President of Pakistan who sacked two governments. An influential public servant with his starched reputation, Ghulam Ishaq Khan led Pakistan from 1988 to 1993 and dismissed two governments on charges of corruption. He was a seasoned bureaucrat who rose through the ranks from humble beginning without patronage or wealth, held important official positions and was always at the centre stage of power politic during his career. A strict and honest financial manager and a nationalist, including the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (1971-75) and the country's finance minister (1978-79), he became the President of Pakistan after the last military ruler General Zia Ul Haq died in a mysterious plane crash in 1988. As president he dismissed Benazir Bhutto's government in 1990 tainted by charges of corruption, mismanagement and nepotism and Nawaz Sharif's government in 1993 on the same charges. After the Supreme Court ordered that Nawaz Sharif be restored a political crisis gripped the country and Pakistan's powerful army chief asked both men to resign in 1993. His career shipwrecked, he abandoned politics for good and led a quite life, shied from media limelight. In early 1990s, he founded the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences, a leading engineering university, in Swabi. Ghulam Ishaq Khan, born in Ismail Khel village in the Bannu district of NWFP, died after a long illness in Peshawar. His funeral was given official protocol in his capacity as the former head of the state.