and from February 1997 to October 1999.

Sharif is the president of Pakistan Musl

im League (N), which is currently Pakistan's largest political party, and has fo
rmed the government. As the owner of Ittefaq Group, a leading business conglomer
ate, he is also one of the country's wealthiest people.[2] He is commonly known
as the "Lion of the Punjab".[3][4][5]
Nawaz Sharif entered politics in the 1980s when in the general elections of 1985
, he won with an overwhelming majority, both in the National and Provincial Asse
mblies. On 9 April 1985, he was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Punjab. On 31 May
1988, he was appointed caretaker Chief Minister, after the dismissal of Assembli
es by General Zia. Nawaz Sharif was again elected as Chief Minister after the 19
88 general elections. After Zia's death and Benazir Bhutto's being elected Prime
Minister in 1988, Sharif emerged as opposition leader from the conservative Pak
istan Muslim League. When Bhutto was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in
1990 on corruption charges, Sharif was elected Prime Minister the same year. Bu
t 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,[6] but both men were ultimately p
ersuaded to step down in 1993 by army chief Abdul Waheed Kakar.[6]
Serving as the Leader of the Opposition during Bhutto's second tenure, Sharif wa
s re-elected Prime Minister with a historic two-thirds majority in parliament,[7
] after Benazir was again dismissed for corruption by new President Farooq Legha
ri.[7] Sharif replaced Leghari with Rafiq Tarar as President, then stripped the
Presidency of its powers by passing the Thirteenth Amendment. He also notably or
dered Pakistan's first nuclear tests in response to neighbouring India's second
nuclear tests as part of the tit-for-tat policy.[8][9][10] When Western countrie
s 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 the military. After Sharif was summoned for c
ontempt by the Supreme Court in 1997, party workers attacked the court and Chief
Justice Sajjad Ali Shah. Sharif also forcefully relieved Chairman joint chiefs
General Jehangir Karamat from the command of the military over a policy issue an
d replaced him with Pervez Musharraf in 1998,[11] but after Pakistan's haphazard
performance in the Kargil War, relations between the two also deteriorated. Whe
n he attempted to relieve Musharraf from his command on 12 October 1999, the mil
itary instead ousted Sharif's government, exiling him to Saudi Arabia.[11]
Sharif returned in 2008, and his party contested elections in 2008, forming the
provincial government in Punjab under Sharif's brother Shehbaz until 2013. He su
ccessfully called for Musharraf's impeachment and the reinstatement of Chief Jus
tice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Between 2008 and 2013, Sharif was in opposition. In the
general elections in 2013, his party achieved the largest number of votes and he
formed a government to become the 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan, returning to
the position after fourteen years, for an unprecedented third time.[12]
Sharif's third term in office started on 5 June 2013,[13] since then his governm
ent has launched macro economic stability with the help of substantial loans fro
m international financial institutions, while has signed multi-billion investmen
t deals to construct the CPEC and to chronic power shortages.[14] His government
has also launched military offensive to remove extremist groups in northwestern
Pakistan and removed the moratorium on the death penalty, while on foreign poli
cy front his government has so far seen improved ties with United States as a re
sult of the operation and with Russia, China among others while relationship wit
h India has deteriorated.[15] On the domestic front, Sharif struggled to revive
economic growth as electricity shortages remained an endemic problem.[16]