<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Strength </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 617,000 </Td> <Td> 170,000 </Td> </Tr> <P> The 1999 Pakistani coup d'état was a bloodless coup d'état in which the Pakistan Army and then - Chief of Army Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Pervez Musharraf, seized the control of the civilian government of publicly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 12 October 1999 . Two days into seizing the government, on 14 October 1999, General Musharraf, who then - acted as the country's Chief Executive, declared a state of emergency by issuing a Provisional Constitutional Order that suspended the writ of the Constitution of Pakistan . </P> <P> The martial law occurred due to meltdown of civil - military relations and the simmering tensions between the Prime Minister Sharif and Chairman joint chiefs General Musharraf as Sharif attempted to relieve General Musharraf of his command, who was en route to Pakistan from Sri Lanka after paying an official visit . Instead, General Ziauddin Butt, then - DG ISI, was appointed army chief and the Joint Staff HQ refused to follow the orders of new army chief and the commanders of the army corps decided to defend General Musharraf by having launched an order to arrest and detained to pre-empt Pakistani spymaster Ziauddin Butt from taking the control of the military . The pace of the coup startled the observers, within 17 hours, from attempting to relieved General Musharraf by Prime Minister Sharif, the army commanders took control of all key government secretariats throughout the country while placing the Prime Minister Sharif and his civilian cabinet, including his brother under house arrest . The military police took control of the state broadcaster, radio, and the entire critical communications infrastructure and announced that Nawaz Sharif had been dismissed . </P>

Who led a military coup in pakistan in october 1999