Pakistan was born in 1947 in one of the most dramatic and traumatic events of the 20th century — the Partition of British India, which carved a new Muslim homeland out of the subcontinent and triggered the largest mass migration in human history. In the decades since, Pakistan has fought repeated wars with India, lost half its territory when Bangladesh broke away, become a nuclear-armed power, and wrestled endlessly with the role of its own military. This course traces that turbulent modern story. (It focuses on modern Pakistan; the subcontinent's deep antiquity — the Indus Valley civilisation and the Mughal empire — is a story for other courses.)You'll begin with Partition — how the British departure split the subcontinent and created Pakistan — then the 1971 war in which East Pakistan broke away to become Bangladesh. You'll examine the unresolved Kashmir conflict that keeps two nuclear powers on edge, and finish with modern Pakistan and the enduring power of its army. Honest note: Partition was catastrophic — an estimated one to two million people died and some fifteen million were displaced amid horrific communal violence. The India-Pakistan rivalry remains dangerous and is told very differently on each side; these popular-history videos (from a widely-followed educator and from Vox) offer an accessible overview, not the final word.
we all know the story of how the United States was the first to develop the nuke but today there are now 10 countries around the world that have successfully created them some helping each other but most in secrecy involving a lot of spying rivalry and betrayal each of them have a story just as interesting as the US's Manhattan Project but are rarely told we're going to go through the full timeline of how the 10 countries raced each other to build this technology and also the other countries that came close and might soon be added to the list The Story begins in 1938 when German scientists first discovered nuclear fishing the ability to split atoms releasing massive energy through a chain reaction the following year Albert Einstein would warn the US of the dangerous possibilities in weaponizing this technology the United States was famously the first to create nuclear weapons after a long and secretive operation against the backdrop of the second world war scientists from the US UK and Canada collaborated in the Manhattan Project they spent nearly % of the US's entire GDP on the effort as they were racing the Germans who were also working on their own nuclear program but to much less success Germany had surrendered by May 1945 but in July while President Truman was at the Potsdam Conference with Stalin and Churchill planning what to do with Germany Truman was secretly informed that the Trinity test in New Mexico was successful and they now possess the most powerful weapon Humanity had ever seen Truman told Stalin that the US was about to use this weapon on the Japanese although at the time Stalin was already working on his own nuclear weapons project and had spies within the US's Manhattan Project internally he was secretly Furious that the Americans had beaten them to making this bomb the following month in August the US Unleashed fat man and little boy on Japan forcing their surrender ending the war but starting a new race around the world for everyone to catch up the Soviet Union was second to obtain the technology having started as early as 1941 after noticing German British and American Amer scientists stopped publishing papers on nuclear fish and they suspected they were also working on creating weapons the program was accelerated rapidly after seeing the Americans nuclear attack on Japan and while they had a lot of information from spying on the US programs they were worried of potentially being fed misinformation from double agents because of this they didn't trust the stolen American design so they still ended up doing a lot of their own research using many captured German scientists they built their own project while also using the United States is designs to check it was correct earlier than the US expected in 1949 the Soviets successfully completed the rds1 test in Kazakhstan the US no longer had the Monopoly on this technology and this would create the Cold War arms race with the United States to stockpile as many nukes as possible the third country was the United Kingdom now you might assume that the us would have helped them as they were key allies fighting side by side in both world wars and in theory America would want to empower their good friends in Europe but this was not the case the UK pioneered a lot of the groundwork on nuclear weapons before the US with a project called tube Alloys starting in 1940 they did this with the help of German Austrian and polish scientists that were fleeing Germany at the time but due to limited resources fighting the second world war Britain handed over all of their work to the US merging it with what would become the Manhattan Project and providing a significant amount of research under the Quebec agreement stating that the US and UK would share the technology once completed and not use it on each other but in 1945 when the US successfully tested and used its nukes they also terminated the agreement and didn't share the final results to Britain keeping it to themselves this prompted the UK to resume its own nuclear program and this was done quickly as they had already done a lot of the work and controlled most of the world's uranium the UK successfully completed its first test called operation hurricane in 1952 at the monteo islands just above Australia meanwhile after the Soviets had developed nukes much faster than expected in 1949 the us immediately began work on a newer type called thermonuclear weapons unlike the standard atom bomb which uses fishion to split atoms these use Fusion to combine atoms the same process that happens inside stars and these are significantly more powerful than atom bombs scientists like Oppenheimer who led the Manhattan Project warned the us not to develop these because of the extreme danger to Mankind and where this nuclear arms race was going but despite this President Truman gave the go-ahead to continue in 1952 the United States successfully completed Ivy Mike the first test of a hydrogen thermonuclear bomb over 450 times more powerful than the one dropped on Nagasaki the Soviets then completed theirs in 1955 called the RDS 37 and the UK completed theirs in 1957 called operation grapple because of this new threat of hydrogen bombs the us then decided to resign a nuclear agreement with the UK the following year in 1958 the fourth country was France who already had a few scientists working on the Manhattan Project and started their own nuclear program after World War II collaborating with Israel but mainly focusing on energy instead of weapons that was until after the embarrassment of the Suz crisis and increasing tensions between the US and Soviets prompted France to want their own deterrent strategy and to retain their place as a great European power the United States was much more against the idea of France having nukes than Britain as France had a slightly different policy on how they could be used so France developed them almost completely independently the French President Charles deal spearheaded the effort and stated that nuclear weapons were essential for France to be a truly Sovereign and great power he also wanted strategic independence from NATO and the United States they sourced uranium from its colonies in nier Gabon and Madagascar which was a huge help and despite being in Ruins after the second world war the French scientists worked tirelessly they successfully carried out their first test in 1960 called the jerbo Blue in the French colony of Algeria in the Sahara Desert and then its first Hydrogen Bomb in 1968 China would be the fifth country on the list wanting their own nukes as a deteran against the US initially they received a lot of help from the Soviet Union as they saw China as a useful Ally but as kushev began desalinized China's chairman ma denounced Cru chev's more cautious approach to the West as being too soft and not in line with the true communist principles this led to a rift between the two Nations as kushev withdrew all its help from the Chinese program leave them to do the rest of the work alone China continued their development with impressive speed especially considering they were dealing with the challenges of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution significant resources were poured into the effort and they also discovered large deposits of natural uranium which massively helped in 1964 the Chinese successfully detonated their first atomic bomb in the large dried up Lake of the Ln region called project 596 and only 32 months later they tested their first Hydrogen Bomb which is impressive as this is the fastest any country has ever gone from fishing to Fusion bombs the sixth country was Israel who is the only nation in the world to never actually acknowledge possessing nuclear weapons and have never declared they exist so nobody knows exactly when or how many were created but lots of details have leaked as mentioned the Israelis were working with the French since the ' 50s on nuclear energy and France helped Israel build a secret nuclear facility in the neev desert which became a problem in 1963 as as US President Kennedy became concerned the Israelis were developing nuclear weapons JFK was strongly opposed to this and demanded the US be allowed to inspect the facility to ensure it was being used for energy and not bombs Israel repeatedly denied and delayed the US demands only allowing careful staged inspections while concealing hidden underground facilities that were later revealed to be creating weapons Israeli Prime Minister and found David benguan was reportedly obsessed with obtaining nuclear weapons and it created a rift with the United States who weren't close allies at the time this called off as JFK's successor Lyndon B Johnson was much less aggressive on preventing Israel's nuclear weapons program which is believed to have been completed around 1967 but Israel's nuclear capabilities had been rumored and speculated all throughout the 60s the big Revelation came later in 1986 morai vunu an Israeli technician who worked at that neev nuclear Research Center fled Israel and leaked to the British press a massive amount of photos he took personally and documents detailing what the facility was really being used for he was then kidnapped by Israel's mad in Rome after being lured there by a female Massad agent he believed he was going on a date with he was idated and brought back to Israel where he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for Espionage and treason in a behind closed doors trial he's currently under significant restrictions to his speech and travel and has been rearrested many times for parole violations speaking to the press and attempting to leave Israel it's also believed from his leaks that Israel has developed thermonuclear weapons the seventh country on the list is India who like many others expressed the need to have this latest technology after the second world war mainly for deterrence and protection from Pakistan and China research began in the 1940s but would take several decades to complete the process this was accelerated after India lost a border war with China in the Himalayas in 1962 to stop Chinese aggression it had first been developing nuclear energy getting supplies for its reactors from countries like Canada and the US while secretly using them to develop weapons the first test was successfully completed in 1974 code named smiling Buddha in the desert of Rajasthan in which they called a peaceful nuclear explosion this test Drew worldwide condemnation and sanctions as India was using a Canadian reactor provided for energy purposes and because they refused to sign the nuclear non- proliferation treaty this is where countries agree to set rules to limit the spread and use of such weapons however India did deliberately refrain from fully weaponizing the technology into Warheads while theoretically researching the means to weaponize in case they needed to in the future most Indian politicians were opposed to creating activated nuclear weapons so it was a slow process that wouldn't be completed until the '90s the eth country to develop nuclear weapons was South Africa which is one of the most unique stories it possessed one of the world's largest reserves of natural uranium which is a key ingredient and had been supplying it to the US UK France and potentially the Soviet Union and Israel most of which was intended for peaceful energy reactors but it's likely some also ended up being used for weapons since 1948 South Africa had created a nuclear energy program but by the 1960s and '70s they shifted interest into weapons due to the increased Soviet influence that was spreading in Namibia and Angola as well as this the apartheid regime Drew worldwide condemnation causing South Africa to become politically isolated and without many allies for protection in 1977 they created a testing facility in its Kalahari Desert and nearly detonated a bomb but when a Soviet satellite spotted it and reported this to the US the backlash and international pressure stopped the test in 1979 us satellites detected a double flash of light in the Prince Edwards Islands controlled by South Africa in the Indian Ocean this was called The V incident and is widely believed to have been a joint nuclear test by Israel in collaboration with South Africa they likely allowed Israel to test its weapons there in exchange for South Africa gaining some of this research for its own program who didn't have functional weapons yet at the time by the mid 1980s it had created six nuclear bombs roughly the size of the one dropped on Hiroshima and it's believed to have achieved this with the help of Israel likely in exchange for its large uranium supplies South Africa maintained deliberate ambiguity around its weapons never admitting to having nukes similar to Israel to act as a deterrent from hostile Nations but by the '90s as the Soviet Union collapsed its need for protection from communist threats dissipated and with the apartheid regime coming to an end it feared handing over nuclear weapons to the next incoming government so it opted to be the first nation in history to dismantle and dispose of its nukes and then admitted to the world that it had actually possessed them the designs were destroyed and the enriched uranium was locked in a nuclear facility Vault although in 2007 armed Intruders breached the facility and came close to stealing the materials before being stopped and there are still fears today about this weaponized uranium falling into the wrong hands pakist would become the ninth country beginning the process in the 1970s after losing a war with India their biggest rivals in 1971 causing East Pakistan to become Bangladesh their prime minister said that if India builds the bomb we will eat grass or leaves even go hungry but we will get one of our own after India conducted its smiling Buddha test in 1974 the race was on to catch up Abdul Kadir Khan was a Pakistani scientist who while working at the Dutch nuclear facility stole top secret intell Ence on how to enrich uranium and brought them back to Pakistan which was a main Foundation to their nuclear weapons program they also had significant help from China Who provided expertise materials and blueprints to develop a bomb this was because China wanted another Ally against India also being one of its Rivals and saw the benefit in arming Pakistan the US did little to stop Pakistan's nuclear weapons program initially underestimating their capabilities but also because Pakistan was a key Ally against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the US didn't want to risk their Alliance and often turned a blind eye despite mounting evidence that Pakistan were using the US military funding to develop weapons in 1998 India detonated five nonp peaceful Warheads including a thermonuclear bomb just weeks later in response Pakistan also detonated five bombs underground in the rasco mountain range successfully completing their first ever test and making them the latest nuclear armed Nation while India operates a no first policy meaning they are only for deterrence and to be used in retaliation to such weapons being used on them Pakistan operates a first use policy preserving the right to use them however it sees fit and indicated it would use nukes against India even if no nuclear weapons were used on them while this policy concerns many nations that has proved successful for Pakistan leading to a weaker response from India in their many conflicts since out of fear of how Pakistan might respond an Indian military spokesperson said that pakist stand's threat of nuclear first use has deterred India from seriously considering conventional military strikes Abdul Kadir Khan the man mentioned earlier for stealing the Dutch nuclear Blueprints and dub the father of Pakistan's nuclear program confessed in 2004 that he had been involved in illegally selling nuclear weapons technology to North Korea Iran and Libya seeing as none of these countries are a part of the nonproliferation treaty it drew worldwide concern about the uncontrolled spread of this technology North Korea became the 10th and final country so far to develop nuclear weapons the North Korean founder Kim ilung saw nuclear weapons as crucial to ensuring his regime's survival and asserting its power to the world to deter longtime rival South Korea and the US in the 1950s the Soviet Union initially helped them develop their first nuclear research facilities for peaceful energy purposes with many North Korean scientists being trained in the Soviet Union both China and the Soviets refused North Korea's many requests to help them develop weapons and towards the 1970s North Korea focused on building their own nuclear program using its own large natural uranium deposits which proved essential as they didn't need to rely on sourcing it from any other country by the 1980s the us became aware that North Korea was using spent nuclear energy fuel on creating weapons then in the '90s North Korea signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty despite secretly building weapons and delaying inspections from the international atomic energy agency in 1994 the US offered them light water reactors which would allow for peaceful nuclear energy production while making it very difficult to use them for making weapons like their current graphite reactors were the North Koreans initially agreed to this deal but ultimately broke down in 2002 due to a lack of trust between the two countries the US accused the North Koreans of secretly enriching uranium violating the agreement this led North Korea to officially withdrawing from the non-proliferation treaty and continuing its weapons program as well as well as the initial help from the Soviets in the ' 50s on energy they also had some limited help from China but most importantly Pakistan as mentioned earlier which was crucial to their development in 2005 Kim Jong ill claimed to have possessed functional nuclear weapons and the next year in October 2006 they completed their first successful nuclear test although it was so small at an estimated .5 kilotons experts believed it didn't go off correctly and may have malfunctioned in 2009 while Kim Jong 's Health was r ly deteriorating in what's believed to have been a show of strength they detonated a second much more powerful bomb and a third in 2013 then in 2016 and 17 it tested its first thermonuclear bombs now while those are the 10 countries that have made their own nuclear weapons there are lots more that hosted nukes from other countries under alliances for protection and deterrence during the Cold War the United States held nuclear weapons in Belgium Germany Italy the Netherlands Turkey Greece Denmark's Greenland South Korea Japan the Philippines Taiwan Canada Morocco and Puerto Rico although some of these were brief and some of them only had vehicles that contain nuclear weapons although most of these were removed towards the end of the Cold War us nukes still remain today in Belgium Germany Italy the Netherlands and turkey the Soviet Union also stored significant amounts in their Soviet republics with the most being in Ukraine and others being inside bellarus lava Lithuania and Estonia Georgia and Armenia Kazakhstan usbekistan turkistan and as well as briefly in Cuba all of these were since removed and dismantled with the collapse of the Soviet Union although in 2023 Russia again provided bellarus with an estimated 130 Warheads there are also several other countries that were working on developing their own nuclear weapons but abandoned the work due to International pressure or lack of resources these include Argentina Brazil Sweden Romania Algeria Libya Iraq Iran Egypt Syria Taiwan and Japan many of these countries were actually very close to successfully developing the technology notably Iraq Syria and Iran who each made significant progress but all had facilities destroyed or sabotaged by Israeli missiles and cyber attacks Iran is widely speculated to be the next Nation closest to developing nukes but their rival Israel being the only nuclear armed country in the Middle East is very keen to prevent this Saudi Arabia's leader Muhammad bin Salman has also said multiple times that without a doubt if Iran gets them then they will too the Saudis are already working on a nuclear energy program and certainly have the funds and means to create weapons Japan is considered to be one of the most capable countries in the world that could very easily create nuclear weapons if they wanted to they have some of the most advanced nuclear energy technology and large stockpiles of enriched uranium but they currently employ a policy of pacifism both Argentina and Brazil will also extremely close to completing their development having created the infrastructure and Technology but interestingly Mexico proposed the Treaty of tatco declaring the entirety of Latin America to agree to not having nuclear weapons and every country in the region eventually signed it except for French Guyana because it is technically a territory of France which is a nuclear armed country although the territory is still considered part of the treaty and France does not store nuclear weapons there there are also similar treaties in place around the world since then which have agreed not to host develop or test any nuclear weapons such as the raratonga treaty covering the South Pacific the pelandaba treaty covering the African continent the semi platanis treaty covering Central Asia the Bangkok treaty covering southeast Asia and the Antarctic treaty which prohibits any military activity however while these treaties are useful most of the world's nuclear armed States store their nuclear weapons inside submarines which means they are everywhere and anywhere secretly hidden inside the oceans at any given time this acts as one of the strongest deterrence as even if a country's launch facilities were completely destroyed the submarines lie ready waiting to retaliate and are impossible to destroy creating nuclear weapons is an extremely expensive and conspicuous process as we saw in the 1979 a incident even a very small explosion in the middle of the Indian Ocean hidden under cloud cover back in the' 70s was picked up by a us satellite so you can imagine the level of surveillance today day with the sophistication of satellites even when that submersible imploded at the bottom of the Atlantic the US Navy still detected it so it is very hard to have a secret nuclear program without the world knowing but while those are the 10 Nations that completed the process it's likely only a matter of time until more are added to the list [Music]
"This was planned." "Imran Khan is being put in jail." "The situation is worsening." Imran Khan or the Pakistani army? Who will win at last? Hello, friends.! On 9th May 2023, Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested from Islamabad High Court. After a few hours, people all over the country take to the streets to protest. These heavy protests turn into riots in some places. There was widespread violence. More than 2,000 people were arrested. Imran Khan openly accused the Pakistani army. And that's why we witnessed some historical scenes during the protests. For the first time, average Pakistani citizens openly start protesting against the military. "We told you not to harass Imran Khan, Sir." "Sir, we told you not to harass Imran Khan." It is said that this level of instability in Pakistan was not seen in the last few decades. It is being called the biggest crisis in Pakistan since 1971. Let's try to understand it in this video. Friends, last year, in April 2022, when Imran Khan's government fell, when he lost the no-confidence vote in the Parliament. Since then, Imran Khan has been involved in a series of legal cases. Cases of corruption, murder, and even t3rror1sm. Khan and other members of his political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have been accused of about 140 crimes. 34 of these cases are against Imran Khan. We know this from some documents that were accessed by Foreign Policy American News Publication. Now, the arrest of Imran Khan on 9th May was specifically done on corruption charges. These investigations were being led by Pakistan's NAB, i.e. National Accountability Bureau. So what was this corruption case exactly? This case was related to Al-Qadir University Trust. This is a non-governmental welfare organization which was set up by Imran Khan and his third wife Bushra Bibi. This trust was formed in 2018 when Imran Khan was the Prime Minister. Even as a Prime Minister, he promoted this trust in official events. This trust runs a university which is devoted to spirituality and Islamic teachings. In June 2022, Imran Khan was accused of buying land worth millions of rupees to build this university from Malik Riaz, a property tycoon. Pakistan's NAB claims that Imran Khan's government had a deal with this property tycoon which caused Pakistan's government to lose $239 million. This is approximately 70 Billion Pakistani Rupees and ₹20 Billion rupees. This was a quid pro quo arrangement. A favour in exchange for another favour. The same accusations that are often levied against several political-corporate nexus. Now on 9th May, Imran Khan had gone to Islamabad High Court to attend a hearing in some other case. And then, the NAB arrested him using paramilitary forces. The scenes of this arrest were very scary. As you can see on the screen. The way Imran Khan is being escorted and the sheer number of officers surrounding him. NAB claimed that it was necessary to arrest him because despite giving notices, Imran Khan was not appearing in front of them. The former prosecutor of the NAB, Imran Shafique, says that although NAB has the authority to arrest someone in case of repeated absence, the case against Imran Khan is very weak. According to the revised amendment, NAB has to complete its inquiry first. And the report needs to be shared with the accused. Additionally, there is another case in which Imran Khan is badly entangled. In October 2022, a court in Pakistan ruled that Imran Khan cannot hold any political office for the next 5 years. He cannot contest in elections. This was in the Toshakhana case. In Pakistan, Toshakhana is basically a treasury of gifts. If the price of a gift is less than a certain value, the receiver can keep the gifts with him but the expensive gifts have to be sent to Toshakhana. The major accusation, in this case, was that Imran Khan was given many expensive gifts and Imran Khan misled officials regarding those gifts and sold them at very exorbitant prices in the market. In this case, he found respite later on when the court said that he would still be allowed to contest the elections. But after he was arrested in the Al-Qadir case, in the Toshakhana case too, he was detained in police custody for 8 days. Because of this, Imran Khan's supporters were out on the streets and heavy protests were seen in Pakistan. Several interesting videos emerged. Like a video where an unaccompanied girl was seen shaking the gates of the military headquarters in Rawalpindi. In Lahore, many protesters gathered outside Imran Khan's house. There were roadblocks, tires were set on fire, police used water cannons and in many cases, tear gas was also used. Pakistan's current Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, warned that violent protests will not be tolerated. Many Imran Khan supporters set fire to cars and petrol bombs were also thrown at the residence of the current Prime Minister. Pakistan's Army released a statement saying that these days of protests will be remembered as a dark chapter in the history of Pakistan. Talking about international reactions, UK's Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said that this is Pakistan's internal matter. But on the other hand, the opposition leader in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn, has condemned Imran Khan's arrest. Countries like America and Canada have not taken any side here. They have merely issued travel advisories to their citizens stating that it is not safe to travel to Pakistan. A famous human rights international organization, Amnesty International, has strongly condemned the actions in Pakistan. Especially, blocking the internet. Access to many social media websites has been cut off. And internet restrictions were in place all over the country. Because of this many common people had to incur losses. Now, the thing is, friends, this political crisis is not the only crisis that Pakistan is facing. In fact, there is a devastating economic crisis in Pakistan. Currently, inflation is at a record high. Inflation has reached up to 30%. With inflation this high, it is expected that the International Monetary Fund will have to bail out Pakistan. The third problem is the numerous t3rror1st attacks in Pakistan. There was a recent attack in Balochistan. Before this, there was an attack on the border of Pakistan-Iran. In January, there was a horrific explosion in a mosque in Pakistan, killing 60 people. The situation is very unstable, but here, let's try to understand things better. The political game between Imran Khan and the Pakistan Army. In November 2022, there was an assassination attempt on Imran Khan. He was participating in a protest march when someone fired a bullet at his feet. Imran Khan directly accused the Pakistan military and said that the Pakistani army is trying to k*ll him. He claims that the Major General of ISI, Faisal Naseer, is conspiring with Prime Minister Sharif and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah to k*ll him. On 7th May, Imran Khan called Faisal Naseer a Dirty Harry. And the media wing of Pakistan's army ISPR, the Inter Services Public Relations, strongly criticized Imran Khan's statements but Imran Khad stood firmly on his point. He kept repeating the same claim. Before being arrested, on 9th May, he said the same thing in a video. "ISPR sir, when an institution takes action against its black sheep, it improves its credibility. This man tried to k*ll me twice and whenever there is an investigation, I will prove that he was the man and that he has a gang with him." An interesting point to note here is that in 2018, when Imran Khan won the elections and became the Prime Minister, many people believed that it was with the support of the Pakistani army and military establishment. I have told you in earlier videos that the army in Pakistan is very powerful. For many decades, the Pakistani army ruled directly over Pakistan. There was a military dictatorship. But even after democracy was adopted and other politicians came to power, it is said that the Pakistan army has indirect control over the government. Pakistan's army not only has heavy control over the country's politics but also exerts a heavy influence on business. "They are Pakistan's largest military and largest corporation as well. Industrial Corporation. "If you need cement, use the Army's cement." It was like a funny way to tell people that our military is doing business." It is said that the Pakistani military was looking for a new face in 2018. And they found a new face in Imran Khan. This is why during the first few years as the PM, Imran Khan passed many pro-military policies. Many military generals were given important portfolios of the government to control. There was tight control over the media. The opponents of Imran Khan faced heavy crackdowns and many opposition leaders were also put behind bars. But it is said that with time Imran Khan lost his favourable position with the military when he lost the No Confidence vote last year. Since then Imran Khan has been openly against the military and since the recent assassination attempt on him, he has been directly accusing the Pakistani army saying that they are trying to k*ll him. Actually, it is believed that Pakistan's army does not like it at all when any political leader becomes so popular that he starts overshadowing the military establishment. Whenever Pakistan's former prime ministers tried to take a stand against the army it ended badly for them. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hang*d to de*th in 1979 by Pakistan's military dictatorship after a controversial trial. His daughter Benazir Bhutto, another military dictatorship, put her under house arrest. And within a few weeks after the end of the house arrest, she was assassinated. Nawaz Sharif, when Imran Khan was the Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif was locked up in jail. The reason is said to be military influence. In Pakistan, the history of military dictatorships has been so long that it was only in 1970 that that the first general elections took place in Pakistan. Compare this to India. Both countries got independence in the same year, but India's first general election was in 1951. It took Pakistan almost 20 years longer to conduct elections. So, in this context, India has a golden history in this regard. We had peaceful transfers of power You can say that Imran Khan's problems with the military started in 2019. General Asim Munir was the Chief of ISI. It is said that he was investigating corruption allegations against Imran Khan. When Imran Khan shortened his tenure. A new ISI Chief was appointed. But in November 2022, Pakistan's army made General Asim Munir the Chief of Army Staff. The head of the army. Today, this Pakistani establishment is after Imran Khan with its full might. They are trying to suppress, arrest and maybe even k*ll Imran Khan. But it would not be wrong to say that when Imran Khan was the Prime Minister, he had a chance to change the system. He had the chance to reduce the influence of Pakistan's military. To try to set up a new healthy democracy. But he did not do that. Now the question arises, what will happen next? Will Pakistan's military establishment, be successful in suppressing Imran Khan, like the other PMs? Or will Imran Khan, his protests, and his supporters be successful in destroying the Pakistani army's power? If we look at history, there's always a military coup in Pakistan in such cases. When the military has a hard time dealing with democracy, and they want to be in control of everything, they decide to establish military dictatorship. So far, there have been 4 military coups in Pakistan. In 1953, 1958, 1977, and 1999. Apart from this, there were 3 unsuccessful coup attempts. In 1951, 1980, and 1995. 2008 was the most recent year when Pakistan was under a military dictatorship. And since then, thankfully, democracy has remained strong. The protests that are taking place in Pakistan today, it cannot be denied that this is the first time that the public has shown so much anger against Pakistan's military. Another reason for Imran Khan's unmatched popularity is said to be that the military is, perhaps, not as strong as it was before. Apart from Imran Khan's political career, another major reason for his popularity is that when he was a cricket player, he had won the world cup for Pakistan. Till now, Pakistan has won the cricket World Cup only one back when Imran Khan was a cricketer. This is why it is said that if a military coup is attempted by the Pakistan military, the public response will be even stronger. On the other hand, if there is no military coup, and elections are held, many experts believe that obviously, Imran Khan will win the elections. "Because I knew I was saved. And what about now? I mean, are you scared? Well, I mean, the threat of assassination is probably even more now than before. Because the three people, who I knew were responsible for this, they're still sitting in power. And they're probably more worried now than ever before. Because all indications are that whenever there are elections, my party is going to sweep the elections." If this happens, what he does after winning the elections will also be very interesting to watch. But if he doesn't win the elections, or if there's fraud in the elections, or if a military coup is attempted, then for the stability of Pakistan it will spell doom in the coming days. Many people have already started demanding early elections. For now, the elections have been planned for October 2023. If we talk about the recent arrest, Imran Khan finally got relief from the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Pakistani Supreme Court ruled his arrest as illegal and so he was released on bail on 12th May. After this, for now, the protests have cooled down to a large extent and have turned into celebrations. People are celebrating on the streets. We need to wait and watch what happens next. If you liked the video, you can click here to watch the video on the War of 1971 in it, I discussed the history of Pakistan and Bangladesh in detail. How did the military become so powerful in Pakistan exactly? What drove the partition of Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh? Everything is laid out in that video. Thank you very much!