Farooq Leghari

Title & tenure

8th President of Pakistan (1993–1997)

In office: 1993 – 1997

Predecessor:

Ghulam Ishaq Khan

Successor:

Rafiq Tarar

Biography

Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari was a senior Pakistan Peoples Party leader and close ally of Benazir Bhutto who was elected President in 1993 following the resignation of Ghulam Ishaq Khan, only to use the same presidential powers against Bhutto herself a few years later.

Achievements

• Served as Foreign Minister and in other senior PPP government roles before his presidency

Key events

• Elected President in 1993 with the backing of Benazir Bhutto's PPP government
• Dismissed Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's government in November 1996, citing corruption and the unresolved murder of her brother Murtaza Bhutto
• The Thirteenth Amendment (1997), passed under his successor's government, later repealed the President's power to dismiss elected governments

Legacy

Leghari's dismissal of the government that had helped elect him illustrated the continuing instability caused by the Eighth Amendment's presidential powers, which were finally repealed shortly after he left office.

How it ended

Resigned in December 1997 after a dispute with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government over the removal of the Chief Justice; died in 2010.