1977-1988

since 1999

Pakistan 1988-1999

Government . General Zia ul Haq died in a plane crash in 1988. Democratic elections were held, won by the PPP; Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, assumed the office of PM. She was dismissed in 1990, succeeded by an administration led by Nawaz Sharif. 1993 elections returned Benazir Bhutto into office; she again as dismissed in 1996, and Nawaz Sharif again took on the ofice of PM; he was ousted by a military coup d'etat in 1999.

Foreign Policy . The USSR withdrew her forces from Afghanistan (1989); the Soviet-installed administration fell in 1992, leaving behind a power vacuum as the Mujahedeen - actually seven rebel factions - soon turned on each other; most of them depended on supplies coming through Pakistan. In 1994-1996 the Taleban (with a logistic base in Pakistan) took over most of Afghanistan. Benazir Bhutto similarily supported Kashmir separatists, which resulted in a deterioration of rel;ations with India, which continued to be poor under her two-time uccessor Nawab Sharif; in 1999 India and Pakistan fought a limited war on the Kashmir Line of Control.

The Economy . The Afghan civil war, the conflict over Kashmir, the arms race India and Pakistan were involved in (in 1998 both India and Pakistan announced that they were nuclear powers) were costly, too costly. The country's GNP, between 1997 and 2002, shrank. A program of economic liberalization, implemented by Nawaz Sharif in 1991, did not immediately show the results hoped for. Pakistan joined the WTO in 1995.

Domestic Policy . During the democratic decade 1988-1999, Pakistan seemed fractioned, largely on an ethnic basis, political parties, for instance in the case of the MQM (Muhajir Qaumi Movement, est. 1984) representing the Urdu-speaking community (refugees who arrived in Pakistan in 1948 and their descendents, concentrated in the southern cities of Karachi and Hyderabad. A permanent opposition, the MQM organized a revolt in 1992, which was suppressed byu security forces; the MQM split, and entered into a factional feud.
In 1991 Shariah law was formally incorporated into Pakistani law.