Farooq Leghari

Briefly

Farooq Leghari, who died on 20 October aged 70, was a former president of Pakistan and a founding member of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Born in May 1940, he served as head of state from November 1993 to December 1997, the country's eighth president since independence from Britain in 1947. In 1996, he dismissed the government of the PPP prime minister Benazir Bhutto over corruption charges. Leghari resigned after developing differences with Bhutto's successor, Nawaz Sharif.

Born into a wealthy political family to a father who served as a cabinet minister, he studied at Oxford University then joined Pakistan's civil service, entering politics after the death of his father, Sardar Muhammad Khan Leghari, and becoming a founding member of the PPP under future prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Leghari also briefly served as foreign minister in 1993 during Benazir Bhutto's second stint in government.