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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
In the National Assembly elections of October 6-7,
1993,
Benazir's PPP won a plurality--eighty-six seats--but not
the
absolute majority needed to immediately form a government
in the
217-seat National Assembly. Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim
League
ran a close second in gaining seventy-two seats. Over the
next
two weeks, Benazir was successful in mustering the
allegiance of
a number of small regional and independent members of the
assembly and on October 19, 1993, was able to reclaim
power with
121 seats in her coalition government. The October
elections were
hailed as the fairest in Pakistan's history and were,
according
to international observers, held "without hindrance or
intimidation." Voter turnout, however, was lower than
usual, as
only about 40 percent of registered voters participated.
Benazir benefited in the 1993 national elections from
the
MQM's boycott. In the 1990 national elections, the MQM,
which had
captured fifteen seats, supported Nawaz Sharif's IJI
coalition.
Benazir also benefited by the poor showing of the
religious
parties.
After only one month in office, Benazir was able to
strengthen her position considerably. On November 13,
1993,
Benazir's candidate for president, Farooq Leghari, an
Oxfordeducated PPP stalwart, easily defeated acting President
Wassim
Sajjad, who was backed by Nawaz Sharif. In a vote by the
two
parliamentary chambers--the National Assembly and the
Senate--and
the four provincial assemblies, Leghari won 273 votes to
Sajjad s
167. Bhutto hailed Leghari's election as a triumph for
democracy
and predicted that he would contribute to the country's
stability.
Although the new president retained the constitutional
authority vested in the Eighth Amendment to dismiss the
popularly
elected National Assembly as well as the prime minister,
he
appeared willing to support Benazir in curbing the power
of his
office. Leghari promised not only to support a
constitutional
amendment to annul the extraordinary presidential powers
granted
by the Eighth Amendment but also to challenge restrictive
laws
that related to Islamic religious courts and to women's
rights.
In order to amend the constitution, however, a
three-quarters
majority in the parliament is needed--a formidable task,
considering the strength of Benazir's opposition and the
unproven
staying power of her coalition. Leghari's victory,
nonetheless,
was expected to end the pattern of disruptive power
struggles
between prime minister and president that had so
undermined
previous governments.
Early in her term, Benazir declared that she would end
Pakistan's isolation and, in particular, that she would
strive to
improve her country's troubled relations with the United
States.
At the same time, however, she vowed to maintain Pakistan
s
nuclear program and not allow the "national interest to
be
sacrificed." Relations between the United States and
Pakistan had
deteriorated sharply during 1992 when the former
threatened to
classify the latter as a terrorist state because of its
aid to
militants fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Although
the
United States withdrew its threat in mid-July 1993, the
Kashmir
issue still loomed large and threatened to complicate
Pakistan's
relations with both India and the United States
(see the United States and the West
, this ch.).
Benazir faced another, personal challenge. As her
administration settled into office, a bitter Bhutto family
feud
played out on the front pages of the Pakistani press. The
feud
pitted Benazir against her younger brother Murtaza and her
mother, Nusrat, over dynastic control of the PPP. Nusrat
organized Murtaza's election campaign for the Sindh
provincial
assembly, in which her son contested (in absentia) more
than
twenty constituencies as an anti-Benazir candidate.
Although he
could only occupy one seat in the assembly, Murtaza
contested
multiple seats because if he had won more than one, his
political
stature would have risen. The electorate gave Murtaza only
one
victory, however, and as he returned to Pakistan from
years in
exile in Damascus, he was jailed by the government on
long-standing terrorist charges. In retaliation for her
mother s
championing of Murtaza's political ambitions over her own,
Benazir ousted Nusrat from her position as cochairperson
of the
PPP, further deepening the family rift. These family
squabbles
were a distraction for the new government, but Benazir was
expected to make progress on a wide variety of social,
educational, and cultural issues.
Data as of April 1994
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