Pakistan - Politics

Following victory at the October 1990 elections, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pursued economic reforms and privatisation and instituted Sharia (Islamic) law. In 1993 president and prime minister resigned under pressure from the military, making way for fresh elections which brought Benazir Bhutto back to power by a small majority.

In November 1996, President Sardar Farooq Khan Leghari, prompted by the army high command and opposition leaders, once again used the eighth amendment to the constitution, and dissolved the National Assembly, bringing down the Bhutto government and alleging corruption, financial incompetence, and human rights violations.

New elections were held in February 1997. The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) – previously the main component of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad – won 137 of the 217 seats in the National Assembly and Sharif became prime minister. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) retained only 19 seats.

In April 1997, Sharif was able to gain the PPP’s support to achieve the two-thirds majority necessary to repeal the eighth amendment, ending the president’s ability to dissolve the National Assembly. He also took over from the president the power to appoint Supreme Court judges and military chiefs-of-staff.

In October 1999, Sharif ordered the dismissal of Army Chief of Staff General Pervez Musharraf, and refused permission to land for the commercial aircraft in which he was returning to Karachi (from an official visit to Sri Lanka). The army countermanded the prime minister’s orders and immediately seized power, dismissing the government and arresting Sharif. Musharraf justified his actions as necessary to restore both the economy and the deteriorating political situation. Pending the restoration of democracy Pakistan was suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth.

In June 2001, Musharraf dissolved parliament and the four provincial legislatures, President Rafiq Tarar resigned and Musharraf became president, further isolating the country.

After the terrorist attacks on the United States of 11 September 2001, Pakistan co-operated with the US and its allies in the war on terrorism, offering intelligence and allowing aircraft attacking Afghanistan to pass over Pakistani territory.

A referendum held in April 2002 confirmed Musharraf’s position as president for a period of five years.

National Assembly elections in October 2002 produced a hung parliament. The Pakistan Muslim League–Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), which supported Musharraf, took 77 seats, followed by PPP with 63, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA, a new alliance of religious parties opposed to the US military presence in Pakistan) with 45, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) with 14 and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) with 13, leaving a large block of members of smaller parties and independents. The Commonwealth observer group present said that ‘on election day this was a credible election’, but that ‘in the context of various measures taken by the government we are not persuaded of the overall fairness of the process as a whole’.

The first session of the parliament was convened by the government on 16 November 2002 amid uncertainty as to which party would form the next government. The National Assembly subsequently elected Chaudhry Amir Hussain (PML-Q) as speaker and Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali (PML-Q) as prime minister. The continuing dispute between Musharraf and the opposition parties on the status of the Legal Framework Order (and especially his power to dismiss the prime minister and dissolve the Assembly) and Musharraf’s own position as president and chief of army staff created political deadlock. Parliament was not functioning and the government ruled by decree. The MMA emerged as leader in the campaign against the Legal Framework Order as the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) – an alliance of PPP, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), and several smaller parties – was weakened by the death of its leader and the absence of exiled leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

In January 2004 Musharraf won confidence votes in the Assembly, the Senate and the four provincial assemblies. In May 2004, in view of the progress made towards democracy, the Commonwealth decided to readmit Pakistan to the councils of the Commonwealth. In June 2004 the prime minister resigned and was succeeded by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain until July when he made way for finance minister Shaukat Aziz on his winning a seat in the Assembly. In December 2004 Musharraf announced he would continue as president and chief of army staff until 2007 when elections were due.

In the presidential election held in October 2007 Musharraf was unofficially proclaimed winner pending a key ruling by the Supreme Court regarding his eligibility to run for presidency while serving as chief of army staff.

Exiled Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007 after the presidential election. On the way from the airport to Karachi her convoy was hit by a suicide bomb attack. She survived, but hundreds were killed and injured.

In November 2007, ostensibly because of national security concerns, Musharraf declared a state of emergency effectively suspending the country’s constitution by a provisional constitutional order (PCO). A news blackout was imposed on major private television stations. Several hundred protestors, journalists and political opponents of Musharraf were arrested and eight Supreme Court judges including the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudary, who would not recognise the PCO, were dismissed and put under house arrest.

Musharraf came under increasing international pressure to restore the country’s constitution and abide by the timetable for free and fair parliamentary elections. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) convened in Kampala on 22 November 2007 and suspended Pakistan from the councils of the Commonwealth, pending the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in that country.

Musharraf appointed a new chief justice and a caretaker prime minister, Muhammad Mian Soomro. He resigned as army chief and was sworn in as president for a five-year term. The state of emergency was lifted in December 2007.

Nawaz Sharif, exiled leader of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), at his second attempt in the same year, was allowed to return. By end November 2007, both he and Bhutto had registered to participate in the following parliamentary elections. On 27 December 2007, as she was leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi, Bhutto was assassinated. Violence erupted throughout the country. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Benazir’s 19-year-old son, was chosen as her eventual successor; her husband Asif Ali Zardari was to lead the PPP, as co-chair, until Bilawal had completed his education. The elections due for January were postponed.

The parliamentary elections were held in February 2008. Opposition parties won the most seats – PPP with 97 (the reserved seats not included) and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) 71 – but no party had an absolute majority. The party supporting Musharraf, PML-Q, suffered huge losses, taking only 42 seats and many former ministers lost their seats. With no party securing a clear majority, PPP, PML-N, Awami National Party (ANP, 10 seats) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F, 6 seats) formed a coalition government headed by PPP’s Yusuf Raza Gilani, as prime minister.

On 12 May 2008, CMAG met in London and agreed that, since it last met in November 2007, the Government of Pakistan had taken positive steps to fulfil its obligations in accordance with Commonwealth fundamental values and principles. It accordingly restored Pakistan to the councils of the Commonwealth.

In the face of warnings by the PPP and PML-N leadership of impeachment by parliament, Musharraf announced his resignation as president in August 2008. In the ensuing presidential election, PPP co-chair Zardari was elected to replace Musharraf in September 2008. Zardari (securing 481 electoral college votes) defeated PML-N’s candidate, Saeed-uz-zaman Siddiqui (153 votes), and PML-Q’s Mushahid Hussain Syed (44). In the lead-up to the election PML-N left the governing coalition, which then comprised PPP, ANP, JUI-F and Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

Nine PML-N ministers resigned shortly after the presidential election, citing the apparent reluctance of the PPP to reinstate judges previously dismissed during the 2007 state of emergency. The move effectively ended the PPP- and PML-N-dominated coalition government and saw the beginning of a new one, consisting of the PPP, ANP, JUI-F and MQM.

In late February 2009 the Supreme Court confirmed the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shabhaz from holding elected office. Following the verdict, governor’s rule was imposed in Punjab Province, where Shabhaz Sharif had held the post of chief minister, and Nawaz Sharif allied himself with the lawyers’ movement which had been campaigning for the reinstatement of the chief justice, asserting that the Supreme Court verdict demonstrated the lack of an independent judiciary.

Confronted by the prospect of large-scale popular unrest, in March 2009 the government announced the reinstatement of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and requested a review of the Supreme Court judgment that had disqualified the Sharifs from holding elected office. In May 2009 the Supreme Court reversed the judgment and Shabhaz Sharif was reinstated as chief minister in Punjab Province. In July 2009 the Supreme Court quashed Nawaz Sharif’s convictions of hijacking and terrorism (brought against him following the military coup of October 1999).