Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, who
was born 25 December, 1949 is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel
magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive
terms from November 1990-July 1993 and February 1997-October 1999. He currently
leads the Pakistan Muslim League (N). He has come back in power for the third
record time as the 27th Prime Minister of Pakistan after 2013 Election with a
simple majority after spending about 14 years out of power.
Before becoming the Prime minister, Sharif was the Chief Minister of Punjab from
1985 to 1990 and embarked his political career under the military regime of
President General Zia-ul-Haq. A businessman and lawyer by profession, he owns
Ittefaq Group, a private steel mill enterprise and one of the largest producer
of iron materials. Sharif is noted as being as Pakistan’s one of the wealthiest
investor in Steel mill business and a conservative politician advocating for the
conservatism in the country, and capitalism as its economic base. His first term
was shortened after the Pakistan Army pressured him to resign after developing
serious issues with another conservative President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, which he
too was forced to resigned.
From 1993 until 1996, Sharif served as the Leader of the Opposition in the
socialist democratic government of Benazir Bhutto. In 1997, he was elected on
for a second term by an overwhelming margin after brutally defeating Benazir
Bhutto whose government was dismissed on serious economical and financial
scandals became known in public. During his second term, he notably ordered
Pakistan’s first nuclear tests in response to India’s nuclear tests, as part of
his tit-for-tat policy, a termed he coined after the tests. Sharif
controversially appointed Pervez Musharraf— a lieutenant-general and commander
of the I Strike Corps— as the Chief of Army Staff and promoted him to the 4 star
rank. Sharif later violated the code of conduct of Pakistan Armed Forces when he
controversially appointed General Pervez Musharraf as the Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff Committee. His decision forced Chief of Naval Staff Admiral
Fasih Bokhari to resign from the Navy.
Despite Sharif giving prestigious appointments to General Musharraf and the
Army, Sharif developed serious disagreements pertaining to the undeclared war in
Northern Pakistan, and later ordered the Pakistan Army to evacuated and end its
illegal occupation of Indian-held Kargil. Problems with Army further escalated
and he was finally ousted in an October 1999 military coup by General Pervez
Musharraf after Navaz made an unsuccessful attempt to remove General Musharraf
as Chief of Army Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. He
dramatically returned to Pakistan in late 2007 after eight years of forced exile
by General Musharraf in a secret contract he claimed that he was forced to sign.
Now in Pakistan, Sharif successfully called for Musharraf’s impeachment and the
reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.