New Delhi: Pakistani politician Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi — who served as the country’s interim prime minister for a few months after former PM Benazir Bhutto’s government was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990 — had once remarked that “removal of the top leadership would add to, not diminish the credibility of Pakistan”.
With the country’s current prime minister, Imran Khan, set to face a no-confidence vote Saturday, it’s time for Jatoi’s theory to be tested again.
On Thursday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court set aside as unconstitutional a decision by the deputy speaker — a member of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party — which had cancelled the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against Khan’s government in the National Assembly, and Khan’s subsequent call for election in Pakistan.
The court verdict has also cleared the way for the no-confidence motion. Khan’s ouster is now imminent.
Even before the court’s ruling, following article 224(1A) of Pakistan’s constitution, the President had sent a letter to Imran Khan and the leader of the opposition, Shehbaz Sharif, to form a committee to select a caretaker, or interim, prime minister for the country.
Pakistan is no stranger to interim PMs. During the 1990s, the country had four caretaker PMs in six years, and there have been three more since then, all serving for a period of between one and four months. If Khan is ousted, making way for another interim PM, it will be the country’s eighth.
ThePrint looks back at Pakistan’s past caretaker PMs and the political instability that marked their periods in charge.
Also read: Why even Imran Khan couldn’t become the first PM of Pakistan to complete full term
Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi
In August 1990, Jatoi was appointed as Pakistan’s first caretaker prime minister. The country’s then-President, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, described by scholar Stephen Cohen as an “establishment pillar”, dismissed Benazir Bhutto’s government — for alleged corruption and nepotism — and placed Jatoi as the caretaker PM.
The Eighth Amendment of Pakistan’s constitution, made in 1985, empowered the President to dismiss the government and parliament. Jatoi, then “leader of the opposition”, was asked to form the government.
Jatoi helmed the Pakistan government between August and November 1990. The hallmark of his administration, according to writer Lawrence Ziring, was the targeting of the previous government and political elites, including Benazir Bhutto.
Jatoi’s ploys against the political elite involved applying the Parliament and Provincial Assemblies (Disqualification for Membership) Rules, which in theory could bar most politicians, including Bhutto, from fighting elections. He was, however, not successful in this attempt.
On 6 November 1990, Jatoi made way for Nawaz Sharif as prime minister, leading a coalition of parties called the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), which came to power after winning majority votes in the elections held in October 1990.
Mir Balakh Sher Mazari
Nawaz Sharif’s first term in power extended between November 1990 and April 1993. The appointment of a new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) in 1993 shattered the fragile peace between President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Sharif. Given the importance of the COAS, both wanted an ally in the position.
The President appointed General Abdul Waheed Kakar to the post in January 1993. Apparently unhappy with the choice, Sharif started publicly questioning the President, posturing to remove the Eighth Amendment.
Matters reached a tipping point in July 1993, when Ghulam Ishaq Khan again used the Eighth Amendment to dismiss the National Assembly and government on grounds of alleged corruption.
The president appointed Mir Balakh Sher Mazari as caretaker prime minister. Commonly called “Sardar”, he was the chief of the Mazari tribe, residing in the tristate area between Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan.
Mazari’s term lasted only six weeks, as the Supreme Court in a landmark judgement in May 1993, declared the dissolution of the government and National Assembly as unconstitutional and restored Sharif as PM.
Moeenuddin Ahmed Qureshi
Sharif returned to power on the strength of the Supreme Court judgment, but his relationship with the President was now beyond repair, throwing a shadow over governance.
President Khan dismissed several provincial assemblies in 1993, including those in Punjab and Sindh. Political Scientist Tahir Amin noted in the Asian Survey journal in 1994 that the president was isolating the federal government by dismissing the provincial legislatures. As the situation worsened, COAS Kakar had to step in and broker a deal, which resulted in both Khan and Sharif’s resignations in July 1993.
Moeenuddin Qureshi — economist, former World Bank employee and consultant in Singapore — was appointed caretaker PM on 18 July 1993 by caretaker president Wasim Sajjad.
Qureshi’s lack of political allegiance ensured his acceptability to all.
Though his mandate was primarily to conduct elections to choose a new government, some important political and economic reforms were undertaken during his tenure, including reforms in land allotment procedures, tax collections, payment of dues from politicians and targeting drug barons made Qureshi’s transitory premiership popular.
His tenure ended in three months, with Benazir Bhutto being re-elected PM after elections were held in October 1993.
Malik Meraj Khalid
Benazir Bhutto’s second term ended in three years, on 5 November 1996. She was ousted by the person she had lobbied to put in the president’s seat in 1993 — Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari. Again, allegations of corruption, malpractice, and nepotism were used to dismiss Bhutto.
Shortly after issuing the dissolution order, Leghari appointed Malik Meraj Khalid as Pakistan’s fourth caretaker prime minister in six years.
A lawyer, Left-wing crusader, and Marxist from the times of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Khalid had also served as speaker of the National Assembly in 1988, during Benazir’s first term as PM.
Khalid launched an investigation of corruption against Bhutto and her family. The penalty — if found guilty — included a seven-year ban from politics, according to an order put out by the Khalid administration.
Clearly, Benazir’s speaker had harboured plans to supersede her, whilst once conducting proceedings on her behalf on the floor of Pakistan’s National Assembly.
Khalid’s term as caretaker prime minister ended in three months, when Nawaz Sharif made a comeback for his second term as Prime Minister after the February 1997 elections.
Nawaz Sharif’s return symbolised a cyclical pattern in Pakistan’s politics in the 1990s. Either Bhutto or he would come to power via a coalition, they would then be ousted before the end of their term by the president, be replaced by a caretaker, and then return to power after a new election.
The last three
After the tumult of the 1990s, Pakistan saw a period of relative political stability for close to a decade under the military dictator Pervez Musharraf, who installed himself as president after a 1999 coup.
This stability came to an end in November 2007, when Muhammad Mian Soomro was appointed caretaker PM by Musharraf. Soomro remained in charge till March 2008, when Yousaf Raza Gillani was elected prime minister.
Next in the line of Pakistan’s interim PM was Mir Hazar Khan Khoso — who was appointed to the post for two-and-a-half months, between March and June 2013, after the incumbent Raja Pervaish Ashraf quit.
Most recently, Nasirul Mulk was appointed caretaker PM in June 2018, and remained in the chair till 18 August 2018, when Imran Khan was sworn in as PM.
While clarity on Pakistan’s possible eighth caretaker PM will only be available after Saturday, it is safe to assume that another turmoil in the democratic narrative of the country — already marked by periods of military rule and the hybrid “caretaker” system — is coming.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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