Sept. 11, 1948: Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah dies

Oct. 16, 1951: Pakistan first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in a gun attack at a rally in the city of Rawalpind, triggering political instability

Oct. 7, 1958: President Iskander Mirza abolishes the constitution and declares martial law; Gen. Muhammad Ayub Khan, then army chief becomes administrator

Oct. 27, 1958: Ayub forces the president to step down; Mirza is sent to exile in Britain where he later dies; Ayub declared himself president

March 25, 1969: After months of rioting in West and East Pakistan, Khan hands over power to army chief Gen. Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan

Dec. 7, 1970: East Pakistan-based Awami League wins general elections; Yahya Khan delays transfer of power, triggering widespread rioting in East Pakistan; civil war breaks out

Dec. 16, 1971: Pakistan troops surrender in East Pakistan after Indian armed intervention in the civil war; East Pakistan becomes independent Bangladesh

Dec. 20, 1971: Yahya Khan resigns, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto becomes president; a parliamentary system of government is adopted and Bhutto becomes prime minister

July 5, 1977: Army chief Gen. Zia ul Haq seizes power

April 4, 1979: Bhutto is hanged after the Supreme Court upholds death sentence on charges of conspiracy to murder and Gen. Zia rejects a mercy petition; Bhutto’s daughter, Benazir Bhutto, takes up her father’s legacy

Aug. 17, 1988: Gen. Zia dies in a mysterious plane crash

Nov. 16, 1988: Benazir Bhutto becomes Pakistan’s first woman prime minister

Aug. 6, 1990: Benazir Bhutto’s government is dismissed amid charges of corruption and mismanagement

Oct. 24, 1990: Parliamentary elections are held and Nawaz Sharif becomes prime minister

April 19, 1993: President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismisses Sharif government on corruption charges but the Supreme Court reinstates Sharif; Sharif and Khan fail to reconcile and end conflict so the then-army chief Gen. Waheed Kakar forces both to resign

Oct. 6, 1993: Bhutto is voted back into power after mass demonstrations lead to the early dismissal of her 1990 successor, Sharif

Nov. 5, 1996: Bhutto’s government is again dismissed amid renewed charges of corruption and incompetence raised by her party’s leader, Farooq Leghari

Feb. 3, 1997: Elections bring Sharif back to power; Bhutto goes into self-exile to avoid prosecution on corruption allegations

Oct. 12, 1999: Army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf ousts Sharif’s government in a bloodless coup after Sharif fails in his attempt to sack the army chief. Sharif is sent into exile after a court convicts him of conspiracy against Musharraf

Oct. 10, 2002: Elections are held under Musharraf and pro-Musharraf parties form government; Zafarullah Jamali becomes prime minister on Nov. 21, 2002