1999 Pakistani coup d'état

Martial law was declared due to the breakdown of civil-military relations. Tensions between the Sharif administration and joint chiefs chairman General Musharraf reached a breaking point. In an attempt to maintain civilian control over the military, Lieutenant-General Ziauddin Butt, then Director of the ISI, was hastily approved for the appointment of the army chief, but the decision was opposed by senior members of the Joint Staff HQ, who refused to follow the new chain of command, deciding instead to direct the Military Police to detain General Butt and prevent his taking control of the military.^[5]


The pace of the coup startled political observers; within 17 hours of Sharif's attempt to relieve General Musharraf, army commanders took control of all key government institutions throughout the country and placed Sharif and his administration, which included his brother, under house arrest.^[6] Military police took control of the state broadcaster, radio and the entire critical communications infrastructure, and announced that Sharif had been dismissed.^[6]


The Supreme Court of Pakistan led by Chief Justice Irshad Hassan Khan validated the martial law under a "doctrine of necessity" but limited its legality to three years.^[7]: 118 Meanwhile, Sharif was tried by the Judge Advocate General Court and convicted of endangering the lives of all passengers aboard the aircraft carrying Musharraf,^{[8]: 56–57} with the military court upholding the decision.^[8] When the decision was announced, it sparked fury in the conservative PML(N) but was welcomed by many of its political opponents.^[8] In 2000, the Supreme Court accepted arguments that the coup was a "violation of the constitution". However, acting Chief Justice Ershad Hasan later argued of the constitutionality of the coup.^{[7]: 119–120 [9]: 112–115}


On 10 December 2000, Musharraf unexpectedly issued a pardon to Nawaz Sharif to be flown to Saudi Arabia.^{[10]: 167–168 [11]: 73–74} In 2016, Musharraf later confessed in an interview given to Kamran Shahid of Dunya that "he pardoned Sharif from life imprisonment on the request of King Abdullah and Rafic Hariri."^[12]


In 2001, Musharraf issued the executive decree and eventually forced President Rafiq Tarar to resign in order for Musharraf to assume the presidency.^[13] In light of the Supreme Court's verdict, the national referendum was held on 30 April 2002, allowing himself to continue his rule,^[14][15] but was alleged by many (including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan) to be fraudulent.^[14][15] In 2002, the general elections restored democracy when the Musharraf-backed PML(Q), the libertarians, were able to form a minority government who would later nominate Musharraf for the 2004 presidential elections. In 2007, President Musharraf eventually imposed another martial law by having suspended the populist Chief Justice IM Chaudhry, leveling charges of corruption and misconduct. Unlike the earlier martial law, Musharraf was widely disapproved, inviting mass demonstrations led by Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf eventually resigned in an attempt to avoid impeachment in the Parliament.^[16]


Sharif was acquitted in 2009 from the 1999 hijacking case^[17] and in 2014 acquitted of the money laundering and corruption cases from an accountability court.^[18]