Following the Supreme Court’s judgment barring him from holding any public office for life, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has once again demited office without completing his term.
Mr. Sharif was handpicked for politics by the late Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq, becoming Finance Minister in West Punjab’s Cabinet in 1981. In 1985, he became Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
In November 1990, Mr. Sharif was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan for the first time, an election in which he was helped to office by the country’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate and right-wing religious parties.
He soon developed serious differences with then civilian President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who was considered close to the military establishment. Following a deal both Mr. Khan and Mr. Sharif were forced out of office by the powerful Army Chief Abdul Waheed Kakar in 1993.
In 1997, Mr. Sharif returned to power with a “heavy mandate”, but was embroiled in a running battle with two successive Chiefs of Army Staff — Jehangir Karamat and Pervez Musharraf. While Gen. Karamat resigned quietly, Gen. Musharraf staged a bloodless coup in October 1999, convicting Mr. Sharif of trying to “hijack his Colombo-Karachi flight” and sentencing the former Prime Minister to a life term.
After being in prison for 14 months, Mr. Sharif was exiled to Saudi Arabia as part of a deal reportedly brokered by the United States. He returned to Pakistan in 2007, ahead of the elections in 2008, which saw the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) return to power.
Mr. Sharif became Prime Minister for a third time in 2013, only to be ejected from office by the Pakistani Supreme Court in July 2017 for his role in the Panama Papers case.
