Nawaz Sharif, born in 1949, Pakistani politician who served as prime minister of Pakistan from 1990 to 1993 and from 1997 to 1999. He was deposed in a bloodless military coup in 1999 that brought General Pervez Musharraf to power.

Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was born in Lahore in 1949 and studied law at the university there. He was employed with his family’s Ittefaq Group, which was run mostly by his younger brother. His political career began in his home province of Punjab, where he became finance minister in the provincial government in 1981. In 1985 Sharif was elected to the National Assembly and also became chief minister of Punjab. He was elected again in 1988, when he led the Islamic Democratic Alliance (a coalition of Islamic parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League) in the first elections held after the death of military dictator General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq.

In 1990 the government of Benazir Bhutto, who had served as prime minister since 1988, was dismissed. The Islamic Democratic Alliance won the 1990 elections that followed, and Sharif became prime minister. His administration was marked by a commitment to economic reform and steps toward privatization of Pakistan’s extensive state industrial and financial sector. Sharif’s government became increasingly mired in a clash with the president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who had retained wide powers under the constitution drawn up by General Zia.

In early 1993 Sharif was appointed the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML). This led to a period of bitter political wrangling that culminated in both Sharif and the president stepping down in July. The PML failed to win a majority of legislative seats in the elections held in October 1993, but Sharif remained leader of the party. The PML won February 1997 elections, and Sharif again became prime minister. He promptly introduced new legislation that took away the president’s power to dismiss the prime minister.

In May 1999 Kashmīri separatists seized Indian-controlled territory in the disputed region of Kashmīr. Sharif incurred the ire of the Pakistani army by blaming the attack on his army chief, Pervez Musharraf. In October 1999 Sharif fired Musharraf and attempted to keep him from returning to Pakistan from abroad by refusing Musharraf’s airplane permission to land. Army forces loyal to Musharraf quickly overthrew the government, and Musharraf declared himself the chief executive of Pakistan.

Sharif was arrested and put on trial, and in April 2000 he was convicted of kidnapping, hijacking, and abuse of power. Sharif was sentenced to life imprisonment, but Musharraf’s military government commuted his sentence and allowed him to go into exile in Saudi Arabia. In 2002 the PML split into two factions, with those loyal to Sharif comprising the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or PML-N, and those loyal to Musharraf comprising the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), or PML-Q. The PML-N thereafter remained an active opposition force in the country.

In August 2007 the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that Sharif could return to the country. Sharif declared his intent to challenge Musharraf in upcoming elections. However, Sharif was detained after his airplane landed in Islāmābād in early September and was promptly deported back to Saudi Arabia. Then in November he was allowed to return to Pakistan for unknown reasons. The Election Commission of Pakistan ruled that his previous criminal convictions disqualified him from standing as a candidate in the parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2008. However, Sharif remained a significant power player in Pakistani politics.