Muhammad Ali Jinnah is considered the founder of Pakistan [AP]

1948: Death of Jinnah. Khawaja Nazimuddin becomes governor-general.
 
1951: Liaquat Ali is assassinated. Khawaja Nazimuddin becomes prime minster. Malik Ghulam Muhammad becomes governor-general.
 
1953: Muhammad Ali Bogra becomes prime minister.
 
1955: Iskandar Mirza becomes governor-general. Chaudhry Muhammad Ali becomes prime minister.

1956: Pakistan is proclaimed an Islamic republic, Iskander Mirza becomes first president

1958: Martial law is declared, Mirza is sent into exile and Field Marshal Ayub Khan declares himself president.

1962: Martial law suspended.

1965: Ayub Khan wins presidential election.

1969: General Yahya Khan takes over following Ayub Khan's resignation, martial law declared.

1971: President Yahya cedes power to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who becomes president.

1973: Martial law suspended as Bhutto becomes prime minister and Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry becomes president under new constitution.

Zia died in a mysterious plane crash [AP]

1977: General election is followed by rioting as Bhutto's Pakistan People's party is accused of vote rigging. General Zia ul-Haq becomes president and martial law declared.

1978: Zia becomes Pakistan's sixth president.

1979: Political parties banned, Bhutto is hanged.

1985: Martial law and ban on political parties lifted.

1986: Bhutto's daughter, Benazir, returns from exile.

1988: Zia dies in mysterious plane crash. Ghulam Ishaq Khan becomes president, Benazir Bhutto becomes first female prime minister of a Muslim country.

1990: Bhutto dismissed on charges of corruption. Nawaz Sharif elected prime minister.

1993: Khan and Sharif resign under pressure from the army. Election returns Bhutto as prime minister. Wasim Sajjad becomes interim president. Sardar Farooq Leghari replaces Sajjad as president.

1996: Leghari dismisses Bhutto amid allegations of corruption.

1997: Nawaz Sharif wins election to return as prime minister. Wasim Sajjad becomes interim president.

1998: Muhammad Rafiq Tarar becomes 11th president of Pakistan.

Musharraf took power in a military coup [AFP]

1999: Bhutto and her husband convicted of corruption. Bhutto stays out of the country. Sharif overthrown in coup led by General Pervez Musharraf.

2000: Sharif convicted of hijacking and terrorism and sentenced to life imprisonment. He is pardoned by military authorities and goes into exile in Saudi Arabia.

2001: Musharraf declares himself president while still head of the army.

2002: Musharraf elected as president in referendum criticised as unconstitutional. First general election since start of military rule. Mir Zafarullah Jamali elected prime minister.

2004: Musharraf announces he will continue as head of the army despite having previously said he would give up the role.

April 2007: In April Musharraf suspends Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the chief justice, following demonstrations. Chaudhry is reinstated in July.

August 2007: Pakistan's supreme court rules Sharif can return from exile, but he is sent to Saudi Arabia within hours of his return in September.

The same month Musharraf agrees to step down as head of the army after presidential elections in October.

October 2007: Musharraf wins presidential elections in Pakistan, but must await decision from the supreme court as to whether he was eligible to be a candidate.

Also in October, Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister, returns from exile to Pakistan. During a parade in the city of Karachi attended by thousands of her supporters, a suicide bomb attack kills more than 130 of her supporters.

November 2007: Musharraf declares a state of emergency in Pakistan. Troops surround Islamabad's state-run television and radio stations and police surround the supreme court. 

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