The political history of Pakistan is such that the political power there has always been considered a hanger of the army. The current PM of Pakistan Imran Khan is facing a no-confidence motion these days and the government is in danger of going. It is also being said about this whole incident that the army is involved in this. Till date no government in Pakistan has been able to complete its term, Imran Khan is also seen maintaining this history. Even in Pakistan, in total, the army chief has ruled for 34 years. But once it has happened, when the PM of Pakistan had discharged the army chief.
This was the time of former Pak PM Nawaz Sharif. In 1997, he had discharged Army Chief General Jehangir Karamat, who was very popular at that time. This was the first time that the current of power in Pakistan was reversed. Sharif took over as the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in 1997. His party emerged as the single largest party in the election, while the army was engaged in image makeover at that time. Jehangir Karamat’s popularity was quite high during that period for preventing the military coup of former PM Benazir Bhutto’s government. He was then the Chief of the General Staff, while General Abdul Waheed Kakar was the Army Chief.
In that period, the rebel army officers under the leadership of General Zahirul Islam Abbasi had hatched a conspiracy for Operation Khalifa. It is said that their plot was to assassinate Benazir Bhutto, Army Chief Kakar and some senior ministers. It is being claimed that they wanted to bring Nawaz Sharif to power in place of Bhutto. Benazir Bhutto’s party PPP became the largest party in 1993 and then she became PM with the support of the army. Then there was a deal between the two that Benazir Bhutto would not interfere in the work of the army and in return the Pakistan Army would not destabilize the government.
When Karamat exposed the conspiracy to kill Bhutto
This did not happen and there was a tussle between the army and the government. But in time Jahangir Karamat came to know about this and stopped the military coup. Then 35 army officers were arrested and the respect of Karamat increased rapidly in the corridors of power and public of Pakistan. The message went that it was Jahangir’s feat that he had saved the democratically elected government. After this came the era of Nawaz Sharif and by then Karamat had become the army chief, to whom Bhutto had given this post in 1996.
Nawaz Sharif slams President and Chief Justice
Nawaz Sharif started making some changes as soon as he took power. Amendments were brought from 13th to 15th in the constitution of Pakistan. There was a difference of opinion about this. On one side was Nawaz Sharif and on the other side was Jehangir Karamat, Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and President Farooq Laghari. Like Karamat, Laghari was also considered to be Bhutto’s trustee. Nawaz Sharif took away the President’s power to dissolve Parliament by the 13th Amendment. Apart from this, the 14th amendment took away the right of an MP to go against the party. At the same time, there was the most uproar regarding the 15th constitution, under which he declared Sharia as the Supreme Law of Pakistan.
Chief Justice got to know about the holiday on TV
Meanwhile, a case of contempt against Nawaz Sharif was registered in the Supreme Court. He was accused of criticizing the Chief Justice. During the hearing, Nawaz’s supporters ransacked the court. Chief Justice Shah wrote to the President to order the army to take action against Sharif. The President could not bear the pressure from both sides and resigned from the post. Not only this, after this Nawaz Sharif’s next target became Chief Justice and his term was terminated midway. Justice Shah was given the responsibility of removing himself from the post on TV.
Then within a year, Nawaz Sharif got his revenge.
Meanwhile, there was pressure on Jehangir Karamat that he did not speak on the removal of the President and the Chief Justice. Finally one day Karamat criticized the Nawaz Sharif government. The occasion was the recruitment of new naval officers into the army and the speech of enchantment was considered to incite the army against the government. He was against the imposition of radical Islamic rules on the part of Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz Sharif did not like the speech of Jahangir Karamat and he asked Karamat to resign and discharged him with immediate effect. In this way, this was the first time that a Pakistani PM removed the army chief from the post. After this he handed over the command of the army to Pervez Musharraf. However, a year later Musharraf overthrew Sharif.