Military Comes to Power Again [Oct 12,1999]

General Pervez Musharraf, Chief of the Army Staff, assumed the title of Chief Executive

On October 12,1999, Pakistan Army ousted the civilian Government headed by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. After two days of chilling uncertainty, General Pervez Musharraf, Chief of the Army Staff, assumed the title of Chief Executive. Although the use of the term “Martial Law” was avoided, Pakistan once again came under Military rule. It was claimed that the army was forced to take this step to save the country from “turmoil and uncertainty”. Immediately before the takeover, Mr. Nawaz Sharif had tried to replace the Army Chief when the former was on his tour to Sri Lanka.

The Supreme Court, in a ruling on May 12, 2000, accepted that a constitutional deviation had taken place in pursuit of rather noble objectives, such as economic reforms and bringing to book the corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen. The 12 judges based their ruling on the principle of salus po puli ex supreme lex (the welfare of the people is the supreme law of any land). The court took the view that there was no other way to remove a corrupt government except through the intervention of the armed forces. The Supreme Court directed Mr. Musharaf to hold general elections by the end of 2002.

Nawaz Sharif is sentenced to life imprisonment in the plane conspiracy case

After the military takeover, the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Shabaz Sharif (his brother and former Punjab Chief Minister) and five other officials were booked on charges of hijacking, kidnapping and attempted murder in a “Plane Conspiracy Case”. The prosecution’s case was based on a police report filed by an army colonel. The charges were that Nawaz Sharif in his capacity as Prime Minster, had ordered the Civil Aviation Authority to prevent a Colombo-Karachi PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) commercial flight, with Musharraf on board, from landing at Karachi or anywhere else in Pakistan. The attempted murder charges relates to Sharif endangering the lives of Musharraf and 200 other passengers on board by denying the plane permission to land when it was low on fuel. The case was tried by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi (ironically established by Nawaz Sharif himself), which sentenced him to life imprisonment. In their appeal to the High Court, pending a decision, Mr. Sharif’s lawyers have maintained that no charge of corruption was proved against the former Prime Minister, and that it was the Prime Minster’s constitutional right to remove the Army Chief.