Since the Army first grabbed power, a decade after the South Asian country gained independence from Britain in 1947, civilians have ruled Pakistan for only 25 years.

Musharraf toppled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999 and only agreed to quit the military amid growing pressure over his November 3 imposition of Emergency rule.

"The choice in Pakistan has always been between military leadership or political corruption. It is not a great choice," said analyst Clive Williams from Australia's Macquarie University.

Pakistan's first military ruler was General Ayub Khan, who took over in 1958 when then-President Iskandar Mirza abolished the Constitution and surrendered power aid tensions with arch-rival India ad a poor economy.

Khan later became president and abolished the office of the Prime Minister. He lifted martial law in 1962 and gave up power in the face of mass pubic unrest in 1969.

General Yahya Khan, the army commander-in-chief, replaced Ayub and re-imposed martial law but had to step down in late 1971 following a war with India which resulted in the division of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh.

There was a brief spell of civilian rule for six years when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, father of current Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, served as President and Prime Minister.

His government was thrown out by General Zia-ul Haq who imposed martial law in July 1977 following widespread unrest over election results.

Haq had Bhutto executed two years later.

Haq's totalitarian rule -- during which he imposed Islamic laws and supervised the foreign-funded jihad (holy war) in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union -- lasted until 1985.

In August 1988, Haq was killed in a mysterious plane crash and Benazir Bhutto became the first woman prime minister of an Islamic nation.

But her government was dismissed after two years by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

Sharif served as Prime Minister from 1991-1993, Bhutto again ruled the country from 1993-1996 and her second government was dismissed by President Farooq Leghari over corruption charges.

Sharif returned to power in 1997, but General Musharraf, his Army Chief, overthrew his government in a bloodless military coup in October 1999 and suspended the Constitution.

Sharif too was charged with corruption and also with hijacking -- for trying to stop Musharraf's plane from landing in Pakistan after he had sacked him, an incident that led to the coup.

Musharraf restored the Constitution in 2002, but newspapers dubbed it his ‘second coup’ when he imposed a state of emergency and again suspended the Constitution on November 3, 2007.

Until today he remained Army Chief and President -- becoming the second longest-serving Army Chief after Zia-ul Haq.