Second Tenure of
Benazir Bhutto
(1993-1996)
Outline
Background
Elections of 1993 and its results
Transfer of Power
Center and Opposition relations
Independence of Judiciary
Rubber Stamp Parliament
Center and Provincial matters
Mehrangate Scandal
Dissolution of Assembly & Conclusion
Background
The decade of eighties considered as the test case for democracy in Pakistani Politics.
The bad center-province relations, undemocratic role of opposition, deadlock between
president and prime minister, government-opposition tussles etc. were the common causes of
the failure of the last two governments .
Another elected civil government for the third time come into power in the election of 1993.
This time Benazir Bhutto become the Prime Minister of Pakistan for the second time in
1993 and the time period referred as the second tenure of Benazir Bhutto.
Elections of
1993 & its
Results
Continue...
Neutral caretaker governments were set up in Center and provinces .
The elections for the National Assembly and provincial assemblies were held on 6 and 9, October 1993
respectively.
PPP & PML(N) almost have the same manifestos but unlike legacies .
The elections results showed split mandate. The final party position in National Assembly was as follows; the
PPP (86 seats), the PML (N) (72), the PML (Junejo) (6), (IJM) (4), the (ANP)(3), the PIF(3), (PKMAP)(3).
On October 19, 1993 Benazir was elected as the leader
of the House and Nawaz as the leader of the opposition.
In the provincial assemblies of the Punjab, NWFP and
Baluchistan no party had acquired simple majority.
PPP-PML (J) alliance succeeded in forming its
government in Punjab.
Transfer of
Power In Baluchistan the government of Nawab Zulfiqar Ali
Magsi (an independent) was set up .
In NWFP the coalition government of ANP and
PML(N) was set up.
In Sindh the PPP had emerged as a majority party .
The PML (N) created hurdles from the beginning so that PPP
government could not function smoothly. Opposition started
attacking the PPP on all fronts.
Center and In practice no discipline and tolerance were shown by the
opposition. Harsh language was used by the representatives of
Opposition both the benches in highlighting the misdeeds of each other.
relations Government invited the opposition for constructive dialogue to
abandon the politics of confrontation but Nawaz declined the offer.
the opposition opted for the policy of confrontation.
Independence of Judiciary
PPP government had promised judicial reforms and appointments of judges
with the consensus of opposition.
After assuming office she did the opposite; appointments were on ad hoc basis
and confirmation conditional on their leanings towards the PPP.
The manifesto of the PPP had promised the separation of judiciary from the
executive but it did not materialized.
Sajjad Ali Shah was chosen as the Chief Justice of Pakistan by bypassing three
senior judges.
Rubber Stamp Parliament
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The National Assembly did not play its due role;
It suffered due to neglect of both, government and opposition.
Often its sessions were adjourned due to lack of quorum.
In year 1994 about 25 legislations were enacted by the Parliament and not less than 95 were
ordinances issued by President’s consent earlier.
In 1995 the federal government had issued 45 new ordinances.
The federal government misused the discretionary powers of the President adversely affected the
legislative work of the Parliament.
Law & Order situation in Sindh deteriorated day by day as
MQM top leadership demanded a separate province for
Muhajir Community, cited that the call for separate province
Center & was constitutional.
Government imposed the Governor Rule in NWFP,
Provincial authorized the Parliament to exercise all the powers of the
Relations NWFP Assembly on the behalf of the President.
Differences between Watto-PPP leads the suspension of
Punjab Assembly
when the PPP had attempted to replace him with the chief
minister of its party.
Mehrangate Scandal
Mehrangate Scandal was an atrocious financial scandal in the history of Pakistan.
Yunus Habib, the chief of Mehran Bank, had provided 140 million rupees to him under the
instructions of President’s Planning Cell.
Habib claimed that president had engineered the 1990 elections and he gave this money to
politicians, senior government servants and military intelligence.
The ISI had involved itself in an illegal activity.
The government established a judicial commission under Justice (Retired) Durab Patel to probe
the issue.
Stories of corruption against the government and specially
husband of prime minister Asif Ali zardari. In business deal.
President premier relationship….
Events of Murder of Mir Murtaza Bhutto in 20 september1996
leading to fall
of the Opposition's country wide Strike and undemocratic
demands against the government.
government.
Law and order situation in Sindh.
Controlled media & Judiciary crisis
Dissolution of the National Assembly
On November 1996, President Farooq Leghari announced the dissolution of National Assembly
under the Article 58 (2) (b) of the Constitution.
Following accusations were made against the Prime Minister including corruption,
mismanagement, extra-judicial killings, destroying the neutrality of the law enforcing agencies and
delay in the implementation of decision made in judges case.
It also mentioned that Benazir had indirectly accused President and intelligence agencies for
assassination of Murtaza which had undermined the reputation of the said institutions.
Conclusion
The politics of confrontation from the ANP, PML (N) and the MQM weakened the government,
The PPP had politicized the judiciary for its political interests.
The freedom of media was highly restricted in order to hide the poor performance of the government.
In this government the political intervention of civil bureaucracy was greater than military bureaucracy.
The working relationship between elected and non-elected institutions did not
improve due to imbalance of power..
