ABSTRACT
The electoral process provided Benazir Bhutto an opportunity to demonstrate her political skills and also mobilize the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) supporters. The outcome of 1988 elections made it difficult to exclude Benazir Bhutto or prevent her, as the majority party leader, from forming the government, but the president delayed calling on her to do so. The Sarohi affair tarnished Benazir Bhutto’s image as a leader, it indicated that she asserted her authority without sufficiently understanding the working and organization of the military or the Constitution. The point of contention between Benazir Bhutto government and the military was the manner and the timing of the government’s operation. In the 1970 elections, the PPP under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto emerged as the dominant party in Punjab and Sindh. Nawaz Sharif like Benazir Bhutto also ventured to establish dominant party rule and failed to strengthen parliamentary democracy and party system.
