Ghulam Mustafa Khar Malik (Urdu: غلام مصطفیٰ کھر), (born August 2 1937) was a close ally of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his chief minister in Punjab, Pakistan during the 1970s,also Governer twice, Khar was one of the founders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Khar was also jailed by the Zia ul Haq regime after the 1977 coup. The Khar family are also one of the biggiest land owners in pakistan and have become Billionaires in US Dollers. After sometime in the political wilderness he rejoined Bhutto before the 1977 general elections. Arrested after the imposition of martial law, Khar slipped out of the country after an understanding with General Chishti (a General Zia-ul-Haq's comrade). He promptly went back into opposition politics after leaving the country a fact which infuriated Zia and led to the withdrawal of an offer to Khar's close friend Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi to become Prime Minister . Returning to Pakistan before 1988, Khar had by then had fallen out with Benazir Bhutto and with Army backing created the National Peoples Party (NPP) along with Jatoi and other PPP dissidents. The Army believed they needed to neutralize Benazir Bhutto's influence in Sindh with a Sindhi and wanted to use Jatoi for that, Khar in the meantime contested for several seats in the Punjab and won all of them. However, Jatoi suffered a shock defeat. Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi became caretaker Prime Minister in 1990 after Benazir's removal but Punjab's Chief Minister and Khar's rival Nawaz Sharif outmaneuvered Jatoi and ended up being Prime Minister. Khar eventually ended up rejoining the PPP before the 1993 elections. Re-elected, he served as Federal Minister for Water and Power under Benazir Bhutto. Defeated in the 1997 election, he was unable to contest the 2002 elections because of a restriction placed on non-graduates from contesting the elections. Khar then rejoined the PPP and began campaigning to become the Party President for Punjab province.
Khar joins PML-N
After the much publicized Benazir-Musharraf political deal, Ghulam Mustafa Khar decided to leave Pakistan Peoples Party, as he termed it "bigger tragedy than the fall of Dhaka."[1] It was later announced that Ghulam Mustafa Khar has been provided PML-N ticket for parliamentary elections to be held in January 2008 from Bahawalnagar's NA-189 constituency.[2]
References
- ^ Sethi, Najam. Second Editorial: Khar says goodbye...again. Retrieved on 2007-12-24.
- ^ Pakistan Decides: NA-189. Retrieved on 2007-12-24.
| Preceded by Malik Meraj Khalid |
Chief Minister of Punjab 1973–1974 |
Succeeded by Muhammad Haneef Ramey |
