Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi

Former acting Prime Minister of Pakistan, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was born in New Jatoi, Naushehro Feroze District in Sindh. He had his early educated at Karachi Grammar School. He passed his senior Cambridge and then in 1952, he went to United Kingdom for his bar at law, but had to return home within one year due to his father's serious illness.

Jatoi was elected to the first Provincial Assembly of West Pakistan in 1956. He has also served as chairman District Board of Nawabshah in 1952, holding the distinction of being the youngest District Board chairman on the South Asia.

In 1967, he was one of the founding members of Pakistan Peoples’ Party along with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and was one of Bhutto's closest confidants till Bhutto's execution in 1979. He has been elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1962, 1965, 1970, 1989, 1990, 1993 and 1997. He has also been elected to the Sindh Provincial Assembly in 1973 and 1977.

He held the Portfolios of Political Affairs, Ports and Shipping, Communications, Petroleum & Natural Resources, Information Technology, Railways & Telecommunications in the Federal Government headed by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

In 1973, he was elected Chief Minister of Sindh, and held this office till 1977. After the imposition of Martial Law, Mustafa Jatoi remained associated with the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD). Twice he was arrested in 1983 and 1985.

Later, he founded the National Peoples’ Party (NPP). A number of political heavyweights from all over the country were brought into the National People's Party, launched under the chairmanship of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi. Among them were Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Haneef Ramay, Hamid Raza Gilani and Kamal Azfar. An attractive manifesto was prepared and the party was expected to gain prominence due to the declining popularity of the Peoples Party at the time.

The NPP and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), then headed by Muhammad Khan Junejo, along with seven other political parties, contested the 1988 elections from the platform of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad. The PPP won the bout, though with a thin majority.

He was the Founder President of Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) formed in 1988. In 1989, he was elected to the National Assembly in by-elections from Kot Addu. Jatoi was subsequently elected leader of the combined opposition parties in the National Assembly in 1989.

Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was appointed Prime Minister after the dismissal of the Benazir Bhutto’s government on corruption and incompetence charges by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. In protest at the autocratic tendencies of the Nawaz Sharif, the then Prime Minister, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi joined hands with the opposition led by Benazir Bhutto in launching a movement against the Nawaz Sharif’s government, resulting in its dismissal in 1993.

The NPP contested the 1993 elections and later joined the Benazir Bhutto government as a coalition partner till the Governments dismissal in 1996 by the PPP President Farooq Leghari. In the 2002 general elections, it was the dominant partner in a new group called the National Alliance which was chaired by him. The National Alliance won 16 seats in the national Assembly, 16 seats in the Sindh Assembly and three Senate seats.

In the 2008, elections his son Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi won the national assembly seat from Naushahro Feroze under the banner of the National Peoples Party, defeating the runner-up PPP candidate and holding the seat won in 2002 by Dr. Abdul Ghaffar Khan Jatoi under the National Alliance banner. His other two sons, Arif Mustafa Jatoi (Former Food and Agriculture Minister) and Masroor Jatoi, both won the Provincial Assembly Seats. The Youngest son Asif Mustafa Jatoi became Senator. This set a record where four sons were simultaneously present in all three Legislative forums, i.e. National Assembly, Senate and Provincial Assembly.

Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was the eldest of four brothers, and his grandfather, Khan Bahadur Imam Bux Khan Jatoi, was a member of the Bombay Legislative Assembly in 1923, 1927 and 1931, when there were only four members representing the entire present Sindh Province. His father Ghulam Rasool Jatoi was a member of the Sindh Legislative Assembly twice in 1946 and again 1952, after which one unit was imposed in West Pakistan.

Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi died in London in November 2009 after a protracted illness at the age of 78.