Sardar Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar/Sirdar ( fa, سردار, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other aristocrats. It has also be ...

Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

Balakh Sher Mazari ( ur, ; 8 July 1928 – 4 November 2022) was a Pakistani politician who served as Caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan for five weeks in 1993. He was the tumandar (or chieftain) and the paramount sardar of the Mazari tribe which is situated on the tristate area between

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

, and

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

provinces of Pakistan. As the chieftain of his tribe, he held the title of "Mir" but also went by the styles of "Tumandar" or "Sardar". Mazari was the 22nd Sardar and the seventh Mir of the Mazaris. Alongside Mazari, his brother Sherbaz Khan Mazari also played a role in the

politics of Pakistan The Politics of Pakistan () takes place within the framework established by the constitution. The country is a federal parliamentary republic in which provincial governments enjoy a high degree of autonomy and residuary powers. Executive ...

. His son Sardar Riaz Mehmood Khan Mazari was elected to the

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly ( ur, , translit=Aiwān-e-Zairīñ, , or ur, قومی اسمبلی, romanized: ''Qaumi Assembly'') is the lower legislative house of the bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, which also comprises the Senate of Pakistan (upp ...

from Constituency NA-195 (Rajanpur-III) as a candidate of Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Insaf political party in the

2018 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on Wednesday, 25 July 2018 to elect the members of 15th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. The three major parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan, the Pakistan Musli ...

and his grandson Mir Dost Mohammad Mazari is a

Pakistan People's Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded i ...

parliamentarian from NA-175 Rajanpur who served as the parliamentary secretary for the

Ministry of Water and Power The Ministry of Water and Power ur, , ''wazarat-e- aabb o barq-e'' (abbreviated as MoPW) was a federal ministry in Pakistan. The ministry was dissolved in August 2017. The water division was merged with newly created Ministry of Water Resou ...

. Mazari served as the Caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan after the Nawaz Sharif government was overthrown by President

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Ghulam Ishaq Khan ( ur, غلام اسحاق خان; 20 January 1915 – 27 October 2006), was a Pakistani bureaucrat who served as the seventh president of Pakistan, elected in 1988 following Zia's death until his resignation in 1993. He wa ...

. Mazari's tenure as caretaker prime minister ended abruptly on 26 May 1993 when the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

revoked the presidential order and reinstated Nawaz Sharif as the

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

. Mazari died on 4 November 2022, at age 94.

Caretaker prime minister

On 19 April 1993, President

exercised his extra-constitutional presidential powers, instituted to him through the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, to resolve the power struggle in Pakistan and dismissed the government of prime minister

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime minister of Pak ...

. After dissolving both, the national and the provincial assemblies, Khan appointed Mazari as the caretaker prime minister. After being appointed the caretaker prime minister, Mazari had to serve as the head of the government for 90 days, a mandatory period required to set up a framework for the next general elections. Mazari scheduled the general elections for 14 July 1993.

Caretaker prime minister

References

Further reading