When my son was a child, back in the 1990’s, he drew a picture of what he would like to be when he grew up. The picture showed cheering crowds below a balcony, where a young man stood waving back to the crowd. The caption below the picture said: “Congratulations, President Kureshi.”
“Wouldn’t you prefer to be Prime Minister?” I asked. “That’s where the real power lies.”
“Not so,” he said. “Our PMs only last a short time. The Presidents are around for much longer.”
And there you have it, straight from the mouth of a child.
Up until the inauguration of the present Parliament, we have celebrated or suffered the reigns of 16 different Governors-General/Presidents. This gives an average period in office of as much as 4.12 years per incumbent. The shortest tenure was that of Wasim Sajjad Jan, who was Acting President twice, once for 1 month and once for 1½ months. The longest was that of Field Marshall Ayub Khan, who held the office for 10 years and 7 months. General Ziaul Haq was, of course, in power for more than 11 years, but did not formally adopt the title of President initially.
Contrast this with the number of Prime Ministers who have come and gone, bearing in mind that there are significant periods of the nation’s history when government was run by an executive President and not by a Prime Minister. Prior to the present incumbent, there were 23 persons who have been titled as Prime Minister, for 26 terms. The shortest tenure was that of Nurul Amin for 2 weeks in December 1971. The longest was that of Yousaf Raza Gilani, who managed to last 4 years and 3 months.
Now, this office is meant to be the highest executive office in the country, whose occupant is responsible for running the federal government. This is also the highest legislative office since, as leader of the house, he or she determines and controls the federal legislative agenda. But, other than the so-called Caretakers, not one single PM in our history has succeeded in completing the legally mandated term.
The first Prime Minister of Pakistan was Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, whose term in office was suddenly truncated by an assassin’s bullet. The murderer Saed Akbar Babrak, said to be a professional killer, was himself immediately shot to death by a police officer named Najaf Khan. We will therefore never know who or what lay behind the assassination, only that it was the first of many such in our short but sad history as a nation-state.
The transition was fortunately smooth. Khawaja Nazimuddin stepped down as Governor-General to become Prime Minister. However, his government lasted less than two years. On one side, no progress was made towards the framing of a Constitution acceptable to both wings of the country. On the other, the Language Movement gathered steam in East Pakistan. Nazimuddin flirted with the extreme right, an attempt in which he was encouraged by a Punjab-based cabal, but ended up having to declare martial law in Lahore to quell riots against the Ahmaddiya community. In April 1953, his tottering government was dismissed by Governor-General Ghulam Mohammed, who appointed Bengali diplomat, Muhammad Ali Bogra, as premier, heading a cabinet of so-called ‘experts’ (the first of five such ill-conceived contrivances). In 1954, the hapless Bogra was removed from office by Ghulam Mohammed, reappointed after promising to ‘behave’, and then removed again in April 1955. Former bureaucrat, Chaudhry Mohammad Ali, was appointed in his place.
With the death of Ghulam Mohammed, Iskander Mirza became Governor-General and then, following the promulgation of the 1956 constitution, assumed the Presidency. Mirza sought to promote his own palace party, the Republican Party, against the Muslim League and the East Pakistan based parties. The resulting intrigues and sackings led to the rise and fall of PM after PM. Chaudhry Mohammed Ali lasted 397 days, Suhrawardy 400 days, Chundrigar a mere 60 days, and Noon all of 295 days. Abrogating the not yet implemented Constitution, Mirza declared martial law and appointed General Ayub Khan as PM. Three weeks later, in a midnight coup, Ayub packed Mirza off to London. The post of Prime Minister was abolished.
It was revived fifteen years later, when Bhutto was sworn in as PM. However, he had held this office for less than four years before being overthrown by General Zia. During the black days of the Zia regime, ‘non-party’ elections (of a sort) were held in 1985 and Junejo was appointed PM at the whim of the dictator. It took just over three years for Zia to tire of even his handpicked PM and the post was again abolished. But the Constitution, albeit defiled and disfigured by Zia’s ill-intentioned 8th Amendment, did stand revived and, following the dictator’s fiery ending, elections were held that brought Benazir Bhutto into office.
Ms Bhutto lasted only 20 months before President Ishaq sacked her and dissolved the Parliament, initiating the Reign of Confusion of the 1990s. Mustafa Jatoi headed a caretaker government for three months and then Nawaz Sharif was PM for just under 28 months. Balakh Sher Mazari formed a government for 37 days and then Nawaz Sharif was restored by the courts for a further 73 days until General Waheed Kakar obtained the resignations of both President Ishaq and Premier Sharif.
There came and went the brief interregnum of the imported Prime Minister, Moeen Qureshi. Few remember that particularly fatuous attempt at the ‘rule by experts’ so beloved of our managerial class. Back came Benazir Bhutto, for just under three years this time, only to be sacked by her handpicked President Leghari, and succeeded by her own party’s former stalwart Meraj Khalid. The elections of 1996 practically wiped out the PPP and brought Nawaz Sharif back with a bang and a ‘massive mandate’. Alas, after only 32 months, laddoos were being distributed as Pervez Musharraf seized power from Sharif.
General Musharraf’s dictatorship saw four Prime Ministers: Jamali (19 months), Shujaat Hussain (51 days), Shaukat Aziz (3years and 3 months) and Mohammed Mian Soomro (115 days). Musharraf also saw some six months of the term of Yousaf Raza Gilani, who continued in office under Zardari before being struck down by way of ‘disqualification’ by the Supreme Court.
The point is that Pakistan is now on its 24th Prime Minister. Of those who have gone, three have been assassinated, thirteen were removed from office by force or by fiat of the Head of State, and one by a unique Court judgment, the likes of which has never occurred anywhere else in the world. And now yet another kind of innovative judgment is being sought against a sitting Prime Minister.
My point here is not whether one or the other was a ‘good’ premier or a ‘bad’ premier, or whether this or that removal was justified or otherwise. It is merely that this is no way to run things. No wonder our country is as violent, poverty-stricken and dysfunctional as it is.
“Wouldn’t you prefer to be Prime Minister?” I asked. “That’s where the real power lies.”
“Not so,” he said. “Our PMs only last a short time. The Presidents are around for much longer.”
And there you have it, straight from the mouth of a child.
Up until the inauguration of the present Parliament, we have celebrated or suffered the reigns of 16 different Governors-General/Presidents. This gives an average period in office of as much as 4.12 years per incumbent. The shortest tenure was that of Wasim Sajjad Jan, who was Acting President twice, once for 1 month and once for 1½ months. The longest was that of Field Marshall Ayub Khan, who held the office for 10 years and 7 months. General Ziaul Haq was, of course, in power for more than 11 years, but did not formally adopt the title of President initially.
Contrast this with the number of Prime Ministers who have come and gone, bearing in mind that there are significant periods of the nation’s history when government was run by an executive President and not by a Prime Minister. Prior to the present incumbent, there were 23 persons who have been titled as Prime Minister, for 26 terms. The shortest tenure was that of Nurul Amin for 2 weeks in December 1971. The longest was that of Yousaf Raza Gilani, who managed to last 4 years and 3 months.
Now, this office is meant to be the highest executive office in the country, whose occupant is responsible for running the federal government. This is also the highest legislative office since, as leader of the house, he or she determines and controls the federal legislative agenda. But, other than the so-called Caretakers, not one single PM in our history has succeeded in completing the legally mandated term.
Three of Pakistan's prime ministers were assassinated, 13 removed by force, and one by a unique court judgment
The first Prime Minister of Pakistan was Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, whose term in office was suddenly truncated by an assassin’s bullet. The murderer Saed Akbar Babrak, said to be a professional killer, was himself immediately shot to death by a police officer named Najaf Khan. We will therefore never know who or what lay behind the assassination, only that it was the first of many such in our short but sad history as a nation-state.
The transition was fortunately smooth. Khawaja Nazimuddin stepped down as Governor-General to become Prime Minister. However, his government lasted less than two years. On one side, no progress was made towards the framing of a Constitution acceptable to both wings of the country. On the other, the Language Movement gathered steam in East Pakistan. Nazimuddin flirted with the extreme right, an attempt in which he was encouraged by a Punjab-based cabal, but ended up having to declare martial law in Lahore to quell riots against the Ahmaddiya community. In April 1953, his tottering government was dismissed by Governor-General Ghulam Mohammed, who appointed Bengali diplomat, Muhammad Ali Bogra, as premier, heading a cabinet of so-called ‘experts’ (the first of five such ill-conceived contrivances). In 1954, the hapless Bogra was removed from office by Ghulam Mohammed, reappointed after promising to ‘behave’, and then removed again in April 1955. Former bureaucrat, Chaudhry Mohammad Ali, was appointed in his place.
With the death of Ghulam Mohammed, Iskander Mirza became Governor-General and then, following the promulgation of the 1956 constitution, assumed the Presidency. Mirza sought to promote his own palace party, the Republican Party, against the Muslim League and the East Pakistan based parties. The resulting intrigues and sackings led to the rise and fall of PM after PM. Chaudhry Mohammed Ali lasted 397 days, Suhrawardy 400 days, Chundrigar a mere 60 days, and Noon all of 295 days. Abrogating the not yet implemented Constitution, Mirza declared martial law and appointed General Ayub Khan as PM. Three weeks later, in a midnight coup, Ayub packed Mirza off to London. The post of Prime Minister was abolished.
It was revived fifteen years later, when Bhutto was sworn in as PM. However, he had held this office for less than four years before being overthrown by General Zia. During the black days of the Zia regime, ‘non-party’ elections (of a sort) were held in 1985 and Junejo was appointed PM at the whim of the dictator. It took just over three years for Zia to tire of even his handpicked PM and the post was again abolished. But the Constitution, albeit defiled and disfigured by Zia’s ill-intentioned 8th Amendment, did stand revived and, following the dictator’s fiery ending, elections were held that brought Benazir Bhutto into office.
Ms Bhutto lasted only 20 months before President Ishaq sacked her and dissolved the Parliament, initiating the Reign of Confusion of the 1990s. Mustafa Jatoi headed a caretaker government for three months and then Nawaz Sharif was PM for just under 28 months. Balakh Sher Mazari formed a government for 37 days and then Nawaz Sharif was restored by the courts for a further 73 days until General Waheed Kakar obtained the resignations of both President Ishaq and Premier Sharif.
There came and went the brief interregnum of the imported Prime Minister, Moeen Qureshi. Few remember that particularly fatuous attempt at the ‘rule by experts’ so beloved of our managerial class. Back came Benazir Bhutto, for just under three years this time, only to be sacked by her handpicked President Leghari, and succeeded by her own party’s former stalwart Meraj Khalid. The elections of 1996 practically wiped out the PPP and brought Nawaz Sharif back with a bang and a ‘massive mandate’. Alas, after only 32 months, laddoos were being distributed as Pervez Musharraf seized power from Sharif.
General Musharraf’s dictatorship saw four Prime Ministers: Jamali (19 months), Shujaat Hussain (51 days), Shaukat Aziz (3years and 3 months) and Mohammed Mian Soomro (115 days). Musharraf also saw some six months of the term of Yousaf Raza Gilani, who continued in office under Zardari before being struck down by way of ‘disqualification’ by the Supreme Court.
The point is that Pakistan is now on its 24th Prime Minister. Of those who have gone, three have been assassinated, thirteen were removed from office by force or by fiat of the Head of State, and one by a unique Court judgment, the likes of which has never occurred anywhere else in the world. And now yet another kind of innovative judgment is being sought against a sitting Prime Minister.
My point here is not whether one or the other was a ‘good’ premier or a ‘bad’ premier, or whether this or that removal was justified or otherwise. It is merely that this is no way to run things. No wonder our country is as violent, poverty-stricken and dysfunctional as it is.