Muhammad Khan Junejo

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Muhammad Khan Junejo, Prime Minister of Pakistan

Muhammad Khan Junejo (Urdu/Sindhi: محمد خان جونیجو ) (born August 18, 1932 – died March 16, 1993) was the eighth Prime Minister of Pakistan.

He was born at Sindhri in Tharparkar of Sindh. After completing his senior Cambridge, he went to UK for a diploma in Agriculture. Junejo started his political career at the age of twenty one. In 1962, he was elected Member Provincial Assembly, West Pakistan from Sanghar. He was appointed Minister in the West Pakistan cabinet in July 1963 and held the portfolios of Health, Basic Democracies and Local Government, Works, Communications and Railways.

After partyless polls were held for the national and provincial assemblies in 1985, Muhammad Khan Junejo was appointed Prime Minister by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. To his credit, Junejo had stood up to Zia on several issues during his term as prime minister, including the issue of the signing of the Geneva Accords to end the fighting in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. Zia didn’t want Pakistan to sign the accords until after the Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan but Junejo had instructed his minister of state for foreign affairs to sign them anyway.

Zia was furious, but had bided his time before moving against Junejo. That time came soon after the Ojhri Camp blasts of April 1988. The Ojhri Camp ordinance depot in Rawalpindi was being used to supply US-financed arms and ammunition to the Afghan mujahideen to fight the Soviets. The government ordered an inquiry into the blasts. Junejo made a statement in the National Assembly promising to place the findings of the inquiry before the House. That was the last straw as far as Zia was concerned, and Junejo was dismissed on May 29, 1988 by the President using discretionary powers given under the 8th amendment. All Assemblies were immediately dissolved, and mostly military cabinet members (most prominently as General Rahimuddin Khan) were called to form an interim government.

Muhammad Khan Junejo was elected member of the National Assembly in 1990, and died of a serious illness in 1993.

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Preceded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto	Prime Minister of Pakistan	Succeeded by Benazir Bhutto

Prime Ministers of Pakistan
LA Khan \| Nazimuddin \| Bogra \| Ali \| Suhrawardy \| Chundrigar \| Noon \| A Khan \| Amin \| Z Bhutto \| ul-Haq \| Junejo \| ul-Haq \| B Bhutto \| Jatoi \| Sharif \| Mazari \| Sharif \| Qureshi \| B Bhutto \| Khalid \| Sharif \| Musharraf \| Jamali \| Hussain \| Aziz