Former Pakistan president Ghulam Ishaq Khan dies

ISLAMABAD, Oct 27 (Reuters) Former Pakistan president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who dismissed two democratically elected governments over corruption scandals, died today aged 91 after a protracted illness, a relative told Reuters.

''He was ill for quite some time and passed away in the morning,'' said Salim Saifullah, federal minister for inter-provincial coordination and a relative of the ex-president.

Born in 1915, Ghulam Ishaq Khan rose through the ranks of Pakistan's bureaucracy to become the country's finance minister and then its president in 1988 after the death of military ruler General Zia-ul Haq in a plane crash.

Khan dismissed the first governments of both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif over corruption charges. He dismissed Bhutto's in 1990 and Sharif's in 1993. The Supreme Court restored Sharif, but the prime minister and Khan both subsequently resigned to end a resulting constitutional crisis.

REUTERS PDM ND1510