History: In ancient times the area that now comprises Pakistan marked the farthest reaches of the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was also the home of Buddhist Ghandaran culture. Created in response to Muslim demands for an Islamic state when India gained independence in 1947, the modern state of Pakistan originally consisted of two parts; East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (now a single unitary state), separated from each other by 1600km (1000 miles) of Indian territory. The first Governor General of Pakistan was Muhammed Ali Jinnah, who had led the struggle for a separate Pakistan inside the Congress Party. But in contrast to India, democracy failed to take root and Pakistan suffered prolonged periods of military rule. The first of these came in 1958 when martial law was declared and political parties abolished. The martial law co-ordinator, General (later Field Marshal) Ayub Khan, became President in 1960. He was replaced in 1969 by the Commander-in-Chief of the army, General Agha Muhammed Yahya Khan, who resisted demands for autonomy by the eastern region of the country, where civil war broke out in 1971; the intervention of the Indian army on the side of the secessionists eventually secured an independent Bangladesh, leaving a truncated Pakistan in the west. Democratic civilian government followed the defeat, and President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto took over as President from the discredited military regime. In 1977, however, the military again took power in a coup, and re-established martial law under General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, who became President a year later. Bhutto was executed in 1979. However, following the death of President Zia in a plane crash in 1988, the military authorities decided to reinstitute a democratic constitution and civilian government. Despite a strong challenge from the military-backed Islamic Democratic Alliance, Bhutto's daughter, Benazir, long the focus for opposition, came to power as leader of the Pakistan People's Party. But in August 1990 President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, exploiting obscure constitutional powers, dismissed Bhutto and her government accusing her administration of corruption and nepotism; allegations that, in the most part, were allowed to fall after a few months. A caretaker President, Mustafa Jatoi, was installed until new elections could be held. At the October polls, after an exceptionally savage electoral campaign, Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party was heavily defeated by the Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA), led by Mohammed Nawaz Sharif, which almost won an overall majority. The major issues for the Sharif government were regional security and long-term problems with the economy. On neither count was his government able to make much headway, not least because of deteriorating relations with President Ishaq Khan, who was assuming an increasingly active role in Pakistani politics. At the heart of their dispute was a proposed revision to the constitution increasing presidential power over key appointments in the military, the judiciary and the powerful provincial governments. In July 1993, the army (always a powerful force in Pakistani politics) arranged for both Sharif and Ishaq Khan to resign to cope with an increasingly turbulent domestic situation. The military supervised the next election, which was held in October, and was won by Benazir Bhutto; the PP candidate, Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, also won the presidential poll. The Bhutto government has not been able to bring political stability to the country, and there has been a major upsurge of political violence since the autumn of 1994. The situation has been particularly bad in Karachi where the Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM), the political organisation of the Mohajir (descendants of refugees from India following the creation of Pakistan in 1947-48), has a major presence. In September 1995, a truce was reached between the MQM and the government but this is unlikely to offer more than temporary respite. The Bhutto government is also faced with a number of tricky foreign policy problems. Here civilian governments have historically run up against vested military interests which frequently prevail. The most important of these concerns American aid. Normally this is of the order of $500 million annually. But since 1990, this figure has been cut by 90% on account of Pakistan's continual refusal to halt its nuclear weapons development programme and sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The programme was begun in 1971 after Pakistan's defeat by India and has progressed steadily with Chinese assistance since then: the intention has been to provide some counter-weight to India's own nuclear arsenal. (Delhi, which has run a similar Soviet-backed project over several decades, has not signed the NPT either.) Some American aid was restored in February 1996 but is still far below the original figure. Since the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, however, Pakistan's role as a key strategic ally in South Asia has dwindled and Washington has become far less indulgent of Pakistan's nuclear aspirations. Some hard-liners in the Pakistani military have been contemplating a regional alliance with China and Iran directed against India which is Pakistan's abiding foreign preoccupation. Relations with India, never very good, did improve slightly after Bhutto's return to office in 1993 but have foundered over the long-running dispute about the status of Kashmir.
Government: A new constitution was promulgated in 1985 which, after modifications following the death of Zia and the demise of the military government, formed the basis for Pakistan's current system of democratic government. The bicameral legislature comprises a 207-member National Assembly and an 87-member Senate, the former directly elected by universal suffrage and the latter elected by four provincial assemblies.