Indirect presidential elections were held in December 1988 to elect the 7th

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

. The votes were given by the

Electoral College of Pakistan The President of Pakistan is chosen by an electoral college (), in Pakistan. According to Article 41(3) of the Constitution of Pakistan, this electoral college consists of the Senate, the National Assembly of Pakistan, and the Provincial Assembl ...

, which had its new members in both national and provincial assemblies elected in the corresponding

1988 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 16 November 1988 to elect the members of the National Assembly and Senate. The elections saw the resurgence of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's daughter, Ben ...

. The elections saw a deal struck between the already ruling Independent caretaker president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the

Pakistan Peoples Party The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is a political party in Pakistan and one of the three major List of political parties in Pakistan, Pakistani political parties alongside the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. With a Cent ...

(PPP) as well as the

Islami Jamhoori Ittehad The Islami Jamhuri Ittihad (IJI) was a right-wing conservative alliance formed in September 1988 to oppose the democratic socialist Pakistan Peoples Party in elections that year. The alliance comprised nine parties, of which the major components ...

(IJI). With support from the two largest parties, Ishaq Khan won the elections with ease.

Background, candidates

The presidential elections were held after a decade of military rule, where the 6th president,

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (12 August 192417 August 1988) was a Pakistani military officer and statesman who served as the sixth president of Pakistan from 1978 until Death of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, his death in an airplane crash in 1988. He also se ...

ruled with the

Armed Forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a ...

as military president and as

Chief martial law administrator The office of the chief martial law administrator (CMLA) was a senior and authoritative post created in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia that gave considerable executive authority and powers to the holder of the post to enforc ...

with authoritarian rule. Zia-ul-Haq would die in a controversial plane crash, which left the presidential office vacant, thus, the powerful

Chairman of the Senate The chairman of the Senate of Pakistan () is the president-chair of the Senate of Pakistan. ...

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Ghulam Ishaq Khan (20 January 1915 – 27 October 2006), commonly known by his initials GIK, was a Pakistani bureaucrat, politician and statesman who served as the seventh President of Pakistan from 1988 to 1993. He previously served as Chairm ...

took over as empowered interim president. The Revival of the Constitutional Order had amended the Constitution, which allowed the president to appoint any member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. Ghulam Ishaq Khan appointed

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...

as Prime Minister of Pakistan on the condition that she would give full support to him in the December presidential elections. A political deal was made between

and

. The

assured that they would vote for Ghulam Ishaq Khan, as Ishaq Khan had appointed Benazir as prime minister. Ghulam Ishaq Khan was also the candidate of

Results

4 candidates took part in the elections, with most of them minor candidates securing low votes from minor and regional parties. Ghulam Ishaq Khan easily won the elections, due to the support and votes given to him by the 2 largest political groups, the

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), this support would allow him to secure the highest number of votes — 608 out of 752.

Aftermath

The election of Ghulam Ishaq Khan as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

would extend his already ongoing term. Since he ruled directly after Zia-ul-Haq’s presidency, he would be given high-level presidential powers, as Zia-ul-Haq ruled as an authoritarian president. The powers given to the President of Pakistan in Zia-ul-Haq’s time mainly consisted of the Eighth Amendment, in which the President could dissolve the government whenever he thought need be.

would be ruling Prime Minister at the time of Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s presidency. She would be highly anti-Zia-ul-Haq and attempted to reverse his policies, mainly the Eighth Amendment. As Benazir was the Prime Minister, she wanted more power for the Prime Minister, and less for the President. These desires of Benazir Bhutto would consequently lead to a conflict with Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who would dissolve Benazir’s government, as she attempted to strip the Presidential powers via reversing the Eighth Amendment. Ghulam Ishaq Khan would rule the country for more than 4 years, following the election, and would come into conflict with both his former allies, the PPP and IJI, as he dissolved both Benazir Bhutto’s and Nawaz Sharif’s governments over the disputed Eighth Amendment.

Notes

References

{{Pakistani presidential elections

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

1988 elections in Pakistan