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| 1977, Jan |
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| Elections were announced for March. Nine parties formed a broadly based opposition front called the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA). | 1 |
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| March 7 |
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| The main electoral contest emerged between the PNA and the ruling PPP, led by Bhutto. Bhutto's PPP won the election, controlling 155 seats and conceding only 36 seats to the PNA and 1 to the Qayyum Muslim League. This result, however, was disputed by the PNA, which insisted the elections had been rigged and called for a boycott of the provincial assembly elections scheduled for March 9 as well as a countrywide strike on the following day. | 2 |
| The PNA charge that the elections had been rigged was later confirmed by the chief election commissioner and the findings of the Election Commission. | 3 |
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| March 14 |
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| Civil disobedience movement launched. Leaders were arrested, but the movement continued to gain momentum, causing a breakdown of law and order in several places and interrupting economic life in the major industrial centers. The armed forces were called in, with martial law imposed on Karachi, Lahore, and Hyderabad through June 7. A curfew was imposed. Official sources put the death toll at 275 and the injured at 2,000, but the unofficial figures were over 1,000 dead and several thousand injured. Some 40,000 people were arrested. | 4 |
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| March 26 |
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| The National Assembly met and reelected Bhutto as the leader of the house. | 5 |
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| June |
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| Saudi Arabia was brought in to mediate, suggesting a larger strategy of identifying Pakistan with other Muslim countries in contradistinction to other countries in the subcontinent. Although elections were scheduled for Oct. 7, the negotiations broke down again, resulting in armed clashes between PPP and PNA supporters. | 6 |
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| July 5 |
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| Armed forces intervened once more, taking top PPP and PNA leaders into “protective custody” (including Bhutto). The constitution was not abrogated, but some of its clauses were put in abeyance as the armed forces took over the administration. | 7 |
| Gen. Zia ul-Huq took over as martial law administrator. In August, PPP and PNA leaders were released. | 8 |
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| Sept. 15 |
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| The state of emergency was lifted. The election campaign officially began three days later. | 9 |
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| Oct. 1 |
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| Gen. Zia postponed elections indefinitely, arguing that only after those holding public offices during the past seven years were brought to account for their misdeeds could meaningful elections be held. The Lahore high court convicted Bhutto and four others of instigating political murders and sentenced them to death. | 10 |
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