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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
In 1993 a protracted power struggle between Prime
Minister
Nawaz Sharif and President Ishaq Khan played out as
Pakistan's
two leading politicians maneuvered each other out of
power. This
period of behind-the-scenes struggle was described by a
Pakistani
daily as a "Silent Revolution" and was watched with some
concern
by the international community, which feared that Pakistan
could
once again fall under military rule.
On April 18, 1993, the power struggle seemed to be
resolved
when President Ishaq Khan, exercising the extraordinary
constitutional powers afforded the president by the Eighth
Amendment, dismissed the government of Prime Minister
Nawaz
Sharif. For the second time, Ishaq Khan had invoked the
Eighth
Amendment to bring down an elected government. The charges
of
corruption and mismanagement of the economy that he
leveled
against Nawaz Sharif were almost identical to those he had
earlier brought against Benazir in 1990. President Ishaq
Khan
appointed Balakh Sher Mazari, described by the New York
Times as heading "a tribal clan of landowners," as
caretaker
prime minister and announced a new timetable for
elections.
On May 26, 1993, the Supreme Court voted that Ishaq
Khan's
dissolution of the National Assembly and his dismissal of
the
prime minister were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court's
action
was a sharp rebuke of Ishaq Khan's heavy-handed exercise
of
presidential powers and was widely hailed as a victory for
the
advocates of democratization. Yet, although the Supreme
Court was
able to reinstate the Nawaz Sharif government, the status
quo
ante was not restored, and the struggle between the
president and
the prime minister continued unabated, making the pursuit
of
regular government workings impossible. Noting the
mounting
impatience of the Pakistani military with the endless
machinations of the country's politicians, the United
States and
the European Community communicated their concern, warning
against a military takeover.
The continuing political crisis in Pakistan came to an
abrupt
halt when the prime minister and president both resigned
after
two weeks of intense negotiations among the Nawaz Sharif
government, Benazir, and the army. The resolution of the
crisis
was unique because for the first time in the nation's
history a
government had voluntarily stepped down in order to avoid
a
possible military intervention. Interestingly, the
negotiations
had been mediated by General Waheed, the chief of the army
staff.
The resultant agreement and its implementation followed
strict
constitutional procedure. Ishaq Khan was replaced by the
chairman
of the Senate, Wasim Sajjad, who functioned as acting
president
until the elections. More important, Moeen Qureshi, a
former
civil servant and senior
World Bank (see Glossary)
official,
agreed to serve as caretaker prime minister. Qureshi, a
Pakistani
national, had left the World Bank in 1992, obtained
permanent
residence status in the United States, and established his
own
company, Emerging Markets Corporation.
Data as of April 1994
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