ISLAMABAD: Since the country came into being in 1947, no elected prime minister has ever completed their five-year term in office, and Imran Khan is the 19th person on this list.

Mr Khan, however, is the first prime minister who has been removed through the constitutional move of a no-confidence resolution.

The country’s first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan had been assassinated on October 16, 1951. After him, seven prime ministers resigned, five faced dismissals, while the governments of four prime ministers were ousted through military coups. Nawaz Sharif and Yousuf Raza Gilani were the two who were disqualified due to their convictions by the Supreme Court.

Shaukat Aziz, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi relinquished the office on the completion of the five-year term of the National Assembly, but they had assumed the charge only to complete the remaining term after the disqualification and resignation of their predecessors.

The list includes Nawaz Sharif, who is the only person who had had to quit the country’s top office four times during his three terms. Mr Sharif, however, has to his credit the longest stay in the PM’s Office with 3,422 days. Imran Khan is at number six in terms of the number of days spent in office with 1,335 days, followed by Benazir Bhutto, Liaquat Ali Khan, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2022