Our neighbouring country Pakistan recently had their elections and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan was elected as the Prime Minister. It has made me wonder about the fate of Khan’s political career as none of Pakistan’s previous leaders has ever completed their term as PM. Some were assassinated, some dismissed while in term, sometimes the government collapsed, or was deposed by military coups and resignations.
Here’s a list of PAK previous PM, their termed served and their fates:
-Liaquat Ali Khan (assassinated)
15 Aug 1947 to 16 Oct 1951
Total serving time: 4 years, 2 months and 2 days.
-Khawaja Nizamuddin (government dissolved by the governor general)
17 Oct to 17 April 1953
Total serving time: 1 year 6 months
-Mohammad Ali Bogra (government dissolved by the governor general)
17 April to 11 Aug 1955
Total serving time: 2 years and 6 months
-Chaudhry Muhammad Ali (resigned)
12 Aug 1955 to 12 Sept. 1956
Total serving time: 1 year and 1 month
-Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (resigned)
12 Sept 1956 to 18 Oct 1957
Total serving time: 1 year and 1 month
-Ibrhamin Ismail Chundrigar (sacked due to a vote of no confidence)
18 Oct 1957 to 16 Dec 1957
Total serving time: 1 month 28 days
-Feroz Khan Noon (Government collapsed)
16 Dec 1957 to Oct 7 1958
Total serving time: 9 months and 21 days
(MILITARY COUP)
-Ayub Khan Regime Military rule (Offices of PM and President are combined to attain full control)
1958 to 1971
Total serving time: 13 years
-Nurul Amin (resigned)
7 Dec 1971 to 20 Dec 1971
Total serving time: 13 days
-Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as President
1971 to 1973, New constitution introduced and position of PM brought back
-Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as PM (deposed in a coup by Zia-ul-Haq)
14 Aug 1973 to 5 Jul 1977
Total serving time: 3 years 10 months and 21 days
(MILITARY COUP)
-Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (assassinated)(Position of PM dissolved to attain full control of state)
1977 to 1985,
Total serving time: 8 years
-Muhammad Khan Junejo (Dismissed by the President)
23 March 1985 to 29 May 1988.
Total serving time: 3 years 2 months 5 days
-NO PRIME MINISTER 29 may 1988 to 2 December 1988
-Benazir Bhutto (Dismissed by the President)
2 Dec 1988 to 6 Aug 1990.
Total serving time: 1 year 8 months and 4 days
-Nawaz Sharif (Dismissed by President)
6 Nov 1990 to 18 April 1993
Total serving time: 2 years 5 months and 12 days
(Court rules in favour of Nawaz Sharif and is reinstated as PM)
-Nawaz Sharif (resigned)
26 May 1993 to 18 July 1993.
Total serving time: 1 month and 22 days
-Benazir Bhutto (Dismissed by the President)
19 Oct 1993 to 5 Nov 1996.
Total serving time: 3 years and 17 days
-Nawaz Sharif (Deposed in a coup by Pervez Musharraf)
17 Feb 1997 to 12 Oct 1999.
Total serving time: 2 years 7 months and 29 days
NO PRIME MINISTER 12 OCT 1999 – 23 NOVEMBER 2002
-Zafarullah Khan Jamali(resigned)
23 Nov 2002 to 26 June 2004.
Total serving time: 1 year 7 months and 3 days
-Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain (stepped down)
30 June 2004 to 26 Aug 2004 .
Total serving time: 1 month 27 days
-Shaukat Aziz (became the first PM to have left office when the parliamentary term for his party expired)
28 Aug 2004 to 15 Nov 2007.
Total serving time: 3 years 2 months and 18 days
-Yousaf Raza Gillani (Disqualified on orders from Supreme Court)
25 March 2008 to 19 June 2012.
Total serving time: 4 years 2 months and 25 days
-Raja Pervez Ashraf (completed parliamentary term due to the absence of Yousaf Gillani)
22 June 2012 to 24 March 2013.
Total serving time: 9 months and 2 days
-Nawaz Sharif (Disqualified on orders from Supreme Court)
5 June 2013 to 28 July 2017.
Total serving time: 4 years 1 month and 23 days
-Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (completed parliamentary term due to the absence of Nawaz Sharif)
1 Aug 2017 to 31 May 2018.
Total serving time: 10 months
Looking at the list, I remember a famous saying, “History repeats itself”. Many reasons like the dominance of the military in civilian affairs, religious fanaticism, wars with India, feudalism etc. have played their role in overthrowing regimes and governments. Once again, only time will tell the fate of the next elected Pakistani PM.