Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
Pakistan elects a new President next month replacing the playboy-turned politician, Asif Ali Zardari, whose term comes to an end in September. Zardari, who is currently out of the country, will, in all likelihood, handover the keys to the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the Presidential Palace in Islamabad to whoever the ruling Nawaz Muslim League names.
The announcement about the elections comes at a time when the electoral college, that elects the President, is short by 42 of its total strength; by-elections to these seats, both in the National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies are due on August 22.
Zardari, better known as Pakistan’s Mr. Ten percent, shed off his playboy image years after he married the charismatic Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s daughter, the ambitious, politically driven Benazir who, like the new Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif z had opted for the democratic route to power at the end of Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s eight-year-rule as military dictator. But her journey was cut short soon after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, cut down by hired gunmen, allegedly at the behest of Gen Musharraf. The alleged assassination of Benazir is one the charges Gen. Musharraf, now in detention in Islamabad, is charged with.
Benazir’s assassination saw Zardari take over the leadership of the People’s Party in the resumed poll campaign. In her death, as much during her life, Benazir did Zardari the favour of earning him a popular mandate. That he has been unable to build on the goodwill generated for the party post-Benazir assassination speaks of his failure as an organizer or party manager; it also betokens his utter inability to revive the cadres which sustained the party during the Bhutto years.
Zardari’s son who, at least in appearance, looked more Bhuttoesque, a student at Oxford at the time of his mother’s death, was reportedly stumped by Zardari’s paternal family, sisters and cousins, when it came to canvassing support for PPP. Bilawal Zardari-Bhutto was so cut up with the Zardari family coup within the PPP that he opted out to stay in Dubai with his sisters rather than campaign for the party. By the time Zardari succeeded in bringing him back to the campaign, the battle was lost, many important party leaders had withdrawn from the scene.
Zardari even otherwise was not seen as a doer; for one thing he had to spend most of his time in fighting the post-Musharraf judiciary which insisted on the Pakistan government pursuing the corruption cases, including his Swiss bank accounts, allegedly money stashed away by the President in Swiss banks, payoffs for favours done by the PPP to various agencies during Benazir’s tenure in Prime Ministerial office. Two of Zardari’s Prime Ministers had to go defending him, pleading their inability to persuade the courts to resume the cases against him in Switzerland. The courts there have since expressed their inability to undertake any such trials arguing that these were time-barred.
The one positive that the Zardari years in Aiwan-e-Sadar will be remembered for is his steadfast dedication to letting the country’s most significant experiment with democracy flourish; credit goes to him for having ensued that the country’s first democratically elected civilian government was able to complete its term office and fresh elections held this year which ousted his PPP and brought back Nawaz Sharif to power in Islamabad. The PML (N) may not have achieved similar success in Sindh, Pakhtunkhwah and Baluchistan but the democratic process has survived.
The Army has continued to hold it cards close to its chest, with the Army Chief-on-Extension Gen. Parvaiz Kyani, playing it very safe, hoping for the Afghan situation to go Pakistan’s way once the American-allied troops leave that country.
A presidential election at a time when the country is faced with threats domestically, mainly from the rogue militant outfits, may seem be an oddity but Pakistan has lately shown the resilience-Zardari was a deft operator in sum- to stand up to such problems. In any case it is not hard to tell that whoever occupies the presidential palace will be a PML (N) nominee with the party leader and Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif having the decisive say.
Two names that come to mind instantly for the Presidency are those of Mr. Sartaj Aziz, a well regarded former colleague of Sharif, and Mr. Ghaus Ali Shah from Sindh. Another choice would be Mr. Mehmood Khan Achakzai, the Baloch leader.
Achkazai, those with longer recalls, will remember is the son of Abdul Samad Achakzai, the Baloch freedom fighter, who was often referred to as the Baloch Gandhi. But, then, this is mere guess work with not a clue available as yet from the Nawaz League.
For the record Mr. Sartaj Aziz has served as the country’s Finance Minister with Nawaz Sharif as the Prime Minister, Ghaus Ali Shah is a senior politician who was the Chief Minister of Sindh. Achakzai’s appointment would instantly be seen as another sop to Baloch nationalism.
Baluchistan will need a lot more sympathetic attention from Islamabad given the sense of alienation of the Baloch people; they have also been at the receiving end of much unwanted attention of militants of all hues: Which is not to say that Pakhtunkhwah (old Frontier province) or Sindh or even parts of Punjab are by any stretch of imagination areas of peace.
On the contrary the old Frontier province and Sindh, not to speak of Balochistan, have witnessed unprecedented violence for quite a while now. A presidential appointment may not be the kind of balm that would soothe frayed nerves in a troubled country. What it could do is to impart “a caring touch” to at least to one of the troubled provinces.
As for the outgoing President, one can be sure that Asif Ali Zardari will live in comfort wherever he chooses to be- Dubai, London or the US in case he fears that the Pakistani judiciary, still on the prowl for its pound of flesh, won’t let him live in peace in his own country.
One thing he had ensured though- I wish I am wrong- is that the People’s Party founded by the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and nurtured by his dead daughter, Benazir, has become a ghost of what it was; in the process he may even have dented the political prospect of the Zardari-Benazir son, Bilawal, whose having attaining political “majority” (age), coincides with the virtual demise of the party his grandfather and mother had built up from a scratch.
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