November 6, 1990, when Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister for the first time

This refers to August 6, 1990, when the President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, dismissed Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s government under Article 58 (2) B of the Constitution, accusing him of corruption and lawlessness, and appointed Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi as caretaker. Appointed Prime Minister. He is considered the first caretaker Prime Minister in the political history of the country.

In the general elections held on 24 October 1990 by the caretaker government led by Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, the Pakistan People’s Party contested under the banner of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDA). In addition to the PPP, former Air Chief Marshal Asghar Khan’s Tehreek Istiqlal, Tehreek Nafeez Fiqh Jafaria and Pakistan Muslim League’s Malik Qasim group were included in this alliance. While the Islamic Democratic Alliance (IJI) was participating against him, which was led by Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.

In this fifth general election in the history of Pakistan, the conservative party like Islamic Democratic Alliance won 105 seats in the National Assembly while PDA got only 45 seats. Other 56 seats went to MQM, ANP, JUI and independent candidates.

Allegations of election rigging were made by PDA. Benazir Bhutto termed the parliament that came into existence as a result of the new elections as unrepresentative and said that this parliament was created by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

As the majority party in the parliament, the IJI parliamentary party nominated Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif for the post of Prime Minister. On the morning of November 6, 1990, a special session of the National Assembly was held. In this, the election of the Leader of the House was carried out. Here, Nawaz Sharif got 153 votes out of 192 in the National Assembly, while PDA candidate Afzal Khan could get only 39 votes. On the same day Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif took oath as the Prime Minister for the first time.

Shortly after assuming the post of Prime Minister, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had deep differences with President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on various issues. These deep differences reached a climax when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressed the nation on radio and television on April 17, 1993, in a highly emotional manner, calling the President’s House a hotbed of conspiracies. Said that he will neither resign, nor dissolve the assembly nor take dictation.

This address of Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif provided a strong justification to President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who was a victim of the scandal regarding the dissolution of the Assembly, and the very next day, on April 18, 1993, he addressed the nation on radio and TV. While making allegations of corruption under Article 58 (2) B of the Constitution, he announced the dismissal of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his Cabinet and the Assembly. On the same evening, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan administered the oath of office of the Caretaker Prime Minister to Senior Parliamentarian Mir Balkh Sher Mazari in a dignified ceremony at the President’s House.

Against this extreme move of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Speaker National Assembly Captain (Rtd) Gohar Ayub Khan approached the Supreme Court as the custodian of the Assembly at 1.30 pm four hours after the dissolution of the Assembly. After that, 17 more writ petitions were filed in which the names of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Awami National Party President Ajmal Khattak and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain are noteworthy.

The full bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Syed Naseem Hasan Shah, issued an order for the unconditional restoration of the National Assembly and the Nawaz Sharif government on May 26, 1993, after a five-week hearing. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was the sole judge of the Full Bench who dissented and wrote his lengthy dissenting judgment.

In the context of the court decision, caretaker Prime Minister Mir Balkh Sher Mazari transferred power to Nawaz Sharif on 26 May 1993 after ruling for 39 days. With this decision of the Supreme Court, where the Presidency faced loss, the shadow of the political crisis in the country deepened.

In early July 1993, the opposition parties announced that if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not announce new elections, they would march towards Islamabad on 16 July 1993.

In this critical situation, the Chief of Army Staff, General Abdul Waheed Kakar, played a decisive role in persuading the leader of the opposition, Benazir Bhutto, to cancel the long march, and on the other hand, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan to resign and Prime Minister Mian Muhammad. Nawaz Sharif was prepared to dissolve the assembly. General Abdul Waheed Kakar assured the three parties to hold general elections on time if these decisions are implemented.

July 18, 1993 was a historic day in Pakistan’s politics when the country’s president and prime minister simultaneously resigned under the ‘Kakar formula’. First, the Prime Minister advised the President to dissolve the National Assembly, then the President announced the dissolution of the National Assembly and announced his resignation.

Later, with the consensus of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, Moin Qureshi, former executive director of the World Bank, was made caretaker prime minister, while Senate Chairman Waseem Sajjad assumed the post of acting president.

After the victory of the Islamic Democratic Alliance in the same fifth general election in the country’s history, Air Chief Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan, the chairman of Tehreek-e-Istiqlal, a political party included in the Pakistan Democratic Alliance, supported the security institutions in the formation of the IJI and the winning politicians. But he had made serious allegations of taking money from the same institutions and approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan. This case in the Supreme Court came to be known as ‘Asghar Khan Case’.