Backgrounder: Pakistan caught in the middle

Pakistan is a nation caught in the glaring headlights of international attention as the United States and its allies fight a war on terrorism.

Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf walks a fine line as he supports U.S.-led air strikes in Afghanistan even as anti-American protests across his nation escalate.

Pakistan is the only nation that maintains diplomatic relations with the Taliban, and Gen. Musharraf is caught between cooperating with the coalition of world leaders bent on retaliation for the September 11 terrorist attacks against the U.S., and pleasing his own people, many of whom support the Taliban.

But walking a political tightrope is nothing new for a nation whose own history has been a precarious balance between a dream of independence and the reality of on-and-off military rule.

Jinnah's vision

RESOURCES • Jinnah: Pakistan's founding father  • Pakistan timeline: From 1947-1997  • Overview map of the region    MORE STORIES Pakistan: A nation caught in the crosshairs  Powell on diplomatic trip to Pakistan, India

The search for an independent Pakistan began with a dream of an egalitarian -- or equal -- state of government, when Muhammad Ali Jinnah led India's Muslims out of colonialism to independence from both Britain and cultural sibling India in August 1947.

Jinnah had a vision of a Pakistan built on "character, courage, integrity and perseverance." But with his death in 1948 — barely 13 months after the creation of Pakistan — the cobbled-together confederation of competing Muslim interests was left rudderless.

The result has been 24 years of off-and-on military rule, much of it under martial law, with the intervening years filled by a series of weak or hamstrung governments.

Troubled identity

Jinnah, left, and Gandhi

It would seem that Pakistan has two natural identities. Facing west there is Islam, whose adherents make up 98 percent of the country's population, and facing east there is India, the mortal enemy.

Islam has built upon a South Asian cultural heritage that dates back 5,000 years to the Indus Valley civilization. It is not unusual to find Muslim Pakistanis celebrating holidays with a basis in Indian culture, or observing the mores of the caste system that Islam supposedly abolished, according to South Asian specialist Dr. Leo Rose of the University of California, Berkeley.

The country does maintain strong links with the rest of the Islamic world, from Egypt to Indonesia, but the attachments are primarily based on an economic expediency or a common religious bond.

Sibling rivalry equals tense neighbors

MORE BACKGROUNDERS • Afghanistan's struggles have long history  • Turkistan: A patchwork quilt of people and traditions  • Islam: A religion of many faces, misconceptions

Two nations united by history but divided by destiny, India and Pakistan are almost like two estranged siblings. Their rivalries over five decades have prevented both countries from realizing their full economic and geopolitical potential.

The two countries have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed region of Kashmir. The region is small, but nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, its strategic importance and beauty make it a prized possession.

The friction between India and Pakistan is relevant to the rest of the world not only because both are the newest members of the nuclear club; it also affects the stability and economic potential of a region that includes more than a billion people, some 950 million in India alone.