ISLAMABAD, Sept. 9 — President Asif Ali Zardari has never been a political animal. His father Hakim Ali Zardari was a parliamentarian of the Pakistan People’s Party during the era of Mr.Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but he switched sides after Bhutto was deposed and hanged by military dictator Gen.Ziaul Haq.
After Mr. Bhutto’s downfall, Hakim Ali Zardari became provincial president of Awami National Party of Sindh.
Upon Benazir Bhutto’s an unprecedented and historic return to Lahore in April 1986, there appeared no other politician as popular as Bhutto’s daughter. She pulled crowds in millions wherever she decided to address the people of Pakistan.
Being a single unmarried lady, Benazir Bhutto felt handicapped at times in a male-dominated society to carry forward her political life in a Pakistan where then Military dictator General Ziaul Haq had already developed serious differences with his handpicked Prime Minister, Muhammad Khan Junejo.
The atmosphere was quite conducive for the PPP leader Benazir Bhutto to take on Ziau Haq on the street level, but her mother, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, was more worried for Benazir’s would-be life partner.
Begum Nusrat Bhutto and the second wife of Hakim Ali Zardai Timmy Zardari worked seriously on the plan to organize Benazir’s meeting with Hakim Ali Zardari’s son, Asif Ali Zardari, who was only famous then for polo and as the “Playboy of Karachi”, having one personal discotheque.
It remains a big mystery what exactly charmed Benazir Bhutto to accept the proposal from the Zardari family. But the main players remained Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Timmy Zardari.
Benazir Bhutto happily married Asif Ali Zardari and was smart to keep her personal life very private. She had conceived Bilawal, but it remained a secret, as Benazir never wanted to mix family with her organized public rallies.
When she gave birth to Bilawal it was indeed big news for journalists and General Ziaul Haq’s intelligence outfits.
General Zia sacked his Prime Minister Junejo in 1988. His death on August 17, 1988 still remains a mystery and many players point fingers here of there.
Benazir twice became prime minister of Pakistan, and twice she was sacked on corruption charges.
Finally after having an arrangement with domestic and international powers, Benazir Bhutto made her second historic return to Pakistan, pulling crowds along the way. She was assassinated under mysterious circumstances after addressing a mammoth public rally at Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Garden on December 27, 2007.
Asif Ali Zardari became heir to the Bhutto dynasty accidentally. He expressed his reluctance to honor his commitment to Vice Chairman of the PPP, Makhdum Amin Fahim, for he promised premiership to one of the highly respected saints of Sindh. His decision to have Sayed Yousaf Raza Gilani from Punjab as premier, and ignoring a fellow Sindhi Makhdum Amin Fahim, was a clear indication that his eyes were set on Presidency.
At that moment it was quite foreseeable that Zardari was heading for the top office.
In his pursuits for wider national reconciliation, Asif Ali Zardari smartly managed to forge alliances with strange bedfellows. From Mian Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League to Altaf Hussain’s Muttehida Qaumi Movement, Zardari forged political and administrative alliances.
After spending one year in high office, political pundits are saying he has not filled the leadership gap in Pakistan.
The military still seems to be out of civilian control, militants are far from annihilated, and the economy is yet to get back on track.
Others acknowledge that so far he has averted the worst fears of his friends and foes. That is to say, he has not sold off state property for a song, there have been no major financial scams bearing presidential fingerprints, and he has not traded state secrets to unfriendly powers.
During his one year’s tenure he freed Pakistan’s nuclear scientist Dr. A.Q. Khan, freed and restored Chief Justice Iftkhar Chaudhry, and in his wisdom agreed to introduce several Constitutional reforms.
One has to critically examine the situation. Are the failures his or those of his team?
Zardari’s blunders include when he made his first attempt to undermine the strong military institution by placing Inter-Services Intelligence under the Ministry of Interior. The army assumed responsibility over defense affairs in the mid-1950s and has since expanded its influence to other spheres of government, including foreign policy.
Mr Zardari cannot purge this influence from the system in a short period, or on his own.
Another area where President Asif Ali Zardari is highly criticized by common Pakistanis and a majority of opposition leaders is that during one year he spent 94 day abroad. His foreign tours mostly emanate from Dubai. Here finger-pointing starts about major deals and agreements. Though none of his foes has so far offered any fresh case of corruption, people do question his lengthening absence from Pakistan.
His little education and insufficient experience of statesmanship encouraged bureaucrats to get their plans translated into action through Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Today, well flanked by cunning bureaucrats, Asif ali Zardari does feel comfortable, but he has just no realization that his party’s popular status is eroding at a fast pace.
By nature, Zardari is very stubborn person. He is seldom open to a good advise, and a handful of men who hold mastery in the game of flattery are a big block for Mr. Zardari’s popularity graph.
MR.AZHAR MASOOD KNOWS MUCH MORE I DONOT KNOW WHY HE IS NOT REVEALING MANY FACTS ABOUT BENAZIR AND ZARDARI .HIS TREASURE OF KNOWLEDGE CAN BE COMPILED INTO A VOLUME OF BOOKS.I KNOW MR.AZHAR WHEN HE IN HIS YOUNG AGE WAS VERY CLOSE TO MR.ZULFIKAR ALI BHUTTO.AS A JOURNALIST HE COVERED 1970’S GENERAL ELECTION AND REPORTED MOST OF THE IMPORTANT EVENTS.
ITS THOUGH GOOD ARTICLE BUT MR.AZHAR BE ASKED TO OPEN MANY SECRETS.
IN PAKISTAN MANY TOP RANKING JOURNALISTS BRAZENLY WRITE LIES ABOUT BHUTTOS AND ZARDARIS
In one year ruleof Zardari proved all the perceptions of prophets of doom and gloom wrong . Pursuing the spirit of reconciliation articulated by Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in her final days, the president has reached out across the political spectrum. Unlike the ones who prefer to seek approval by doing what is temporarily popular, President Zardari is willing to take difficult decisions and make tough choices.
He has been elected for a five-year term and he need not seek applause on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. As a democrat he remains tolerant of criticism and has put up with a constant chorus trying to run him down. The time will reveal after Zardari that he was ever best.
The country is in a state of war and Zardari is busy collecting money from across the globe. if he cared at all for any thing happening to Pakistan the least he can do is to address the nation and give them hope in these times of stress. Instead he chooses to fly all over get drunk stay in expensive hotels and waste the hard earned tax payers money.
He is blackmailing business men like Mian Mansha and Hashwani forcing them to sell their properties to him. Taking commission on deals of the government (well he is an expert at it anyway). And busy lying to peoples face. Shame on Zardari and Shame on Peoples party for not being able to produce one leader off the struggle of over 35 plus years to be able to rule the party and the country. Above all SHAME on us Paksitanis for putting up and not protesting to the MOST Corrupt, character less, insincere, selfish president.
“The constitutional immunity to Zardari will lapse after another four years. If the system destablizers could wait for that time to level their score, the nation will be obliged.”
The whole article has portrayed the tragedy of the Pakistani people and implication of the foreign powers in Pakistani affairs with the tacit involvement of the Pak army top brass. One must not forget that the main characters in this whole saga, who sold their soul to the foreign powers were BB and Nawaz Sharif, both were the deal makers and the real traitors.
They both let the American’s, the British and the Saudi royal Mafia got involve to get into power and the dictator was already a stooge of the west and one of the big player in the ‘War for terror” by the west and “War for terror for money and power grab” for the Pakistani political prostitutes and the top brass of some rogue Pakistani mercenary military elites.
“The moral of the story” of this article is very misleading. No ware in this long article with excellent choice of words the writer admits that the whole election process was a farce and the Pakistani political parties with conscience rejected the fake and imposed election under the thumb of a dictator and an illegal judiciary.
If this person had iota of dignity, he should have recognized the fact that in reality the whole election should be deemed illegal and we should have new elections with all the Pakistani parties invole under the free judiciary, but instead this ’Propaganda master” is requesting or suggesting due to constitutional immunity to Zardari Pakistani should wait four more years, of a criminally insane and an unconstitutional “selected” government to begin with.
No we reject your conclusion and demand a new election under the real constitution of 1973, not under a constitution which was raped by a military dictator and was kept molested by the new political dictator.
People like you have been fooling the people of Pakistan on your masters advice for over sixty years, no more fooling the fools. Pakistani people had enough of your defeatist logic. What about the option of impeachment under the constitution by the collation of the willing including the PPPP members who know, what is best for their party and Pakistan?