Muhammad Rafiq Tarar Net Worth

Background and career

Muhammad Rafiq Tarar (2 November 1929 – 7 March 2022) was a Pakistani politician and jurist who served as the ninth president of Pakistan from 1998 until he left office in 2001. He also served as a senator from Punjab in 1997; and, before entering politics, as a senior justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan from 1992 to 1994 and as the chief justice of the Lahore High Court from 1989 to 1991.

Tarar was born in Mandi Bahauddin, and graduated with LLB from University of the Punjab in 1951, before starting practice as a lawyer in Lahore High Court the following year. In 1966, he pursued a career as a jurist. Tarar later served as a justice in Pakistan's highest courts. After his retirement at 65, he started a political career as a legal advisor to Nawaz Sharif. Tarar became a senator from Punjab in 1997 and was nominated the same year as presidential candidate by PML-N, but his nomination papers were rejected by the Acting Chief Election Commissioner. Barrister Ijaz Husain Batalvi assisted by M. A. Zafar and Akhtar Aly Kureshy Advocate, challenged the rejection of his nomination papers in Lahore High Court and the Full Bench set aside the rejection order of the Election Commission and he was elected president of Pakistan in the presidential election by a margin of 374 out of 457 votes of the Electoral College.

Tarar assumed office in January 1998 with heavy criticism by opposition especially from former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who accused him of illegally legitimizing dismissal of her government as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. As head of state, Tarar shifted Pakistan's system of government from semi-presidential system to parliamentary democratic system by signing the Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment. He surrendered his reserve power of dismissing the Prime Minister, triggering new elections and dissolving the National Assembly. He also signed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendment to the constitution that limited the powers of the presidency from executive to a figurehead.

Tarar was ultimately succeeded by Musharraf as President through a referendum held in 2002. Twenty months after seizing power in a coup, General Musharraf took the head of state's oath and became the fourth military ruler to become president. In 2003, Tarar claimed he was still the President.