No state can progress until there is continuity in its political system. If the flaws in the system are not corrected, it can be overturned by the people or by the military dictators. Pakistan is perhaps the only country in the world that has been going through experiences since its establishment. The power struggle, dominance, and mistrust between the military and the democratic leadership led to tragic tragedies whose wounds have not yet faded. Let us know how the role of the army came into Pakistan's politics and what were the factors that gave a military sector access to the corridors of politics and power. The mistrust between the political leadership and the military started from the time of the establishment of Pakistan. The first Army Chief of Pakistan was British General Frank Maseravi but soon another General Douglas Gracey took over the military leadership. Meanwhile, the first Indo-Pak war broke out and India occupied Kashmir. Despite the Quaid-e-Azam's instructions, he refused to send troops to Kashmir. Not only this, in 1951, Major General Akbar Khan tried to overthrow the Liaquat Ali Khan government but failed and all the characters of this conspiracy were caught. Soon, on October 16, 1951, during a speech in Rawalpindi, Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated. After that, Khwaja Nazimuddin assumed the Prime Ministership, but Governor General Malik Ghulam Muhammad terminated his government on 17 April 1953 and nominated Muhammad Ali Bogra as the Prime Minister. At the same time, he imposed martial law in Lahore to crush the movement against Ahmadis. This was the first democratic martial law in the country's history. Governor General Malik Ghalam Muhammad dissolved the Assembly in 1954 and appointed the serving Army Chief General Ayub Khan as the Minister of Defence. Thus, the military intervention in the Houses of Power began. In 1955, Iskandar Mirza became the Governor General after Ghalam Muhammad left power. On October 7, 1958, president Iskandar Mirza dissolved the government by revoking the 1956 constitution and imposed martial law in the country. It was a non-military martial law and appointed General Ayub Khan as the chief martial law administrator. In 1958, Ayub Khan exiled Iskandar Mirza and imposed military martial law, thus establishing the country's first regular military government. He hated democracy and politicians, which is why he made the infamous Abdo and Proda laws, which disqualified 7,000 politicians for 7 years. In the elections of 1965, Ayub defeated the joint presidential candidate of opposition parties Ms. Fatima Jinnah through fraud. In September 1965, India attacked Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the foreign minister in his government but in 1966 he went against him due to the Tashkent Agreement and founded the first public political party of Pakistan “Pakistan Peoples Party”. Due to public outcry in East Pakistan, Yahya Khan the then army chief, forced Ayub khan to resign in March 1969. Afterwards, General Yahya held the positions of Army Chief and Chief Marshal and Administrator. In December 1970, the first general elections were held in which Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League won a clear majority from Bengal. On February 1, 1971, General Yahya convened a meeting for the assembly government in Dhaka but cancelled the meeting due to pressure from Bhutto. This situation created unrest in East Pakistan, and armed insurgency started. Military action was taken to crush the rebellion but at the same time India attacked and Bangladesh emerged from East Pakistan. After this tragedy, He nominated Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as the Chief Marshal Administrator and the Chief of the Constituent Assembly. Bhutto detained Yahya Khan. Bhutto held early elections in 1977. Due to his success in the elections, the Joint Party of the Opposition (PNE) strongly protested, and soon this political struggle turned into the religious struggle “Tehreek Nizaf Nizam Mustafa (PBUH)”. Nationwide protests and chaos spread. In this condition, the army chief Zia Ul Haq imposed martial law and arrested Bhutto in a murder case. General Zia-Ul-Haq imposed martial law on July 5, 1977 and the court awarded the death sentence to Bhutto in the Raza Kasuri murder case on April 4, 1979, and he was executed. Benazir ( Bhutto’s daughter) started a political struggle against Zia. Zia promised to hold elections in 90 days but instead ruled for 11 years and 42 days. He also kept the post of Army Chief. Under his rule, the PPP workers were publicly tortured, and Benazir was detained. In 1984, Benazir was released from prison and exiled. Journalism was also under pressure, while the famous poet Habib Jalib was banned for writing anti-Zia poems. In 1985, Muhammad Khan Junejo was elected as the Prime Minister but when Junejo tried to take power into his own hands, president Zia invoked Article 58 2B of the Constitution and dissolved government and announced general elections. He began efforts to prevent Benazir from winning the 1988 election but died in a plane crash on 17 August 1988 before the election, which brought end to the 3rd and the worst martial law rule. It’s also a fact that the then ISI chief formed a nine-party coalition against Benazir, called the Islamic Democratic Alliance (IJI). Nawaz Sharif was also a part of this alliance. On December 2, 1988, Benazir was sworn in as the Prime Minister. She retained President Ishaq Khan and all the military leadership in their positions, but General Hameed Gul was not too happy with her. A covert operation called Mid Night Jackal to topple Benazir's government also exposed during her tenure. Major Amir and Brigadier Imtiaz were the protagonists, but when the secret was revealed, they put all the debris on President Ghalam Ishaq Khan and the Army Chief. It is also a fact that IJI was given 14 crore rupees by General Hameed Gul. All this situation strained the relations between President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Benazir, which resulted in the President invoking Article 58 2B of the Constitution and dissolved the government and announced elections. In 1990’s elections Nawaz Sharif won the elections and took oath as the Prime Minister on November 7, 1990. His relations with the then army chief General Aslam Baig were not good. After the end of the tenure of Army Chief, President Ghalam Ishaq Khan nominated Nawaz Sharif’s opponent General Asif Nawaz Janjoya as Army Chief without consulting the PM. General Asif stayed away from politics but died of a heart attack on 9 January 1993. After that, once again, President Ghalam Ishaq nominated General Abdul Waheed Kakar as the Army Chief without consulting the Prime Minister. Nawaz Sharif was very angry at this move of the president. It got to the point where contradictory statements were made in public. As per Article 58 2B, the president abolished the Nawaz government. Nawaz Sharif filed an application in the court, and the court reinstated him. Nawaz Sharif tried to regain the lost government of Punjab, which created a conflict between the President's nominated government and the federation. But Army Chief Waheed Kakar intervened and resolved the matter and convinced President Ghalam Ishaq and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to step down. On 6 October 1993, general elections were held in which Benazir once again got mandate and assumed the post of Prime Minister on 19 October 1993. Using his past experiences, She nominated her closest associate, Feroze Khan Laghari, as the president of the country. Once again, some serving military officers were preparing a coup called Operation Caliphate to establish the Caliphate system in the country. Major General Zaheer-Ul-Islam Abbasi and Brigadier Mustansar Billah were the main characters. Apart from 2 colonels and 38 soldiers, a military organization was also with them. They were planning to assassinate the PM , Army Chief and corps commanders but all these characters were captured and the coup failed. In her 2nd tenure she was blamed for corruption and favouritism. Nawaz Sharif convinced the President to dissolve the assemblies and again on October 5, 1996, Benazir's government was terminated. In 1997 Elections were held in which Nawaz Sharif got two third majority and formed government. He abolished Article 58 2B but the relations between the cheif justice Sajjad Ali Shah was bitter on the issue of special courts. Following the attack on supreme Court by Muslim league workers, President resigned and Rafiq Tarar was given the presidency . Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also asked for the resignation of the Army Chief General Jahangir Karamat over the differences and nominated General Pervez Musharraf as the Army Chief. The newly appointed Army Chief against the wishes of the PM launched Kargil operation. This created differences between the PM and the Army Chief. All attempts to normalise the relations between the two were in ruin. When General Musharraf went on a visit to Sri Lanka, Nawaz Sharif removed him and nominated Lt. Gen. Zia Uddin Bhatt was the Army Chief, but it was too late, Musharraf and his colleagues detained General Zia Uddin and arrested Nawaz Sharif and sent him to the jail. On October 2, 1999, General Pervez Musharraf imposed martial law. Nawaz Sharif was exiled to Saudi Arabia and regained power for another five years through a referendum on 30 April 2002. General Musharraf founded a political party called Muslim League-Q on August 20, 2002. After winning the 2002 elections he sworn in as president. In 2007, exiled Nawaz Sharif and Benazir returned home. Both started a political struggle against General Musharraf. Unfortunately, Benazir Bhutto was shot and martyred on December 27, 2007 while addressing a rally in Rawalpindi. In this turmoil, the 2008 elections were held in which the PPP won the elections and General Pervez Musharraf resigned on August 18, 2008 and went abroad. Benazir's husband Asif Ali Zardari was elected President while Yousef Raza Gyalani was elected Prime Minister. During this time, the military role was not very prominent. Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani conducted an operation against the Taliban in Swat on the orders of the political leadership. Due to his non-political ambitions, his tenure was extended for another three years. Although relations with the military leadership remained good, the court disqualified the Prime Minister in a case on June 19, 2012. After that, on 22 June 2012, Raja Pervez Ashraf was made the prime minister. Nawaz Sharif once again gain power in the 2013 general elections. He nominated General Raheel Sharif as Army Chief. As usual, his relations with the military leadership were not very ideal. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif nominated General Qamar Javed Bajwa as the Army Chief in place of Raheel Sharif after the completion of his tenure. But the situation took a turn when Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the court in the Panama Leak case. Nawaz Sharif attributes his disqualification to the conspiracies of the military leadership and criticizes the army chief and the ISI chief. In 2018, Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the general elections, and Imran Khan assumed the PM office. In 2022, Imran khan lost his government after the successful vote of no confidence against him. Imran Khan blamed the army and openly criticized the generals by naming them. Imran Khan was arrested and put in jail, and so the 2024 elections were held in which Imran Khan's party could not form the government due to ragging despite its victory. Now, the situation is that Imran Khan is in jail, and the country is suffering from economic and political instability while terrorism is re-emerging. If this trend continues, Pakistan may suffer further instability.