History of Elections in Pakistan

Pakistan is inching closer to the new elections and people of Pakistan will soon elect
their representatives for the next five years. At this point, let's take a look at the
past elections held in Pakistan.

ELECTIONS OF 1970
In the General Elections 1970, twenty-four political parties contested for 300
National Assembly seats; 13 were reserved for women. Parties were allowed to
begin their election campaigns from January 1, 1970.

A total of 1,957 candidates filed nomination papers for 300 National Assembly
seats, however, 1,579 eventually contested the elections. Awami League ran 170
candidates, of which 162 were for constituencies in East Pakistan. Jamaat-i-Islami
fielded 151 candidates. The Pakistan Peoples Party ran only 120 candidates, of
which 103 were from constituencies in the Punjab and Sindh. The Pakistan Peoples
Party had no candidates in East Pakistan. The Convention Muslim League ran 124
candidates, the Council Muslim League 119 and the Qayyum Muslim League 133.

RESULTS
Awami League emerged as the single largest party in East Pakistan capturing 160
seats in the National Assembly. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) emerged as
the largest party in West Pakistan, capturing 81 seats. The PML (Qayyum), PML
(Council), PML (Convention), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Jamiyat Ulema-e-Pakistan and
Jamaat-e-Islami won only 37 National Assembly seats.

PARTY POSITION
In the provincial elections, the Awami League won 288 of the 300 seats in the East
Pakistan Assembly, but none in any of the four West Pakistan assemblies. The

Pakistan Peoples Party did well in the Punjab and Sindh Assemblies but failed to win
any seats in East Pakistan.

The Assemblies of the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan were dominated
by the more conservative National Awami Party (Wali) and the PML (Qayyum).

ELECTIONS OF 1985
Elections of the National and Provincial Assemblies were scheduled to be held in
February 1985 on non-party basis. To contest the elections, a precondition was that
a candidate must be supported by at least 50 people to be eligible.

POLLING AND RESULTS

The elections were held on February 25 and 28, 1985 for national and provincial
assemblies respectively. More than 800 important political personalities were
arrested in a pre-election crackdown; election campaigns were not allowed and a
ban was imposed on political parties, processions, rallies and even loudspeakers.

DISPOSITION OF THE HOUSE

The National Assembly continued to be dominated by the rural landlords. The only
change was that the younger generation of landlords had taken over from their
elders. The social background of the new members of parliament can be judged
from the following figures:
Nearly 75 per cent of the 847 members of these bodies were big landlords.

ELECTIONS OF 1988
On August 17, 1988, General Zia along with 31 other notables died in a C-130 plane
crash near Bahawalpur. Under the constitution, the Chairman Senate, Ghulam Ishaq
Khan became the acting president. On October 2, 1988, the Supreme Court of
Pakistan ruled that political parties would be allowed to participate in the upcoming
elections.

CONTESTING PARTIES

The elections proved, mainly, a two-party race between Pakistan People's Party and
a coalition of right-leaning parties called the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI). Pakistan
People's Party (PPP), led by Ms. Benazir Bhutto and the conservative Islamic
Democratic Alliance (IJI), headed by Mr Nawaz Sharif, as well as a multitude of other
groups, fielded some 1,370 candidates for the Assembly's 217 popularly-chosen
seats.

POLLS
Elections for the National Assembly were held on 16 November, 1988. PPP emerged
as the single largest party by receiving 38.52% votes. It captured 93 of the 207
directly-contested seats in parliament, which has 237 members. IJI was able to grab
30.16% of the votes, but only 55 seats.

After the women's seats were apportioned, the Pakistan People's Party controlled
105 of the 237 seats. The PPP formed a coalition-government with the MQM. On
December 2, 1988 Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as the prime minister of Pakistan.
The provincial elections, held on November 19, initially resulted in PPP governments
in three out of four provinces. However, in Punjab, JI leader Nawaz Sharif became
Chief Minister.

ELECTIONS OF 1990
On August 6, 1990, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed Benazir government
and announced new elections on 24 October, 1990. He chose the leader of the
opposition in the former National Assembly, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, as the new
caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan.

CONTENDER PARTIES
1. Pakistan Democratic Alliance, established by PPP together with Asghar Khan's
Tehrik-i-Istiqlal, and two smaller parties.
2. IJI, the coalition that had also competed with the PPP in the 1988 elections.
3. Altaf Hussain's MQM, Khan Abdul Wali Khan's Awami National Party, Jamiat-ulUlama-e-Islam and the Jamhoori Watan Party.

The results showed that IJI secured a booming victory, winning 106 of the 217
general seats. The PDA could win only forty-five seats. Candidates of small ethnic
parties and independents captured the remainder.

Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif was elected Prime Minister by the National Assembly
on November 1, 1990.
President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolved the assemblies on 18th April 1993 on
corruption and other serious charges. General Elections were scheduled to be held
on July 14, 1993.

The President appointed Balakh Sher Mazari as the interim Prime Minister. On May
26, 1993, the Supreme Court revoked the Presidential Order and reinstated Nawaz
Sharif as the Prime Minister. However, both the prime minister and the President
resigned on 18 July 1993. Moeen Qureshi, a top World Bank official, became the
next caretaker PM.

ELECTIONS OF 1993
Elections for National Assembly and Provincial assemblies were scheduled for
October 6 and 9 respectively.

CONTESTING PARTIES
1,485 candidates, in all, contested polls for the National Assembly. None of the main
parties gained a controlling majority; PPP obtaining 86 seats to PML's 72.

The first session was held on 15th October 1993. Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani took oath
of the office of the Speaker National Assembly on 17th October 1993. Ms. Bhutto
was sworn in on 19 October after she defeated Mian Nawaz Sharif with 121-71
margin for the Leader of the House slot. On 14 November, former PPP Foreign
Minister Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari was elected President.

On November 5, 1996, President Leghari dismissed Ms Bhutto's Government and

appointed Malik Meraj Khalid, Rector of the International Islamic University, as
caretaker Prime Minister. The next elections were scheduled to be held on February
3, 1997.

Benazir Bhutto filed a petition with the Supreme Court but on January 29, 1997, only
six days before the general elections, the Supreme Court rejected her petition.

ELECTIONS OF 1997
After the dissolution of Benazir Government, the elections for eleventh National
Assembly were held on 3rd February 1997. Besides PPP, main contenders were:
Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Nawaz, Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM); and
Jamaat-e-Islami. A total of 6,289 candidates contested the election.

The first session was held on 15th February 1997 whereas Mr Illahi Bukhsh Soomro
took oath of the office of the Speaker National Assembly on 16th February 1997.
Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif took oath as Prime Minister of Pakistan on 17th
February 1997.

On 12 October 1999, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered Musharraf's dismissal.

However, senior Army generals refused to accept it and in a coup, the Generals
ousted Sharif administration. Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf assumed
the title of Chief Executive. Through Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) issued on
October 14th 1999, he held the Constitution in abeyance, suspended the Senate,
National and Provincial Assemblies, Chairman and Deputy Chairman Senate,
Speaker, Deputy Speaker National and Provincial Assemblies and dismissed the
Federal and Provincial governments.

ELECTIONS OF 2002
On 12 May 2000, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered Pervez Musharraf to hold
general elections by 12 October 2002. On 11 July 2002, the President and Chief
Executive of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, announced that general elections
for the National Assembly and four Provincial Assemblies would be held on 10
October 2002.

The National and Provincial elections were held on the same day. More than 72
million registered voters aged 18 and above from a population of 140 million,
elected members for the 342 National Assembly seats and 728 seats of the four
Provincial Assemblies. A total of 2,098 candidates contested for 272 general seats

of the National Assembly. The remaining 60 seats were reserved for women and 10
for non-Muslims.

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam (PML-Q), a faction of the former Pakistan

Muslim League (PML) obtained the largest share of seats, 77, but fell short of
majority. The Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) came second with 63
seats. Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamist parties, won 45
seats.

On November 19, 2002, Chaudhry Amir Hussain was elected the new Speaker of the
National Assembly while on November 21, 2002, Mir Zafarullah Jamali was elected
as the 21st Prime Minister of Pakistan by securing 172 votes out of 329 votes.
However, he resigned on 26 June 2004 and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain replaced him
as the interim Prime Minister who was later replaced by Shaukat Aziz.

Elections 2008
On 8 November 2007, Musharraf announced that the election would be held by 15
February 2008. Later the election date was changed to occur on or before 9 January
2008. Even later, he suggested 8 January 2008 as the election date. On 15
November, 2007, Mohammad Mian Soomro was appointed as caretaker prime
minister at the expiry of the term of the previous government.

The year 2007 saw numerous political crises culminating in the December 27
assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Five main parties who contested these elections were:

(1) Pakistan People's Party
(2) Pakistan Muslim League- Q
(3) Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz
(4) Awami National Party
(5) Mutahidda Qaumi Movement