Nawaz Sharif

Born into a business family in Lahore on 25 December 1949, Nawaz Sharif studied business and law before entering politics in 1981 as Punjab's finance minister under President Zia. He rose to chief minister in 1985, then won the premiership in 1990 backed by military generals and conservative coalitions. President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolved the assembly and removed him in 1993. He returned as prime minister in 1997, only to be ousted again in 1999 by General Pervez Musharraf's coup, imprisoned, and sentenced to death before US pressure and a Saudi-brokered deal sent him into ten-year exile. He came back in 2007, was deported, then led his party to a third victory in 2013. The Supreme Court removed him in 2017 over the Panama Papers, disqualified him from office in 2018, and an accountability court sentenced him to ten years. He left for London on medical bail in 2019, was declared an absconder, then returned in 2023 and saw his convictions overturned. He won a contested 2024 seat amid evidence of ballot tampering and now sits in the National Assembly once more.