Farooq Leghari
Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari (
Urdu: فاروق احمد خان لغاری) (b.
May 29,
1940) was
President of Pakistan from
November 14,
1993 until
December 2,
1997.
Leghari was born in
Choti zareen, a village of
Dera Ghazi Khan, on May 29 of 1940. He comes from a political family that has been active in politics in this part of the world since the pre-colonial days. His father
Sardar Muhammad Khan Leghari and grand father
Sir Nawab Muhmammad Jamal Khan Leghari had both been ministers.
After his initial schooling at the "Eton" of
Pakistan,
Aitchison College, Lahore where he was the head boy and declared the Best Leaving Student of 1957. He graduated with honours from the
Forman Christian College,
Lahore where again he was amongst the best students, he went on to study at
Oxford University.
After returning to
Pakistan he joined the
Civil Service and served for quite sometime in
East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh). On the death of his father he resigned from service and came back to his roots to look after the tribal affairs of his tribe. He is the head of the
Leghari tribe.
He joined the
Pakistan Peoples Party, and was made the leader of that party upon the imprisonment of
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. However, later Leghari was also imprisoned during the military regime of General
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, only to be freed upon the death of the General.
In 1993, with the express support of his leader (
Benazir Bhutto), he ran for President and won the election against
Wasim Sajjad. During this time, his relationships with
Benazir Bhutto and her husband
Asif Ali Zardari gradually deteriorated, and reached their lowest level in November 1996, when he dismissed Benazir Bhutto's government on the pretext of lawlessness and extra judicial killings. The true reason of their falling out is believed to be more of a personal nature. The 1997 general elections brought
Nawaz Sharif to power. Leghari and Sharif soon had a falling out and a personal power struggle ensued between them. Shortly after Nawaz Sharif's supporters ransacked the Supreme Court, Farooq Leghari was forced to resign.
Instead of retiring from politics, he went on to create his own political party, the
Millat Party, which entered into a coalition of 7 parties, known as National Alliance, to participate in the general elections of 2002. The National Alliance, however, failed to appear as a dominant force in the elections, and won just 13 seats in the National Assembly, mostly his own family members. The political atmosphere of the time helped him in entering in a coalition with the majority party to form a government, and his son
Awais Ahmed Leghari was made a federal minister for
Telecom and IT, as a consequence, and another of his deputies Yar Mohammad Rind also was inducted in the Federal cabinet. Later Mohammaed Ali Durrani and his niece Sumaira Malik from his party were inducted into the Federal Cabinet. His elder son Jamal Leghari has recently been elected to the Senate of Pakistan. His daughter Faryal Leghari is an assistant researcher at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai.
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