Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu: میاں محمد نواز شریف; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who served as the prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. Sharif is the longest-serving prime minister of Pakistan having served a total of more than 9 years.
Born into the upper-middle class Sharif family in Lahore, Sharif is the son of Muhammad Sharif, the founder of Ittefaq and Sharif Group. He is the elder brother of Shehbaz Sharif, who also served as the chief minister of Punjab. According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, Sharif is the one of the wealthiest men in Pakistan, with an estimated net worth of at least USD $1.6 billion. Most of Sharif's wealth originates from his businesses in steel construction.
Before entering politics in the mid 1980s, Sharif studied business at Government College and law at the University of Punjab. In 1981, Sharif was appointed by President Zia as the minister of finance for the province of Punjab. Backed by a loose coalition of conservatives, Sharif was elected as the Chief Minister of Punjab in 1985 and re-elected after the end of martial law in 1988. In 1990, Sharif led the conservative Islamic Democratic Alliance and became the 12th prime minister of Pakistan.
After being ousted in 1993, when president Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolved the National Assembly, Sharif served as the leader of the opposition to the government of Benazir Bhutto from 1993 to 1996. He returned to premiership after the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) was elected in 1997, and served until his removal in 1999 by military takeover and was tried in a plane hijacking case which was argued by Barrister Ijaz Husain Batalvi, assisted by Khawaja Sultan senior Advocate, Sher Afghan Asdi and Akhtar Aly Kureshy Advocate. After prison and exile for more than a decade, he returned to politics in 2011 and led his party to victory for a third time in 2013.
In 2017, Sharif was removed from office by the Supreme Court of Pakistan regarding revelations from the Panama Papers case.[1][2][3][4] In 2018, the Pakistani Supreme Court disqualified Sharif from holding public office,[5][6] and he was also sentenced to ten years in prison by an accountability court.[7] Sharif is currently[when?] in London for medical treatment on expired bail.[8] The IHC declared him an absconder and issued arrest warrants for him in late 2020.[8][9]
Early life and education
Sharif was born in Lahore, Punjab, on 25 December 1949.[10][11][12] The Sharif family are Kashmiris of Punjab.[11] His father, Muhammad Sharif, was an upper-middle-class businessman and industrialist whose family had emigrated from Anantnag in Kashmir for business. They settled in the village of Jati Umra in Amritsar district, Punjab, at the beginning of the twentieth century. His mother's family came from Pulwama.[13] After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Sharif's parents migrated from Amritsar to Lahore.[11] His father followed the teachings of the Ahl-i Hadith.[14] His family owns Ittefaq Group, a multimillion-dollar steel conglomerate,[15] and Sharif Group, a conglomerate with holdings in agriculture, transport and sugar mills.[16] He has two younger brothers: Shahbaz Sharif and Abbas Sharif, both politicians by profession.
Sharif went to Saint Anthony High School. He graduated from the Government College University (GCU) with an art and business degree and then received a law degree from the Law College of Punjab University in Lahore.[17][18]
Provincial politics
Early political career
Sharif suffered financial losses when his family's steel business was appropriated under the nationalisation policies of former Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Sharif entered politics as a result,[11] initially focused on regaining control of the steel plants. In 1976, Sharif joined the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), a conservative front rooted in the Punjab province.[11]
In May 1980, Ghulam Jilani Khan, the recently appointed military governor of the Punjab Province and a former Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was seeking new urban leaders; he quickly promoted Sharif, making him finance minister.[19] In 1981, Sharif joined the Punjab Advisory Council[17] under Khan.[19]
During the 1980s, Sharif gained influence as a supporter of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's military government. Zia-ul-Haq agreed to return the steel industry to Sharif, who convinced the general to denationalise and deregulate industries to improve the economy.[11] Within Punjab, Sharif privatised government-owned industries and presented development-oriented budgets to the military government.[17] These policies raised financial capital and helped increase the standard of living and purchasing power in the province, which in turn improved law and order and extended Khan's rule.[11] Punjab was the richest province and received more federal funding than the other provinces of Pakistan, contributing to economical inequality.[11]
Sharif invested[clarification needed] in Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Arab countries to rebuild his steel empire.[20][21] According to personal accounts and his time spent with Sharif, American historian Stephen Philips Cohen states in his 2004 book Idea of Pakistan: "Nawaz Sharif never forgave Bhutto after his steel empire was lost [...] even after [Bhutto's] terrible end, Sharif publicly refused to forgive the soul of Bhutto or the Pakistan Peoples Party."[20]
Chief Minister of Punjab
In 1985, Khan nominated Sharif as Chief Minister of the Punjab, against the wishes of Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo.[19] With the backing of the army, Sharif secured a landslide victory in the 1985 elections.[11] Because of his popularity, he received the nickname "Lion of the Punjab".[22] Sharif built ties with the senior army generals who sponsored his government.[17] He maintained an alliance with General Rahimuddin Khan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Sharif also had close ties with Lieutenant-General (retired) Hamid Gul, the Director-General of ISI.[11]
As chief minister, Sharif stressed welfare and development activities and the maintenance of law and order.[17] Khan beautified Lahore, extended military infrastructure, and silenced political opposition, while Sharif expanded economic infrastructure to benefit the army, his own business interests, and the people of Punjab.[17] In 1988, General Zia dismissed the government of Junejo and called for new elections.[17] However, Zia retained Sharif as the Chief Minister of Punjab Province, and until his death continued to support Sharif.[17]
1988 elections
After General Zia's death in August 1988, Zia's political party–Pakistan Muslim League (Pagara Group)–split into two factions.[23] Sharif led the Zia-loyalist Fida Group against the prime minister's Junejo Group.[23] The Fida Group later took on the mantle of the PML while the Junejo Group became known as the JIP.[23] The two parties along with seven other right-wing conservative and religious parties united with encouragement and funding from the ISI to form the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI).[23] (The IJI received ₨15 million from Zia loyalists in the ISI,[24] with a substantial role played by Sharif's ally Gul.[11]) The alliance was led by Sharif and Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi and opposed Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the elections.[23] The IJI gained substantial majorities in the Punjab and Sharif was re-elected chief minister.[23][25]
In December 1989, Sharif decided to remain in the provincial Punjab Assembly rather than hold a seat in the National Assembly.[26] In early 1989, the PPP government attempted to unseat Sharif through a no-confidence motion in the Punjab Assembly,[23] which they lost by a vote of 152 to 106.[23]
First term as prime minister (1990–1993)
The conservatives first came to power in a democratic Pakistan under Sharif's leadership.[27] Nawaz Sharif became the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan on 1 November 1990, succeeding Bhutto. He also became head of IJI.[27] Sharif had a majority in the assembly and ruled with considerable confidence, having disputes with three successive army chiefs.[27]
Sharif had campaigned on a conservative platform and vowed to reduce government corruption.[27] Sharif introduced an economy based on privatisation and economic liberalisation to reverse the nationalisation by Zulfikar Bhutto,[20] notably for banks and industries.[27] He legalised foreign money exchange to be transacted through private money exchangers.[27] His privatisation policies were continued by both Benazir Bhutto in the mid-1990s and Shaukat Aziz in the 2000s.[27] He also improved the nation's infrastructure and spurred the growth of digital telecommunication.[27]
Conservative policies
Sharif continued the simultaneous Islamization and conservatism of Pakistan society,[27] a policy begun by Zia. Reforms were made to introduce fiscal conservatism, supply-side economics, bioconservatism and religious conservatism in Pakistan.[27]
Sharif intensified Zia's controversial Islamization policies, and introduced Islamic Laws such as the Shariat Ordinance and Bait-ul-Maal (to help poor orphans, widows, etc.) to drive the country on the model of an Islamic welfare state.[27] Moreover, he gave tasks to the Ministry of Religion to prepare reports and recommendations for steps taken toward Islamization. He ensured the establishment of three committees:[27]
- Ittehad-e-bain-ul-Muslemeen (English: Unity of Muslims Bloc)
- Nifaz-e-Shariat Committee (English: Sharia Establishment Committee)
- Islamic Welfare Committee
Sharif extended membership of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) to all Central Asian Muslim countries, to unite them into a Muslim Bloc.[27] Sharif included environmentalism in his government platform, and established the Environmental Protection Agency in 1997.[28]
Conflicts
Following the imposition and passing of Resolution 660, 661, and 665, Sharif sided with the United Nations on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.[29] Sharif's government criticised Iraq for invading the fellow Muslim country, which strained Pakistan's relationships with Iraq.[29] This continued as Pakistan sought to strengthen its relations with Iran. This policy continued under Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharraf until the removal of Saddam Hussein in 2003.[29] Sharif raised the issue of Kashmir in international forums and worked toward a peaceful transfer of power in Afghanistan to curb the rampant trading of illicit drugs and weapons across the border.[27]
Sharif challenged former Chief of Army Staff General Mirza Aslam Beg over the 1991 Gulf War.[29] Under the direction of Beg, Pakistan Armed Forces participated in Operation Desert Storm and the Army Special Service Group and the Naval Special Service Group were deployed to Saudi Arabia to provide security for the Saudi royal family.[29]
Sharif faced difficulty working with the PPP and the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM), a potent force in Karachi.[30] The MQM and PPP opposed Sharif due to his focus on beautifying Punjab and Kashmir while neglecting Sindh,[30] and the MQM also opposed Sharif's conservatism. Although MQM had formed the government with Sharif,[30] the political tensions between liberalism and conservatism erupted into conflict by renegade factions in 1992.[30] To end the fighting between PML-N and MQM, Sharif's party passed a resolution to launch a paramilitary operation[30] under command of Chief of Army Staff General Asif Navaz.[29] Violence erupted in Karachi in 1992 and brought the economy to a halt.[30] During this time, Benazir Bhutto and the centre-left PPP remained neutral,[30] but her brother Murtaza Bhutto exerted pressure which suspended the operation.[30] The period of 1992–1994 is considered[by whom?] the bloodiest in the history of the city, with many people missing.[30]
Industrialization and privatisation
Sharif had campaigned on a conservative platform[27] and after assuming office announced his economic policy under the National Economic Reconstruction Programme (NERP).[27] This programme introduced an extreme level of the Western-styled capitalist economics.[27]
Unemployment had limited Pakistan's economic growth and Sharif believed that only privatisation could solve this problem.[27] Sharif introduced an economy based on privatisation and economic liberalisation,[20] notably for banks and industries.[27] According to the US Department of State, this followed a vision of "turning Pakistan into a [South] Korea by encouraging greater private saving and investment to accelerate economic growth."[31]
The privatisation programme reversed the nationalisation by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto[20] and the PPP in the 1970s.[32] By 1993, around 115 nationalised industries were opened to private ownership,[32] including the National Development Finance Corporation, Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation, and Pakistan State Oil.[27] This boosted the economy[27] but a lack of competition in bidding allowed the rise of business oligarchs and further widened the wealth gap, contributing to political instability.[32] Former science advisor Dr. Mubashir Hassan called Sharif's privatisation "unconstitutional".[33] The PPP held that nationalisation policy was given constitutional status by parliament, and that privatisation policies were illegal and had taken place without parliamentary approval.[33]
Sharif initiated several large-scale projects to stimulate the economy, such as the Ghazi-Barotha Hydropower Project.[27] However, unemployment remained a challenge. In an attempt to counter this, Sharif imported thousands of privatised Yellow-cab taxis for young Pakistanis, but few of the loans were repaid and Sharif was forced to pay for them through his steel industry.[27] Sharif's projects were not evenly distributed, focusing on Punjab and Kashmir Provinces, the base of his support,[33] with lesser efforts in Khyber and Balochistan provinces, and no benefits from industrialization in Sindh Province.[27] After intense criticism from the PPP and MQM, Sharif completed the Orangi Cottage Industrial Zone[27] but this did not repair his reputation in Sindh.[27] Opponents accused Sharif of using political influence to build factories for himself and his business,[27] for expanding the Armed Forces' secretive industrial conglomerate and bribing generals.[33]
Science policy
While privatising industry, Sharif took steps for intense government control of science in Pakistan, and placed projects under his authorisation.[34] In 1991, Sharif founded and authorised the Pakistan Antarctic Programme under the scientific directions of National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), with the Pakistan Navy's Weapons Engineering Division, and first established the Jinnah Antarctic Station and Polar Research Cell. In 1992, Pakistan became an associate member of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.
On 28 July 1997, Sharif declared 1997 a year of science in Pakistan, and personally allotted funds for the 22nd INSC College on Theoretical Physics. In 1999, Sharif signed the executive decree, declaring 28 May as the National Science Day in Pakistan.
Nuclear policy
Sharif made the nuclear weapons and energy programme one of his top priorities.[34][35] He expanded the nuclear energy program, and continued an atomic programme[27][34] while following a policy of deliberate nuclear ambiguity.[35]
This resulted in a nuclear crisis with the United States which tightened its embargo on Pakistan in December 1990 and reportedly offered substantial economic aid to halt the country's uranium enrichment programme.[34][35] Responding to US embargo, Sharif announced that Pakistan had no atomic bomb, and would sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if India did as well.[35] The embargo blocked plans for a French-built nuclear power plant, so Sharif's advisors intensively lobbied the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which allowed China to establish CHASNUPP-I nuclear power plant and upgrade KANUPP-I.[34]
Sharif's nuclear policy was considered less aggressive towards India with its focus on public usage through nuclear power and medicine, viewed as a continuation of the US Atoms for Peace programme.[by whom?] In 1993, Sharif established the Institute of Nuclear Engineering (INE) to promote his policy for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Co-operatives societies scandal
Sharif suffered a major loss of political support from the co-operatives societies scandal.[27] These societies accept deposits from members and can legally make loans only to members for purposes to the benefit of the membership.[27] However, mismanagement led to a collapse affecting millions of Pakistanis in 1992.[27] In Punjab and Kashmir, around 700,000 people lost their savings, and it was discovered that billions of rupees had been granted to the Ittefaq Group of Industries – Sharif's steel mill. Although the loans were hurriedly repaid, Sharif's reputation was severely damaged.[27]
Constitutional crisis and resignation
Sharif had developed serious issues of authority with conservative President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who had raised Sharif to prominence during the Zia dictatorship.[36] On 18 April, ahead of the 1993 Parliamentary election, Khan used his reserve powers (58-2b) to dissolve the National Assembly, and with the support of the army appointed Mir Balakh Sher as interim prime minister. Sharif refused to accept this act and raised a challenge at the Supreme Court of Pakistan. On 26 May, the Supreme Court ruled 10–1 that the presidential order was unconstitutional, that the president could dissolve the assembly only if a constitutional breakdown had occurred and that the government's incompetence or corruption was irrelevant.[36] (Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was the only dissenting judge; he later became 13th Chief Justice of Pakistan.[37][relevant?])
Issues of authority continued. In July 1993, under pressure from the armed forces, Sharif resigned under an agreement that also removed President Khan from power. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Shamim Allam and the Chief of Army Staff General Abdul Vahied Kakar forced Khan to resign from the presidency and ended the political standoff. Under the close scrutiny of the Pakistan Armed Forces, an interim and transitional government was formed and new parliamentary election was held after three months.[36]
Parliamentary opposition (1993–1996)
Following 1993 elections, the PPP returned to power under Benazir Bhutto. Sharif offered his full co-operation as Leader of the Opposition but soon the PPP and PML-N held parliament locked in dispute. Bhutto found it difficult to act effectively in the face of opposition from Sharif, and also faced problems in her political stronghold of Sindh Province from her younger brother Murtaza Bhutto.[36]
Sharif and Murtaza Bhutto formed the Nawaz-Bhutto axis and worked to undermine Benazir Bhutto's government, tapping an anti-corruption wave in Pakistan. They accused the government of corruption with major state corporations and slowing economic progress. In 1994 and 1995 they made a "train march" from Karachi to Peshawar, making critical speeches to huge crowds. Sharif organised strikes throughout Pakistan in September and October 1994. The death of Murtaza Bhutto in 1996, which allegedly involved Benazir's spouse, led to demonstrations in Sindh and the government lost control of the province. Benazir Bhutto became widely unpopular across the country and was ousted in October 1996
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