Nawaz Sharif

Nawaz Sharif (born 1949) led his party to victory and became the prime minister of Pakistan in 1990.Supporters claim his political success lay in his business background. While most of Pakistan's political players were of the landed elite, Sharif's family built its fortune on a steel smelting factory. He took full advantage of his industrialist credentials, using a liberal reformist stance to attract votes from the business class.

Niam Nawaz Sharif was born in Lahore, Pakistan on December 25, 1949, one year after the new nation's founding. He came from a family of industrialists who made their fortune in the politically significant province of Punjab. His father and six uncles controlled and operated an iron foundry in Amritsar. Sharif graduated from the Government College of Lahore, a recruiting source for the civil service. He received his bachelor of law degree from the Punjab University Law College, also in Lahore. Sharif helped establish the Ittefaq Islamic Academy in Lahore, where students receive religious instruction in addition to their secular training. A practicing Moslem, Sharif comes from a religious family and has said he would make the teaching of the Koran, the Moslem holy book, a compulsory subject up to the secondary level.

Sharif and his male cousins expanded his father's iron foundry only to lose it to a 1972 nationalization policy launched by the former prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It was re-established in 1977 as Ittefaq Industries in Lahore. The business was returned after Sharif developed political links with then-president, Mohammad Zia ul-Haq. It was General Zia who brought down Bhutto in 1975, executing him two years later on charges of conspiracy. By 1990, Ittefaq Industries was one of Pakistan's most affluent conglomerates, with more than $450 million in annual revenues, up from about $16 million in 1981. It included the country's largest private steel mill, a sugar mill, and four textile factories. With upwards of ten thousand employees, Ittefaq has played a significant role in the development and growth of industry in Pakistan. It has likely influenced Sharif's political career and pro-business stance as
Began Political Career

Sharif began his political career in the early 1980s, while serving as director of the Ittefaq Group of Industries. In 1981, Sharif was appointed finance minister of Punjab Province by the Zia government. He used his newfound political authority to promote his pro-business stance and presented four successive development-oriented budgets targeting the improvement of socio-economic conditions in rural areas. Sharif raised the appropriation of funds for the development of these rural areas to nearly 70 percent of the province's annual development program. Four years later, Sharif became the Punjab's chief minister in a general election. He now had a great deal of influence over the province's industrial and agricultural power.
Became Prime Minister

Sharif's perseverance and political clout placed him in the vanguard of Bhutto adversaries. He proceeded to crush Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in the October 1988 election. Sharif was elected a Member of Parliament in the October 24, 1990 general elections, after leading a ten-party Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA), an affiliation of liberal groups and rightist Islamic militants. On November 3, he was nominated by the IJI as its candidate for the premiership and was soon after sworn in as Pakistan's new prime minister. For three months prior to his victory Pakistan's top generals, bureaucrats and business leaders had been systematically stripping Bhutto's PPP of nearly all political power.
Ousted from Parliament

Sharif became the target of many of the traditional landed interests, including Bhutto, because his policies deeply affected Pakistan's political and economic power structure. But his ouster came with an attempt to weaken the power of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Sharif had long been considered compliant, willing to quietly take orders from the president, but the two had clashed over reports of corruption in Sharif's government. The president dismissed Sharif in April 1993, after months of political turmoil.
Re-elected in Landslide Victory

On February 17, 1997, Sharif led the PML to a landslide victory (177-16), crushing Bhutto in the process. Sharif's Muslim League won a decisive parliamentary victory, winning 134 seats in the 217-seat parliament. Bhutto's PPP was second, winning 18 seats. The PML commanded around 165 seats when combined with its small-party allies, giving it a solid working majority. He stepped into office with the responsibility of reviving a crisis-laden economy. Domestically, Sharif was faced with boosting an economy plagued by budget deficits, 30 billion dollars of foreign debts, high inflation, and a nation with very high expectations for relief and a clean administration. On foreign affairs, he faced tensions with India and festering dissension in Afghanistan.