from Pakistan, history of

The administration of Benazir Bhutto

On Aug. 17, 1988, Zia was killed in an airplane crash, together with his leading generals and the U.S. ambassador. Suspicion rested on Soviet agents, but nothing was proved. The chairman of the Senate, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, a long-standing Zia supporter, took over as acting president. He subsequently announced that elections would be held in November as planned.

When the election results were counted, the PPP, led by Benazir Bhutto, had won 93 seats; the Islamic Democratic Alliance, claiming the mantle of Zia, won 54 seats; and the remaining 58 seats were won by independents and candidates from minor parties. Support for Bhutto in the key province of Punjab, with 60 percent of the population, was weak, and in subsequent provincial elections the Islamic Democratic Alliance held this key province. PPP candidates became chief ministers of Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province. Bhutto had a mandate, but it was incomplete. In subsequent negotiations conducted by Ishaq Khan, who was elected president in December 1988, she had to make concessions in important areas of policy. Thus, Pakistan's commitment to the Afghan mujahideen continued, and the army retained its premier place in the system. (Pakistan's armed forces numbered over half a million people in the late 1980s; some 480,000 of these were in the army.) In December 1988 Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to lead an Islamic state.

Given office without real power, Benazir Bhutto responded by projecting her image on the national and international stage without attempting to make fundamental changes at home. Distrusted by the president and the military, she was ousted 20 months later. She was succeeded in November 1990 by a Punjabi industrialist, Nawaz Sharif. However, relations between Sharif and Khan were also tense. Khan dismissed Sharif as prime minister in April 1993, accusing him of mismanagement, corruption, and a "reign of terror." Khan dissolved the National Assembly and promised new elections for July, but the Supreme Court overturned his actions and reinstated Sharif and his government in May. The bitter power struggle reached a deadlock in July, forcing both Sharif and Khan to resign, reportedly because of pressure from the army chief of staff, General Abdul Waheed. An interim government took over, and elections were scheduled for the fall. In October the PPP won a majority of seats in the National Assembly, and Benazir Bhutto was elected prime minister.

Social and economic conditions remained much as at the end of British rule. Agriculture continued to be the staple of the economy, with the Punjab as the breadbasket of the country and the great landowners as the main force in rural society. A major element in assisting Pakistan toward prosperity was the migration of hundreds of thousands of workers overseas, first to the United Kingdom and later to the Persian Gulf states and Libya.

(H.R.T./Ed.)