She formed a fragile coalition with independent parliamentarians from her home province of Sindh, but they left the coalition the following year as ethnic tensions in that province escalated. Without their support Bhutto was unable to pass legislation to address Pakistan’s critical issues, including widespread poverty, governmental corruption, and increasing crime. Meanwhile, she bore the brunt of a discordant relationship with the military leadership. In August 1990 the president of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, dismissed her government on charges of corruption and other malfeasance and called for new elections. Bhutto’s PPP suffered a defeat in the national elections of October 1990, and thereafter she led the parliamentary opposition against her successor, Nawaz Sharif.
