Farooq leghari biography sample
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He is noted as the firstBaloch to have been elected as president.
Educated at the FCCollegeUniversity in Pakistan, and the OxfordUniversity in United Kingdom, he served in the civilbureaucracy and served on politicalassignments in East-Pakistan in 1960s until 1970. After the death of Farooq Khan Leghari his son Jamal Khan Leghari became the 23rd Chief of Leghari tribe.
Sardar Farooq Ahmed Leghari belonged to Saraiki-speaking Baloch family.
Initial reports claimed that he was ill for some time, owing to complications with his heart. He was the head (Tumandar) of the Leghari tribe.
Generally an apolitical and socialist oriented, Farooq Leghari was a party worker of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party in the 1970s and upon the imprisonment of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto he was put under house-arrest several times during the military regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.
In 1993, he was finally named as the presidential candidate by Benazir Bhutto due to his apolitical vision.
Chief of the Leghari tribe Farooq Ahmed Leghari was the major landowner in the area and owned approximately 2,500 acres (10 km2) of land.
After his early education at Aitchison College, Lahore, where he was the Head Boy and was declared the Best Leaving Student of 1957, Farooq Ahmed Leghari graduated with honours from the famous institute of Forman Christian College University, Lahore, where again he was among one of the best students.
The dispute intertwined with a rift between Sharif and Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, whom Leghari supported; Sharif initiated contempt proceedings against Shah in November 1997 after the latter criticized government judicial expansions, leading to a Supreme Court schism with rebel judges suspending Shah on November 26.[8][31] Leghari accused Sharif of subverting democratic institutions to consolidate absolute power, refusing to yield to what he termed unconstitutional overreach.[32]On December 2, 1997, Leghari resigned abruptly, citing irreconcilable differences and preemptive avoidance of impeachment proceedings initiated by Sharif's allies in Parliament, while denying any conspiracy with the judiciary against the government.[2] In his farewell address, he lambasted Sharif's administration for eroding checks and balances, though Sharif countered by alleging Leghari's collusion with Shah to destabilize the elected executive.[33] The resignation, amid military mediation offers that Leghari declined, handed Sharif unchallenged authority but highlighted the fragility of civil-military and executive-judicial equilibria in Pakistan's 1990s democracy.[34]
Resignation from Office
Farooq Leghari resigned as President of Pakistan on December 2, 1997, amid escalating tensions with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over constitutional authority and judicial independence.[8][2] In his resignation announcement, Leghari stated that he had repeatedly lost battles with Sharif to uphold the rule of law, citing Sharif's efforts to undermine key institutions as the primary catalyst.[8][35]The conflict intensified in late 1997 following disputes over Supreme Court appointments and the expansion of the court's bench, which pitted Leghari and Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah—Leghari's ally—against Sharif's government.[31][32] Sharif challenged the court's judicial appointments, leading to Shah's suspension by a majority of Supreme Court judges on November 26, 1997, after which Leghari refused to appoint a replacement chief justice, prompting impeachment threats from Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League coalition.[36][35] This standoff, rooted in the earlier passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in April 1997—which revoked the president's power to dismiss governments—marked a broader power struggle where Sharif sought to consolidate executive control.[36][33]Prior to resigning, Leghari met with Army Chief of Staff General Jehangir Karamat, though no military intervention materialized to support his position.[33] His departure averted immediate impeachment proceedings but coincided with Shah's ouster, effectively resolving the two-week constitutional crisis in Sharif's favor and shifting power dynamics toward greater parliamentary dominance.[32][31] Leghari's resignation ended his four-year presidency, during which he had previously invoked Article 58(2)(b) to dismiss Benazir Bhutto's government in November 1996, highlighting the fragile balance of civilian authority in Pakistan's political system.[2]Establishment of Millat Party
Following his resignation from the presidency on December 2, 1997, Farooq Leghari, having been disavowed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) due to his dismissal of Benazir Bhutto's government, sought an independent political base amid Pakistan's polarized landscape dominated by the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).His relations with BenazirBhutto too deterioratedwhich led him to provide his support for dissidentgroupopposing both PPP and PML in May 2004. He then went on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford University, Great Britain.
After returning to Pakistan he joined the Civil Services of Pakistan and served on assignments in East-Pakistan in the 1960s until 1970 in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
Leghari allied with Shah, endorsing efforts to uphold the post-Al-Jehad procedures against Sharif's push for greater governmental say, which contributed to the 1997 judicial crisis culminating in Shah's suspension by a majority of Supreme Court judges. His elder son Jamal Leghari was elected to the Senate of Pakistan.
Sardar Farooq Ahmed Leghari died on 20 October 2010 in Rawalpindi due to a heart related illness.
He was merely a constitutional and ceremonialfigurehead in the Benazir's government; whilstBenazirexercised her authoritywhilerunning her government.
A decisive majority in the lower house of parliament led the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Government to remove the controversial 8th amendment from the constitution of Pakistan.
President Farooq Leghari resigned due to differences with the Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif as he was allegedly asked by him to fire the current chief justice. The discrepancy was said to be caused by the corruption of the government of PPP.
This was a violation of International Law and he claimed that if any international organisations were to find out about this, all banks would pull out all loans given to Pakistan and would have gone into instant default.
According to the Constitution of Pakistan, Farooq Leghari held elections for the National Assembly in 1997. The elections were won by the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Nawaz Sharif was elected Prime Minister.
He won the election against Wasim Sajjad to become the eighth President of Pakistan, and the first Baloch to have been elected as president, serving from 14 November 1993 until voluntarily resigning on 2 December 1997. But as this was against his morals, Farooq Leghari resigned and so was unable to complete his 5-year term as President of Pakistan.
Instead of retiring from politics, Farooq Leghari went on to create his own political party, the Millat Party, which entered into a coalition of seven parties, known as the National Alliance, to participate in the general elections of 2002.
Critics, however, attributed Leghari's earlier approvals of PPP-aligned appointments to a pattern of executive meddling, arguing that his later advocacy for independence served political expediency amid deteriorating relations with both major parties.[36] Leghari's tenure thus marked a transitional phase in Pakistan's judicial appointment dynamics, from executive-heavy processes to a collegium-influenced model, though marred by accusations of inconsistent application favoring short-term alliances.[6]
Involvement in Financial Scandals
In May 1994, opposition leader Nawaz Sharif accused President Farooq Leghari of receiving illicit funds from Mehran Bank, which was embroiled in a major embezzlement scandal involving the diversion of approximately Rs 2 billion (equivalent to about $80 million at the time) for political purposes.[44][45]Sharif specifically alleged that Leghari had facilitated the sale of a low-value plot of land through the bank for an inflated sum in the millions of rupees, implying personal financial gain.[45] These claims, raised during a session of the National Assembly, portrayed the transaction as part of broader irregularities at Mehran Bank under CEO Younus Habib, who later faced conviction for fraud and embezzlement on December 14, 1995, receiving a 10-year prison sentence and a fine of Rs 2 billion.[46]Leghari denied the accusations, characterizing them as politically motivated defamation by his rivals in the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), and responded by filing a lawsuit against Sharif for damaging his reputation.[45] The government, under Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's administration, established two judicial commissions to probe the Mehran Bank affair, which uncovered evidence of funds being siphoned to influence political outcomes, including support for opposition figures against provincial governments.[45] While Leghari's name surfaced in investigations linking bank transactions to efforts to destabilize the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, no criminal charges were filed against him, and the allegations remained unproven in court.[47]
The eighth President of Pakistan, Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari, was born on 2 May 1940, in Choti Zareen, a village of Dera Ghazi Khan District, into a political family that has been active in politics since the pre-colonial days.
Generally an apolitical and socialist oriented, Legharipartyworker of the PakistanPeoplesParty in 1970s and was finallynamed as the presidentialcandidate by BenazirBhutto due to his apolitical vision. The National Alliance, emerged as the 3rd largest group in the parliament and won 13 seats in the National Assembly. These positions underscored his foundational contributions to PPP's organizational buildup in Punjab, where the party sought to challenge entrenched rural elites through targeted recruitment and resource allocation.[5][15]Leghari's early involvement solidified with his election to the Senate in 1975 as a PPP representative, providing legislative experience that paved the way for his ministerial appointments.[3] By 1977, he contested and secured a National Assembly seat from NA-158 (Dera Ghazi Khan-III) on the PPP ticket, amid the party's disputed victory in the general elections, and was subsequently appointed federal Minister for Industries, reflecting his rising stature in Bhutto's administration.[15][3]
Electoral and Parliamentary Roles
Farooq Leghari entered parliamentary politics as a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), securing election to the Senate from Punjab in 1975.[17][18] This followed his resignation from the civil service in 1973 to join the PPP at the invitation of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.[5]In the 1977 general elections, Leghari won a seat in the National Assembly from Dera Ghazi Khan on a PPP ticket, subsequently serving as Minister for Industries in the Bhutto government before its dismissal by General Zia-ul-Haq.[3][13] During Zia's martial law regime (1977–1985), Leghari remained active in opposition politics, including participation in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, though the 1977 assembly was dissolved shortly after its formation.[3]Leghari contested the non-partisan 1985 elections, winning seats in both the Punjab Provincial Assembly and the National Assembly while defeating relatives, including an uncle and an aunt, amid tribal rivalries in Dera Ghazi Khan; he unsuccessfully sought the Punjabchief minister position.[16] In the 1988 party-based elections following Zia's death, he secured a National Assembly seat from NA-133 (Dera Ghazi Khan-II) as a PPP candidate with the highest vote tally in the constituency, later appointed Federal Minister for Water and Power.[19][3][16]He retained his National Assembly seat in the 1990 elections despite the PPP's national losses to the Islamic Democratic Alliance.[20] In the 1993 elections, Leghari again won from the same constituency, briefly serving as Foreign Minister before his elevation to the presidency in November 1993.[20][3] Throughout these terms, he emerged as a key PPP figure in Punjab, often acting as deputy opposition leader in the National Assembly.[12]Ministerial Positions and Policy Contributions
Leghari was appointed Minister of Production in Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's cabinet following the March 1977 elections, serving from April to July 1977 until the military coup by General Zia-ul-Haq.[21] In this role, he oversaw industrial output amid Pakistan's nationalization policies, though specific initiatives attributed to him during this brief tenure are limited in documentation.[16]Following the 1988 general elections, Leghari was inducted into Benazir Bhutto's cabinet as Minister for Water and Power, holding the position from late 1988 to 1990.[16] During this period, he prioritized rural electrification in underserved areas of southern Punjab, including Dera Ghazi Khan district, extending power to thousands of hamlets and remote sites such as Fort Munro.[3] He also advanced infrastructure projects, including the remodeling of Taunsa Barrage to improve irrigation benefits for Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, and Sindh provinces; development of a watercourse lining plan integrated into national agricultural policy; and approvals for local enhancements like Dera Ghazi Khan Airport, bridges along the Koh-e-Suleman highway, 28 tube wells, five water tanks, and a 500-bed hospital with a nursing school.[3] These efforts aimed to address chronic power shortages and support agrarian productivity in arid regions, though they faced challenges from fiscal constraints and political instability.[2]In early 1993, amid a constitutional crisis, Leghari briefly served as Finance Minister in the caretaker government under Prime Minister Balakh Sher Mazari.[16] Later that year, after the October elections, Bhutto appointed him Foreign Minister in October 1993, a position he held for approximately one month before his presidential nomination.[22] No major diplomatic initiatives are distinctly credited to this short stint, which focused on stabilizing Bhutto's incoming administration's foreign relations.[3]Following the October 1993 general elections in Pakistan, in which Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) secured a plurality and formed a coalition government, the presidential vacancy arose after the resignation of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan amid political instability.[23] Bhutto nominated Farooq Leghari, a longtime PPP loyalist and her former interior minister, as the party's candidate for president, positioning him as a figure who could stabilize the executive amid ongoing tensions with opposition forces led by Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML).[23] Leghari's selection reflected PPP's strategy to consolidate power through an ally from Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, leveraging his tribal influence in Dera Ghazi Khan and bureaucratic experience to appeal to a broad electoral college.[16]The presidential election occurred on November 13, 1993, via indirect voting by Pakistan's electoral college, comprising 462 members from the Senate, National Assembly, and four provincial assemblies.[16] Leghari faced Wasim Sajjad, the acting president and Sharif's nominee, in a contest that pitted the PPP-led coalition against PML-backed elements.[23] Leghari secured 274 votes to Sajjad's 168, achieving a margin of 106 votes and demonstrating PPP's effective mobilization across assemblies despite opposition boycotts and allegations of procedural irregularities.[23][16]Leghari was sworn in as Pakistan's eighth president on November 14, 1993, for a five-year term under the 1973 Constitution, which at the time granted the president significant powers including the ability to dissolve parliament.[16] His election marked a rare instance of relative political consensus post the 1990s crises, as it followed Supreme Court interventions restoring democratic processes, though underlying rivalries between PPP and PML persisted.[23] Initial reactions highlighted optimism for governmental stability, with Leghari pledging to uphold constitutional norms and economic reforms amid Pakistan's fiscal challenges.[16]Dismissal of Benazir Bhutto's Second Government
On November 5, 1996, President Farooq Leghari invoked Article 58(2)(b) of the Constitution of Pakistan to dismiss Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's second government, dissolve the National Assembly, and appoint a caretaker prime minister, Malik Meraj Khalid, pending elections within 90 days.[24][6] The proclamation cited the government's inability to function in accordance with the Constitution, pointing to a breakdown in governance marked by corruption, nepotism, and economic mismanagement.[24]Leghari's order specifically accused the administration of fostering an environment of political victimization, including the extrajudicial killing of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, the prime minister's brother, in a September 1996 police encounter, which the government attributed to a conspiracy but failed to investigate transparently.[24] Additional charges included widespread corruption implicating Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, in scandals such as the Swiss banking cases and illegal land allotments; massive illegal wiretapping of opponents; custodial deaths; and defiance of judicial authority, exemplified by public attacks on the judiciary by government figures.[24][6] The economic rationale highlighted a deepening crisis with rising inflation, fiscal deficits exceeding 6% of GDP, and foreign reserves below $1 billion, which the government had inadequately addressed despite repeated presidential advisories.[24][25]As a former Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) loyalist who had been nominated for the presidency by Bhutto in 1993, Leghari initially defended her administration but cited accumulating evidence of rule violations and institutional erosion as necessitating the action, stating he had warned Bhutto multiple times to adhere to constitutional norms.[25] Bhutto countered that the dismissal was a product of military and establishment intrigue, pre-empting an impending no-confidence motion and betraying assurances Leghari had given against using Article 58(2)(b).[26] The move, the second such presidential dissolution against Bhutto after 1990, drew criticism for undermining parliamentary democracy, though Leghari maintained it preserved constitutional order amid irrefutable governance failures.[7][25]Relations with Nawaz Sharif's Administration
Following the February 1997 general elections, in which Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N) secured a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, President Farooq Leghari invited Sharif to form the government on February 17, 1997, marking an initial phase of cooperation between the presidency and the new administration.[27] This step facilitated Sharif's swift assumption of the premiership and reflected Leghari's role in stabilizing the transition after the dismissal of Benazir Bhutto's government.[28]In April 1997, Sharif's government introduced the Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment, which revoked the president's powers to dissolve the National Assembly, appoint military chiefs without prime ministerial advice, and veto legislation—powers largely restored under prior amendments.Surprisingly, he dismissed his leader's governmentafterbeingconvinced of BenazirBhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari's involvement in younger brother's death as well as an economicdefault was reached at that time.
After dismissing, his politicalideologyclashed with conservativePrimeministerNawaz Sharif, and his intervention to support to ChiefJusticeSajjad Ali Shah's matterfinally led the resignation of his presidencyafterbeingforced by the conservatives and persuaded by the PakistanArmedForces in 1997.