1988 Pakistani presidential election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
439 votes in the Electoral College Plurality of votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
.JPG)
_-_The_Noun_Project.svg)
 |
|---|
.svg)
|
 Pakistan portal |
Indirect presidential elections were held in December 1988 to elect the 7th President of Pakistan. The votes were given by the Electoral College of Pakistan, which had its new members in both national and provincial assemblies elected in the corresponding 1988 Pakistani general election.
The elections saw a deal struck between the already ruling Independent caretaker president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as well as the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI). With support from the two largest parties, Ishaq Khan won the elections with ease.[2]
The presidential elections were held after a decade of military rule, where the 6th president, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq ruled with the Armed Forces as military president and as Chief martial law administrator 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, Ghulam Ishaq Khan 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 as prime minister. Ghulam Ishaq Khan appointed Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minister of Pakistan on the condition that she would give full support to him in the December presidential elections.[3][4]
A political deal was made between Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Benazir Bhutto. The Pakistan Peoples Party 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 Islami Jamhoori Ittehad.[3]
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 Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and left-wing Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), this support would allow him to secure the highest number of votes — 608 out of 752.[3]