History of Pakistan

History of Pakistan is very Old.It is the one of the oldest in the world.It is a part of the histories of its neighbours Afghanistan, India, and Iran and of distant empire builders Greeks, Arabs, Mongols and the British. Its prehistory traces back to the earliest known human settlements in South Asia. Spanning the western expanse of the Indian subcontinent and the eastern borderlands of the Iranian plateau, the region of modern Pakistan was the birthplace of some of South Asia's major civilizations and the Indian subcontinent's gateway to the Middle East and Central Asia.

The earliest archaeological site in Pakistan is the palaeolithic hominid site in the Soan River valley. Situated on the first coastal migration route of Homo sapiens out of Africa, its Arabian sea facing Makran region was inhabited early by modern humans. Village life in South Asia began with Pakistan's neolithic site of Mehrgarh, while the first urban civilization of the region began as the Indus Valley Civilization, with major sites at Mohenjo Daro, Texila and Harappa in Pakistan.
The Indus Valley Civilization collapsed in the middle of the second millennium BCE and was followed by the Vedic Civilization, which extended over much of the Indo-Gangetic plains. Successive empires and kingdoms ruled the region from the Achaemenid Persian empire around 543 BCE, to Alexander the Great in 326 BCE and the Mauryan empire. The Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab from 184 BCE, and reached its greatest extent under Menander, establishing the Greco-Buddhist period with advances in trade and culture.

In 712 CE, the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab, setting the stage for several successive Muslim empires in the Indian subcontinent, including the Ghaznavid, the Ghorid, the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire.Mughal did government over all the sucontinent for more then 300 years,propabely from 1550 to 1857. The latter suffered a gradual decline in the early eighteenth century which provided opportunities for the Afghans, Balochis and Sikhs to exercise control over large areas until the British East India Company.gained ascendancy over South Asia. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 resulted in 90 years of direct British rule, laid the foundations for the freedom struggle led by the Indian National Congress, and the All India Muslim League. which was latter founded in 1906 to protect Muslim interests and rose to popularity in the late 1930s amid fears of neglect and under-representation of Muslims in politics. On 29 December 1930, the poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal called for an autonomous "state in northwestern India for Indian Muslims". Muhammad Ali Jinnah espoused the Two Nation Theory and led the Muslim League to adopt the Lahore Resolution of 1940, demanding the formation of an independent Pakistan.

A relief map of Pakistan showing historic sites.Pakistan became independent on August 14, 1947 with two Muslim-majority wings to the east and northwest of India. The Partition of India resulted in communal riots across India and Pakistan . as millions of Muslims moved to Pakistan and millions of Hindus and Sikhs moved to India. Disputes arose over several princely states including Jammu and Kashmir whose ruler had acceded to India following an invasion by Pashtun tribesmen, leading to the First Kashmir War in 1948 which ended with India occupying roughly two-third of the state. A republic was declared in 1956 but was stalled by a coup d'etat by Ayub Khan in 1958–69, who ruled during a period of internal instability and a second war with India in 1965. which Pakistanis win by a large margion and clean sweep India in the bettle field.Economic and political dissent in East Pakistan led to violent political repression and tensions escalating into civil war followed by the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and ultimately the secession of East Pakistan as the independent state of Bangladesh. Civilian rule resumed from 1972 to 1977 under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was the founder of Pakistan Peoles party, untill he was deposed by General Zia-ul-Haq, who became the country's third military president. Pakistan's secular policies were replaced by the Islamic Shariah legal code, which increased religious influences on the civil service and the military. With the death of General Zia in a plane crash in 1988, Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was elected as the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan. Over the next decade, sh as well as the First women Prime Minister of Any Islamic Country. alternated power with Nawaz Sharif, as the country's political and economic situation worsened. Military tensions in the Kargil conflict with India were followed by a Pakistani military coup d'état in 1999 in which General Pervez Musharraf assumed executive powers,who was the another Military dictator. In 2001, Musharraf named himself President after the forced resignation of Rafiq Tarar. After the 2002 parliamentary elections, Musharraf transferred some powers to newly elected Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who was succeeded in the 2004 Prime-Ministerial election by Shaukat Aziz, followed by a temporary period in office by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. On November 15, 2007 the National Assembly completed its term and a caretaker government was appointed with the former Chairman of the Senate, Muhammad Mian Soomro as Prime Minister.they promised to held Elections on 8th january 2008 but the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has resulted the general elections being postponed until February 18, 2008.