ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's government will grant an amnesty to Benazir Bhutto on corruption charges, meeting one of the former premier's main demands for a power-sharing deal, a cabinet minister told AFP Tuesday.
The announcement is the latest development in a political crisis that began when military ruler President Pervez Musharraf tried to sack Pakistan's chief justice in March, sparking mass protests.
Here is a chronology of events:
March 9: Musharraf asks Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to resign over allegations of misconduct. Chaudhry refuses.
March 10-12: Lawyers hold nationwide protests, the first in a series of demonstrations across the country.
March 16: Police fire rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of opposition supporters in Islamabad and smash up studios of a private television station.
March 26: First joint protests organised by the parties of exiled former prime ministers Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
May 5-6: Thousands cheer Chaudhry's motorcade from Islamabad to Lahore, where he declares to a huge crowd that the "era of dictatorship is over." Similar trips to other cities follow in May and June.
May 12-13: Forty-three people killed after government supporters prevent Chaudhry from attending a rally in the southern port city of Karachi. Strikes called afterwards paralyse much of the country.
June 4: Musharraf imposes tough new rules on broadcasters, sparking protests by journalists. Musharraf lifts the clampdown three days later.
July 3-10: Pakistani troops besiege the pro-Taliban Red Mosque in Islamabad, then storm the building a week later. More than 100 people die during the course of the crisis.
July 17: Suicide bomber kills 17 at a rally by Chaudhry in Islamabad, one of around a dozen suicide blasts sparked by the Red Mosque showdown.
July 20: Supreme Court reinstates Chaudhry and quashes the charges against him.
Bhutto and Musharraf hold secret meeting in Abu Dhabi on a possible power-sharing deal to sideline Sharif.
Aug 9: Musharraf decides against imposing state of emergency nationwide following pressure from Washington.
Aug 23: Supreme Court rules Sharif can return from exile.
Aug 30: Sharif announces he will return to Pakistan on September 10.
Sept 1: Bhutto says she has not reached a deal with Musharraf and that she will announce a date for her return to Pakistan on September 14.
Sept 5: Bhutto calls for meeting with Musharraf after talks resume.
Sept 7: Court orders arrest of Sharif's brother Shahbaz on murder charges. Government asks another court to grant arrest warrant for Sharif on corruption charges.
Sept 10: Sharif sent back to exile in Saudi Arabia four hours after his plane from London touches down at Islamabad airport.
Sept 14: Bhutto's party says she will fly to the southern city of Karachi on October 18.
Sept 18: Musharraf's lawyer says he will step down as army chief if re-elected. Bhutto dismisses the plan as undemocratic and unconstitutional.
Sept 20: Presidential election set for October 6.
Sept 26: Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party fields a candidate against Musharraf, party vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
Sept 27: Musharraf files formal nomination papers.
Sept 28: Pakistan's Supreme Court rules that Musharraf can run for re-election while keeping his role as army chief, throwing out a raft of legal challenges in a major blow to the opposition.
Sept 29: Police clash with lawyers and journalists, beating them with batons as the election commission approves Musharraf's nomination for a second term.
Sept 30: Opposition parties lodge last-ditch challenge in the Supreme Court.
Oct 2: Opposition MPs resign en masse over Musharraf's candidacy. Musharraf appoints his successor as army chief. Government says it will grant amnesty to Bhutto over long-standing corruption charges.
10/02/2007 12:19 GMT