How to Pronounce Ghulam Ishaq Khan
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Jan 20, 1915 Bannu District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Died on 27 Oct 2006 (aged 91)
7th President of Pakistan
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Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Family, Facts, Age, Net Worth, Biography and More in FamedBorn.com
About Ghulam Ishaq Khan
- Ghulam Ishaq Khan (Urdu: ???? ????? ????; January 20, 1915 – 27 October 2006), was a Pakistani bureaucrat who served as the 7th President of Pakistan, elected in 1988 until his resignation in 1993. Raised in Bannu, Ghulam Ishaq graduated from Peshawar University and entered the Indian Civil Service, opting for Pakistan after the independence in 1947.
- Appointed the first chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority by President Ayub Khan in 1961, Ghulam Ishaq also served as Finance Secretary from 1966 to 1970.
- A year later, he was appointed Governor of the State Bank by President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, before being made Defence Secretary in 1975, assisting with Pakistan's atomic bomb programme.
- He was retained by President Zia-ul-Haq as Finance Minister in 1977, overseeing the country's highest GDP growth average.
- Elected Chairman of the Senate in 1985, Ghulam Ishaq was elevated to the presidency after Zia's death in an air crash on August 17, 1988.
- He was elected president on December 13, as the consensus candidate of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad and Pakistan People's Party. The oldest person to serve as president, Ghulam Ishaq played a hawkish role against Communist Afghanistan, while relations with the United States deteriorated following the Pressler amendment.
- Domestically, Ghulam Ishaq's term faced challenges: ethnic riots flared in Karachi, and Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto accused him of frustrating her government as part of an alliance with conservative opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and the post-Zia military establishment.
- Ghulam Ishaq invoked the Eight Amendment and dismissed Benazir's government after just 20 months, on charges of rampant corruption and misgovernance.
- Sharif was elected Prime Minister in 1990, but Ghulam Ishaq dismissed his government on similar charges three years later.
- The Supreme Court overturned the dismissal, but the gridlock ultimately led to both men resigning in 1993. Retiring from public service, Ghulam Ishaq served as rector of the GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology in his native province, dying from pneumonia in 2006.
- He is viewed contentiously by Pakistani historians; he is credited for personal austerity, but criticized for wielding an autocratic presidency that ousted two governments.
