter War

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...

which resulted in the Pakistan Armed Forces being forced out of Pakistani politics and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that, 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Bhutto was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party — the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan— and served as its chairman until his...

becoming the new civilian leader of Pakistan following an election.

Border clashes with Afghanistan

Armed tribal incursions from Afghanistan

Afghanistan

into Pakistan's border areas began with the transfer of power in 1947 and became a continual irritant. Many Pashtun Afghans regarded the 19th century Anglo-Afghan border (historically called the Durand Line

Durand Line

The Durand Line refers to the porous international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has divided the ethnic Pashtuns . This poorly marked line is approximately long...

) treaties as void and were trying to re-draw the borders with Pakistan or trying to help create an independent state (Pashtunistan

Pashtunistan

Pakhtunistan or Pashtunistan, meaning the "land of Pakhtuns" or "land of Pashtuns", is a modern term used for the historical region inhabited by the native Afghans or Pashtun since at least the 1st millennium BC...

) for the ethnic Pashtun people

Pashtun people

Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...

. The Pakistan Army had to be continually sent to secure the country's western borders. Afghan-Pakistan relations were to reach their nadir in 1955 when diplomatic relations were severed with the ransacking of Pakistan's embassy in Kabul

Kabul

Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

and again in 1961 when the Pakistan Army had to repel a major Afghan incursion in Bajaur region.

Pakistan used American weaponry to fight the Afghan incursions but the weaponry had been sold under the pretext of fighting Communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

and the USA was not pleased with this development, as the Soviets at that time became the chief benefactor to Afghanistan. Some sections of the American press blamed Pakistan for driving Afghanistan into the Soviet camp.

In retaliation to continuous Pashtun Afghan claims on Northwestern Pakistan, Pakistan's military provided support for the non-Pashtun populations of Afghanistan to re-unite with their ethnic groups who constitute a majority in neighboring countries of Afghanistan which gained independence after the fall of the USSR.

All this changed after the rise of the Taliban movement, which mainly consisted of Pakhtuns. Seeing the Taliban as a tool to maintain stability, Pakistan's military then shifted its support to the Pashtun-dominated Taliban; losing the trust of the non-Pashtun majority which it traditionally supported right until the Soviet-Afghan war era.

Alliance with China

After India's defeat in the Sino-Indian War

Sino-Indian War

The Sino-Indian War , also known as the Sino-Indian Border Conflict , was a war between China and India that occurred in 1962. A disputed Himalayan border was the main pretext for war, but other issues played a role. There had been a series of violent border incidents after the 1959 Tibetan...

of 1962, India

India

began a rapid program of reforming and expanding its military. A series of conferences on Kashmir was held from December 1962 to February 1963 between India and Pakistan. Both nations offered important concessions and a solution to the long-standing dispute seemed imminent. However, after the Sino-Indian war, Pakistan had gained an important new ally in China and Pakistan then signed a bilateral border agreement with China that involved the boundaries of the disputed state, and relations with India again became strained.

Fearing a communist expansion into India, the USA for the first time gave large quantities of weapons to India. The expansion of the Indian armed forces was viewed by most Pakistanis as being directed towards Pakistan rather than China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. The US also pumped in large sums of money and military supplies to Pakistan as it saw Pakistan as being a check against Soviet expansionist plans.

The war of 1965

In Pakistan, after the Sino-Indian War

Sino-Indian War

in 1962, the military of India was seen as being weakened. This analysis was proven true when a small border skirmish occurred between India and Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch

Rann of Kutch

The Great Rann of Kutch, also called Greater Rann of Kutch or just Rann of Kutch , is a seasonal salt marsh located in the Thar Desert in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India and the Sindh province of Pakistan....

on April 1965 where the Indian Army

Indian Army

The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...

was caught unprepared. The skirmish occurred between the border police of both countries due to poorly defined borders and later the Armies of both countries responded. The result was a decisive one for the Pakistan Army that was praised back home. Emboldened by this success, Operation Gibraltar

Operation Gibraltar

Operation Gibraltar was the codename given to the strategy of Pakistan to infiltrate Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of India, and start a rebellion against Indian rule...

, a covert infiltration attempt in Kashmir

Kashmir

was launched later in the year. The plan was to start a rebellion among local Kashmiris and attack the rebuilding Indian Army

Indian Army

thus capturing Kashmir by force, as the Pakistan Army Command believed that it had a qualitative superiority over their neighbours. However this proved over-ambitious as Indian Kashmiris did not support the intruding Pakistan Army and a full-fledged war across the international border (the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. This conflict became known as the Second Kashmir War fought by India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir, the first having been fought in 1947...

) broke out between India and Pakistan. Pakistan Air Force

Pakistan Air Force

The Pakistan Air Force is the leading air arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces and is primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport...

and Indian Air Force

Indian Air Force

The Indian Air Force is the air arm of the Indian armed forces. Its primary responsibility is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during a conflict...

were indulged massive air warfare in this war. Pakistani Army could not achieve the goal of taking over Indian controlled Kashmir while Indian Army failed to fulfill its aspiration of capturing Lahore and Sialkot, while on the offensive both the armies were occupying some of each other's territory resulting in a stalemate.

US had imposed an arms embargo on both India and Pakistan during the war and Pakistan was affected more by the arms embargo as it had no spare parts for its Air Force

Pakistan Air Force

, tanks, and other equipment while India's quantitative edge making up for theirs. The war was finally ended in a ceasefire.

Rebuilding the Armed Forces

The United States was disillusioned by a war in which both countries fought each other with equipment, which had been sold for defensive purposes and to stop the spread of communism. Pakistan's claims that an Indian attempt to fully integrate Indian Controlled Kashmir into the union of India had compelled it to act fell on deaf ears in the Johnson Administration

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

and by July 1967, the United States withdrew its military assistance advisory group. In response to these events, Pakistan declined to renew the lease on the Peshawar

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

military facility, which ended in 1969. Eventually, United States-Pakistan relations grew measurably weaker as the United States became more deeply involved in Vietnam

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

and as its broader interest in the security of South Asia waned.

The Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

continued the massive build-up of the Indian military and a US arms embargo forced Pakistan to look at other options. It turned to China

China

, North Korea

North Korea

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Italy

Italy

and France

France

for military aid. China in particular gave Pakistan over 900 tanks, Mig-19

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 is a Soviet second-generation, single-seat, twin jet-engined fighter aircraft. It was the first Soviet production aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. A comparable U.S...

Fighters and enough equipment to fully equip 3 Infantry divisions. France supplied some Mirage aircraft, submarines and even the Soviet Union gave Pakistan around 100 T-55

T-55

The T-54 and T-55 tanks were a series of main battle tanks designed in the Soviet Union. The first T-54 prototype appeared in March 1945, just before the end of the Second World War. The T-54 entered full production in 1947 and became the main tank for armored units of the Soviet Army, armies of...

tanks, Mi-8

Mil Mi-8

The Mil Mi-8 is a medium twin-turbine transport helicopter that can also act as a gunship. The Mi-8 is the world's most-produced helicopter, and is used by over 50 countries. Russia is the largest operator of the Mi-8/Mi-17 helicopter....

helicopters but that aid was abruptly stopped under intense Indian pressure. Pakistan in this period was partially able to enhance its military capability.

Involvement in Arab conflicts

Russia had sent numerous military advisers to Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

and Syria

Syria

to help in their training and military preparations for any potential war with Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. When the Six Day war started, Russia assisted by sending a contingent of its pilots and airmen to Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Jordan and Syria. PAF pilots performed excellently and downed about 10 Israeli planes including Mirages, Mysteres, Vautours without losing a single plane of their own.

Jordan and Iraq decorated Pakistani Flight Lieutenant Saif-ul-Azam. Israelis praised the performance of PAF pilots too. Eizer Weizman, then Chief Of Israeli Air Force wrote in his autobiography about Air Marshal Noor Khan (Commander PAF at that time): "...He is a formidable person and I am glad that he is Pakistani ..." No Pakistani ground forces participated in the war.

After the end of the Six-Day War, Pakistani advisors had remained in Jordan and were training the Jordanian Forces. In 1970, King Hussein of Jordan decided to remove the PLO and its forces from Jordan by force after a series of terrorist acts attributed to the PLO which undermined Jordanian sovereignty. On September 16, King Hussein declared martial law. The next day, Jordanian tanks attacked the headquarters of Palestinian organizations in Amman. The head of Pakistan's training mission to Jordan, Brigadier-General Zia-ul-Haq (later President of Pakistan

President of Pakistan

The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...

), took command of the Jordanian Army's 2nd division and helped Jordan during this crisis.

Pakistan again assisted during the Yom Kippur War, sixteen PAF pilots volunteered for service in the Air Forces of Egypt and Syria. The PAF contingent deployed to Inchas Air Base (Egypt) led by Wing Commander Masood Hatif and five other pilots plus two air defence controllers. During this war, the Syrian government decorated Flight Lieutenant Sattar Alvi when he shot down an Israeli Mirage over the Golan Heights. The PAF pilots then became instructors in the Syrian Air Force at Dumayr Air Base and after the war Pakistan continued to send military advisers to Syria and Jordan. Apart from military advisers, no Pakistani ground forces participated in this war.

In 1969, South Yemen, which was under a communist regime and a strong ally of the USSR, attacked and captured Mount Vadiya inside the province of Sharoora in Saudi Arabia. Many PAF officers as well Army personnel who were serving in Khamis Mushayt training the Saudi Air Force (the closest airbase to the battlefield), took active part in this battle in which the enemy was ultimately driven back.

During the Gulf War in 1990, the Pakistani government joined the international community in condemning the Iraq

Iraq

i invasion of Kuwait. Pakistan also joined the Coalition forces to expel Saadam Hussein's forces from Kuwait. However that was not an easy decision as the CoAS of the Pakistani Army was against sending Pakistani soldiers to fight the fellow Muslim nation of Iraq. This caused a rare strain in the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Later on, Pakistan agreed to send forces to assist the coalition forces and most of these forces were deployed along the Saudi border with Yemen

Yemen

The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

, which sided with Iraq during the conflict, and Pakistani forces were also stationed around various religious sites throughout Saudi Arabia. Pakistan suffered no casualties in the conflict and later joined the UN in rebuilding Kuwait's destroyed infrastructure.

The war of 1971

The General elections

Pakistani general election, 1970

General elections were held for the first time in Pakistan in on 7 December 1970, although the polls in East Pakistan, originally scheduled for October, were delayed by disastrous floods and rescheduled for later in December and January 1971....

were held in 1970, with People's Party

Pakistan Peoples Party

The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...

wining the majority in West-Pakistan

West Pakistan

and People's League gaining absolute majority in East-Pakistan

East Pakistan

. Yahya Khan, Chief Martial Law Administrator of Pakistan, held talks with both Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Talks were failed, and Bhutto was famously heard saying "break the legs" if any member of [People's Party] attend the inaugural session at the National Assembly

National Assembly of Pakistan

The National Assembly of Pakistan is the lower house of the bicameral Majlis-e-Shura, which also compromises the President of Pakistan and Senate . The National Assembly and the Senate both convene at Parliament House in Islamabad...

. Fearing on capitalization on West Pakistan, West-Pakistanis fears of East Pakistani separatist, and Bhutto demanded to form a coalition with Mujib. Both Mujib and Bhutto were agreed upon the coalition government, with Bhutto as President and Mujib as Prime minister. The Military government and General Yahya Khan was kept unaware of such of these developments. Both Bhutto and Mujib continued a political pressure on Khan's military government. Pressured by his own military government, General Yahya Khan postponed the inaugural session, and ordered to arrest Mujib and put Bhutto on house arrest. Military Police subsequently arrested Bhutto and put him on house arrest, and Mujib was sent to military court where his case was headed by Judge Advocate General Branch

Judge Advocate General Branch

The Judge Advocate General Branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces is composed of Pakistan's Military senior officers, lawyers and judges who provide legal services to the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines at all levels of command...

's Brigadier-General Rahimuddin Khan.

Faced with popular unrest and revolt in East-Pakistan

East Pakistan

, the Army and Navy clamped down through violence. The Military government of General Yahya Khan ordered Rear-Admiral Mohammad Shariff

Mohammad Shariff

Admiral Mohammad Shariff, , , is a retired four-star naval officer and a career war veteran. Admiral Mohammad Shariff took over the command of Pakistan Navy on 21 March, 1979, when a three-star vice-admiral, Hasan Hafeez Ahmed, died in office...

, Commander of Eastern Naval Command of the Pakistan Navy, and Lieutenant-General Amir Abdullah Khan Nazi, Commander of the Eastern Military Command

Evolution of Pakistan Eastern Command plan

The Eastern Military High Command of the Pakistan Armed Forces was a field-level military command headed by an appointed senior 3-star officer, who was designated the Unified Commander of the Eastern Military High Command...

of Pakistan Army, to curbed and liberate East Pakistan from the resistance. The navy and army crackdown and brutalities during the Operation Searchlight

Operation Searchlight

Operation Searchlight was a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in the erstwhile East Pakistan in March 1971. Ordered by the central government in West Pakistan, this was seen as the sequel to "Operation Blitz" which had been...

and Operation Barisal

Operation Barisal

The Operation Barisal was a Pakistan naval operation in 1971 intended to free Barisal, East Pakistan from Mukti Bahinis and the dissidents/armed personnel of the Pakistan Defence Forces. It was the part of Operation Searchlight.-External links:*...

and the continued killings throughout the later months resulted in further resentment among the East Pakistanis of East Pakistan. With India assisting the Mukti Bahini

Mukti Bahini

Mukti Bahini , also termed as the "Freedom Fighters" or FFs, collectively refers to the armed organizations who fought against the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War. It was dynamically formed by Bengali regulars and civilians after the proclamation of Bangladesh's independence on...

, war broke out between the separatist supporters in Bangladesh and Pakistan (Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

). During the conflict, the coordination between the armed forces of Pakistan were ineffective and unsupported. On major decision, the army, navy, marines and air force weren't taken on confidence. Each forces had led their own independent operations without notifying or taking on confidence the higher command.

The result was the Pakistan Armed Forces's surrender to the Indian forces upon which 93,000 Pakistan Armed Forces officials and 93,000 soldiers and officers became POW

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

s, the largest since World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The official war between India and Pakistan ended in just a fortnight on December 16, 1971, with Pakistan losing East Pakistan

East Pakistan

which became Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. The official Bangladesh Government claim puts the number of Bengali civilian fatalities at 3 million.

Recovery from the 1971 War

The Military government was collapsed as a result of the war, and the control of the country was handed over to the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto became country's first Chief Martial Law Administrator as well as first Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Armed Forces. As becoming the leader of his country in January of 1972, Bhutto made his move and started the nuclear deterrence programme under Munir Ahmad Khan and his adviser Abdus Salam. In July of 1972, Bhutto proceeded the Shimla Agreement with Indira Gandhi of India, and brought back 93,000 Pakistan Armed Forces personnel and recognized East-Pakistan as Bangladesh.

As part of re-organizing the country, Bhutto first disbanded the "Commander-in-Chief

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...

" title in the Pakistan Armed Forces. He also decommissioned the Pakistan Marines

Pakistan Marines

The Pakistani Marines , are the Marine Corps and amphibious corps service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The Pakistani Marines are a special military operations service branch of the Pakistani Navy and part of Pakistani Armed Forces, responsible for providing force projection from the sea,...

as a unit of Pakistan Navy. Instead, Chiefs of Staff were appointed in the three branches and Bhutto appointed all 4 star officers as the Chief of Staff in the Pakistan Armed Forces. General Tikka Khan

Tikka Khan

General Tikka Khan, HJ, HQA, SPk, was a senior four-star general in the Pakistan Army who served as the first Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army from 3 March 1972 to 1 March 1976. Before his four-star assignment, Khan was a Martial Law Administrator of erstwhile East-Pakistan...

, infamous for his role in Bangladesh Liberation War, become the first Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army; Admiral Mohammad Shariff, as first 4-star admiral in the navy and as the first Chief of Naval Staff

Chief of Naval Staff (Pakistan)

The Chief of the Naval Staff, abbreviated as CNS, is the highest ranking officer in the Pakistani Navy unless a 4-star naval officer is appointed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. The current Chief of the Naval Staff is Admiral Asif Sandila who commands the Navy. The CNS reports...

of Pakistan Navy; and, Air Chief Marshal

Air Chief Marshal

Air chief marshal is a senior 4-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...

(General) Zulfiqar Ali Khan

Zulfiqar Ali Khan

Air Chief Marshal Zulfiqar Ali Khan , NI was a four-star rank general and air officer in the Pakistan Air Force who served as a 9th Chief of Air Staff of Pakistan Air Force from April 1974 to July 1978...

, as first 4-star air force general, and the first Chief of Air Staff

Chief of Air Staff (Pakistan)

The Chief of the Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force, abbreviated as CAS, is typically the highest ranking 4-star rank officer in the Pakistan Air Force, unless a four-star officer is appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. The CAS is a senior and permanent member of the...

of Pakistan Air Force. Because the coordination between the armed forces were unsupported and ineffective, in 1976, Bhutto also created the office of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee for maintaining the coordination between the armed forces. General Muhammad Shariff

Muhammad Shariff

General Muhammad Shariff was retired four-star general in the Pakistan Army who was the first Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee since its inception in 1976 till his retirement in 1978...

, a 4-star general, was made its first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Pakistan's defense spending rose by 200% during the Bhutto

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

's democratic era but the military balance between India-Pakistan which was at a rough parity during the 1960s was growing decisively in India's favor. Under Bhutto, the education system

Pakistani textbooks controversy

The Pakistani textbooks controversy relates to the accuracy of Pakistani textbooks and existence of Historical revisionism in them. The content of Pakistan's official textbooks has been criticized by several sources including many within Pakistan for promoting religious intolerance & Indophobia...

, foreign policy, and science policy was rapidly changed. Under Bhutto's government, the funding of science was exponentially increased; Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission's and Kahuta Research Laboratories's classified projects were launched under Bhutto. Bhutto also funded the classified military science and engineering projects, entrusted and led by Lieutenant-General Zahid Ali Akbar

Zahid Ali Akbar

Lieutenant-General Zahid Ali Akbar Khan , TKdt, was an engineering officer of Pakistan Army who oversaw the construction of the Generals Combatant Army Headquarter and is well-known as the director of the Kahuta Project as part of the Pakistan's acquisition of integrated atomic bomb project...

of the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers

Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers

The Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers, , is an active military administrative staff corps, and a major science and technology command of the Pakistan Army...

.

The United States once again became a major source for military hardware following the lifting of the arms embargo in 1975 but by then Pakistan had become heavily dependent on China as an arms supplier. Heavy spending on defense re-energized the Army, which had sunk to its lowest morale following the debacle of the 1971 war. The high defense expenditure took money from other development projects such as education, health care and housing.

Baloch Nationalist uprisings

The Baloch rebellion of the 1970s, was the most threatening civil disorder

Civil disorder

Civil disorder, also known as civil unrest or civil strife, is a broad term that is typically used by law enforcement to describe one or more forms of disturbance caused by a group of people. Civil disturbance is typically a symptom of, and a form of protest against, major socio-political problems;...

to a United Pakistan since Bangladesh

Bangladesh

's secession

Secession

Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...

. The Pakistan Armed Forces wanted to establish military garrisons in Balochistan Province

Balochistan (Pakistan)

Balochistan is one of the four provinces or federating units of Pakistan. With an area of 134,051 mi2 or , it is the largest province of Pakistan, constituting approximately 44% of the total land mass of Pakistan. According to the 1998 population census, Balochistan had a population of...

which at that time was quite lawless and run by tribal justice. The ethnic Balochis saw this as a violation of their territorial rights. Emboldened by the stand taken by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a Bengali nationalist politician and the founder of Bangladesh. He headed the Awami League, served as the first President of Bangladesh and later became its Prime Minister. He headed the Awami League, served as the first President of Bangladesh and later became its...

in 1971, the Baloch and Pashtun nationalists had also demanded their "provincial rights" from then Prime minister

Prime Minister of Pakistan

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

in exchange for a consensual approval of the Pakistan Constitution of 1973. But while Bhutto admitted the NWFP and Balochistan to a NAP-JUI coalition, he refused to negotiate with the provincial governments led by chief minister Ataullah Mengal

Ataullah Mengal

Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal , popularly known as Sardar Ataullah Mengal, is a well-known political and feudal figure of Pakistan hailing from Balochistan. He has been campaigning a nationalist and separatist movement in Pakistan for over four decades. He is the head of the Shahizai Mangal tribe...

in Quetta

Quetta

is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...

and Mufti Mahmud in Peshawar

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

. Tensions erupted and an armed resistance began to take place.

Surveying the political instability, Bhutto's central government sacked two provincial governments within six months, arrested the two chief ministers, two governors and forty-four MNAs and MPAs, obtained an order from the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of Pakistan

The Supreme Court is the apex court in Pakistan's judicial hierarchy, the final arbiter of legal and constitutional disputes. The Supreme Court has a permanent seat in Islamabad. It has number of Branch Registries where cases are heard. It has a number of de jure powers which are outlined in the...

banning the NAP and charged them all with high treason

High treason

High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...

, to be tried by a specially constituted Hyderabad Tribunal of handpicked judges.

In time, the Baloch nationalist insurgency erupted and sucked the armed forces into the province, pitting the Baloch tribal middle classes against Islamabad

Islamabad

Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...

. The sporadic fighting between the insurgency

Insurgency

An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...

and the army started in 1973 with the largest confrontation taking place in September 1974 when around 15,000 Balochs fought the Pakistani Army, Navy and the Air Force. Following the successful recovery of the ammunition in the Iraqi embassy, shipped by both Iraq and Soviet Union for the Baluchistan resistance. The Naval Intelligence

Naval Intelligence of Pakistan

The Directorate for the Naval Intelligence of Pakistan, abbreviated as NI, is a staff naval corps and naval intelligence directorate of Pakistan Navy, headquartered in Rawalpindi, Punjab. The NI directly reports to Chief of Naval Staff, and is subordinated to the Ministry of Defence of Pakistan...

launched the investigation, and cited that arms were smuggled from the coastal areas of Balochistan. The Navy acted immediately, and jumped in the conflict. Vice-Admiral Patrick Simpson, commander of Southern Naval Command, began to launched the series of operation with also applying the naval blockage.

The Iranian military fearing a spread of the greater Baloch resistance in Iran also aided the Bhutto-sent Pakistan military in brutally putting down the insurrection. After three days of fighting the Baloch tribals were running out of ammunition

Ammunition

Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...

and so withdrew by 1976. The army had suffered 25 fatalities and around 300 casualties in the fight while the rebels lost 5,000 people as of 1977.

Although major fighting had broken down, ideological schisms

Schism (religion)

A schism , from Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization or movement religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a break of communion between two sections of Christianity that were previously a single body, or to a division within...

caused splinter groups to form and steadily gain momentum. Despite the overthrow of the Bhutto government in 1977 by General Zia-ul-Haque

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...

, Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army, calls for secession

Secession

Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...

and widespread civil disobedience

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...

remained. The military government

Military government

Military government can refer to conditions under either Military occupation, or Military dictatorship.-Military Government:Military government is the form of administration by which an occupying power exercises governmental authority over occupied territory.The Hague Conventions of 1907 specify...

then appointed General Rahimuddin Khan

Rahimuddin Khan

Rahimuddin Khan Afridi is a retired four-star general of the Pakistan Army who was the fourth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1984 to 1987. He was also the longest-serving Governor and martial law administrator of Balochistan, from 1978 to when he resigned in 1984...

as Martial Law Administrator over the Balochistan Province. The provincial military government under the famously authoritarian General Rahimuddin began to act as a separate entity

Entity

An entity is something that has a distinct, separate existence, although it need not be a material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal fictions are usually regarded as entities. In general, there is also no presumption that an entity is animate.An entity could be viewed as a set...

and military regime independent

Independence

Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

of the central government.

This allowed General Rahimuddin Khan to act as an absolute Martial Law Administrator, unanswerable to the central government. Both General Zia-ul-Haq and General Rahimuddin Khan supported the declaration of a general amnesty in Balochistan to those willing to give up arms. General Rahimuddin then purposefully isolated feudal leaders such as Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Ataullah Mengal

Ataullah Mengal

from provincial policy. He also militarily put down all civil disobedience movements, effectively leading to unprecedented social stability within the province. Due to Martial Law, his reign was the longest in the history of Balochistan

History of Balochistan

Balochistan is known to be the largest province and one of the four provinces of today's Pakistan. The British Empire on October 1, as paramount power in the region reached a security agreement with the princely state of Kalat which was ruled by the Khan of Kalat 1887 but the kingdom retained its...

(1977–1984).

Tensions have resurfaced recently in the province

Balochistan (Pakistan)

with the Pakistan Army

Pakistan Army

The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...

being involved in attacks against an insurgency

Insurgency

An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...

known as the Balochistan Liberation Army

Balochistan Liberation Army

The Balochistan Liberation Army is a terrorist group based in Balochistan, a mountainous region within southern Iran and Pakistan. The organization is a participant in the Balochistan conflict and strives to establish an independent state of Balochistan, free of Pakistani and Iranian rule...

. Attempted uprisings have taken place as recently as 2005.

Second Military Rule

During the 1977 elections, there were rumors of wide spread voter fraud and as such the civilian government under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was overthrown in a bloodless coup

Bloodless Coup

Bloodless Coup is the fifth studio album by Irish band Bell X1. It was released on 1 April 2011 in Ireland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, on 4 April in the United Kingdom, and on 5 April in North America....

of July 1977 (See Operation Fair Play

Operation Fair Play

Operation Fairplay was the code-name for the coup d'etat conducted at midnight on July 4, 1977 by the Pakistan Army's 111th Infantry Brigade led by Chief of Army Staff General Zia-ul-Haq against the elected civilian government of then-Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.-1977 election:The coup was...

) and the new ruler and Bhutto's own appointed Chief of Army Staff General Zia-ul-Haq became Chief Martial Law Administrator in 1978. General Zia-ul-Haq was appointed by this position by Bhutto after Bhutto forced seventeen senior general officers to retire from the army. General Zia appointed Mushtaq Hussain

Maulvi Mushtaq Hussain

Maulvi Mushtaq Hussain was a Pakistani jurist who served as chief justice of the high court of Lahore. He presided over the trial of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, during the proceedings in the Pakistani high court....

, chief jurist for Bhutto's case. Mushtaq Hussain was famously known in the public as extreme hater of Bhutto, and played a controversial role in Bhutto's removal as Foreign minister in 1965. Mushtaq Hussain, now judge, disrespected Bhutto and his hometown, and further denied any appeals. Under Zia's direction and Mushtaq's order, Bhutto was controversially executed in 1979 after the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of Pakistan

upheld the High Court

High Courts of Pakistan

There are five High Courts of Pakistan, each of four based in the capital city of one of the four provinces. The government has proposed a fifth high court to cover the Islamabad Capital Territory. This proposal was blocked by the Lahore High Court but that decision was overturned by the Supreme...

's death sentence

Death Sentence

Death Sentence is a short story by the American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the November 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov.-Plot summary:...

on charges of authorizing the murder of a political opponent. Under Zia's Martial Law military dictatorship

Military dictatorship

A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....

(which was declared legal under the Doctrine of Necessity by the Supreme Court

Supreme court

A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...

in 1978) the following initiatives were taken:

Strict Islamic law
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...

was introduced into the country's legal system by 1978, contributing to current-day sectarianism
Sectarianism
Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political movement.The ideological...

and religious fundamentalism, as well as instilling a sense of religious purpose within the youth.
Pakistan fought a war by proxy against the Communists in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

in the Soviet-Afghan War, greatly contributing to the eventual withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.
Secessionist uprisings in Balochistan
Balochistan (Pakistan)
Balochistan is one of the four provinces or federating units of Pakistan. With an area of 134,051 mi2 or , it is the largest province of Pakistan, constituting approximately 44% of the total land mass of Pakistan. According to the 1998 population census, Balochistan had a population of...

were put down by the province's authoritarian Martial Law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...

ruler, General Rahimuddin Khan
Rahimuddin Khan
Rahimuddin Khan Afridi is a retired four-star general of the Pakistan Army who was the fourth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1984 to 1987. He was also the longest-serving Governor and martial law administrator of Balochistan, from 1978 to when he resigned in 1984...

, who ruled for an unprecedented seven years under Martial Law.
The socialist economic policies of the previous civilian government, which also included aggressive nationalisation, were gradually reversed; and Pakistan's Gross National Product rose greatly.

General Zia lifted Martial Law in 1985, holding party-less elections and handpicking Muhammad Khan Junejo

Muhammad Khan Junejo

Muhammad Khan Junejo was the tenth Prime Minister of Pakistan.-Early life:He was born at Sindhri in Tharparkar of Sindh. He belongs to Sindhi Muslim Rajput family of Junejo clan. Junejo started his political career at the age of twenty one...

to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan

Prime Minister of Pakistan

, who in turn rubber-stamped Zia remaining Chief of Army Staff until 1990. Junejo however gradually fell out with Zia as his political and administrative independence grew. Junejo also signed the Geneva Accord, which Zia greatly disliked. After a large-scale explosion at a munitions store in Ojhri, Junejo vowed to bring those responsible for the significant damage caused to justice, implicating several times the Inter-Services Intelligence

Inter-Services Intelligence

The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...

(ISI) Director-General Akhtar Abdur Rahman

Akhtar Abdur Rahman

General Akhtar Abdur Rahman Khan , born in Rampur, was a 4-star general in the Pakistan Army. He served as Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1987–1988 and as Director-General Inter-Services Intelligence from 1980-1987...

.

President Zia, infuriated, dismissed the Junejo government on several charges in May 1988. He then called for the holding of fresh elections in November. General Zia-ul-Haq never saw the elections materialize however, as he died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988, which was later proven to be highly sophisticated sabotage

Sabotage

Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...

by unknown perpetrators.

Under Zia, real defence spending increased on average by 9 percent per annum during 1977-88 while development spending rose 3 percent per annum; by 1987-88 defence spending had overtaken development spending. For 1980s as a whole, defence spending averaged 6.5 percent of GDP. This contributed strongly to large fiscal deficits and a rapid build up of public debt.

Development of nuclear weapons

Soon after Bhutto came to assumed the control of Pakistan, Bhutto made his move to established the nuclear weapons development. In January 20th of 1972, Abdus Salam, after being request by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, arranged and managed secret meeting of academic scientists and engineers, in Multan city

Multan

, to meet with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who assumed the control of his country shortly after the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

and the Bangladesh Liberation War

Bangladesh Liberation War

The Bangladesh Liberation War was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh....

. It was here that Bhutto orchestrated, administrated, and led the scientific research on nuclear weapons as he announced the official nuclear weapons development programme. In 1972, Pakistan's core intelligence service, the ISI

Inter-Services Intelligence

, secretly learned that India

India

was close to developing an atomic bomb, under its [India] nuclear programme. Partially in response, defence expenditure and funding of science

Military funding of science

The military funding of science has had a powerful transformative effect on the practice and products of scientific research since the early 20th century...

under then-Prime minister

Prime Minister of Pakistan

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

increased by 200%. In the initial years and starting years, Dr. Abdus Salam

Abdus Salam

Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk (Urdu: محمد عبد السلام, pronounced , (January 29, 1926– November 21, 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the electroweak unification of the...

, a Nobel laureate

Nobel Prize in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...

, headed the nuclear weapons program as he was the Science adviser to the Prime minister

Prime Minister of Pakistan

. He is also credited in bringing hundreds of Pakistani scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who would later go on to develop the nuclear weapons program and later on formed and headed "Theoretical Physics Group" (TPG), the special weapons division of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) that developed the designs and completed the crucial mathematical and physics calculations of the nuclear weapons.

Throughout the time, the foundations were laid down to develop a military nuclear capability. This includes the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear weapons design, development and testing programme. The fuel cycle program included the uranium exploration, mining, refining, conversion and Uranium Hexafluoride

Uranium hexafluoride

Uranium hexafluoride , referred to as "hex" in the nuclear industry, is a compound used in the uranium enrichment process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It forms solid grey crystals at standard temperature and pressure , is highly toxic, reacts violently with water...

(UF6) production, enrichment and fuel fabrication and reprocessing facilities. These facilities were established in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission or PAEC

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, , is an administrative governmental and autonomous science and technology governmental department of Pakistan, responsible for development of nuclear energy and development of nuclear power sector in Pakistan...

by its Chairman Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...

. He was appointed as Chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

(PAEC

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

) on January 20, 1972 at the Multan Conference of senior scientists and engineers. Earlier, Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...

was serving as Director of Nuclear Power and Reactors Division, IAEA. He was credited to be the "technical father" of Pakistan's atom project by a recent International Institute of Strategic Studies, London, (IISS) Dossier on history of the Pakistan's nuclear development, with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as the father of Pakistan's nuclear developmental programme. Munir Ahmad Khan, an expert in Plutonium technology, had also laid the foundation and groundbreaking work for the Plutonium reprocessing technology. Khan, built the New Laboratories, a plutonium reprocessing plant located in Islamabad.

After Chief Martial Law Administrator

Chief Martial Law Administrator

The office of the Chief Martial Law Administrator was a senior government post created in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia that gave considerable executive authority and powers to the holder of the post to enforce martial law in the country. This office has been used mostly by...

(later President

President of Pakistan

) and Chief of Army Staff General Zia-ul-Haq came to power

Political power

Political power is a type of power held by a group in a society which allows administration of some or all of public resources, including labour, and wealth. There are many ways to obtain possession of such power. At the nation-state level political legitimacy for political power is held by the...

(see Operation Fair Play

Operation Fair Play

), further advancements were made to enrich uranium and consolidate the nuclear development programme. On March 11, 1983, PAEC

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

under Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...

carried out the first successful cold test of a working nuclear device near at the Kirana Hills under codename Kirana-I. The test was led by CERN

CERN

The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...

-physicist

Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...

Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad

Ishfaq Ahmad

Ishfaq Ahmad , D.Sc., Minister of State, SI, HI, NI, FPAS, is a Pakistani nuclear physicist, and well-known educationist and academic from Pakistan...

, and was witnessed by other senior scientists belonging to Pakistan Armed Forces and the PAEC. To compound further matters, the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

had withdrawn from Afghanistan

Afghanistan

and the strategic importance of Pakistan to the United States was gone. Once the full extent of Pakistan's nuclear weapons development was revealed, economic sanctions

Economic sanctions

Economic sanctions are domestic penalties applied by one country on another for a variety of reasons. Economic sanctions include, but are not limited to, tariffs, trade barriers, import duties, and import or export quotas...

(see Pressler amendment) were imposed on the country by several other countries, particularly United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Having been developed under both Bhutto and Zia, the nuclear development programme had fully matured by the late 1980s. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan

Abdul Qadeer Khan

Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...

, a metallurgical engineer, greatly contributed to the uranium enrichment programme under both governments. Dr. A.Q. Khan established an administrative proliferation network through Dubai to smuggle URENCO nuclear technology to Khan Research Laboratories

Khan Research Laboratories

The Khan Research Laboratories ,, formerly known as Engineering Research Laboratories , is a multi-program Pakistan's weapons science and engineering research and development institute and nuclear research facility...

. He then established Pakistan's gas-centrifuge program based on the URENCO's Zippe-type centrifuge. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan is considered to be the founder of Pakistan's HEU based gas-centrifuge

Zippe-type centrifuge

The Zippe-type centrifuge is a device designed to collect Uranium-235. It was developed in the Soviet Union by a team of 60 Austrian and German scientists captured after World War II, working in detention...

uranium enrichment programme, which was originally launched by PAEC

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

in 1974.

The PAEC

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

also played its part in the success and development of the uranium enrichment programme by producing the uranium hexafluoride gas feedstock for enrichment. PAEC

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

was also responsible for all the pre and post enrichment phases of the nuclear fuel cycle. By 1986 PAEC

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

Chairman Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...

had begun work on the 50MW plutonium and tritium production reactor at Khushab, known as Khushab Reactor Complex, which became operational by 1998. After India, by the order of the Indian Premier Atal Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...

, successfully tested five underground nuclear tests (codename Pokharan-II) in Pokhran region

Pokhran

Pokhran is a city and a municipality located in Jaisalmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and served as the test site for India's first underground nuclear weapon detonation.-Geography:Pokhran http://marupradesh.org/ located at...

in 1998. Pakistan, under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

Nawaz Sharif

Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...

, to the distaste of the international community, successfully carried out six underground in Ras Koh region of the Chagai Hills

Chagai Hills

The Chagai Hills is a range of granite hills in the Chagai District in Pakistan's Balochistan province.-Location:The Chagai Hills lie in a desert area in the northernmost part of Chagai District north of Pakistan's Ras Koh Hills and south of Afghanistan's Helmand and Nimruz provinces.- Topography...

on nuclear tests

Chagai-I

The Chagai-I was a codename referring to the five underground nuclear tests conducted by Pakistan at 15:15hrs in 28th May of 1998. It was named Chagai-I, as the tests were conducted in the Chagai District...

on May 28 (codename Chagai-I
Chagai-I
The Chagai-I was a codename referring to the five underground nuclear tests conducted by Pakistan at 15:15hrs in 28th May of 1998. It was named Chagai-I, as the tests were conducted in the Chagai District...

) and on Kharan region

Kharan Desert

The Kharan Desert is a sand desert situated in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.Kharan desert is Pakistan's second nuclear test site, and the second nuclear test — Codename Chagai-II — was conducted and supervised by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in May 30, 1998.The desert is...

(codename Chagai-II) on May 30th, proving Pakistan's nuclear capability. These tests were carried out by the supervision of the PAEC

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

. These tests were supervised and observed by physicist Dr. Samar Mubarakmand

Samar Mubarakmand

Samar Mubarakmand , , is a Pakistani nuclear physicist, who served as the founding chairman of National Engineering and Scientific Commission from 2001 till 2007. Samar Mubarak-Mand launched the Missile Integration Programme in 1987 which was successfully completed in 2005...

and other senior academic scientists from PAEC and the KRL.

U.S. sanctions

U.S. Senator Pressler, introduced the Pressler Amendment which imposed an embargo on all economical and military aid to Pakistan for developing nuclear weapons. This whole episode caused very negative publicity in Pakistan towards the USA as many people in Pakistan as well as the Pakistani Armed Forces believed they had risked a great deal in helping the USA give the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

its own Vietnam

Vietnam War

in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

and when the task was done, Pakistan was promptly abandoned. Pakistan was hosting a very large Afghan refugee population and drugs from Afghanistan had infiltrated Pakistan and the use of heroin was growing to be a very widespread problem that further compounded the situation.

The embargo continued for five years and in 1995, the Brown Amendment authorised a one-time delivery of US military equipment, contracted for prior to October 1990, worth US$368 million. However, the additional 28 F-16 aircraft costing US$658 million and already paid for by Pakistan were not delivered. Unable to purchase American or NATO weaponry, Pakistan tried to develop an indigenous weapons industry, which has yielded some successes such as the development of the Al-Khalid Tank

MBT 2000

The designations Al-Khalid and MBT-2000 refer to the Pakistani and Chinese variants of a modern main battle tank developed during the 1990s by China and Pakistan...

and JF-17 Strike Fighter

JF-17 Thunder

The PAC JF-17 Thunder , or CAC FC-1 Xiaolong , is a light-weight, single-engine, multi-role combat aircraft developed jointly by the Chengdu Aircraft Industries Corporation of China, the Pakistan Air Force and the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex...

Soviet-Afghan war

During the Soviet occupation of neighbouring Afghanistan, the alliance between USA and Pakistan was greatly strengthened as the USA needed Pakistan as a staging area from which to send weapons to the Mujahideen

Mujahideen

Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...

s who were fighting the Soviets. Apprehensive of the threats on two front to Pakistan from India and from Soviet occupied Afghanistan, the USA in 1981 offered a military aid package of over $1.5 billion which included 40 F-16 fighters, 100 M-48

M48 Patton

The M48 Patton is a medium tank that was designed in the United States. It was the third and final tank to be officially named after General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. Third Army during World War II and one of the earliest American advocates for the use of tanks in battle It was a...

tanks, nearly 200 artillery guns and over 1,000 TOW anti-tank missiles which considerably enhanced Pakistan's defence capability. During the course of the war, Pakistan experienced several air intrusions by Afghan/Soviet pilots and claims to shooting down about 8 Afghan/Soviet aircraft over the years as well as losing one F-16 from its own fleet.

The Pakistani Military, aided by the United States and financed by Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

, began helping the Mujahideen in setting up training camps and arming them. United States President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

had accepted the view that Soviet aggression could not be viewed as an isolated event of limited geographical importance but had to be contested as a potential threat to the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

region. The uncertain scope of the final objective of Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

in its sudden southward plunge made the American stake in an independent Pakistan all the more important.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence

Inter-Services Intelligence

and Special Service Group now became actively involved in the conflict against the Soviets. Pakistan's SSG created a unit called the Black Storks who were SSG men dressed as Afghan

Demographics of Afghanistan

The population of Afghanistan is around 29,835,392 as of the year 2011, which is unclear if the refugees living outside the country are included or not. The nation is composed of a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society, reflecting its location astride historic trade and invasion routes between...

Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan war. They were then flown into Afghanistan and provided the Mujahideen with support. After Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

became the new United States President

President of the United States

in 1980, aid for the Mujahideen through Zia's Pakistan significantly increased. In retaliation, the KHAD

KHAD

Khadamat-e Etela'at-e Dawlati translates directly to English as: "Government Information Agency". However, this phrase is more correctly translated as Government Intelligence Service...

, under Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah

Mohammad Najibullah

Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai , originally merely Najibullah, was the fourth and last President of the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He is also considered the second President of the Republic of Afghanistan.-Early years:Najibullah was born in August 1947 to the Ahmadzai...

, carried out (according to the Mitrokhin

Vasili Mitrokhin

Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin was a Major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, and co-author with Christopher Andrew of The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, a massive account of Soviet intelligence...

archives and other sources) a large number of terrorist operations against Pakistan, which also suffered from an influx of weaponry and drugs from Afghanistan. Pakistan also took in 3 million Afghan refugees (mostly Pashtun

Pashtun people

Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...

) who were forced to leave their country due to heavy fighting including genocide by the communist forces of Soviet Union. Although the refugees were controlled within Pakistan's largest province

Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...

, Balochistan

Balochistan (Pakistan)

, then under martial law

Martial law

Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...

ruler General Rahimuddin Khan

Rahimuddin Khan

, the influx of so many refugees - believed to be the largest refugee population in the world - into several other regions had a heavy impact on Pakistan and its effects continue to this day.

PLO and Lebanese

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

weapons captured by the Israelis in their invasion of Lebanon

1982 Lebanon War

The 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later known in Israel as the Lebanon War and First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...

in June 1982 were of Soviet origin and were then covertly transferred into Afghanistan through Pakistan. Later, when American support for the Mujahideen became obvious, Stinger Missiles

FIM-92 Stinger

The FIM-92 Stinger is a personal portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile , which can be adapted to fire from ground vehicles and helicopters , developed in the United States and entered into service in 1981. Used by the militaries of the U.S...

and other high-technology American weaponry were transferred through Pakistan into Afghanistan. However some of these weapons may have been siphoned off by the ISI

Inter-Services Intelligence

for reverse engineering

Reverse engineering

Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation...

purposes. The arrival of the new high-technology weaponry proved to be quite helpful in organizing stiff resistance against the Soviet Union. Many Army regulars fought in Afghanistan along with the resistance and were partly instrumental in the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989.

Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

After the Soviet withdrawal, Pakistan for the first time since 1947, was not concerned about a threat on two fronts. Further, the emergence of five independent Muslim republics in Central Asia raised hopes that they might become allies and offer Pakistan both the political support and the strategic depth

Strategic depth

Strategic depth is a term in military literature that broadly refers to the distances between the front lines or battle sectors and the combatants’ industrial core areas, capital cities, heartlands, and other key centers of population or military production...

it lacked. As long as Afghanistan was in chaos, Pakistan would lack direct access to the new republics.

Fighting between the Communist government in Kabul and the Mujahideen forces continued until 1992 when the Mujahideen forces, led by Ahmed Shah Massoud, removed the Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah. By 1993, the rival factions who were vying for power agreed on the formation of a government with Burhanuddin Rabbani as president, but infighting continued. Lawlessness was rampant and became a major hindrance to trade between Pakistan and the newly independent Central Asian states. Pakistan appointed the Taliban to protect its trade convoys because most of the Taliban were Pashtun and were trained by the ISI and CIA in the 1980s and could be trusted by Pakistan. With Pakistan's backing, the Taliban emerged as one of the strongest factions in Afghanistan. Pakistan then decided to the end the infighting in Afghanistan and backed the Taliban in their takeover of Afghanistan to bring stability to its western border and establish a pro-Pakistan regime in Kabul.

Pakistan solicited funds for the Taliban, bankrolled Taliban operations, providing diplomatic support as the Taliban's virtual emissaries abroad, arranged training for Taliban fighters, recruited skilled and unskilled manpower to serve in Taliban armies, planned and directed offensives, providing and facilitating shipments of ammunition and fuel, and on several occasions senior Pakistani military and intelligence officers help planned and execute major military operations. By September 1996, the Taliban under the leadership of Mullah Muhammad Omar seized control of Kabul. However, the stability in Afghanistan led to Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri to come to Afghanistan which caused the Taliban to implement a very strict interpretation of Islamic law. The Taliban continued to capture more Afghan territory until by 2001 they controlled 90% of the country.

Siachen Glacier

After the 1971 war, another border flare-up occurred between India and Pakistan in 1984. The area of the dispute was the Siachen Glacier

Siachen Glacier

The Siachen Glacier is located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalaya Mountains at about , just east of the Line of Control between India-Pakistan. India controls all of the Siachen Glacier itself, including all tributary glaciers. At long, it is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and...

- the world's highest battlefield. The Glacier was under territorial dispute, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Pakistan began organizing several tourist expeditions to the Glacier. India, irked by this development, mounted Operation Meghdoot

Operation Meghdoot

Operation Meghdoot was the name given to the attack launched by the Indian Military to capture the Siachen Glacier in the disputed Kashmir region, precipitating the Siachen Conflict. Launched on 13 April 1984, this military operation was unique as the first assault launched in the world's highest...

, and captured the top of the Glacier by establishing a military base which it still maintains to this day at a cost of more than US$1 million per day. Pakistan on the other hand spends just under US$1 million per day, though as a percentage of GDP Pakistan spends 5 times as the Indian Military does to maintain its share of the glacier. Pakistan tried in 1987 and in 1989 to retake the whole Glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

but was unsuccessful.

The Pakistanis control the glacial valley just five kilometers southwest of Gyong La. The Pakistani Army has been unable get up to the crest of the Saltoro Ridge, while the Indians cannot come down and abandon their strategic high posts.

The line between where Indian and Pakistani troops are presently holding onto their respective posts is being increasingly referred to as the Actual Ground Position Line

Actual Ground Position Line

The Actual Ground Position Line refers to the current position that divides Indian and Pakistani troops at the Siachen Glacier. The line extends from the northernmost point of the LOC to Indira Col.-History:...

(AGPL).

Kargil War

After the failure of the 1989 attempt to re-take the glacier, a new and much more daring plan was developed by the Pakistan Army to re-take the glacier by blocking the Indian supplies reaching the Indian base at the top of the glacier. The plan was ready in the late 1980s but was put on hold due to the fear that this operation could lead to an all out war with India. Pakistan had recently been placed under US military sanctions for developing Nuclear weapons and the Pakistani military hierarchy believed that they did not have the proper military deterrent if the situation escalated into an all out war with India.

In the winter of 1998, a modified version of the plan was approved due to the fact that months earlier both India and Pakistan had conducted nuclear tests. Pakistan believed that it now had a deterrent to prevent all out war with India and believed that once it had taken the Kargil hills, the international community, fearing a nuclear war, would urge a secession of hostilities. Pakistan would emerge with an improved tactical advantage along the LOC and bring the Siachen Glacier conflict to the forefront of international resolution.

Some elements of the Pakistani SSG Commandos

Special Services Group

The Special Service Group , also known as Black Storks, because of their distinctive headgear, the unit is also known as Maroon Beret, are a special operations military unit of the Pakistan Army mandated with fourteen primary and special missions: Asymmetric warfare,Anti piracy,Special...

, Northern Light Infantry Forces as well as Indian Kashmiri militants planned to take over the abandoned Indian bunkers on various hills that overlooked the vital Srinagar

Srinagar

Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...

-Leh highway that serviced the logistics base from which supplies were ferried through helicopter to the Indian Army at the top of the Siachen Glacier. The Indian Army routinely abandoned the bunkers in the winter due to the cold and snow and re-occupied them in the spring.

The Pakistani backed forces took over the bunker complex around April and May 1999 but the winter snows had melted earlier than usual and an Indian reconnaissance team which was sent to inspect the bunkers was wiped out by them. The Indian Army, alerted to the presence of these militants, responded quickly, forcefully and massed a huge force of around 30,000 men to re-take the Kargil hills. The Pakistani backed forces were detected very early in the operation and were not adequately prepared as they still needed another month or so before they properly established themselves on the Kargil hills, as they were short on heavy weaponry, ammunition, food, shelter, and medicine.

Faced with the possibility of international isolation, the already fragile Pakistani economy

Economy of Pakistan

The economy of Pakistan is the 47th largest in the world in nominal terms and 27th largest in the world in terms of purchasing power parity . Pakistan has a semi-industrialized economy, which mainly encompasses textiles, chemicals, food processing, agriculture and other industries...

was weakened further. The morale of Pakistani forces after the withdrawal declined as many units of the Northern Light Infantry

Northern Light Infantry

The Northern Light Infantry is a Light Infantry Regiment of the Pakistan Army. Headquartered in Gilgit, the capital of Northern Areas, Pakistan, it is the main force protecting the strategically important northern areas of Pakistan. The majority of this regiment's personnel come from native...

suffered heavy casualties. The government refused to accept the dead bodies of many officers, an issue that provoked outrage and protests in the Northern Areas. Pakistan initially did not acknowledge many of its casualties, but Sharif later said that over 4,000 Pakistani troops were killed in the operation and that Pakistan had lost the conflict.although this was never proven the figure is agrred upon at over 500. after the war indian media started pointing fingers at the army that pakistan still controls point 5353 in drass sector in kargil which gives it a great strategic view of the drass road. the indian army has not been able to refute these claims leading to believe that pakistan gained territory in kargil war. the point 5353 is very near the tiger hill and is considered the highest peak in kargil. tiger hill is also referred to as point 5353. this gave pakistan a huge strategic advantage.

Third Military Rule

See: 1999 Pakistani coup d'état

Many people in Pakistan blamed Sharif for retreating from Kargil under American pressure. Growing fiscal deficits and debt-service payments mainly due to American sanctions after Pakistan tested its Nuclear Weapons in May 1998 as a response to India had led to a financial crisis. When asked about his reason for backing down from Kargil, Sharif said that Pakistan had only enough fuel and ammunition for 3 days and the nuclear missiles were not ready at that time. This comment made many Pakistanis brand Nawaz Sharif a traitor as Army doctrine called for having at least 45 days of fuel and ammunition and to have stand by nuclear missiles ready.

Fearing that the Army might take over, Sharif attempted to dismiss his own appointed Chief of Army Staff and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...

and install an ISI director-general Lieutenant-General Ziauddin Butt as Chief of Army Staff. General Musharraf, who was out of the country, boarded a commercial flight to return to Pakistan. Senior Army generals refused to accept Musharraf's dismissal. Sharif

Nawaz Sharif

ordered the Karachi airport to prevent the landing of the airline, which then circled the skies over Karachi

Karachi

Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

. In a coup d'état, the generals ousted Sharif's administration and took over the airport. The plane landed with only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and Musharraf assumed control of the government. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was put under house arrest and later exiled.

The coup d'état in Pakistan was condemned by most world leaders but was mostly supported by Pakistani populace. The new military government of Pervez Musharraf was heavily criticized in the United States, Saudia Arabia, United Kingdom and when President Bill Clinton went on his landmark trip to South Asia, he only made a last minute stop in Pakistan for a few hours but spent more than five days touring and visiting India. Pakistan was also suspended from the Commonwealth Natioansl

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

while Musharraf pledged to clean corruption out of politics and stabilize the economy.

On 18 August 2008, General Pervez Musharraf resigned from the post of President under impeachment pressure from the coalition government. Consequently, his website was removed since he was no longer President. He was succeeded on 6 September 2008 by Asif Ali Zardari

Asif Ali Zardari

Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....

, duly elected as Pakistan's 11th President since 1956.

Standoff with India

In response to a militant attack on the Indian Parliament

Parliament of India

The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...

on December 13, 2001 during which fourteen people, including the five men who attacked the building, were killed. India claimed that the attacks were carried out by two Pakistan based militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, Lashkar-e-Taiba

Lashkar-e-Taiba

Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...

(LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), both of whom, were backed by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, a charge Pakistan denied. This led to a military standoff between India

India

and Pakistan

Pakistan

that resulted in the amassing of troops on either side of the International Border

International Border

The India–Pakistan Border , known locally as the International Border , is the international boundary between India and Pakistan that demarcates the Indian states of Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat from the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh. Pakistan borders India in the east. The border...

(IB) and along the Line of Control

Line of Control

The term Line of Control refers to the military control line between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which, to this day, does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary but is the de facto border...

(LoC) in the region of Kashmir

Kashmir

. In the Western media, coverage of the standoff focused on the possibility of a nuclear war

Nuclear warfare

Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...

between the two countries and the implications of the potential conflict on the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

-led War on Terrorism

War on Terrorism

The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...

. Tensions de-escalated following international diplomatic mediation which resulted in the October 2002 withdrawal of Indian and Pakistani troops from the International Border.

Military assistance to Sri Lanka

Pakistan and Sri Lanka enjoy a strong relationship and Pakistan International Airlines planes ferrying Pakistan Army reinforcements to East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, refueled in Colombo after India denied Pakistan overflight permissions before the actual outbreak of the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. Pakistan has sent military advisers, ammunition and other equipment to Sri Lanka during previous offensives against the LTTE. Many Sri Lankan officers are trained in Pakistan. Pakistan, by supplying high-tech military equipment such as 22 Al-Khalid main battle tanks, 250,000 rounds of 60 mm, 81 mm, 120 mm and 130 mm mortar ammunition worth and 150,000 hand grenades and along with positioning of some of its highly trained army officers in Sri Lanka, played a key role in the ultimate defeat of Tamil Tigers in May 2009. Back in 2000, when a LTTE offensive code-named Operation Ceaseless Waves overran Sri Lankan military positions in the north and captured the Elephant Pass Base and entered Jaffna, and it was being feared that the LTTE would run down thousands of Sri Lankan troops stationed in Jaffna, Pakistan supplied Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher System and other high tech weaponry which halted the offensive.

War in the North-West region

After the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan joined the US-led War on Terror and helped the U.S. Military

Military of the United States

The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...

by severing ties with the Taliban and immediately deploying more than 72,000 troops along Pakistan's western border to capture or kill Taliban and al-Qaida militants fleeing from Afghanistan.

Pakistan initially garrisoned its troops in military bases and forts in the tribal areas. After several high profile terrorist attacks inside Pakistan and assassination attempts on Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan in May 2004. As Chief of Army Staff, General Pervez Musharraf ordered XII Corps

XII Corps (Pakistan)

The XII Corps is an active and military administrative corps of Pakistan Army currently stationed in Quetta, Balochistan Province. The XII Corps is a major part of Southern Military Command of Pakistan Defence Forces...

and XI Corps

XI Corps (Pakistan)

The XI Corps is an active administrative corp of Pakistan Army. The XI Corps is the only one corps that is assigned in the North-West Frontier Province . It is currently stationed in Peshawar, Khyber-Pakhtaunkhuwa. The Corps was established and quickly raised in 1975 to support administrative...

to be stationed in FATA region and take forceful action against al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda

members in Pakistan

Pakistan

's mountainous Waziristan

Waziristan

Waziristan is a mountainous region near the Northwest of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . The area is entirely populated by ethnic Pashtuns . The language spoken in the valley is Pashto/Pakhto...

area (in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas) which escalated into armed resistance by local tribesmen. On March of 2004, a battle

Battle of Wana

The Battle of Wana was a military engagement between Pakistan Army and the Taliban forces, supported by the foreign fighters of Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda. The battle was among one of the bloodiest battle fought by the Pakistan Army, and it ended violently with 49 infantry troop soldiers dead...

began to take place in Wana, South Waziristan. It was reported that Al-Qaeda's second-in-command dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...

was among with these fighters. Pakistan responded to deploy its 10th Mountaineering Division under Major-General Noel Israel. After a week of fighting, the army suffered a major casualties with hundreds of fighters being captured. However, army was unable to Ayman al-Zawahiri as he either escaped or was never among these fighters.

Clashes erupted between the Pakistani troops and al-Qaeda's and other militants joined by local rebels and pro-Taliban forces. The Pakistani actions were presented as a part of the War on Terrorism

War on Terrorism

, and had connections to the war

War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...

and Taliban insurgency

Taliban insurgency

The Taliban insurgency took root shortly after the group's fall from power following the 2001 war in Afghanistan. The Taliban continue to attack Afghan, U.S., and other ISAF troops and many terrorist incidents attributable to them have been registered. The war has also spread over the southern and...

in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

. However, the offensive was poorly coordinated and the Pakistani Army suffered heavy casualties as well public support for the attack quickly evaporated.

After a 2 year conflict from 2004 till 2006, the Pakistani military negotiated a ceasefire with the Tribesmen from the region in which they pledged to hunt down al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda

members, stop the Talibanization of the region and stop attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the militants did not hold up their end of the bargain and began to regroup and rebuild their strength from the previous 2 years of conflict.

The militants emboldened by their success in FATA moved into Islamabad where they sought to impose an extremist Sharia government on Pakistan. Their base of operations was the Lal Masjid in Islamabad. After a 6 month standoff fighting erupted again in July 2007 when the Pakistani Military decided to use force to end the Lal Masjid threat. Once the operation ended, the newly formed Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella group of all militants based out of FATA vowed revenge and launched a wave of attacks and suicide bombings erupted all over North-West Pakistan and major Pakistani cities throughout 2007.

The militants then expanded their base of operations and moved into the neighboring Swat Valley and imposed a very harsh Sharia law on the scenic valley. The Army launched an offensive to re-take the Swat Valley in 2007 but was unable to clear it of the militants who had fled into the mountains and waited for the Army to leave to take over the valley again. The militants then launched another wave of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.

The Pakistani government and military tried another peace deal with the militants in Swat Valley in 2008. This was roundly criticized in the West as abdicating to the militants. Initially pledging to lay down their arms if Sharia Law was implemented, the Pakistani Taliban used Swat Valley as a springboard to launch further attacks into neighboring regions and reached to within 60 km of Islamabad.

The public opinion turned decisively against the Pakistani Taliban when a video showing a flogging of a girl by the Pakistani Taliban in Swat Valley finally forced the army to launch a deceive attack against the Taliban occupying Swat Valley in April 2009. After heavy fighting the Swat Valley was largely pacified by July 2009 although there are isolated pockets of Taliban activity continues.

The next phase of Pakistani Army's offensive was the formidable Waziristan region. A US drone attack killed the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud

Baitullah Mehsud

Baitullah Mehsud was a leading militant in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan . He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007. He is thought by U.S...

in August in a targeted killing

Targeted killing

Targeted killing is the deliberate, specific targeting and killing, by a government or its agents, of a supposed terrorist or of a supposed "unlawful combatant" who is not in that government's custody...

. A power struggle engulfed the Pakistani Taliban for the whole of September but by October a new leader had emerged, Hakimullah Mehsud

Hakimullah Mehsud

Hakimullah Mehsud , born c. 1979 as Jamshed Mehsud and also known as Zulfiqar Mehsud , is the amir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan...

. Under his leadership, the Pakistani Taliban launched another wave of terrorist attacks throughout Pakistan killing hundreds of people.

The Pakistani Army had been massing over 30,000 troops and 500 Commandos to launch a decisive offensive against the Pakistani Taliban's sanctuaries. After a few weeks of softening up the targets with air strikes and artillery and mortar attacks, the Army moved in a three pronged attack on South Waziristan. The fighting is currently continuing.

Since the conflict began, Pakistan has lost more than three times the number of its soldiers compared to the number of US troops killed in Afghanistan. However, as of 2009, the confirmed bodycount of militants killed by the Pakistan Army reached the 7,000 mark.

UN peacekeeping missions

Date	Location	Mission
August 1960 - May 1964	Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...	Pakistani troops working under the auspices of the UN were first deployed in Congo and formed part of the UN Operation in Congo (UNOC). Their mission was to ensure a stable withdrawal of Belgian Colonial forces and a smooth transition of Congo to self-government.
October 1962 - April 1963	West New Guinea	More than six hundred Pakistani troops formed part of the UN contingent forces that were deployed to ensure a smooth withdrawal of Dutch colonial forces from West New Guinea before the government of Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an... could take over the island.
March 1991	Kuwait Kuwait The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...	After the Gulf War, the Pakistani Army Corps of Engineers performed recovery missions on the Kuwaiti Island of Bubiyan located north of Kuwait City Kuwait City -Suburbs:Although the districts below are not usually recognized as suburbs, the following is a list of a few areas surrounding Kuwait city:Al-Salam ""السلام"" -Economy:... .
March 1992 - March 1996	Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...	Pakistan contributed two battalions of troops to form part of the United Nations Protection Force. These troops provided security and protection to various UN agencies, organization and personnel operating there and also provided humanitarian assistance such as medical care to the local population.
April 1992 - March 1995	Somalia Somalia Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...	Pakistan contributed over 7,200 troops for the humanitarian mission in Somalia. They were heavily engaged in peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance to a region racked with senseless factional violence. Unfortunately thirty-nine Pakistani peacekeepers became casualties of this factional violence when Somali militias ambushed them. Pakistani peacekeepers also played a major part in the rescue of US forces when they tried to capture wanted warlords during the Battle of Mogadishu.
May 1996 - August 1997	Eastern Slovenia Slovenia Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...	Pakistan had over 1,000 troops as part of UN Transitional Administration for Eastern Slovenia. It provided security that ensured that there was no further fighting between Serbs and Croats.
2003	Haiti Haiti Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...	Pakistani troops participated in peace keeping process.
Jan 2001 - Jan 2004	East Timor East Timor The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...	Pakistan had over 2000 troops consisting of engineer elements present for construction process taking place in East Timor after civil war.
June 2003 - Dec 2004	Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...	1500 Pakistani troops participated in peace keeping process.
Jan 2005 - Dec 2006	Burundi Burundi Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...	2000 Pakistani troops participated in peace keeping missions.
May 2006 - to date	Liberia Liberia Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...	1600 Pakistani troops in peace keeping missions.

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Ancient empires

Arab conquests

Mughal Empire

British Raj

The World wars

Birth of the modern Military

The war of 1947

U.S. Aid

First Military Rule

Border clashes with Afghanistan

Alliance with China

The war of 1965

Rebuilding the Armed Forces

Involvement in Arab conflicts

The war of 1971

Recovery from the 1971 War

Baloch Nationalist uprisings

Second Military Rule

Development of nuclear weapons

U.S. sanctions

Soviet-Afghan war

Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

Siachen Glacier

Kargil War

Third Military Rule

Standoff with India

Military assistance to Sri Lanka

War in the North-West region

UN peacekeeping missions

See also

External links