CSS Pakistan Affairs key facts

Ideological foundations

Two-Nation Theory and the Ideology of Pakistan

• Two-Nation Theory: Muslims and Hindus are separate nations because of religion, culture and way of life.
• Order of events: Allahabad Address (1930), 'Now or Never' pamphlet (1933), Lahore Resolution (1940), Cabinet Mission (1946).
• Lahore Resolution: moved on 23 March 1940 by A. K. Fazlul Huq at a League session presided over by Jinnah; 23 March is Pakistan Day.
• The resolution asked that Muslim-majority areas of the north-west and east be grouped into independent states.
• Main argument: in one parliamentary democracy for all India, rule by numbers would leave Muslims a permanent minority.
• The Congress view was the opposite: one Indian nation made up of all communities.

Thinkers: Shah Waliullah, Sir Syed, Iqbal, Jinnah

• Shah Waliullah: Persian translation of the Quran; 'Hujjatullah al-Balighah'; invited Ahmad Shah Abdali, who defeated the Marathas at Panipat in 1761.
• Sir Syed: 'Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind' (causes of the 1857 revolt); journal 'Tehzib-ul-Akhlaq'; MAO College, Aligarh (1877).
• Iqbal: 'Asrar-e-Khudi' (1915, in Persian, on the self); 'Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam' (English lectures).
• Allahabad Address, December 1930: Iqbal, as president of the Muslim League session, proposed a consolidated Muslim state in north-west India.
• 11 August 1947: Jinnah was elected President of the Constituent Assembly and said citizens were free to go to their mosques, temples or any other place of worship.
• Jinnah became the first Governor-General of Pakistan in August 1947 and died on 11 September 1948.

Muslim rule, British rule and 1857

Muslim rule in the subcontinent

• Order: conquest of Sindh (711 to 712), raids of Mahmud of Ghazni (early 1000s), Second Battle of Tarain (1192), Delhi Sultanate (1206), Mughal Empire (1526).
• Delhi Sultanate dynasties in order: Slave, Khilji, Tughlaq, Sayyid, Lodi.
• Alauddin Khilji: market price controls and a large standing army.
• Sher Shah Suri: defeated Humayun, rebuilt the Grand Trunk Road, issued the silver rupee, organised land revenue.
• Akbar (1556 to 1605): mansabdari system, sulh-i-kul (peace with all), abolished jizya.
• Aurangzeb (1658 to 1707): reimposed jizya, had the 'Fatawa-i-Alamgiri' compiled.

East India Company and the War of 1857

• Plassey, 1757: Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-Daula; Mir Jafar became Nawab of Bengal.
• Buxar, 1764, then Treaty of Allahabad, 1765: the Company gained the diwani (revenue rights) of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
• Causes of 1857: Doctrine of Lapse (Lord Dalhousie), annexation of Awadh (1856), fear for religion, sepoy grievances.
• Immediate cause: rumours that the new rifle cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat; the rising began at Meerut.
• Results: Bahadur Shah Zafar exiled to Rangoon; Muslims were blamed most by the British.
• 1858: Company rule ended; a Secretary of State for India was created; the Governor-General became Viceroy (Lord Canning first).
• Queen Victoria's Proclamation (1858) promised no interference in religion and equal protection of the law.

Reform movements

• Tehrik-e-Mujahideen: Syed Ahmad Shaheed; jihad against Sikh rule in the Punjab; he was killed at Balakot in 1831.
• Faraizi movement: Haji Shariatullah, Bengal; perform the obligatory duties (faraiz) and give up un-Islamic customs.
• Aligarh: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan; modern Western education and good relations with the British.
• Deoband: Dar ul-Uloom founded 1866; Muhammad Qasim Nanautvi among its founders; traditional religious learning.
• Nadwatul Ulama: founded in the 1890s, based at Lucknow; a bridge between old and new learning.
• Urdu-Hindi controversy: 1867 demand at Banaras for Hindi in Devanagari script in the courts; 1900 order of Sir Anthony MacDonnell in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh (later the United Provinces).
• Simla Deputation, October 1906: led by Sir Agha Khan III, met Lord Minto, asked for separate electorates.

The Pakistan Movement

Congress, the Partition of Bengal and the Muslim League

• Order: Congress (1885), Partition of Bengal (1905), Simla Deputation and Muslim League (1906), Morley-Minto Reforms (1909), annulment of the partition (1911).
• Congress: first session at Bombay, 1885; W. C. Bonnerjee presided.
• Partition of Bengal: Lord Curzon, 1905; annulled at the Delhi Durbar of 1911, when the capital's move from Calcutta to Delhi was also announced.
• Muslim League: Dhaka, December 1906; proposed by Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka; aim to protect and advance Muslim political rights.
• Morley-Minto Reforms = Indian Councils Act 1909 (Morley was Secretary of State, Minto was Viceroy).
• Separate electorates: Muslim voters alone chose Muslim representatives for reserved seats.
• 1909 also enlarged the councils and brought an Indian into the Viceroy's Executive Council.

Lucknow Pact to the Fourteen Points

• Lucknow Pact, 1916: the Congress accepted separate electorates and the two parties made joint demands for self-government.
• Khilafat Movement: led by Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar and Shaukat Ali; ended in purpose when Turkey abolished the Caliphate in 1924.
• Hijrat Movement, 1920: many Muslims migrated to Afghanistan and returned in hardship.
• Nehru Report, 1928: dominion status and joint electorates, with no separate electorates.
• Fourteen Points, 1929: federal system with residuary powers to the provinces, separate electorates, one-third Muslim seats at the Centre, Sindh separated from Bombay.
• Round Table Conferences: first (1930) without the Congress; second (1931) attended by Gandhi; third (1932).
• Communal Award, 1932: Ramsay MacDonald; changed for the Depressed Classes by the Poona Pact, 1932.

1935 Act and the 1937 elections

• 1935 Act: provincial autonomy; a Federal Court; separate electorates kept; Governors kept special reserve powers.
• The All-India Federation never came into force because the princely states did not agree.
• Sindh was separated from the Bombay Presidency and became a province under the Act.
• 1937: in the United Provinces the Congress would share power only if the League merged with it.
• Muslim grievances: Bande Mataram in schools and assemblies; recorded in the Pirpur Report (1938).
• The Congress ministries resigned in 1939 because the Viceroy declared India at war without consulting Indian leaders.
• Day of Deliverance: 22 December 1939.

Lahore Resolution to independence

• Order: Lahore Resolution (1940), Cripps Mission (1942), Quit India (1942), Gandhi-Jinnah talks (1944), 1945-46 elections, Cabinet Mission (1946), 3 June Plan (1947).
• Cripps Mission: dominion status after the war, with provinces free to opt out; rejected by both parties.
• Quit India, August 1942: Gandhi's slogan 'Do or Die'; the League stayed out.
• Cabinet Mission Plan: a union with a weak Centre (defence, foreign affairs, communications) and three groups of provinces.
• 1945-46 elections: the League won every Muslim seat in the Central Legislative Assembly.
• 3 June Plan: the Punjab and Bengal assemblies voted on partition; a referendum was held in the North-West Frontier Province.
• Indian Independence Act 1947: passed by the British Parliament; British paramountcy over the princely states lapsed.

Creation and early years of Pakistan

Partition, boundaries, refugees and Kashmir

• Sir Cyril Radcliffe chaired both Boundary Commissions; the Award was made public on 17 August 1947.
• Gurdaspur: the part given to India provided a land route to Kashmir.
• Assets: Pakistan's agreed share of the cash balances was Rs 750 million, and India held back part of it.
• Junagadh: Muslim ruler, mostly Hindu people; acceded to Pakistan in 1947, then taken over by India.
• Kashmir: Treaty of Amritsar (1846) began Dogra rule; accession in October 1947; India went to the UN Security Council in January 1948.
• UN resolutions of 1948-49: ceasefire, withdrawal of troops, and a UN-supervised plebiscite.
• The ceasefire line took effect in 1949 and was renamed the Line of Control by the Simla Agreement (1972).

Early challenges: Objectives Resolution and language

• Objectives Resolution: sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to Allah Almighty alone; the state uses authority through the chosen representatives of the people.
• It promised democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as enunciated by Islam.
• Minorities could freely profess and practise their religions and develop their cultures; the state would be a federation with autonomous units.
• It became the preamble of all three constitutions and a substantive part of the Constitution through Article 2A in 1985.
• Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani was a leading supporter in the Assembly.
• United Front, 1954: 21 points, including Bengali as a state language and more autonomy; dismissed by Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad, who imposed Governor's rule.
• The 1956 Constitution made both Urdu and Bengali state languages; UNESCO marks 21 February as International Mother Language Day.

Constitutional history

The constitutions of 1956 and 1962

• 1956: in force on 23 March 1956; Islamic Republic of Pakistan; parliamentary; one house, the National Assembly; parity between East and West Pakistan.
• 1956 Islamic provisions: the President had to be a Muslim; no law could be repugnant to the injunctions of Islam.
• Ended 7 October 1958: abrogated by Iskander Mirza; Ayub Khan became Chief Martial Law Administrator.
• One Unit, 1955: West Pakistan became one province to match East Pakistan.
• Basic Democracies, 1959: a tiered system of local councils with the Union Council at the bottom; the 80,000 Basic Democrats formed the electoral college.
• 1962: came after the report of the Constitution Commission under Justice Shahabuddin; presidential; one house; state first named the 'Republic of Pakistan'.
• 1965 presidential election: Ayub Khan defeated Fatima Jinnah. 1969: Ayub resigned and Yahya Khan abrogated the constitution.

The 1973 Constitution

• Article 1: the state is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Article 2: Islam is the state religion. Article 6: subverting the Constitution by force is high treason.
• Fundamental Rights are in Articles 8 to 28 (enforceable in court); Principles of Policy are in Articles 29 to 40 (guidance for the state, not enforceable).
• Parliament (Majlis-e-Shoora) = the President + the National Assembly + the Senate. The Senate gives each province an equal number of seats.
• The Prime Minister is elected by the members of the National Assembly and heads the government; the President and the Prime Minister must both be Muslims.
• Z. A. Bhutto became Prime Minister and Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry became President when the Constitution came into force.
• The Council of Islamic Ideology (Articles 228 to 231) advises whether laws agree with Islam; its advice is not binding.
• Article 251: Urdu is the national language; English may be used for official purposes until arrangements for Urdu are made.

Amendments, martial laws and the courts

• Military take-overs: 7 October 1958 (Ayub Khan as Chief Martial Law Administrator), 25 March 1969 (Yahya Khan), 5 July 1977 (Zia-ul-Haq; martial law lifted 30 December 1985), 12 October 1999 (Pervez Musharraf).
• Eighth Amendment (1985): President may dissolve the National Assembly at his discretion. Thirteenth (1997): power removed. Seventeenth (2003): power restored. Eighteenth (2010): power removed.
• Eighteenth Amendment (2010) also abolished the Concurrent Legislative List, renamed NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and added Article 25A (right to education).
• Federation v Tamizuddin Khan (1955, Chief Justice Muhammad Munir): the dissolution of the first Constituent Assembly was upheld.
• State v Dosso (1958) validated the 1958 martial law; Asma Jilani (1972) overruled Dosso and called Yahya Khan a usurper; Nusrat Bhutto (1977) validated Zia's take-over; Zafar Ali Shah (2000) validated Musharraf's.
• 1966: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Six Points. 1970: Awami League wins the overall majority. 16 December 1971: surrender at Dhaka; Bangladesh emerges.
• The Hamoodur Rahman Commission inquired into the 1971 defeat and the loss of East Pakistan.

Government and institutions

Federation, parliament and the provinces

• Provinces and capitals: Punjab - Lahore; Sindh - Karachi; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - Peshawar; Balochistan - Quetta. The federal capital is Islamabad.
• Balochistan is the largest province by area; Punjab is the largest by population. NWFP was renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2010.
• National Assembly: term of five years, general seats shared among provinces by population; money bills start only here.
• Senate: permanent house that cannot be dissolved; members serve six years and half retire every three years; equal seats for each province.
• A disagreement between the houses on an ordinary bill goes to a joint sitting, presided over by the Speaker of the National Assembly.
• NFC (Article 160): set up at intervals of not more than five years. Vertical distribution = between the federation and the provinces; horizontal distribution = among the provinces.
• The Council of Common Interests is chaired by the Prime Minister and includes the four provincial Chief Ministers.

Judiciary, elections and political parties

• Before the amendments of 2024 and 2025: High Courts issued writs such as habeas corpus under Article 199, and the Supreme Court could take up matters of public importance involving Fundamental Rights under Article 184(3).
• The Federal Shariat Court was set up in 1980. It decides; the Council of Islamic Ideology only advises.
• The Election Commission is headed by the Chief Election Commissioner, with one member from each province.
• A neutral caretaker government holds office during a general election so that the vote is free and fair.
• Minimum voting age: 18. First general election on adult franchise: 1970.
• All-India Muslim League: 1906, Dhaka. Jamaat-e-Islami: 1941, Maulana Abul Ala Maududi. Awami League: 1949, later led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
• Pakistan Peoples Party: 1967, Z. A. Bhutto. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf: 1996, Imran Khan.

Economy and development

Planning, agriculture and industry

• First Five-Year Plan: 1955-60. Second: 1960-65. Third: 1965-70.
• Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), 1952: set up industries that private investors would not enter.
• Green Revolution (1960s): high-yielding wheat and rice varieties, chemical fertiliser and tubewells.
• Land reforms of 1959 (Ayub Khan) and 1972 (Z. A. Bhutto) put ceilings on individual landholdings.
• Rabi (winter) crops: wheat, gram, barley. Kharif (summer) crops: cotton, rice, sugarcane, maize.
• Wheat is the staple food crop; cotton is the main cash crop; sugarcane is the main source of sugar.
• Pakistan Steel Mills, Karachi, was built with the help of the Soviet Union.

Energy, water and the economy today

• Indus Waters Treaty: signed at Karachi on 19 September 1960 by President Ayub Khan and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
• Under the treaty as signed: eastern rivers (India): Ravi, Beas, Sutlej; western rivers (Pakistan): Indus, Jhelum, Chenab.
• Mangla Dam is on the Jhelum; Tarbela Dam is on the Indus. WAPDA, the water and power authority, was created in 1958.
• Sui gas field: Balochistan. Thar coal: Sindh. KANUPP, the first nuclear power plant: Karachi.
• Pakistan joined the IMF and the World Bank in 1950.
• CPEC, launched in 2015, links Gwadar with Kashgar in China's Xinjiang region and is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Foreign policy and regional issues

India: wars, agreements and disputes

• 1965: Rann of Kutch clashes (April), Operation Gibraltar (August), war in September.
• Tashkent Declaration, 10 January 1966: Ayub Khan and Lal Bahadur Shastri, with Soviet mediation.
• 1971 war: ended on 16 December 1971 with the surrender at Dhaka.
• Simla Agreement, 2 July 1972: Z. A. Bhutto and Indira Gandhi; disputes to be settled bilaterally; the ceasefire line in Kashmir became the Line of Control.
• Siachen glacier is in the Karakoram; Indian forces occupied its main passes in 1984.
• Lahore Declaration, February 1999: Nawaz Sharif and Atal Bihari Vajpayee; the Kargil conflict followed in mid-1999.
• The first Kashmir war ended with a UN-arranged ceasefire on 1 January 1949.

Afghanistan, China, Iran and the USA

• Durand Line: 1893, agreed between Sir Mortimer Durand and Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.
• Soviet troops entered Afghanistan in December 1979; the Geneva Accords of April 1988 provided for their withdrawal, completed in February 1989.
• Pakistan recognised the People's Republic of China in 1950; the boundary agreement was signed in 1963; the Karakoram Highway crosses at the Khunjerab Pass.
• SEATO (Manila Pact): 1954. Baghdad Pact: 1955; Iraq left in 1959 and it was renamed CENTO.
• RCD: formed in 1964 by Pakistan, Iran and Turkey.
• The USA suspended arms supplies to both Pakistan and India during the 1965 war.
• Pressler Amendment: aid was suspended in 1990 when the US President did not certify that Pakistan had no nuclear explosive device.

International organisations

• UN: Pakistan joined on 30 September 1947; headquarters in New York.
• OIC: formed in 1969 at Rabat after the arson attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque; Secretariat in Jeddah; aim is solidarity among Muslim states.
• Second Islamic Summit: Lahore, February 1974.
• SAARC: founded at the Dhaka summit in December 1985; Secretariat in Kathmandu; bilateral and contentious issues are excluded.
• ECO: replaced the RCD in 1985; headquarters in Tehran; widened in 1992 to include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and the Central Asian republics.
• Commonwealth: Secretariat in London; Pakistan left in 1972 over members' recognition of Bangladesh and rejoined in 1989.

Society and national issues

People, languages, culture and minorities

• Article 20: freedom to profess, practise and propagate religion. Article 25: equality of citizens; no discrimination on the basis of sex.
• Article 34: full participation of women in national life. Article 36: protection of minorities. Both are Principles of Policy.
• Seats are reserved for women and for non-Muslims in the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies.
• Brahui, a Dravidian language, is spoken mainly in Balochistan.
• Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai: Shah Jo Risalo (Sindhi). Waris Shah: Heer (Punjabi). Rahman Baba and Khushal Khan Khattak: Pashto poets.
• Mohenjo-daro is in Sindh; Harappa is in Punjab; Taxila is near Rawalpindi.
• Jogendra Nath Mandal was the first Law Minister; A. R. Cornelius was Chief Justice of Pakistan from 1960 to 1968. Karachi is the largest city.

Education, health and challenges

• First Pakistan Educational Conference: Karachi, 1947.
• Commission on National Education, 1959: headed by S. M. Sharif (the Sharif Commission).
• 1972: Z. A. Bhutto's government nationalised private schools and colleges. 1974: Allama Iqbal Open University began distance education.
• 2002: the Higher Education Commission replaced the University Grants Commission. The University of the Punjab (1882) is the oldest university.
• Lady Health Workers Programme, 1994: basic healthcare for women and children at their homes.
• Wafaqi Mohtasib (Ombudsman), 1983: complaints of maladministration. National Accountability Bureau, 1999: corruption. The Auditor-General audits public accounts.
• Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997: special anti-terrorism courts. National Action Plan: adopted after the Peshawar school attack of 16 December 2014.