allama iqbal

iqbal was born in the Punjab on February 22, 1873. His ancestors, who were Kashmiri Brahmins, had embraced Islam two hundred years earlier. Iqbal’s own father was a devout Muslim with Sufistic bent of mind.
Primary Education
He received his early education in Sialkot. After passing the entrance examination, he joined Intermediary College. Mir Hassan, a great oriental scholar, had a special aptitude for imparting his own literary taste and to his students. Under his influence, Iqbal was drawn towards Islamic studies, which he regarded to be an outstanding favor that he could not forget it all his life.
Higher Education
Passing on to the Government College of Lahore, Iqbal did his graduation with English Literature, Philosophy and Arabic as his subjects. At the college he met Prof. Arnold and Sir Abdul Qadir. Iqbal’s poem, Chand (moon) and other early poems appeared in the journal (which belonged to Sir Abdul Qadir) in 1901 and were acclaimed by critics as cutting a new path in Urdu poetry.
It did not take him long to win recognition as a rising star on the firmament of Urdu literature.
In the mean time he had done his MA in Philosophy and was appointed as a Lecturer in History, Philosophy and Political science at Oriental College, Lahore. He then moved to Government College to teach Philosophy and English Literature.
Wherever Iqbal worked or thought his versatility and scholarship made a deep impression on those around him.
In Europe
Iqbal proceeded to Europe for higher studies in 1905 and stayed there for three years. He took the Honors Degree in Philosophy and taught Arabic at the Cambridge University in the absence of Prof. Arnold. From England, he went to Germany to do his doctorate in Philosophy from Munich and then returned to London to qualify for the bar. He also served as a teacher in the London school of Commerce and passed the Honors Examination in Economics and Political Science. During his stay in Europe Iqbal not only read voraciously but also wrote and lectured on Islamic subjects which added to his popularity and fame in literary circles.
Back in India
Iqbal returned to India in 1908. The poet had won all these academic laurels by the time he was 32 or 33. He practiced as a lawyer from 1908 to 1934, when ill health compelled him to give up his practice. In fact, his heart was not in it and he devoted more time to philosophy and literature than to legal profession.
He attended the meetings of Anjuman Himayat-I-Islam regularly at Lahore. The epoch making poems, Shikwa and Jawab-e-Shikwa, which he read out in the annual convention of it one year after another, sparkled with the glow of his genius and made him immensely popular. They became the national songs of Millet.
Iqbal’s other poems Tarana-e-Hind (The Indian anthem) and Tarana-e-Milli (the Muslim Anthem) also became very popular among masses and used to be sung as symbols of National or Muslim identity at public meetings.
The spirit of Change
The Balkan wars and the Battle of Tripoli, in 1910, shook Iqbal powerfully and inflicted a deep wound upon his heart. In his mood of anger and frustration, he wrote a number of stirring poems, which together with portraying the anguish of Muslims were severely critical of the West.
The spirit of change is evident in poems like Bilad-e-Islamia (the lands of Islam), Wataniat (Nationalism), Muslim, Fatima Bint Abdullah (who was killed in the siege of Cyrainca, Siddiq, Bilal, Tahzib-e-Hazir (Modern civilization) and Huzoor-e-Risalat Maab Mein (in the presence of Sacred Prophet).
In these poems, Iqbal deplores the attitude of Muslim leaders who lay a claim to Islamic leadership and yet are devoid of a genuine spiritual attachment to the blessed Prophet.
The turning point in Iqbal’s Life
Iqbal was shaken by the tragic events of World War I and the disaster the Muslims had to face. The genius had passed through the formative period. He had attained maturity as a poet, thinker, seer and crusader who could read the signs of tomorrow in the happenings of today, make predictions, present hard facts and unravel abstruse truths through the medium of poetry and ignite the flame of faith, Selfhood and courage by his own intensity of feeling and force of expression. Khizr-e-Raah (The Guide) occupies the place of pride among the poems he wrote during this period. Bang-e-Dara (The caravan bell) published in 1929 has held a place of honor in Urdu poetry and world poetry.
Iqbal preferred Persian for poetic expression because its circle was wider than that of Urdu in Muslim India. His Persian works, Asrar-e-khudi (Secrets of the self), Rumuz-e-Bekhudi (Mysteries of Selflessness), Payam-e-Mashriq (Message of the East), Javed Nama (The Song of Eternity) belong to the same period of his life. And so is Reconstruction of Religious Thoughts in Islam, which was extensively appreciated and translated into many languages. Academies were set up in Italy and Germany for the study of Iqbal’s poetry and philosophy.
Politics
In 1927 the poet was elected to the Punjab Legislative assembly. In 1930, he was elected to preside over at the annual session of Muslim League. In his presidential address at Allahabad, Iqbal for the first time introduced the idea of Pakistan. In 1930-31, he attended the Round Table conference, which met in London to frame a constitution for India.
In Spain
While in England, Iqbal accepted the hospitality of Spain. He also went to Cordoba and had the distinction of being the first Muslim to offer prayers at its historical mosque after the exile of Moors. Memories of the past glory of Arabs and their 800-year rule over Spain were revived in his mind and his emotions were aroused by what he saw.
Meeting with Mussolini
In Italy Iqbal was received by Mussolini who had read some of his works and was aquatinted with his philosophy. They had long meetings and talked freely to each other.
The Universities of Cambridge, Rome and Madrid and the Roman Royal society organized meetings in his honor. On his way back he also went to Jerusalem to attend the International Conference of Motamar-i-Isalami.
In Afghanistan
At the invitation of King Nadir Shah, Iqbal visited Afghanistan in 1932. The king received the poet with great honor and met hi privately, as well during which he laid bare his heart. The two talked and wept.
Iqbal’s Death
The last phase of Iqbal’s life was embittered with constant illness. But as regards his creative activities this product was most productive. He kept in touch with every question of the day and continued composing beautiful verses.

quaid e azam

He was born on 25th of December 1876 in Karachi. He opened his eyes in a mercantile family. His father Jinnah Ponja was a businessmen. Quaid's family was basically from Rajkot India they migrated towards Karachi to find better business opportunities. Mister Ponja was a prosperous merchant and he wanted his son to get the best education available.Muhammed Ali, started his education from Sindh Madrasatul Islam, then he went to Bombay for more education. After this he went to England where he studied law at lincoln's Inn. Quaid e Azam later told that he applied in Lincoln's Inn because he saw Holy Prphet Mohammed peace be upon him's name at the reception of the college. This shows the love Quaid e Azam had for Holy Prophet and Islam. Since the early days of his youth he was always a neat and clean boy. He was very well mannered, punctual and disciplined. He was a born leader and had all the essentials for a leader since his childhood.After completing his education he practiced law in Bombay and instantly became the most well known and reputed lawyer in Bombay. It was his commitment to his profession and his view of legal system. He always worked hard, that's why once he said in his address to Pakistanis " work, work and work. Work with honesty and responsibility for your country. "Quaid e Azam's first contact with politics was in 1906, when he acted as private secretary to Dadabhai Naoroji, president of the Indian National Congress. He joined Congress instead of Muslim league because of two reasons:1. Muslim league was new at that time.
2. Secondly he thought that the political power and secular agenda Congress has would be good enough for Muslims of south Asia. He was symbol of Hindu Muslim unity. But when he worked with Congress he found that Congress is neglecting the Muslim minority of the country. Specially the way Congress fought for Hindi instead of Persian and Urdu. Differences reached at the top when Congress started non-cooperation movement. Jinnah disagreed profoundly with the movement and resigned from the Congress. Jinnah advocated a moderate approach of cooperation with the British and gradual transfer of power.

william shakespeare

William Shakespeare Biography describes the life of William Shakespeare. From birth to death, Shakespeare Biography describes all that is known about Shakespeare's life from available documentation including court and church records, marriage certificates and criticisms by Shakespeare's rivals.
Shakespeare (1564-1616): Who was he?
Though William Shakespeare is recognized as one of literature’s greatest influences, very little is actually known about him. What we do know about his life comes from registrar records, court records, wills, marriage certificates and his tombstone. Anecdotes and criticisms by his rivals also speak of the famous playwright and suggest that he was indeed a playwright, poet and an actor.
Date of Birth? (1564)
William was born in 1564. We know this from the earliest record we have of his life; his baptism which happened on Wednesday, April the 26th, 1564. We don’t actually know his birthday but from this record we assume he was born in 1564. Similarly by knowing the famous Bard's baptism date, we can guess that he was born three days earlier on St. George’s day, though we have no conclusive proof of this.
Brothers and Sisters.
William was the third child of John and Mary Shakespeare. The first two were daughters and William was himself followed by Gilbert who died in 1612 and Richard who died in 1613. Edmund (1580-1607), sixth in the line was baptized on May the third, 1580 and William's oldest living sister was Joan who outlived her famous playwright brother. Of William’s seven siblings, only Judith and four of his brothers survived to adulthood.
William's Father.
From baptism records, we know William's father was a John Shakespeare, said to be a town official of Stratford and a local businessman who dabbled in tanning, leatherwork and whittawering which is working with white leather to make items like purses and gloves. John also dealt in grain and sometimes was described as a glover by trade.
John was also a prominent man in Stratford. By 1560, he was one of fourteen burgesses which formed the town council. Interestingly, William himself is often described as a keen businessman so we can assume he got his business acumen from his father. In the Bard's case, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree at all...
William's mother: Mary Arden.
William's mother was Mary Arden who married John Shakespeare in 1557. The youngest daughter in her family, she inherited much of her father’s landowning and farming estate when he died.
Early Days on Henley Street...
Since we know Stratford's famous Bard lived with his father, John Shakespeare, we can presume that he grew up in Henley Street, some one hundred miles northwest of London.
The Bard's Education.
Very little is known about literature’s most famous playwright. We know that the King’s New Grammar School taught boys basic reading and writing. We assume William attended this school since it existed to educate the sons of Stratford but we have no definite proof. Likewise a lack of evidence suggests that William, whose works are studied universally at Universities, never attended one himself!
William marries an older woman. (1582)
A bond certificate dated November the 28th, 1582, reveals that an eighteen year old William married the twenty-six and pregnant Anne Hathaway. Barely seven months later, they had his first daughter, Susanna. Anne never left Stratford, living there her entire life.
The Bard's children. (1583 & 1592)
Baptism records show that William’s first child, Susanna was baptized in Stratford sometime in May, 1583. Baptism records again reveal that twins Hamnet and Judith were born in February 1592. Hamnet, William's only son died in 1596, just eleven years old. Hamnet and Judith were named after William’s close friends, Judith and Hamnet Sadler. William's family was unusually small in a time when families had many children to ensure parents were cared for in later years despite the very high mortality rates of children and also their life expectancy in the 1500s.
The Bard as a poet.
Evidence that the great Bard was also a poet comes from his entering his first poem Venus and Adonis in the Stationers’ Registrar on the 18th of April, 1593. The playwright registered his second poem The Rape of Lucrece by name on the 9th of May, 1594.
The Bard suffers breech of copyright. (1609)
In 1609, the Bard's sonnets were published without the Bard’s permission. It is considered unlikely that William wanted many of his deeply personal poems to be revealed to the outside world. It was not however the first time; in 1599, in a collection entitled "The Passionate Pilgrim" , two of his poems had been printed without William’s permission.
The Bard's lost years?
Looking for work in London, just four days ride way from Stratford, William is believed to have left his family back home for some twenty years whilst he pursued his craft. He only returned back to his family in 1609, having visited only during the forty day period of Lent when theatres though open well into the start of Lent would later close in accordance with the traditional banning of all forms of diversionary entertainment around this important Easter event.
William applies for a Coat of Arms. (1596)
Records with the College of Heralds, reveal William applied for a coat of arms. Despite a lack of proof, he was granted his request. Later in 1599 he applied for his mother’s coat of arms to be added to his own.
William buys major residential property. (1597)
At age 15, William purchased the New Place. This was one of the most prominent and desired properties in all of Stratford being the second largest house in town. Given his father's known financial hardship from 1576, William must either have used his own money to buy this expensive property or his father had placed money in his son’s name. It is possible William might have bought this prominent property with money from his plays. It is estimated that roughly fifteen of his 37 plays would have been written and performed by 1597!
Will flats in London. (Circa 1601-1604)
Court records of a dispute between William's landlord Christopher Mountjoy and his son-in-law Stephen Belott confirm that William was living in London around 1601. The playwright's name is recorded in the court records when he gave testimony in 1612 concerning Mountjoy and Belott’s dispute. Interestingly, in 1601, he bought roughly 107 acres of arable land with twenty acres of pasturage for 20 pounds in Old Stratford.
The Bard strikes it rich.
William made his greatest financial gain in 1605 when he purchased leases of real estate near Stratford. This investment of some four hundred and forty pounds doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds income each year. Some academics speculate that this investment gave the Bard the time he needed to write plays uninterrupted and we know that he was indeed thought of as a businessman in the Stratford area...
A friend passes away.
Yet another record confirming the Bard's existence was John Comb’s will which bequeathed to the Bard the princely sum of just five pounds.
The Bard's will and death.
Records reveal that the great Bard revised his will on March the 25th, 1616. Less than a month later, he died on April the 23rd, 1616. Literature's famous Bard is buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. He infamously left his second-best bed to his wife Anne Hathaway and little else, giving most of his estate to his eldest daughter Susanna who has married a prominent and distinguished physician named John Hall in June 1607. This was not as callous as it seems; the Bard's best bed was for guests; his second-best bed was his marriage bed... His will also named actors Richard Burbage, Henry Condell and John Hemminges, providing proof to academics today that William was involved in theatre. The Bard's direct line of descendants ended some 54 years later until Susanna’s daughter Elizabeth died in 1670.

shah faisal

King Faisal ibn Abd al Aziz ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia (1904-1975) was the most prominent Arab leader in the early 1970s. He participated for more than a half century in the creation of modern Saudi Arabia and, as king, was known for his conservative Islamic policies and his staunch anti-Communism.
Faisal was born in Riyadh in 1904, the son of Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, founder of Saudi Arabia. His mother, Tarfa, a member of the leading religious family of the Al al-Shaikh, died when he was quite young, and he was raised by his maternal grandfather, who taught him the Koran and the principles of the Islamic religion, an education which left an impact on him for the remainder of his life.
Faisal gradually assumed state responsibilities, starting at the age of 13 as a soldier in his father's army. At the age of 18 he became commander of the Saudi army in Asir (south-west Arabia), successfully leading the Saudi military campaigns which brought the Hijaz into the kingdom (1925). His father selected him as early as the age of 15 for diplomatic missions abroad, and later he became the first Saudi foreign minister in 1930. In 1935 King ibn Saud gave his two most promising sons permanent positions in the state. Prince Saud, who was two years older than Faisal, was made viceroy of Najd, in the center of the kingdom, and Faisal, viceroy of the Hijaz on the Red Sea.
Rivalry between Faisal and Saud, 1953-1964
In 1953 King ibn Saud designated his older son, Saud, as crown prince. After the death of the king in November 1953 and the accession of Saud, the contrast in character and personality between the two brothers became evident. While Saud was flamboyant and extravagant in his spending, Faisal was frugal, reserved, and efficient. Faisal expressed his displeasure at Saud'sineffective administration by repeated withdrawals from politics.
By 1958 Saud's weaknesses as a king were evident. He had brought discord to the government by his profligacy, his inability to develop an effective bureaucracy, his continued reliance on personal advisers, and his failure to mobilize and direct for national development the massive wealth accruing to the country from oil resources.
Interference by senior members of the royal family led to a palace coup in April 1958 in which Faisal was named prime minister with all executive powers. Between 1958 and 1964 King Saud twice tried to regain his lost powers, but failed. Finally, on November 2, 1964, King Saud was forced to abdicate in favor of Faisal, who became king.
Faisal as King
When Faisal assumed office as king, Saudi Arabia was facing major internal and external challenges. Externally, a hostile relationship with Egypt under Gamal Abdul Nasser and a civil war in neighboring Yemen had forced Saudi Arabia to turn away from its traditional isolation. In 1962 a military coup had removed the monarch in Northern Yemen, which proclaimed itself a republic. Saudi Arabia supported the monarch; Egypt supported the republicans.
Internally, King Faisal continued a policy of economic and social reform, which he had already begun as prime minister. He introduced sound fiscal administration and a policy of austerity to counter the extravagance and corruption which had characterized his brother's rule. His social reforms were equally significant. In 1962 he abolished slavery, and his wife, Iffat, made a substantial contribution to women's education. He encouraged public education through the press, radio, and television, which, however, remained under strict government control. He introduced important development projects in agriculture and industry and improved the country's infrastructure.
It was on the international scene that Faisal gained much of his reputation as a leader, especially through his rivalry with Egyptian president Nasser. Faisal opposed Nasser's involvement in the war in Yemen and his hostile relations with the United States. As a countermeasure Faisal attempted to construct an anti-Communist "Islamic Front" to contain the spread of Nasser's Arab nationalism and socialism.
It was not until the Khartoum conference of August 1967, in the wake of the Arab-Israeli (Six Day) War, that Faisal and Nasser met and came to an agreement which led to the withdrawal of Egyptian troops from Yemen. The Egyptian (and Arab) defeat in 1967, the death of Nasser in 1970, and the tilt of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt toward the West all weakened Egypt's influence in Arab affairs. Gradually Faisal replaced Nasser as the most prominent leader in the Arab world and the moderator of Arab disputes.
King Faisal established strong ties with the West, making his country the strongest Arab ally of the United States. He refused any political ties with the Soviet Union and other Communist bloc countries, professing to see a complete incompatibility between Communism and Islam.
However, Faisal faced some internal opposition. Plots against the regime involving Saudi military officers and civilians, and some Yemenis, surfaced in 1966, 1969, and 1974. Terms of imprisonment and death sentences were pronounced against the perpetrators.
Faisal was criticized for his pro-American foreign policy, his conservative Islamic ideology, and the slowness of his reforms. He was finally the victim of a successful assassination attempt. On March 25, 1975, he was murdered by one of his nephews. There was no public trial and hence the real motives of the assassin remain obscure. However, they are believed to lie in a long-standing family feud and the young prince's dislike of policies he considered too conservative.

zulfikar ali bhutto

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928-1979), Pakistan's president and then prime minister, mobilized his country's first mass-based political party around a socialist ideology and highly independent foreign policy.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was born on January 5, 1928, in Larkana, a small town in the province of Sind. Although he came from a major landowning family in Larkana, he was brought up in cosmopolitan Bombay, away from the feudal environment of his ancestral home. After completing his high school education in Bombay, he proceeded to the University of California at Berkeley from which he graduated in 1950 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. At Berkeley he became interested in socialism and delivered several lectures on the feasibility of socialism in Islamic countries - a theme which would dominate his party's manifesto 20 years later. Bhutto continued his education at Oxford, where he studied law.
Bhutto advocated a nonaligned foreign policy for Pakistan and opposed Pakistan's alliances with the United States. He believed that the United States was exerting pressure on Pakistan to adopt a conciliatory attitude towards neighboring India. The lingering post-partition animositybetween India and Pakistan influenced Bhutto's hard-line thinking towards India. He was intent on gaining international support against India and securing Pakistan from a possible Indian attack. With this in mind Bhutto cultivated relations with China, which had been involved in a border conflict with India in 1962. Bhutto's astuteness in developing relations with China was later useful for the Nixon administration, which used Pakistan as a channel for initiating a dialogue with China. Bhutto also sought to strengthen relations with other Islamic countries, envisaging Pakistan's role as a leader not only of Muslim countries but also of other developing states.
Pakistan had been under military rule by a government headed by Ayub Khan since 1958. Bhutto, who served as minister of foreign affairs until asked to resign in 1966, realized that the toleration of the people for repressive government was diminishing. He felt that this adverse situation presented an ideal opportunity for him to assume leadership of Pakistan. In December 1967 Bhutto formed his own political party, the Pakistan People's Party, whose manifesto promised toalleviate the lot of the urban and rural workers and advocated an equitable distribution of wealth. His program not only appealed to the lower income groups but was supported by the urban intelligentsia which was seeking an end to the military regime and felt that Bhutto offered a new and dynamic plan and a necessary alternative to traditional religious parties.
Pakistan's defeat in the 1971 war with India led to the creation of Bangladesh. Bhutto, with the strongest party in the remaining western wing of the country, replaced Gen. Mohammad Yahya Khan as president. In April 1973 Bhutto became prime minister under a new constitution. His six years in office were marked by extensive nationalization of industries, banks, and educational institutions. Bhutto's policies, aimed at reducing the power of such traditional economic forces as major businessmen and feudal landlords, were well intentioned but lacked sufficient consideration of economic realities. His government's economic policies were implemented hastilyby bureaucrats who did not have the requisite management skills and background. Consequently, the economy became chaotic and left most sections of society disaffected with the policies. Bhutto's frequently touted slogan of "Islamic Socialism" proved to be mere rhetoric in the face of daunting economic and social realities, especially the need to compromise with landed elites.
Confronted by increasing opposition, Bhutto introduced repressive measures which included press censorship and imprisonment of political opponents. In an attempt to show the "democratic" nature of his government and his continuing popular support, Bhutto decided to hold general elections in March 1977. Confident of his success, he underestimated the collaboration of the opposition parties. Although he won the 1977 elections, his opponents accused him of flagrant manipulation of votes and mounted a civil disobedience movement against his government. As public discontent and violence spread, Bhutto was forced to impose martial law in several major cities of Pakistan, paving the way for military involvement. He was deposed in a bloodless coup by Gen. Zia ul-Haq on July 5, 1977. Several charges were brought against him, including the murder while in power of a political opponent's father. He was sentenced to death and was hanged on April 4, 1979, despite appeals for clemency by world leaders and international organizations.
While Bhutto's policies in the domestic sphere were harshly criticized, his foreign policy won him some acclaim. He was intent on asserting Pakistan's role in international affairs and strove to fulfill his earlier ideal of Pakistan as a leader of developing countries. He attempted to pursue a foreign policy independent of both superpowers, which brought him into considerable conflict with the United States, especially over the issue of Pakistan's nuclear program.
In 1986, after two years of self-imposed exile, Benazir Bhutto, daughter of the executed president, returned to Pakistan. She became Prime Minister in 1988.

Nawaz Sharif (born 1949) led his party to victory and became the prime minister of Pakistan in 1990.Supporters claim his political success lay in his business background. While most of Pakistan's political players were of the landed elite, Sharif's family built its fortune on a steel smelting factory. He took full advantage of his industrialist credentials, using a liberal reformist stance to attract votes from the business class.
Niam Nawaz Sharif was born in Lahore, Pakistan on December 25, 1949, one year after the new nation's founding. He came from a family of industrialists who made their fortune in the politically significant province of Punjab. His father and six uncles controlled and operated an iron foundry in Amritsar. Sharif graduated from the Government College of Lahore, a recruiting source for the civil service. He received his bachelor of law degree from the Punjab University Law College, also in Lahore. Sharif helped establish the Ittefaq Islamic Academy in Lahore, where students receive religious instruction in addition to their secular training. A practicing Moslem, Sharif comes from a religious family and has said he would make the teaching of the Koran, the Moslem holy book, a compulsory subject up to the secondary level.
Sharif's perseverance and political clout placed him in the vanguard of Bhutto adversaries. He proceeded to crush Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in the October 1988 election. Sharif was elected a Member of Parliament in the October 24, 1990 general elections, after leading a ten-party Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA), an affiliation of liberal groups and rightist Islamic militants. On November 3, he was nominated by the IJI as its candidate for the premiership and was soon after sworn in as Pakistan's new prime minister. For three months prior to his victory Pakistan's top generals, bureaucrats and business leaders had been systematically stripping Bhutto's PPP of nearly all political power.
Pakistan's transition to democracy was a difficult undertaking, but Sharif's election proved a turning point. After having endured a long history of military dictatorship, Pakistan had elected a politician without roots among the country's traditional power brokers, the landed aristocracy. Sharif's election marked a major shift in Pakistan's geopolitical balance of power toward a new generation of entrepreneurial elites.
Most of Sharif's reforms were aimed at deregulating and liberalizing the economy. He quickly dismantled the socialist-style economy by selling off inefficient and bankrupt state enterprises, opening the stock market to foreign capital, and loosening foreign exchange restrictions. He took criticism for bold initiatives, such as providing unemployed youths easy installment loans to run duty-free imported taxis. Sharif also launched legislation that would make the Islamic code the supreme law of Pakistan. But it was his economic reforms, such as the lifting of control on foreign exchange and the start of privatization, that won accolades and support from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Ousted from Parliament
Sharif became the target of many of the traditional landed interests, including Bhutto, because his policies deeply affected Pakistan's political and economic power structure. But his ouster came with an attempt to weaken the power of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Sharif had long been considered compliant, willing to quietly take orders from the president, but the two had clashed over reports of corruption in Sharif's government. The president dismissed Sharif in April 1993, after months of political turmoil. Army troops surrounded the state-controlled radio and television stations shortly after dark. An hour later, the president dissolved parliament, accusing Sharif of corruption and mismanagement. Sharif's family business had allegedly grown in value by about 20 billion rupees during his 30-month term as prime minister. He was dismissed under Pakistan's controversial Eight Amendment, that gives the president the power to discharge an elected government. The corruption charges against Sharif were later proven to have been false, and the Supreme Court restored him. But he and Khan were eventually manipulated into resigning due to their continuing hostility toward each other.
Bhutto was elected prime minister once again and Sharif served as opposition leader during her rule. But on November 5, 1996, President Farooq Leghari removed Bhutto from office on charges of corruption. This gave Sharif the opportunity to regain power. He engineered his politicalresurgence by converting himself into a populist leader. An electorate tired of corruption, inflation, and unemployment found his simple, straightforward approach in the election campaign appealing. He claimed his Pakistan Muslim League (PML) government was intent on taking drasticaction to restore the national economy, root out corruption, afford easy justice and job opportunities on merit, set healthy democratic traditions, and restore Pakistan's sullied reputation. "Pakistan needs now to project a new image in the world," Sharif told Reuters in a pre-election interview. "We have become a laughing stock where every time the president and prime minister are fighting one another. This must now come to an end."
Re-elected in Landslide Victory
On February 17, 1997, Sharif led the PML to a landslide victory (177-16), crushing Bhutto in the process. Sharif's Muslim League won a decisive parliamentary victory, winning 134 seats in the 217-seat parliament. Bhutto's PPP was second, winning 18 seats. The PML commanded around 165 seats when combined with its small-party allies, giving it a solid working majority. He stepped into office with the responsibility of reviving a crisis-laden economy. Domestically, Sharif was faced with boosting an economy plagued by budget deficits, 30 billion dollars of foreign debts, high inflation, and a nation with very high expectations for relief and a clean administration. On foreign affairs, he faced tensions with India and festering dissension in Afghanistan.
After retaking Parliament's highest seat, Sharif intended to focus on removing the obstacles blocking the economic development of Pakistan, namely corruption. But his endeavors were brought to a standstill by terrorist acts committed during the first six months of 1997. These acts forced Sharif to reevaluate his agenda, and he began to concentrate on establishing law and order. One of his first acts was to dismiss members of his own government, including a chief minister who belonged to Sharif's PML party.
Sharif has spent a great deal of his administration embroiled in a nuclear arms race with India. Estimates have placed Pakistan's nuclear arsenal of uranium at 200 kilograms, enough for 15 to 25 bombs. Sharif made an effort to allay Western fears of further expansion of its stockpile and possible nuclear weapons trading in a U.S. News and World Reportarticle. "We have not and will not transfer sensitive technology to other states or entities," he was reported to have said. But it was feared that possible sanctions against the country would create an incentive. Pakistan was later condemned by the world for testing its nuclear weapons in an underground blast in June 1998.
Sharif has proven his ability to emerge as a strong leader. His first ousting marked the most important point in his career, by showing the skeptics that he wouldn't crumble under pressure. His stint as opposition leader and his eventual comeback affirmed that he could gain popular support on his own rather that with the backing of the army and bureaucracy. In his 1999 address to the nation cited in the BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, Sharif declared, "I have neither hankered after power before nor is it my goal today. My goal is to make Pakistan a strong nation. My mission is to ensure our people's prosperity and to build a magnificent future for our youth."

benazir bhutto

benazir Bhutto was born in Karachi, Pakistan to a prominent political family. At age 16 she left her homeland to study at Harvard's Radcliffe College. After completing her undergraduate degree at Radcliffe she studied at England's Oxford University, where she was awarded a second degree in 1977.

Later that year she returned to Pakistan where her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had been elected prime minister, but days after her arrival, the military seized power and her father was imprisoned. In 1979 he was hanged by the military government of General Zia Ul Haq.
Bhutto herself was also arrested many times over the following years, and was detained for three years before being permitted to leave the country in 1984. She settled in London, but along with her two brothers, she founded an underground organization to resist the military dictatorship. When her brother died in 1985, she returned to Pakistan for his burial, and was again arrested for participating in anti-government rallies.
She returned to London after her release, and martial law was lifted in Pakistan at the end of the year. Anti-Zia demonstrations resumed and Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in April 1986. The public response to her return was tumultuous, and she publicly called for the resignation of Zia Ul Haq, whose government had executed her father.
She was elected co-chairwoman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) along with her mother, and when free elections were finally held in 1988, she herself became Prime Minister. At 35, she was one of the youngest chief executives in the world, and the first woman to serve as prime minister in an Islamic country.

Only two years into her first term, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed Bhutto from office. She initiated an anti-corruption campaign, and in 1993 was re-elected as Prime Minister. While in office, she brought electricity to the countryside and built schools all over the country. She made hunger, housing and health care her top priorities, and looked forward to continuing to modernize Pakistan.

At the same time, Bhutto faced constant opposition from the Islamic fundamentalist movement. Her brother Mir Murtaza, who had been estranged from Benazir since their father's death, returned from abroad and leveled charges of corruption at Benazir's husband, Asif Ali Zardari. Mir Murtaza died when his bodyguard became involved in a gunfight with police in Karachi. The Pakistani public was shocked by this turn of events and PPP supporters were divided over the charges against Zardari.
In 1996 President Leghari of Pakistan dismissed Benazir Bhutto from office, alleging mismanagement, and dissolved the National Assembly. A Bhutto re-election bid failed in 1997, and the next elected government, headed by the more conservative Nawaz Sharif, was overthrown by the military. Bhutto's husband was imprisoned, and once again, she was forced to leave her homeland. For nine years, she and her children lived in exile in London, where she continued to advocate the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. In the autumn of 2007, in the face of death threats from radical Islamists, and the hostility of the government, she returned to her native country.

Although she was greeted by enthusiastic crowds, within hours of her arrival, her motorcade was attacked by a suicide bomber. She survived this first assassination attempt, although more than 100 bystanders died in the attack. With national elections scheduled for January 2008, her Pakistan People's Party was poised for a victory that would make Bhutto prime minister once again. Only a few weeks before the election, the extremists struck again. After a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, a gunman fired at her car before detonating a bomb, killing himself and more than 20 bystanders. Bhutto was rushed to the hospital, but soon succumbed to injuries suffered in the attack. In the wake of her death, rioting erupted throughout the country. The loss of the country's most popular democratic leader has plunged Pakistan into turmoil, intensifying the dangerous instability of a nuclear-armed nation in a highly volatile region.