The Prime Ministers in Pakistan
By Saad S. Khan

THE twenty third Prime Minister takes over the country and a new cabinet gets sworn in. Contrary to all that was hinted earlier about a “new team”, “cabinet of talents” and “performance-based selection”, the Cabinet offers, barring isolated instances, the same old faces, i.e. the same self serving politicians that the people of Pakistan are fed up of. The ones who change party affiliations with the rising sun. Information Minister Sheikh Rasheed gave a novel interpretation to the earlier remarks of Mashurraf and Aziz on the issue of selecting the best men, by saying that everybody who is in the parliament is the best one since he has been elected by the people.

Meaning thereby that the induction of the same men and women, was a foregone conclusion. Much as Aziz might have liked to have talented, experienced persons from relevant fields in his cabinet, the present system does not allow it. The Prime Minister’s survival depends on the MNA’s who are, in turn, semi-literate professional politicians, who trade support with cabinet portfolios.

The fall from power and from grace of the Sharif brothers made their trusted party men change sides overnight. The whole cabinet is that of Sharifs, the same Khursheed Kasuri, the same Shiekh Rasheed, the same Mushahid Hussain whom we used to watch on television daily singing hymn in praise of the Sharif family. Nawaz Sharif had two thirds majority in the last parliament now left to a paltry 19 seats in 342-member National Assembly. His party lost all seats in his home town stronghold of Lahore. Most of these people, were once in the People’s Party as well. No less than the deposed Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali had entered the legislature on the PPP ticket the first time.

Pakistani politicians insist that they never change parties and such they are not subject to the anti defection clauses in the law. They remain clung to the “ruling party”. It is only when Islamabad changes its rulers that the hapless politicians have to jump from PPP to PML or vice versa, or choosing within different factions of the PPP or the PML, or even saying farewell to both and opting for a military-appointed Cabinet or Council or Shoora or whatever.

Here, one may take a glance at the history of the Prime Ministers of Pakistan. Contrary to the popular myth, none of our Prime Ministers completed his five year tenure, not even Bhutto, who occupied this particular seat for four years. Since the present Assembly has already spent 22 months of its tenure, it is only possible for Aziz to stay in office for three years, far short of the five year term that the constitution envisages.

Liaqat Ali Khan, was the first interim Prime Minister of Pakistan, few of us appreciate this fact. Pakistan had a provisional Constituent Assembly of 69 members, indirectly elected by the Muslim members of the Provincial Assemblies of the British-held 1946 elections from the areas that came to Pakistan in 1947. In the absence of a constitution and a legislature, Liaqat was made an interim Premier to run day to day affairs, in the pious hope that the constituent assembly would be able to frame a constitution in a year and dissolve itself, to be replaced by a national legislature duly elected by a direct election. An elected Prime Minister could thus have been elected by 1949 or so. Yet, as fate would have it, he was still an interim Prime Minister till an assassin’s bullet killed him in Oct. 1951.

The Governor General Khwaja Nazimuddin maneuvered to come one step down and lead the Cabinet. Nazim’s fascination with his former protégé and then hand-picked boss Ghulam Mohammad ended, when the latter dismissed him on 17 April 1953, accusing him of incompetence. The choice fell on our unsuspecting Ambassador to the United States who was recalled to be crowned. History has repeated itself many times ever since.

The first Constituent Assembly never made constitution and was dissolved in 1954, on the plea that it had converted itself into a “perpetual” assembly. The new indirectly elected 80-member House elected a veteran Civil Servant Chaudhry Mohammad Ali as the fourth Prime Minister whose singular achievement was to give the nation its first Constitution of 1956. The constitution, as is the case with such legal documents, dared to provide for general elections, which were never to come. Another civil servant-turned President Iskandar Mirza, continued palace intrigues to discredit and dismiss Prime Ministers and we had three more in a span of two years, i.e. 1956-8, namely, Hussain Shaheed Suharwardy, Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar and Feroze Khan Noon, leading Indian Prime Minister Nehru to quip that he could not change as many trousers as Pakistan changed Prime Ministers.

In 1958, a bloodless military coup overthrew the civilian dispensation, which had had the blessing of the then President Iskandar Mirza, who nominated General Ayub as his military Prime Minister. After three days, the eighth Prime Minister of Pakistan deposed and deported Iskandar to UK and took over as the President himself and during the 11 years of General Ayub, we did not, or rather he did not, need a Prime Minister.

He was replaced by Gen. Yahya Khan in a palace coup in 1969 who also did not like to share power with anyone. First, he did not nominate a Prime Minister, arguing that it was right of the people, and when in 1970, the people of Pakistan gave their majority verdict in favor of Shiekh Mujib-ur-Rahman, Yahya prevaricated and dithered saying that he wanted to secure the rights of the people of Pakistan. Good! An unelected dictator fighting for the rights of the people by denying government to the man they elected! During the 1971 war, the torpedoing of democracy came in the world spotlight which had precipitated the civil war and then the war. Yahya picked veteran East Paksitani politician Dr Noor-ul- Amin as the ninth civilian Prime Minister of Pakistan. Yayha had little choice since he was the one and only non-Awami League legislator from the Eastern wing. Amin remained Prime Minister for 13 days only, since the country broke up and the province he came from seceded to become a new country and a defeated Yahya was kicked out. Bhutto took over as President and the Chief Martial Law Administrator in Dec. 1971, since there was no constitution in place.

A constitution was then framed which was parliamentary in nature. The constituent assembly became the national assembly for a period of five years with effect from the 14th August 1973. Bhutto took over as the tenth Prime Minister of Pakistan, and was supposed to hold office as such for five years, till August 1978. He chose mid term elections in March 1977, more than a year ahead of schedule to surprise and outsmart a divided opposition. The opposition rather surprised him by putting up a united front against him. He nevertheless won the disputed elections and took oath as the 11th Prime Minister on 25th March 1977. He was overthrown that July in a military coup and later executed in 1979.

After eight years of the most ruthless dictatorship, marked by arbitrary executions and public floggings, Gen. Zia managed to create a dummy parliament in 1985, through a party-less elections that were was boycotted by all political actors of the country. Jonejo was picked and nominated as the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan. Jonejo never enjoyed power, strings were pulled from somewhere else, and following an uneventful period, he was sacked and withdrew into oblivion wherefrom he had emerged.

During 1988 to 1998, a ping pong between Benazir and Nawaz Shaif continued, each was pulled out by intrigue and the other entered through the back door. Both enjoyed two stints with four Caretaker Prime Ministers in between. Thus the Prime Ministership changed faces as follows; Benazir Bhutto (13th ), Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi (14th), Nawaz Sharif (15th), Balkh Sher Mazari (16th), Moin Qureshi (17th), Benazir Bhutto (18th), Malik Meraj Khalid (19th) and Nawaz Sharif (20th). Now, during Pervez Musharraf’s theatre democracy, three faces have changed so far, Zafarullah Jamali (21st), Chaudhry Shujaat (22nd) and Shaukat Aziz (23rd).

The only element, distinguished by its absence, is the relevance of the people of Pakistan. The people, at best, used to elect their representative in the national assembly, without knowing if they elect one party or the other who is going to lead them, out of the 50 or so contenders from each side of the political divide. After the elections, it used to be battle royal of intrigues and conspiracies. Some persons won and others lost. And somewhere from beneath the table a dark horse would come and become the Prime Minister, leaving the winners and the losers biting their nails.

Same is true of Cabinet, who asked the people of Pakistan who is to be their Foreign Minister or the Defense Minister or what. It is a story of free-style political wrestling, a legend of lust, greed and fraud, the way one wins for himself one portfolio or the other. The political weaklings, howsoever competent they may be, have to settle for “less lucrative” posts.

It is time that the civil society must struggle for a change. The leading parties must be made to announce their candidate for the Prime Ministership and the respective Chief Ministership at the time of the elections and the shadow cabinets must be announced to vow the voters for a package deal. The constitutional provisions about the composition of the cabinet should be amended to allow the Prime Minister to select his Ministers from outside the parliament, from men and women of outstanding caliber, just like in the Presidential systems. If a sitting parliamentarian is to be made a Minister, he should forfeit his seat in the parliament. The combination of legislative and political offices in one, militates against the separation of the three pillars of State. A legislator-cum-minister cannot do justice with either of the two jobs. In any case, ruling the State is a job that is deserved by the best of persons, in the interest of the State. And the “system of bargaining” to get the choice of portfolios is a slur on democracy.●

The writer is an expert in International Relations, Politics and Governance of the Muslim world and is author of two books on the subject.
E-Mail: saadskhan@yahoo.co.uk

© 2004 Saad S. Khan