Pakistan PM Raja Pervez Ashraf.
Here is the chronology of Pakistan's political history in a nutshell.
1947 - Pakistan is created following British India's Partition; divided into two sections, East Pakistan and West Pakistan; 500,000 killed in subsequent riots.
1951 - Pakistan founder Muhammed Ali Jinnah's (R) successor Liaquat Ali Khan is assassinated.
1956 - Constitution proclaims Pakistan an Islamic republic.
1969 - General Yahya Khan (R) succeeds after Khan resigns; under him, East Pakistan secedes as Bangladesh in 1971.
1977 - General Zia ul-Haq (R) launches military coup against PM Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's government; he becomes President the next year; Bhutto hanged in 1979.
1986 - Bhutto's daughter Benazir returns from exile to lead PPP in fresh elections one year after ban on political parties is lifted.
1988 - Zia dies in mysterious air crash in August; Ghulam Ishaq Khan becomes President; Benazir wins general election.
1990 - Benazir (R) dismissed as PM on charges of incompetence and corruption; Nawaz Sharif takes over.
1993 - President Ishaq Khan and Sharif both resign under pressure from military; general election brings Benazir back to power; Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari becomes President, who dismisses her government in 1996.
1997 - Sharif returns as PM after his Pakistan Muslim League party wins elections; Benazir and hubby Asif Ali Zardari handed jail sentences over corruption in 1999, stay out of country.
1999 - General Pervez Musharraf seizes power in coup; next year, Sharif is sentenced to life imprisonment over his actions to prevent the 1999 coup Benazir Bhutto's funeral in 2007.
2002 - Musharraf wins another five years in office in a referendum one year after he names himself President while remaining head of the army; he grants himself sweeping new powers, including the right to dismiss an elected Parliament.
2007 - Bhutto returns from exile; Musharraf wins presidential election but is challenged by Supreme Court.
He declares emergency rule, dismisses chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhary and appoints new Supreme Court, which confirms his re-election; Sharif returns from exile; Benazir assassinated.
2008 - PPP nominee Yousaf Raza Gilani (R) becomes PM in coalition with Sharif's Muslim League party following parliamentary elections.
2008 - Musharraf resigns after the two main governing parties agree to launch impeachment proceedings against him; Sharif pulls his PML-N out of the coalition; MPs elect Zardari President.
2012 - SC disqualifies Gilani from holding office after the government's refusal to reopen corruption cases against Zardari. Parliament approves Raja Pervez Ashraf as his successor.
2013 - SC orders the arrest of Ashraf over corruption allegations dating back to his time as water and power minister in 2010. He denies wrongdoing; cleric Tahir-ul Qadri leads a nationwide march demanding the resignation of the government.