Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: میاں محمد نواز شریف, pronounced [nəˈʋaːz ʃəˈriːf]; born 25 December 1949)[1] is the 18th and current Prime Minister of Pakistan, in office since June 2013. A veteran politician and industrialist, he previously served as Prime Minister from November 1990 to July 1993 and from February 1997 to October 1999. As the owner of Ittefaq Group, a leading business
conglomerate, he is also one of the country's wealthiest people.[2] He is commonly known as the "Lion of the Punjab".[3][4][5]
Nawaz Sharif entered politics in the 1980s when in the general elections of 1985, he won with an overwhelming majority, both in the National and Provincial Assemblies. On 9 April 1985, he was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Punjab. On 31 May 1988, he was appointed caretaker Chief Minister, after the dismissal of Assemblies by General Zia. Nawaz Sharif was again elected as Chief Minister after the 1988 general elections. After Zia's death and Benazir Bhutto's being elected Prime Minister in 1988, Sharif emerged as opposition leader from the conservative Pakistan Muslim League. When Bhutto was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990 on corruption charges, Sharif was elected Prime Minister the same year. But relations between Sharif and Ghulam Ishaq too deteriorated, with Ghulam Ishaq attempting to dismiss Sharif on similar charges. Sharif successfully challenged the President's decision in the Supreme Court,[6] but both men were ultimately persuaded to step down in 1993 by army chief Abdul Waheed Kakar.[6]
Serving as the Leader of the Opposition during Bhutto's second tenure, Sharif was re-elected Prime Minister with a historic two-thirds majority in parliament,[7] after Benazir was again dismissed for corruption by new President Farooq Leghari.[7] Sharif replaced Leghari with Rafiq Tarar as President, then stripped the Presidency of its powers by passing the Thirteenth Amendment. He also controversially ordered Pakistan's first nuclear tests in response to neighbouring India's second nuclear tests.[8][9] When Western countries suspended foreign aid, Sharif froze the country's foreign currency reserves to prevent further capital flight, but this only worsened economic conditions. With rising unemployment and record foreign debt,[10] Sharif's second term also saw tussles with the judiciary and army. After Sharif was summoned for contempt by the Supreme Court in 1997, party workers attacked the court and Chief Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah. Sharif also fell out with army chief Jehangir Karamat and replaced him with Pervez Musharraf in 1998,[10] but after Pakistan's haphazard performance in the Kargil War, relations between the two also deteriorated. When he attempted to relieve Musharraf from his command on 12 October 1999, the army instead ousted Sharif's government, exiling him to Saudi Arabia.[10]
Sharif returned in 2007, and his party contested elections in 2008, forming the provincial government in Punjab under Sharif's brother Shahbaz until 2013. He successfully called for Musharraf's impeachment and the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Between 2008 and 2013, Sharif was in opposition. In the 2013 Pakistani general election, his party achieved the largest number of votes and he formed a coalition to become the 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan, returning to the position after fourteen years, in a democratic transition, for an unprecedented third time.[11]
