Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif

Nawaz Sharif

His Excellency Nawaz Sharif نواز شریف
Prime Minister of Pakistan

Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: نواز شریف born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani politician and industrialist

 who has beenPrime Minister of Pakistan since 2013. Previously he served as Prime Minister for two 

non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993 and from February 1997 to October 1999.

 Sharif is the president of Pakistan Muslim League (N), which is currently Pakistan's largest political party,

 and has formed the government. As the owner of Ittefaq Group, a leading business conglomerate, he is also

 one of the country's wealthiest men. He is commonly known as the "Lion of the Punjab or

 "Tiger of Pakistan.

Sharif rose to prominence as part of General Zia-ul-Haq's military regime in the 1980s under the wing of Governor

 of Punjab Ghulam Jilani Khan. He was appointed Chief Minister of Punjab by Zia in 1985. After Zia's death and

 Benazir Bhutto's being elected Prime Minister in 1988, Sharif emerged as opposition leader from the conservative

 Pakistan Muslim League. When Benazir was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990 on corruption 

charges, Sharif was elected Prime Minister the same year. But relations between Sharif and Ghulam Ishaq too 

deteriorated, with Ghulam Ishaq attempting to dismiss Sharif on similar charges. Sharif successfully challenged

 the President's decision in the Supreme Court,^[7] but both men were ultimately persuaded to step down in 1993

 by army chief Abdul Waheed Kakar.^[7]

Serving as the Leader of the Opposition during Benazir's second tenure, Sharif was re-elected Prime Minister 

with a historic two-thirds majority inparliament,^[8] after Benazir was again dismissed for corruption by new 

President Farooq Leghari.^[8] Sharif replaced Leghari with Rafiq Tarar as President, then stripped the Presidency

 of its powers by passing the Thirteenth Amendment. He also controversially ordered Pakistan's first nuclear 

tests in response to neighbouring India's second nuclear tests.^[9][10] When Western countries suspended 

foreign aid, Sharif froze the country's foreign currency reserves to prevent further capital flight, but this only

 worsened economic conditions.

With rising unemployment and record foreign debt,^[11] Sharif's second term also saw tussles with the judiciary

 and army. After Sharif was summoned for contempt by the Supreme Court in 1997, party workers attacked the

 court and Chief Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah. Sharif also fell out with army chief Jehangir Karamat and 

replaced him with Pervez Musharraf in 1998,^[11] but after Pakistan's haphazard performance in the Kargil War,

 relations between the two also deteriorated. When he attempted to relieve Musharraf from his command on 12

 October 1999, the army instead ousted Sharif's government, exiling him to Saudi Arabia.^[11]

Sharif returned in 2007, and his party contested elections in 2008, forming the provincial government in Punjab 

under Sharif's brother Shahbaz until 2013. He successfully called for Musharraf's impeachment and the 

reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Between 2008 and 2013, Sharif was in opposition.

 In the 2013 Pakistani general election, his party achieved the largest number of votes and he formed a coalition

 to become the 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan, returning to the position after fourteen years, in a democratic 

transition, for an unprecedented third time.^[12]