Pakistan History Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1940

In 1940, the Muslim League president Mohammed Ali Jinnah presided over the organization's annual session, held that year at Lahore, in which the League made its first official demand for the partition of India. The Lahore Resolution called for an independent, sovereign Muslim state.

Answer: August 14, 1947

Pakistan came into existence in two parts: West Pakistan, coextensive with the country's present boundaries, and East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh.

Answer: Liaquat Ali Khan

Liaquat Ali Khan was one of the most important people involved in Pakistan's struggle for independence.

Answer: Tuberculosis

Jinnah had developed tuberculosis in 1940, but he forbade his doctor to disclose that to the public, knowing that it would slower the struggle for independence. Because of his tuberculosis, one of his lungs became totally useless. At the time of his death, he weighed less than 60 lbs.

Answer: Ghulam Mohammed

Liaquat was addressing a public gathering in Rawalpindi when he was shot twice in the chest. His last words were reported to be, "God Bless Pakistan."

Answer: 1956

The constitution provided for a unicameral (single-chamber) National Assembly with 300 seats, evenly divided between East and West Pakistan. It also officially designated Pakistan as an Islamic republic.

Answer: Ayub Khan

President Ayub ruled Pakistan almost absolutely for a little more than ten years. Although his regime made some notable achievements, it did not eliminate the basic problems of Pakistani society. Ayub's regime increased developmental funds to East Pakistan more than threefold.

This had a noticeable effect on the economy of the province, but the disparity between the two wings of Pakistan was not eliminated.

Answer: Tashkent

In January 1966, Ayub Khan and India's prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, signed the Tashkent Declaration, which formally ended hostilities and called for a mutual withdrawal of forces.

Answer: Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

Under Bhutto's leadership Pakistan began to rearrange its national life. Bhutto, essentially a socialist, nationalized the basic industries, insurance companies, domestically owned banks, and schools and colleges. He also instituted land reforms that benefited tenants and middle-class farmers.

He removed the armed forces from the process of decision making, but to placate the generals he allocated about 6 percent of the gross national product to defense. In July 1972 Bhutto negotiated the Simla Agreement, which confirmed a line of control dividing Kashmir and prompted the withdrawal of Indian troops from Pakistani territory. In April 1972 Bhutto lifted martial law and convened the National Assembly, which consisted of members elected from West Pakistan in 1970.

After much political debate, the legislature drafted the country's third constitution, which was promulgated on August 14, 1973. It changed the National Assembly into a two-chamber legislature, with a Senate as the upper house and a National Assembly as the lower house.

It designated the prime minister as the most powerful government official, but it also set up a formal parliamentary system in which the executive was responsible to the legislature. Bhutto became prime minister, and Fazal Elahi Chaudry replaced him as president.

Answer: Gen. Zia-ul-Haq

Zia formally assumed the presidency in 1978 and embarked on an Islamization program. Through various ordinances between 1978 and 1985, he instituted the Islamization of Pakistan's legal and economic systems and social order. In 1979 a federal Sharia (Islamic law) court was established to exercise Islamic judicial review.

Other ordinances established interest-free banking and provided maximum penalties for adultery, defamation, theft, and consumption of alcohol. On March 24, 1981, Zia issued a Provisional Constitutional Order that served as a substitute for the suspended 1973 constitution.

The order provided for the formation of a Federal Advisory Council (Majlis-e-Shoora) to take the place of the National Assembly. In early 1982 Zia appointed the 228 members of the new council.

This effectively restricted the political parties, which already had been constrained by the banning of political activity, from organizing resistance to the Zia regime through the election process.

Answer: August 1988

Zia was killed in a mysterious aircraft accident near Bahawalpur, in Punjab, on August 17, 1988, along with the chairman of the joint chiefs committee, the United States ambassador, and twenty-seven others. A joint United States-Pakistani committee investigating the accident later established that the crash was caused by "a criminal act of sabotage perpetrated in the aircraft." Some believe that the KGB, bitter after Pakistan's support of bin Laden's US-backed resistance against the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, carried out the attack.

Others blame the United States because Zia was becoming more and more of a pain for its neo-imperialist policies in the Middle East.

Answer: Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto became prime minister after her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) won the general elections in November 1988. She was the first woman to head a modern Islamic state. In August 1990, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, the president, dismissed Bhutto's government, charging misconduct, and declared a state of emergency. Bhutto lost the October elections after she was arrested for corruption and abuse of power.

Answer: 1991

Sharif also promised to ease continuing tensions with India over Kashmir. The charges against Bhutto were resolved, and she returned to lead the opposition. In early 1993 Sharif was appointed the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League. In April 1993 Ishaq Khan once again used his presidential power, this time to dismiss Sharif and to dissolve parliament.

However, Sharif appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and in May the court stated that Khan's actions were unconstitutional, and the court reinstated Sharif as prime minister. Sharif and Khan subsequently became embroiled in a power struggle that paralyzed the Pakistani government.

In an agreement designed to end the stalemate, Sharif and Khan resigned together in July 1993, and elections were held in October of that year.

Answer: Nawaz Sharif

One of Sharif's first actions as prime minister was to lead the National Assembly in passing a constitutional amendment stripping the president of the authority to dismiss parliament. The action triggered a power struggle between Sharif, Leghari, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah.

When the military threw its support behind Sharif, Leghari resigned and Sajjad Ali Shah was removed. Sharif's nominee, Rafiq Tarar, was then elected president.

Answer: May 28, 1998

Many foreign countries, including the United States, imposed economic sanctions against both India and Pakistan for testing nuclear devices. In the months following the explosions, the leaders of Pakistan and India placed a moratorium on further nuclear testing, and the United States initiated negotiations between the two countries aimed at reducing tensions and circumventing an arms race in the region.

Answer: Kargil

In May 1999 Kashmiri separatists, widely believed to be backed by Pakistan, seized Indian-controlled territory near Kargil in the disputed Kashmir region. Fighting between Indian forces and the separatists raged until July, when Sharif agreed to secure the withdrawal of the separatists and India suspended its military campaign.

Answer: Pervez Musharraf

The Pakistani military accused Sharif of giving in too easily to pressure from India and for pinning the blame for the Kargil attack on army chief Pervez Musharraf. In October 1999 Sharif tried to dismiss Musharraf from his position. He attempted to prevent Musharraf's return to Pakistan from abroad by refusing to let his airplane land.

The commercial airliner carrying Musharraf, as well as dozens of civilians, was forced to circle the Karachi airport until army forces loyal to Musharraf took over the airport. Army forces also seized control of the government in a bloodless coup that lasted less than three hours. Musharraf declared himself the chief executive of Pakistan, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the legislature.

He appointed an eight-member National Security Council to function as the country's supreme governing body.

Many Pakistanis, already opposed to Sharif's increasingly autocratic rule and suffering from a sagging Pakistani economy after ten years of government excesses and corruption, welcomed the coup. Sharif was arrested, and in April 2000 he was convicted of abuse of power and other charges and sentenced to life imprisonment; his sentence was soon commuted and he was allowed to live in exile in Saudi Arabia.

Answer: October 2002

After assuming power, Musharraf's military government adopted a reformist posture. It identified economic reform as the most urgent measure needed to restore the confidence of foreign and local investors. As part of this strategy, Musharraf initiated an ambitious program based on accountability, improved governance, and widening of the tax net.

However, in the wake of the coup new international sanctions were imposed to oppose the military regime. Donor agencies such as the International Monetary Fund were unwilling to provide new loans or reschedule Pakistan's foreign debt.

Answer: Afghanistan

Pakistan had been an ally of the Taliban, which had established a fundamentalist Islamic regime in Afghanistan in 1996. The Taliban was accused of harboring the suspected mastermind of the terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden. The Taliban and bin Laden's international terrorist network, al-Qaeda, became the target of U.S.-led air strikes in Afghanistan that began on October 7.

The Musharraf government agreed to provide logistical support and use of Pakistan's airspace for the offensive, and to share military intelligence to fight global terrorism. Formally breaking with the Taliban, Pakistan withdrew all of its diplomats from Afghanistan and officially closed its shared border.

However, Pakistan faced a growing refugee crisis as many Afghans fled their country. On September 22, meanwhile, the United States lifted most of the economic sanctions it had imposed after Pakistan exploded nuclear devices in 1998, brightening prospects for Pakistan's economy.

Answer: five

The referendum returned a majority of votes in favor of the proposal, although low voter turnout, loose voting rules, and the absence of poll monitors tinged the results. In addition, political parties denounced the referendum because under the constitution, the president is to be selected by the National Assembly.