Document #1092262
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
The attached reports form the Far
Eastern Economic Review, 1 December 1988, The Economist,
26 november 1988 and the Foreign Broadcast Information
Service (FBIS), 17 and 21 November 1988, all confirm that
elections for the national assembly of Pakistan were held on the 16
November 1988.
2.
No information could be found regarding
violent conflict between the Pakistan Muslim League and the
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) although these two are the major
political rivals in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) was the
dominant political party in Pakistan from 1986 until 29 May 1988,
when Zia ul-Haq dissolved the government of (former) Prime Minister
Mohammed Khan Junejo (PML party). Before the end of August 1988,
the PML had broken into two factions. [ "Pakistan Moslem League
breaks into two factions", Globe and Mail, 27 August 198;
Husain Haqqani, "Shifting Sands of Patronage", Far Eastern
Economic Review, 22 September 1988, p. 35; Husain Haqqani,
"Power up for Grabs", Far Eastern Economic Review, 1
September 1988, p. 12.] The two groups were the "Fida" faction (led
by Mr. Fida Muhammad Khan, the former governor of the North-West
Frontier Provinces, and Mr Nawaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of
Punjab province), and the "Junejo" faction (led by former Prime
Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo). The Junejo group joined with the
Tehrik-i-Istiqlal and the Jamaat-i Ulemi-i Pakistan
on October 9 to form the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PPA,
Pakistan People's Alliance). [ Keesing's Record of World
Events, Volume XXXIV, December 1988, p. 36347.] The stated aim
of the PPA was to work for an Islamic, welfare, parliamentary
system. [ Ibid.] The Fida faction had joined with seven other
parties and groups to form the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI,
Islamic Democratic Alliance). The other parties in the IJI included
the Jamaati-i Islami, the National People's Party,
the Jamiatul Ulema-e Islam (Darkhwasty Group), the
Markazi Jamaat-i Ahle Hadith (Lakvi Group), Jamaat-ul
Mashaikh (Sahebzada Fazle Haq Group), Hizbe Jihad, the
Azad Group, and the Nizami-i Mustafa Group. [
Ibid.]
On 15 October 1988, the Junejo PML faction
joined the IJI, and its former alliance partners formed the
Pakistan Awami Ittehad. [ Ibid.] The IJI won 54 seats in the
November elections, but the Pakistan Awami Ittehad gained only
three. [Ibid.] Benazir Bhutto's party, the Pakistan People's party,
won 92 of the 205 seats. [ Ahmed Rashid, "Testing time, again",
Far Eastern Economic Review, 26 January 1989, (the
Keesing's article indicates 93).] Nawaz Sharif was the only
leader of the IJI to gain a seat in the national assembly. [
Keesing's, p. 36348.]
The attached Keesing's Record of World
Events from December 1988 gives an account of Muslim League
activities during the November 1988 election campaign. None of the
reports available for the 21 November 1988, indicate that recent
outbreaks of violence in Pakistan were a direct result of PPP and
Muslim league political rivalry and none mention the town of
Attock.