Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif (1949- ) was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was reelected once. His party is the Pakistan Muslim League N (Nawaz group).Sharif was born in Lahore to a prominent industrialist. He came to political prominence in the days of General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, who declared martial law over Pakistan in 1977. Sharif served competently as finance minister, then as chief minister for General Zia. He became an important figure in Pakistani politics when elected government was restored in 1988, following the death of General Zia.
He became Prime Minister first in 1990, running on a policy of conservative government and an end to corruption. Sharif, days after being elected Prime Minister, demonstrated his firm (and to some, heavy-handed) methods of government, by dismissing the Naval Chief on charges of corruption. Whispered suspicions developed that his firm hand indeed was responsible for murder: the death of the Army Chief, Asif Janjua, of a heart attack during his first term was attributed by his opponents to Sharif's close alliance with the intelligence, although he encouraged no close inquiries. He was removed from office in 1993 in favor of Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
In crises, Sharif demonstrated a capable political will, although often heavier than most civil authorities would have liked. When time was short, he tended to act on the side of force and strength rather than on the side of caution and patience. After the blasts at the Chagai Hills, he suspended many civil liberties and alarmed the Indian government which thought he was going on a war path. He dismissed a Sindhi government and set up military courts when the stability of the government was threatened, and defied a Pakistani tradition that balanced power between the provinces. He was accused of cronyism and being too supportive of Punjabi candidates for office, which marginalized his party in the south.
He returned to power in 1997, and worked against his oppposition parties. He was accused of trying to stifle institutional opposition to himself: he modified the Pakistani constitution such that the President could no longer dismiss the Prime Minister. He worked against the judiciary branch, earning him the enmity of the Chief Justice, Sajjad Ali Shah. The Chief Justice joined in accusing Sharif of contempt of court, but these allegations were eventually dropped.
Sharif was unpopular with the army, which saw him as an outsider. He clashed with army chiefs in 1998 over their influence in government, and again in 1999 when he withdrew Pakistani forces from the Indian side of the Line of Control in Kashmir during the "Kargil Crisis". His vacillation on policy in those fateful months had a direct impact on the decline of his influence and strength in Pakistani politics. His Muslim League party divided over his policies and the Pakistani government began to fracture. His wife and senior members of his party formed an anti-military coalition along with the Pakistan People's Party, the major opposition to Sharif's Muslim League.
In his second term, he was widely seen as mercenary and paranoid in Pakistani politics, isolating and destroying his opposition, although many of his old supporters also broke rank with him as he neglected their advice. His former friendships with important figures such as Gohar Ayub, the minister for water and power, and Ejuz-ul-Haq, the son of former dictator Zia ul-Haq, were broken, along with Mohammed Azhar, a former governor of Punjab. All of them had staunchly supported Sharif when he was in opposition against Benazir Bhutto. He allowed Musharraf to take command of the Water and Power Development Authority in early 1999, which alienated his anti-military allies, who perceived Musharaff (rightly, it turned out) as the very being that opposed Pakistani democracy.
He scented a coup in October of 1999, and refused to allow a passenger plane carrying General Pervez Musharraf to land in Karachi. His efforts to forestall the coup failed, however, and the military bloodlessly stepped into power and dismissed Sharif and the civilian authority. Musharraf declared himself the Chief Executive of Pakistan, and Sharif was tried and thrown in prison. The military courts that he was tried under sentenced him to several life sentences for corruption, hijacking, tax evasion, embezzlement, and terrorism in 2000. The military government agreed to commute his sentence from life in prison to exile in Saudi Arabia. His family moved with him.