Constitutional Background
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in the first months of his government, already managed to have the constitution changed. The President no longer has the power to fire an elected government. Sharif also fired the navy commander Admiral Mansurul Haq on corruption charges. The former (1996) Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had a number of disputes with the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice stroke down her appointment of 18 new judges. It also reinstalled municipal pro-Sharif councillors who were removed by the Bhutto government.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif rules with a comfortable majority of 181 seats in the 217-seat lower house. There is also the Justice Movement of Imran Khan, a populist reformer who used to be a cricket-idol in Pakistan. Members of the Immigrants' National Movement (MQM), i.e., Indian Muslim immigrants, consider themself the founders of modern Pakistan while Sindhis, who had been there before 1947, oppose this view.
History and News
- 17 Feb 1997: Sharif begins his second term as Prime Minister.
- Nov 1996: Sharif defeats Bhutto in elections after she has been fired by President Farooq Lehari amid accusations of corruption.
- 24 June 1996: Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif files a constitutional complaint before the speaker of parliament demanding disqualification of Prime Minister Bhutto for concealing property in England.
- 1993: The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif loses elections to Benazir Bhutto.
