Governments of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)

2 December 1988 - 6 August 1990

19 October 1993 - 5 November 1996

Presented by:
Suleman Saleem (13759)
Waleed Abbas (13740)

2 December 1988 - 6 August 1990

Elections were held on 16 November 1988. PPP won 94 out of 207 seats.

Formed a coalition government with Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and

independents.

Benazir Bhutto became the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state.

She promised to repeal the controversial Hudood Ordinance and to revert the Eight
Amendment to the Constitution but none of the reforms were made and Bhutto began to
struggle with President Ghulam Ishaq Khan over the issues of executive authority.

President repeatedly vetoed proposed laws and ordinances that would have lessened his
presidential authority.

Foreign Affairs
Bhutto took the office during the end of the Cold War, and closely aligned herself with the U.S.
President George H. W. Bush, based on a mutual distrust of communism.
She always opposed direct American support if Afghan Mujahedeen.
She wanted to have good relation with India and met Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in
1989.
On the Western front, Bhutto authorized further aggressive military operations in Afghanistan
to topple the fragile communist regime and the Soviet influence in the region.

Science Policy
She visited Dr. Abdus Salam in 1990 during her trip to Britain. She followed the policy of
her father.
She promoted military funding of science and technology as part of her policy.
She visited Khan Research Laboratories for the first time in 1989, much to the anger of
President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.
She moved the Ministry of Science and Technology's office to the Prime Minister Secretariat
with Munir Ahmad Khan directly reporting to her, eliminated any possibility of Presidents
involvement and prevented him from having any influence in science research programmes.
Benazir Bhutto started aerospace projects such as Project Sabre II, Project PAC, Ghauri
project under dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan in 1990.

Nuclear weapons programme

Benazir Bhutto took aggressive steps and decisions in order to modernize and expand the
integrated atomic weapons programme founded and started by her father in 1972.
During her frequent trips to the United States, Bhutto refused to compromise on the
nuclear weapons programme.
Under her regime, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission(PAEC) had conducted series
of improvised designs of nuclear weapons.
During her first term, the nuclear program was under attack and under pressure by the
Western world, particularly the United States. Despite the economic aid that was offered
by the European Union and the United States in return to halt or freeze the program,
Benazir did not compromise and continued this crash program under her first and second
regime.
Bhutto had approved and launched the Shaheen programme as she had advocated for
this programme strongly.

Space programme
Pakistan's first military satellite, Badr-I was also launched under her government
through China. With launching of Badr-I, Pakistan became the first Muslim country to have
launched and placed a satellite in Earth's orbit.
As part of her policy, Benazir constituted the establishment of National Development
Complex and the University Observatory in Karachi University and expanded the facilities for
the space research.
She declared 1990 a year of space in Pakistan and conferred national awards to scientists and
engineers who took participation in the development of this satellite.

Dismissal
Tales of corruption in public-sector industries began to surface which undermined the
credibility of Bhutto. The unemployment and labor strikes began to take place which halted and
jammed the economic wheel of the country.
Bhutto was unable to solve these issues due to the cold war with the President.
In November 1990, after a long political battle, President Khan finally used the Eighth
Amendment to dismiss the Bhutto government following charges of corruption, nepotism, and
despotism.

19 October 1993 - 5 November 1996

General elections were held in Pakistan on 6 October 1993. PPP won 89 out of 207 seats.
Bhutto formed coalition government with independent winners.
On 19 October 1993, Benazir Bhutto was sworn as Prime Minister for second term receiving
121 votes to 72 for Nawaz Sharif.
The presidential elections were soon called after her re election. Benazir Bhutto learned a
valuable experience and lesson from the presidency of Ghulam Ishaq Khan and after carefully
examining the candidates, Benazir Bhutto decided to appoint Farooq Leghari as for her
president.

President Leghari had no political background, no experience in government running

operations, and had no background understanding the civil-military relations.

Domestic affairs
Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister at a time of great racial tension in Pakistan.

The MQM attempted to make an alliance with Benazir Bhutto under her own conditions, but
Benazir Bhutto refused. Soon the second operation, Operation Blue Fox was launched to wipe
the MQM from country's political spectrum.
In December 1993, in the Swat valley when Sufi Muhammad, a religious cleric, began to
mobilize the local militia calling for overthrow of the "un-Islamic rule of [Iron] Lady". Benazir
Bhutto responded quickly and ordered the Pakistan Army to crackdown the militia.
Corruption grew during her government, and her government became increasingly unpopular
amid corruption scandals which became public. One of the most internationally and nationally
reported scandals was the Agosta Submarine scandal.

Foreign policy
Benazir Bhutto's foreign policy was controversial.
Benazir Bhutto sought to strengthen the relations with socialist states, and Benazir Bhutto's
first visit to Libya strengthened the relations between the two countries.
Benazir Bhutto is said to have paid a state visit to North Korea in early 1990 and in 1996.
Benazir Bhutto also strengthened relations with communist state Vietnam and visited Vietnam
to sign the mutual trade and international political cooperation between both countries.
In 1995, Benazir Bhutto paid a state visit to United States where she held talks with U.S.
President Bill Clinton. During the visit, Benazir Bhutto urged the United States to amend the
Pressler Amendment.

During her second term, the relationship with Indian Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha
Rao further deteriorated. On 1 May 1995, Benazir Bhutto used harsh language and publicly
warned India for her "continuation of [Indian] nuclear programme would have terrible
consequences".

Relations with military

During her second term, Benazir Bhutto's relations with the Pakistan Armed Forces took a
different and pro-Bhutto approach, when she carefully appointed General Abdul Waheed
Kakar as the Chief of Army Staff.
Her tough and hard line policies on Afghanistan, Kashmir and India, which the military had
backed Benazir Bhutto staunchly.

In 1995, Benazir also appointed Admiral Mansurul Haq as the Chief of Naval Staff, as the
Admiral had personal contacts with the Benazir's family. However, it was the Admiral's largescale corruption, sponsored by her husband Asif Zardari, that shrunk the credibility of Benazir
Bhutto by the end of 1996 that led to end of her government after all.
She hand-picked officers and promoted them based on their pro-democracy views while the
puppet President gave constitutional authorisation for their promotion. The senior military
leadership including Jehangir Karamat, Kayani, Ali Kuli Khan, Farooq Feroze Khan, Abbas Khattak
and Fasih Bokhari, had strong Western-democratic views.

Policy on Taliban
1996 was crucial for Bhutto's policy on Afghanistan when Pakistan-backed extremely religious
group Taliban took power in Kabul. Under her government, Pakistan had recognized the Taliban
regime as legitimate government in Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to open an embassy in
Islamabad.

Death of younger brother

In 1996, the Bhutto family suffered another tragedy in Sindh Province, Benazir Bhutto's
stronghold and political lair. Murtaza Bhutto, Benazir's younger brother, was controversially and
publicly shot down in a police encounter in Karachi. After this incident, Benazir Bhutto lost all
support from Sind Province. Public opinion later turned against her, President Farooq Leghari,
who dismissed the Bhutto government seven weeks after Murtaza's death.

Dismissal
In spite of her tough rhetoric to subdue her political rivals and neighbouring India and
Afghanistan, the Bhutto government's corruption heightened and exceeded its limits during her
second regime; the most notable figures among those suspect were Asif Ali Zardari and
Admiral Mansurul Haq.

In November 1996, Bhutto's government was dismissed by President Leghari primarily because
of corruption and Murtaza's death, who used the Eighth Amendment discretionary powers to
dissolve the government.
She turned to the Supreme Court hoping for gaining Leghari's actions unconstitutional. But the
Supreme Court justified and affirmed President Leghari's dismissal in a 61 ruling.
When President Leghari, through public media, discovered that General Kakar (Chief of Army
Staff), General Khattak (Chief of Air Staff), and Admiral Haq (Chief of Naval Staff) had been
backing Benazir to come back in the government; President Leghari aggressively responded by
dismissing the entire military leadership.
Soon after her government was ended, the Naval intelligence led the arrest of Chief of Naval
Staff and acquitted him with a running court-martial sat up at the Naval Judge Advocate General
Corps led by active duty 4-star admiral. Many of her government members and cabinet
ministers including her spouse were thrown in jails and the trials were sat up at the civilian
Supreme Court.