Epilogue

Abstract

The establishment of the PPP regime led by Benazir Bhutto in 1993 following the national and provincial elections in October, appeared to be the beginning of a long-sought era of political stability. The election of Farooq Khan Leghari as the country’s president further secured the government and removed fears of another executive order rooted in the controversial Eighth Amendment. (Earlier, the Amendment — originally incorporated by General Zia ul-Haq in the Constitution of 1973 — had helped Ghulam Ishaque Khan accomplish a ‘hat-trick’ with three dissolutions in as many years.) It was the second time that the PPP, founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1967, had been able to hold simultaneously the two highest offices in the country and it was only the second time in 44 years of the country’s history that a politician had become the head of state. Pakistan’s youthful leadership, both in the government and opposition since the departure of ‘the old guard’, brought hope and anxiety to the country. The ‘troika’ of power shared by the president (usually a bureaucrat or general), the chief of army staff and the prime minister — with the last being the weakest of the three — had moved more in favour of the political duo. Such a major shift boded well for the political forces in the country. In late 1993, the country was enjoying a most favourable geopolitical environment following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the emergence of friendly Muslim Central Asian republics with a supportive Afghanistan, and India (confronted with a massive revolt from within Kashmir) agreeing to hold talks with Pakistan.KeywordsCivil SocietyPolitical CultureCivic AttitudePolitical AlienationEighth AmendmentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.