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Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari (May 29, 1940 – October 20, 2010) was the eighth President of Pakistan from November 14, 1993 until December 2, 1997. Leghari was born in Choti Zareen, a village of Dera Ghazi Khan District, Punjab on May 29, 1940 and died on October 20, 2010 due to cardiac arrest. He was born into a political family that has been active in politics in this part of the world since the pre-colonial days. His father Sardar Muhammad Khan Leghari and grand father Nawab Muhmammad Jamal Khan Leghari had both been ministers. Leghari was the major landowner in the area owning approximately 2,500 acres of land.

After his initial schooling at Aitchison College Lahore, Leghari graduated with honours from the Forman Christian College Lahore, and from there went on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University.

After returning to Pakistan he joined the Civil Service and served for some time in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). On the death of his father he resigned from service and came back to his roots to look after the tribal affairs of his tribe, which he subsequently headed. He later joined the Pakistan Peoples Party, and was made leader of the party upon the imprisonment of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was put under house-arrest several times during the military regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

In 1993, with the express support of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Leghari ran for the office of President and won the election against Wasim Sajjad. However, in November 1996, he dismissed the Peoples' Party Government of Benazir Bhutto on charges of corruption, lawlessness and extra judicial killings, and conducted elections for the National Assembly in 1997. The elections were won by the Pakistan Muslim League and Nawaz Sharif was elected Prime Minister. A decisive majority in the lower house of parliament led the Sharif Government to remove the controversial 8th amendment from the constitution of Pakistan. Leghari saw this as a threat to his power and conspired with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sajjad Ali Shah, to sack the Sharif Government. This led to an uprising against both he and Shah and forced both men to resign.

Instead of retiring from politics, he went on to create his own political party, the Millat Party, and later merged it with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) in May 2004. His elder son Jamal Leghari has recently been elected to the Senate of Pakistan. His daughter Faryal Leghari is an analyst and researcher in the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. Leghari died on October 20, 2010 in Rawalpindi due to a heart related illness.

(edited from Wikipedia)

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Eighth President of Pakistan
1993-1997
Resigned

Tags:   Pakistan History Civil Servant Politician

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PPP leader turned hostile

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