1990 Pakistani general election

← 1988 24 October 1990 1993 →
All 217 seats inNational Assembly 109 seats seats needed for a majority
Registered	48,952,991
Turnout	45.17% (2.42pp)
First party Second party   Leader Nawaz Sharif Benazir Bhutto Party PML PPP Alliance IJI PDA Last election 56 94 Seats after 106 44 Seat change 50 50 Popular vote 7,908,513 7,795,218 Percentage 36.54% 36.01%
Results constituency
Prime minister before election Benazir Bhutto PPP Elected Prime minister Nawaz Sharif IJI

General elections were held inPakistan on 24 October 1990 to elect the members of theNational Assembly. The elections were primarily a contest between thePeople's Democratic Alliance (PDA, a four party alliance led by the rulingPakistan Peoples Party (PPP) ofBenazir Bhutto) and the conservative nine-partyalliance,Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) headed byNawaz Sharif.

PresidentGhulam Ishaq Khan dissolved the National Assembly and dismissed Bhutto's government in August 1990 on charges of corruption and maladministration.^[1] However, the PPP was still extremely popular and there was a fear amongst anti-PPP forces that it might be re-elected. Numerous steps were taken by Ishaq with help of the military establishment to sway the results in favour of the IJI, including the appointment of IJI chairmanGhulam Mustafa Jatoi ascaretaker Prime Minister.^[2] Despite their efforts, the PPP remained ahead in opinion polls.^[3]

However, the result was a surprise victory for the IJI, which won 111 of the 207 general seats (a further ten were reserved for minority voters). The PDA won just 44 seats amidst a voter turnout of only 45%. The IJI's parliamentary leader Sharif became Prime Minister while Bhutto became theOpposition Leader. In 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that the elections had been rigged.^[3]

The PPP led byBenazir Bhutto had won a plurality of seats in the1988 election and Bhutto becamePrime Minister. However by 1990 there was discontent over rising lawlessness, allegations of corruption and the failure of the government to fulfill the promises it had made during the 1988 campaign.^[4]

ThePPP formed an alliance with three other parties,Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafariya,Tehreek-e-Istiqlal and thePakistan Muslim League (Chatta), running under the name People's Democratic Alliance.^[5][6]

By the start of the campaign reports suggested that Bhutto and the PDA were in a stronger position as the caretaker government failed to produce sufficient evidence to prove any charges against her.^[7]

At the end of the campaign Bhutto led hundreds of thousands of supporters in a procession inLahore, while Sharif held a rally for about ten thousand nearby.^[8]

On 19 October 2012, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled on a petition byAsghar Khan, requesting that the court probe allegations that the 1990 elections had been rigged. The court officially ruled that two Army Generals –Mirza Aslam Baig andAsad Durrani (Head of the ISI) – along with PresidentGhulam Ishaq Khan – had provided financial assistance to favoured parties.^[9] The motive was to deliberately weaken the mandate of the Pakistan Peoples Party. It was believed that the PPP, led by Benazir Bhutto, was a liability to the nation.^[10]

IJI won the popular vote by a very narrow margin of only around 100,000 votes, but the narrow victory in the popular vote translated into 106 seats for IJI against the PDA's 44 seats. The popular argument regarding PDA's huge loss of seats is that the PDA's vote, despite being almost equal to that of IJI, was much more spread out whereas IJI's vote bank was more concentrated. This resulted in PDA candidates losing in IJI won seats by narrow margins.

• General elections in Pakistan
• 1990 elections in Pakistan
• 1990 elections in Asia
• October 1990 in Pakistan
• Electoral fraud in Pakistan

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