Timeline Pakistan

1988

17 August
- General Zia-ul-Haqâ's dies in a plane crash along with several senior generals
- General Mirza Aslam Beg becomes Chief of Army Staff
- General Mirza installs Ghulam Ishaq Khan as President of Pakistan

2 December
- PPP wins election and Benazir Bhutto becomes Prime Minister
- General Mirza tells Benazir to cooperate with his selected president GIK

1990

6 August
- Armyâ's selected President GIK removes Benazir Bhutto, along with all elected members of national assembly and dissolves 4 provincial assemblies on charges of corruption
- GIK appoints Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi as caretaker prime minister

6 November
- IJI wins election and Nawaz Sharif becomes prime minister under GIK

1991
- Nawaz Sharif announces his support for Saudi Arabia in the Gulf War, which creates a major conflict between General Aslam Beg and the Prime Minister, when General publicly refuses to send troops to Saudi Arabia. Pakistan later sends troops to safeguard the holy places in Saudi, but leaves the relations strained for the first time between the two countries.

16 August
- GIK names General Asif Nawaz as Chief of Army Staff

1992
- Operation Cleanup in Sindh against militants creates a rift between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and General Asif Nawaz

1993

8 January
- General Asif Nawaz dies apparently from heart attack, however his widow claimed that he was murdered.

 January 11Â
- Nawaz Sharif being the Prime Minister and the Chief Executive of the country, wants to select a new Chief of Army Staff. However, GIK uses his constitutional privileges with the backing of Army, and selects General Wahid Kakar as Chief of Army Staff, superseding many senior Generals.
- Army and GIK tells Nawaz Sharif a few minutes before the ceremony, that Kakar is going to be the chief, which creates a public setback for Prime Minister.

April 18
- Armyâ's appointed president removes second prime minister Nawaz Sharif, along with all elected members of National Assembly on charges of corruption
- GIK appoints Balkh Sher Mazari and anti-Nawaz Sharif cabinet including Hamid Nasir Chattha, Asif Zardari and Farooq Leghari to supervise new elections

May 26
- Supreme Court of Pakistan overrules GIKâ's decision and restores Nawaz Sharif as prime minister and reconstitutes the national assembly

July 18
- General Kakar forces both President GIK and Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif to hand over their resignations and dissolves the assemblies
- Another version of the story is that once Supreme Court reinstated Nawaz Sharif, GIK fired Nawaz Sharif again and asked General Kakar to take over. Kakar being a good guy, refused to take over and announced elections
- Moin Qureshi is appointed as caretaker PM, GIK is replaced by Wasim Sajjad

October 19
- Benazir Bhutto takes oath as a Prime Minister after PPP narrowly wins against PML

November 13
- PPPâ's nominated ex-foreign minister Farooq Legari is elected as President against Wasim Sajjad

1996

January xx

General Kakir retires after his 3 year term and General Jehangir Karamat takes over as Cheif of Army Staff

November 5
- Benazir Bhuttoâ's is removed from office and assemblies are dissolved by PPPâ's president Farooq Leghari over charges of corruption and lawlessness
- Miraj Khalid becomes caretaker prime minister

1997

February 17
- Nawaz Sharif becomes prime minister again after huge victory in the elections
- PML puts 8th amendment bill in the assembly that removes power of President to dissolve assemblies. The bill passed by support of both the government and opposition

December 2
- President Farooq Leghari sees the 8th amendment as threat to his powers and conspires with the chief justice of supreme court, Sajjad Ali Shah to sack the Sharif Government
- The move leads to uprising against them and both Laghari and Shah are forced to resign
- Wasim Sajjad takes over as interim President

1998

January 1
- Rafiq Tarrar, ex-supreme court justice is elected as President of Pakistan

May 28
- Nawaz Sharif announces the successful nuclear tests despite repeated warnings from US president Bill Clinton. Pakistan becomes the first Muslim country to join the nuclear club which creates a wave of hope and happiness across the Muslim worldÂ

October 7
- General Jehangir resigns after dispute with Nawaz Sharif over the formation of National Security Council, which would have constitutionalized the role of Military in politics and would have given military a veto power over civilian government
- Nawaz Sharif promotes Pervez Musharraf to rank of General and the chief of army staff

1999

February 21
- Lahore declaration is signed by Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers, Vajpayee and Sharif, which lays out the road map for resolution of Kashmir issue through peaceful means

May
- General Musharraf occupies Kargil on Indian side of Line of Control in Kashmir, launching a mini war between two countries.
- The war is initially kept secret between 4 generals only and Nawaz Sharif gets to know about it through his counterpart in India
- General Mushrraf keeps his stance that he briefed the Prime Minister about the war situations, but forgets the fact that Nawaz Sharif being the Chief Executive of the country, should have been the one authorizing the war, not Musharraf himself
- The war creates international embarrassment and isolation for the nation and Pakistan is condemned by US, Russia, G8 countries, European Union and even China for crossing the LOC
- The war also raises alarms in the west and Pakistan is considered a rouge state, where nuclear equipped military could launch dangerous stunts at their own

October 12
- Nawaz Sharif fires General Musharraf over Kargil issue and coup threats
- Musharraf and other generals perform a quick well planned bloodless coup, arrest Prime Minister along with his relatives and senior PML officials
- Musharraf claims that Sharif tried to kill him by diverting his flight to other airport
- Musharraf fires all democratically elected members of national and provincial assemblies and suspends the constitution of the country
- General Musharraf installs himself as the Chief Executive of the country, replaces all civilian cabinet ministers by army officers but keeps the powerless civilian president

November
- General Musharraf accuses Nawaz Sharif and his companions of conspiring to murder Musharraf and other passengers in the plane, and starts trial in special anti-terrorism court
- PML goes to supreme court over the suspension of Constitution by General Musharraf

2000

January
- Around the time when supreme court is about to give verdict on the suspension of constitution, General Mushrraf fires 18 superior court judges, including the chief justice of supreme court who refuses to take oath under him

February
- Generalâ's government and the court trying Nawaz Sharif declares that the court proceedings in the court will be held under closed room and the Pakistani nation would not allowed to hear Sharifâ's version of story

March
- Nawaz Sharifâ's main defense lawyer along with two of his companions are shot dead at their office, resulting in blow to Sharifâ's defense

April
- Nawaz Sharif sentenced to life in prison on terrorism & hijacking charges and his 6 codefendants acquitted of all charges
- Commonwealth head says, âœThis is an illegal regime. Therefore they’re not giving any legitimacy to their own laws when it’s coming from an illegal regimeâ?
- Sharifâ's lawyers plan to appeal