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Pakistan
The Caretaker Government of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi
Ironically, Benazir's successor, the caretaker prime minister,
was one of Pakistan's largest landowners, also from Benazir's
Sindh Province. Jatoi had joined the PPP when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
had founded it in the late 1960s, was in Bhutto's first cabinet,
and was later chief minister of Sindh until Zia overthrew Bhutto
in 1977. Jatoi had remained supportive of the PPP during the martial
law period and had spearheaded the campaign organized by the MRD
against Zia's government. Following Benazir's return to Pakistan
in 1986, however, Jatoi was removed as chairman of the Sindh PPP
and subsequently formed his own political organization, the National
People's Party. Known as a moderate, Jatoi said that his party's
objective was to make Pakistan a modern, democratic, and progressive
Islamic welfare state.
Jatoi's caretaker government instituted accountability proceedings
against persons charged with corruption and, under the authority
of laws enacted by both the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the Zia regimes,
set up special courts to handle accountability cases. The accountability
process had traditionally been used to disqualify from public
office those found guilty of corruption and wrongdoing. It had
also been used as a weapon by politicians in power against their
opponents. The period for accountability defined by the Jatoi
government was limited to the twenty months of Benazir's regime.
The PPP demand that Nawaz Sharif's Punjab government during that
same time be subjected to similar scrutiny was rejected. Nevertheless,
the Jatoi government defended the proceedings as fair and neutral.
Although several charges were brought against Benazir, and her
appearance before the accountability tribunals was required, she
remained free and was able to lead her party in the October 1990
elections.
The Central Election Commission, consisting of three members
of the senior judiciary, supervised preparation of the electoral
rolls and the conduct of the 1990 elections as well as processing
complaints and issuing reports. Although Pakistan has a large
number of political parties, the two main contenders in the elections
were both broad-based coalitions. One contender was the Pakistan
Democratic Alliance, established during the campaign by Benazir's
dominant PPP, together with the Tehrik-i-Istiqlal, headed by Asghar
Khan, and two smaller parties. Asghar Khan had been Pakistan's
first commander in chief of the air force and later became chairman
of Pakistan International Airlines, before entering the political
arena in 1969 and founding his own party. In the 1970s, Asghar
Khan was one of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's harshest critics. Having
helped to oust Bhutto, however, he did not benefit from the Zia
military government, and in 1989 he resigned as Tehrik-i-Istiqlal's
chairman. Political observers were surprised when the party joined
the Pakistan Democratic Alliance.
The other major contender in opposition to the Pakistan Democratic
Alliance was the IJI, the coalition that had also competed with
the PPP in the 1988 elections. The Pakistan Muslim League was
a major component of the IJI, as was the Jamaat-i- Islami. The
three chief competitors for leadership in the IJI and specifically
in the Pakistan Muslim League were Nawaz Sharif, former Prime
Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo, and Ejaz ul-Haq, son of the late
President Zia ul-Haq. These three men represented key groups in
Pakistan's political culture. Junejo belonged to a major Sindhi
landowning family and represented the feudal classes. Ejaz appealed
particularly to Zia's Islamic fundamentalist supporters. His candidacy
was weakened, however, by his relative lack of political experience.
Nawaz Sharif, the ultimate victor, represented the country's growing
business classes. The caretaker prime minister also aspired to
remain in power, but his party was not a member of the IJI, and
so he lacked sufficient political strength.
Other important parties included Altaf Hussain's MQM, representing
the refugee community in urban Sindh, and Khan Abdul Wali Khan's
Awami National Party, based in the North-West Frontier Province
and northern Balochistan. Although in 1990 the PDA and the IJI
were the major election contenders in Pakistan's three largest
provinces (Punjab, Sindh, and the North-West Frontier Province),
they had only a limited presence in the fourth province, Balochistan,
where regional and religious parties, such as the Jamiat-ul-Ulama-i-Islam
and the Jamhoori Watan Party, were of equal or even greater importance.
The central campaign issue in 1990 for IJI was the Benazir government's
alleged corruption and wrongdoing in office. The principal issue
for the PDA was the alleged unconstitutionality of her dismissal
from office and the subsequent treatment of her, and her family
and associates, by the caretaker government. The campaign was
heated, including incidents of violence, harassment, and political
kidnappings. Media coverage played an active role. During this
campaign, the government no longer held a monopoly on television
news because a second network, People's Television Network (PTN),
had been started, to compete with Pakistan Television Corporation
(PTV). The new network introduced Cable News Network (CNN) in
Pakistan. The PPP filed a complaint against PTV, charging biased
network election coverage by it, but the complaint was rejected
by the Lahore High Court. Print media coverage offered more variety.
Although government-controlled newspapers tended to be anti-Benazir,
the larger private sector of print media provided more diversity
of opinion. Both the PDA and the IJI predicted victory, but at
least one detailed public opinion poll gave the edge to the PDA.
The election results were disastrous for the PDA, as the IJI
won 105 of the 207 contested seats in the National Assembly. The
PDA won only forty-five seats. The IJI attributed its victory
to success in holding its coalition together as well as in establishing
electoral alliances nationwide to ensure that PDA candidates would
not run unopposed. The PDA blamed the defeat on alleged rigging
of the elections. Although the elections were certainly not free
of irregularities, observation teams both from inside the country
and from outside, including a team from member countries of the
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC--see Glossary),
concluded that the elections had been generally free and fair.
Despite their problems, the 1990 elections were another step forward
in the quest for political stability and democratic government.
The constitutional transfer of power was achieved without direct
military intervention.
Data as of April 1994
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