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1990 Pakistani general election

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Field	Value
country	Pakistan
type	parliamentary
previous_election	1988 Pakistani general election
previous_year	1988
election_date	24 October 1990
next_election	1993 Pakistani general election
next_year	1993
seats_for_election	All 217 seats in National Assembly
majority_seats	109 seats
registered	48,952,991
turnout	45.17% (2.42pp)
image1	Nawaz Sharif detail, 981203-D-9880W-117.jpg
leader1	Nawaz Sharif
party1	Pakistan Muslim League
alliance1	Islami Jamhoori Ittehad
last_election1	56
seats_after1	106
seat_change1	50
popular_vote1	7,908,513
percentage1	36.54%
image2	Benazir bhutto 1989 cropped.jpg
leader2	Benazir Bhutto
party2	Pakistan Peoples Party
alliance2	PDA
last_election2	94
seats_after2	44
seat_change2	50
popular_vote2	7,795,218
percentage2	36.01%
title	Prime minister
before_election	Benazir Bhutto
before_party	Pakistan Peoples Party
after_election	Nawaz Sharif
after_party	Islami Jamhoori Ittehad
map_image	Pakistan General election 1990.png
map_caption	Results constituency

General elections were held in Pakistan on 24 October 1990 to elect the members of the National Assembly. The elections were primarily a contest between the People's Democratic Alliance (PDA, a four party alliance led by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of Benazir Bhutto) and the conservative nine-party alliance, Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) headed by Nawaz Sharif.

President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolved the National Assembly and dismissed Bhutto's government in August 1990 on charges of corruption and maladministration. However, the PPP was still extremely popular and there was a fear amongst anti-PPP forces that it might be re-elected. Numerous steps were taken by Ishaq with help of the military establishment to sway the results in favour of the IJI, including the appointment of IJI chairman Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi as caretaker Prime Minister. Despite their efforts, the PPP remained ahead in opinion polls.

However, the result was a surprise victory for the IJI, which won 111 of the 207 general seats (a further ten were reserved for minority voters). The PDA won just 44 seats amidst a voter turnout of only 45%. The IJI's parliamentary leader Sharif became Prime Minister while Bhutto became the Opposition Leader. In 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that the elections had been rigged.

Background

The PPP led by Benazir Bhutto had won a plurality of seats in the 1988 election and Bhutto became Prime Minister. However by 1990 there was discontent over rising lawlessness, allegations of corruption and the failure of the government to fulfill the promises it had made during the 1988 campaign.

Parties

The PPP formed an alliance with three other parties, Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafariya, Tehreek-e-Istiqlal and the Pakistan Muslim League (Chatta), running under the name People's Democratic Alliance.

Campaign

By the start of the campaign reports suggested that Bhutto and the PDA were in a stronger position as the caretaker government failed to produce sufficient evidence to prove any charges against her.

At the end of the campaign Bhutto led hundreds of thousands of supporters in a procession in Lahore, while Sharif held a rally for about ten thousand nearby.

Electoral fraud

Main article: Electoral fraud in Pakistan

On 19 October 2012, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled on a petition by Asghar Khan, requesting that the court probe allegations that the 1990 elections had been rigged. The court officially ruled that two Army Generals – Mirza Aslam Baig and Asad Durrani (Head of the ISI) – along with President Ghulam Ishaq Khan – had provided financial assistance to favoured parties. The motive was to deliberately weaken the mandate of the Pakistan Peoples Party. It was believed that the PPP, led by Benazir Bhutto, was a liability to the nation.

Results

IJI won the popular vote by a very narrow margin of only around 100,000 votes, but the narrow victory in the popular vote translated into 106 seats for IJI against the PDA's 44 seats. The popular argument regarding PDA's huge loss of seats is that the PDA's vote, despite being almost equal to that of IJI, was much more spread out whereas IJI's vote bank was more concentrated. This resulted in PDA candidates losing in IJI won seats by narrow margins.

References

[https://www.dawn.com/news/1307953 A Leaf From History: Ghulam Ishaq invokes Article 58-2(b), sends Benazir packing] Dawn, 15 January 2017
[https://www.dawn.com/news/802016/an-overview-of-1990-general-elections-the-game-gets-dirtier An overview of 1990 general elections: The game gets dirtier] Dawn, 12 April 2013
[https://www.dawn.com/news/757862 1990 election was rigged, rules SC] Dawn, 19 October 2012
Crossette, Barbara. (6 May 1990). "Crime Weakens Support for Bhutto, Even in Her Traditional Power Base". [[The New York Times]].
Crossette, Barbara. (26 September 1990). "Karachi Journal; With the Chips Down, Bhutto's Ace Is Her Father". [[The New York Times]].
[https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ac634.html Pakistan: Information on an alliance between the People's Democratic Alliance (PDA) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP)] Refworld
Crossette, Barbara. (21 September 1990). "Bhutto Gaining as Charges Remain Unproved". [[The New York Times]].
(23 October 1990). "World". [[The Seattle Times]].
Mufti, Mariam. (19 June 2018). "Who rigs polls in Pakistan and how?".
(19 October 2012). "Asghar Khan case short order: Full text". [[The Express Tribune]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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