THE MUDDLING NINETIES:

Benazir Bhutto And Nawaz Sharif

(1988-1993)
Lecture 16
PAKISTAN STUDIES
SAADIA TOOR
 CIVILIAN RULE RESTORED
• Two rivals came to dominate the political landscape during this period:
Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
• Bhutto became the first woman to lead a modern Muslim nation but her
rule was marred by charges of corruption, and she was dismissed from
office, only to rise once more as prime minister before suffering another
tumble from power.
• Once again Pakistan came under martial law and a general’s rule under
General Pervez Musharraf.
• Also during this period the still-unsettled Kashmir question again brought
Pakistan and India to the brink of war, only this time the presence of nuclear
weapons escalated the stakes in the standoff between the countries.
 BENAZIR BHUTTO’S FIRST
GOVERNMENT
• Elections were announced to be held in November 1988. In the
November elections the PPP won a majority and Benzair became the
first female PM.
• In her first address to the nation as prime minister, Bhutto presented
her vision of a Pakistan that was forward-thinking and democratic but
guided by Islamic principles.
• She announced the release of political prisoners, restoration of press
freedoms, and the implementation of stalled educational and
healthcare reforms. The ban on student unions and trade unions was
lifted.
 BHUTTOS FOREIGN POLICY
• She strengthened relations with Muslim countries.
• After taking office, she attempted to strengthen the country’s alliance
with the United States.
• Bhutto tried to ease tensions with India while seeking solutions to the
disputes—primarily Kashmir.
• Bhutto succeeded in gaining readmission to the Commonwealth in
1989.
 BHUTTOS DOMESTIC POICY
• Bhutto championed a Western secularist, socialist agenda, eschewing
the pro-Islamic policies of the Zia regime.
• Women’s social and health issues were staples of her campaigns.
• However, her stated policies were rarely translated into action:
• No legislation to improve welfare services for women was proposed.
• Campaign promises to repeal Hudood and Zina ordinances, which called for
punishments went unfulfilled.
• Bhutto faced significant obstacles in advancing any legislative agenda.
 BHUTTOS DOMESTIC POICY
• She had also inherited many political enemies of her father’s- A major was Nawaz
Sharif, leader of the PML and chief minister of Punjab, the most populous province.
• Another problem Bhutto faced was in the person of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan,
with whom she clashed repeatedly, especially over military and judicial appointments.
• Another problem was her failure to follow through on her announced campaign
initiatives to improve women’s health care and other social issues concerning women.
• In fact,
“the PPP government’s performance was lacklustre, with not a single new piece of
legislation being passed or even introduced, apart from two annual budgets”
(Jacques 2000, 170)
 BHUTTOS DOMESTIC POICY
• Despite these problems Bhutto’s first term as prime minister was not
completely ineffectual.
• During her 20 months in power, she ended a ban on unions in
Pakistan and, as part of her program to modernize Pakistan.
• She also attempted to encourage private investment in the Pakistani
economy.
 DOWNFALL OF BENAZIRS FIRST
GOVERNMENT
• Benazir was often criticised for being autocratic during her first term.
• She also appointed her mother, Nusrat Bhutto as senior minister without
portfolio and her father In law chairman of the Parliamentary Public
Accounts Committee.
• Two major problems of her government were excessive levels of
corruption within the PPP, particularly by her husband and her inability
to stop banditry in rural Sindh and ethnic violence between Sindhis and
Muhajirs in urban Sindh.
• There was a general sense of disillusionment as her government failed to
deliver the promised employment and economic development programs.
CARETAKER GOVERNMENT OF 1990
• On 6th August, 1990, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed the
Bhutto government, alleging corruption and incompetence; dissolved
the National Assembly and declared a state of emergency.
• Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was named caretaker prime minister.
• Ishaq Khan soon dissolved the provincial assemblies as well and
scheduled new elections for October 1990.
• Jatois government instituted accountability proceedings against those
charged for corruption and imprisoned Benazir's husband.
 NAWAZ SHARIF’S FIRST
GOVERNMENT
• On November 1, 1990, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, became prime minister
for the first time.
• In his first address to the nation he promised a comprehensive national
reconstruction program and to increase the pace of industrialization.
• In a vision to "turning Pakistan into a (South) Korea by encouraging greater
private saving and investment to accelerate economic growth."
• Identifying unemployment as the nation’s primary problem, Nawaz Sharif saw
industrialization as the cure.
• Sharif introduced Islamic Laws such as the Shariat Ordinance and Bait-ul-Maal
• He gave tasks to the Ministry of Religion.
 NAWAZ SHARIF’S ECONOMIC
POLICY
• Sharif supported an economic policy focused on restoring to the private sector
industries: Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, National Electric Power
Regulatory Authority, Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Telecommunication
Corporation, and Pakistan State Oil
• Sharif also went farther than Benazir Bhutto in enticing foreign investment by
opening Pakistan’s stock market to foreign capital, and foreign exchange
restrictions were loosened during this time.
• Large development projects, such as the Ghazi Barotha Hydro Power Project on
the Indus River in Punjab, the Gwadar Miniport in Baluchistan were commissioned.
• Sharif’s most controversial economic program involved the distribution of “tens of
thousands of taxis” to towns and villages.
 NAWAZ SHARIF’S ECONOMIC
POLICY
• Sharif’s economic policies placed him in good standing with the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• Pakistan was able to garner foreign aid amounting to as much as 2.7%
of its gross national product
• The damage to the economy done by the unpaid loans contributed to
the destabilization of Pakistan’s banking system so that by the late
1990s it was on the verge of collapse.
• Furthermore the governments budget deficit increased eventually
bringing the country into a brink of insolvency.
 FOREIGN POLICY AND
KALASHNIKOV CULTURE
• Nawaz Sharif strengthened relations with Central Asia’s Muslim republics
• He believed in forming a Muslim Bloc by uniting all Central Asian Muslim
countries thus he extended the membership of Economic Cooperation
Organization (ECO) to all Central Asian countries.
• Afghanistan was disintegrating into chaos Nawaz Sharif attempted to broker
a peace, but the violence continued.
• The Pakistani towns of Sakhkot, which had a gun market boasting more than
200 gun dealers, became symbols of the Kalashnikov culture.
• The number of heroin addicts went from fewer than 10,000 to 12,000 in
1979 to more than 500,000 by the mid-1980s and as many as 3 million to 4
million by 1999.
 DOWNFALL OF SHARIF’S FIRST
GOVERNMENT
• Differences over policy matters surfaced between the primes minister and
the president.
• In 1993 the president brought up charges of corruption and mismanagement
against Nawaz Sharif, dismissed him, dissolved the National Assembly,
appointed Mir Balakh Sher as the caretaker prime minister.
• New elections were announced for July 1993.
• However Nawaz Sharif was reinstated as prime minister.
• In July 1993 both Nawaz Sharif and Ishaq Khan resigned their positions, and
Moeenuddin Ahmad Qureshi was named caretaker prime minister and
Wasim Sajjad the caretaker president.