Daily Times

After the air crash of General Zia-ul-Haq’s C-130 aircarft at Bahawalpur on 17 August 1988 Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Chairman of the Senate was sworn in as Acting President. The army top brass surveyed the situation and Ghulam Ishaq Khan the Acting President was “called” to GHQ to be informed that he was “selected” to be the President. After being sworn in as President he decided to bring back political parties into the political game and decided to hold elections on party basis. He invited them to partake in the November 1988 general elections on as already announced by General Zia-ul-Haq. The main political parties in the field were the PPP, Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) and Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA) comprising remnants of the Zia League, later renamed Islamic JamooriItihad (IJI).

Some politicians, particularly of the IJI, (formerly Zia League) and some army generals wanted to hold the November 1988 elections on party less basis but Benazir Bhutto challenged it in the Supreme Court and Apex Court gave its verdict in the first week of October 1988 that the elections were to be held on the party basis. The campaign was short but fiercely contested.The IJI, concentrated on Benazir’s character assassination, being westernized and anti-Punjab. It was also said that to vote for a woman was forbidden in Islam.

The election results showed that PPP was the larger winner, securing 93 seats out of a total of 215 seats contested for the National Assembly as against 54 seats captured by the combine of the Muslim League and IJI. The PPP also won 7 out of the minority seats, making a grand total of 100 seats. The PPP was the single largest party in the national Assembly but was still not in a position to form the government on its own and needed al. It was interesting to note that most of the stalwarts of the past including Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, EllahiBuxSoomro and Mumtaz Bhutto lost their respective seats to the PPP Candidates.

Democratically Ghulam Ishaq Khan should have invited Benazir Bhutto as leader of the majority party in the Assembly to form a Government but he did not.

In the meantime Benzir established contacts with the MQM and the ANP who agreed to collaborate. Now the PPP with the cooperation of MQM and ANP formed a comfortable majority in the lower house to form a government. Ghulam Ishaq Khan was still hesitant but eventually he had no choice but to call Benazir Bhutto and ask her to form the government.

After eleven years of autocratic rule Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister on December 2, 1988.

Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed the PPP government of Banazir Bhutto on August 6, 1990 on charges of corruption and nepotism, under Article 58(2)b. He also dissolved the National Assembly and the two provincial assemblies of Sindh and N.W.F.P where the PPP was in power. Ghulam Ishaq Khan nominated Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi as Caretaker Prime Minister and announced elections to be held in October 1990.

Election activity was kicked off with IJI, propagating ethnic theme of “Punjabiat”. The Accountability Cell filed numerous references against Benazir Bhutto in various courts in different parts of the country to keep her involved in legal cases and make her run form one part of the country to the other to defend herself. The entire establishment was arrayed against Benazir and the PPP. The ISI, was also involved in it and it was later admitted under oath by the then head of the ISI, that he had distributed 140 million rupees obtained from Mehran Bank amongst various politicains mostly belonging to the IJI, to subvert the PPP election campaign.

The outcome of October 1990 elections was as expected and arranged by the administration. The IJI, coalition routed the PPP in the center and also in all the four provinces. In the National Assembly the IJI, bagged 155 seats as against only 45 of the PPP. As result of these elections Mian Nawaz Sharif was sworn in as Prime Minster on November 3, 1990.

Personal politics is against the norms of democracy and a serous default ending in multiple crises

On April 18, 1993 Ghulam Ishaq Khan this time, dismissed Mian Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister, dissolved the National Assembly and appointed Mir Balkh Sher Mazari as Caretaker Prime Minister. Mian Nawaz Sharif appealed to the Supreme Court for cancellation of President’s reinstatement of Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister and restored his government.

With this rebuff to Ghulam Ishaq Khan by the reinstatement of Nawaz Sharif and the President the Prime Minister struggling for supremacy, the political situation in the country became chaotic. On this the army decided to intervene and on July 18, 1993 General Kakar, Chief of the Army Staff, called upon both the President and the Prime Minister to resign. Elections to the National and Provincial Assemblies were announced to be held on October 6 and 8, 1993 respectively.

A totally new Caretaker Government with WasimSajjad, the Senate Chairman as Acting President and Moin Qureshi a former World Bank Vice President living in the USA was recalled to act as Caretaker Prime Minister, for three months.

The contestants in the elections were Muslim League (N) and PPP. General Elections were held on schedule as announced by General Kakar. October 6-8, 1993 elections were hotly contested and the PPP came out winning more seats in the center than Muslim League (N) but not enough to form a Government independently. However, being the majority party Benazir Bhutto was called upon to form the Government.

The provinces of Punjab and Sindh went with the PPP while in the N.W.F.P. and Balochistan Muslim League (N) formed coalition government. Sardar Farooq Ahmed Leghari, was now the President. But Leghari and Benazir Bhutto for various reasons could not pull together as President and Prime Minister. The rift between the PPP backed President Farooq Leghari and the PPP Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto widened to the extent that Leghari dismissed Benazir’s PDF coalition government on November 5, 1996 using Article 58(2) b and also dissolved the Assemblies. He inducted Caretaker Government with Malik Meraj Khalid as Interim Prime Minister and announced General Elections will be held in February 1997.

Mian Nawaz Sharif, the main opposition leader took advantage of the rift between the President and the Prime Minster and enforced his dictates resulting in a battered Ehtesab Ordinance of 1996 and got overnight amendments made in the list of defaulters of the bank loans. President Leghari also kept accommodating Nawaz Sharif and his demands. PPP thus found itself hard pressed. General elections were held on February 3, 1997 as scheduled and Mian Nawaz Sharif secured massive two third majority in the Upper House. The PPP fared very poorly.

Leghari’s Caretakers departed and Mian Nawaz Sharif was sworn in as Prime Minister on March 18, 1997. Personal politics is against the norms of democracy and a serous default ending in multiple crises.

The writer is former Director National Institute of Administration (NIPA) Government of Pakistan, a political analyst, a public policy expert