Uprising in Pakistan: How to Bring Down a Dictatorship

Even as they were taking place, the events that shook Pakistan in 1968–69 were underplayed in the Western media. Following a long period of tumult, a radical coalition—led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto—brought down the military regime of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, just as it was celebrating its tenth “glorious” anniversary.

Students, soon joined by workers and later by virtually every subaltern social stratum (including sex workers), took on the state appara...