John Giheno is a Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

 politician and former government minister. Giheno served as acting Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea

Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea

The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, is Papua New Guinea's head of government, consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the National Parliament. Since 2 August 2011, the Prime Minister has been Peter O’Neill of the People's National Congress Party.-List...

 from March 27, 1997, until June 2, 1997, following the resignation of then Prime Minister Julius Chan

Julius Chan

Sir Julius Chan GCL GCMG KBE was Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 1980 to 1982 and from 1994 to 1997. He is currently Member of Parliament for New Ireland Province, having won the seat in the 2007 national election...

.

Prime Minister Julius Chan resigned on March 27, 1997, following a scandal regarding the hiring of foreign mercenaries to fight rebels on the island of Bougainville

Bougainville Island

Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...

. The use of mercenaries by the Chan government resulted in an Papua New Guinea Defence Force mutiny

Mutiny

Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...

 codenamed 'Operasen Rausim Kwik' and riots in Bougainville. Chan stated that he resigned to preserve peace in Papua New Guinea.

The Cabinet chose John Giheno, who was serving as the mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 and petroleum

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

 Minister

Minister (government)

A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....

at the time, as acting Prime Minister until new elections could be held. Giheno served as Prime Minister as a caretaker until new elections could be held in June 1997. Sixteen government ministers in the Chan government, including both Giheno and Chan, lost their seats in Parliament in the June 1997 general elections.