The 1999 military takeover in Pakistan was a bloodless coup d’état initiated by the military staff at the Joint Staff HQ working under the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Pervez Musharraf.
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.
What happened on 12 October 1999?
The instigators seized control of the civilian government of the publicly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 12 October 1999.
On 14 October, General Musharraf, acting as the country’s Chief Executive, issued a controversial provisional order that suspended the Constitution of Pakistan.
