Pakistan under Zardari Watch
Asif Ali Zardari is no charismatic leader; his past forays into the political arena have been negligible; he appeared to be basking in the reflected glory of his wife. Yet, he successfully maneuvered himself into the top slot of the country taking advantage of the nationwide wave of sympathy generated by the assassination of his wife. Before that he led the PPP to a resounding victory in the elections – no small achievement. He played a cat and mouse game with the Muslim League (N) the chief opponent of the PPP. Also, he outsmarted President Musharraf forcing him to quit. Now Musharraf is calling him names. He is certainly not a “third-rater”. And, it was Musharraf who was licked in the battle of wits.
Zardari is the head of the ruling party; he enjoys all the powers that his predecessor had, including the power to summarily dismiss the parliament and cabinet. Taking advantage of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), he has consolidated all his assets in and out of the country that had been frozen pending verdicts in the relevant corruption cases. Given these facts, one wonders whether he was not the real brain behind Benazir despite the fact that he portrayed an image of a fun-loving, polo-playing, moneymaking hedonist.
While Benazir was alive, Zardari remained in the background, babysitting their children and attending to their enormous assets and investments in foreign countries. So, his political skills remained largely under the lid. Benazir too never wanted him to steal the limelight.
Prior to the September 6, 2008 presidential election, he indulged in back-room parleys and promises with Nawaz Sharif, Altaf Husain, Fazlur Rehman and many others to secure their support. Ironically enough, it was Altaf Husain of MQM, the most vocal opponent of feudalism, who proposed Zardari’s name for the Presidency. A pre-election poll conducted by the private TV station, ARY, found his approval rating as the lowest among the three presidential candidates. He got resolutions passed by the provincial assemblies in support of his candidacy, thus ensuring the members’ commitment, although this was not required, nor was there any such precedent.
In his very first address to the parliament, he had promised to take immediate steps to shed his powers under Article 58 2/b as well as the powers accrued to him through the Constitutional amendment by Musharraf to ensure his grip over all pillars of the state. Zardari has assigned the task of framing the amendments to a large parliamentary committee that has yet to come out with a draft. Delay suits him fine.
He attributed the failure of the government to navigate the proposed NRO bill through the parliament to the canvassing deficit of the Prime Minister. So, a rift has developed between the two. PM Gilani is projecting his own image as the champion of democracy and of the restoration of the powers of the parliament, and as a populist leader.
There is a feeling among the beneficiaries of the NRO that Zardari did not take much personal interest in getting the bill passed by the parliament, particularly as he enjoyed immunity from court cases under Article 248 of the Constitution. He has been trying to win over the dissidents, particularly of the MQM, to muster a majority in favor of the bill. The recent meeting in Abu Dhabi of the delegations of MQM and of PPP was in that context. Drawing room negotiations with the other members in the coalition have also being held. Success of such efforts, however, looks almost impossible. For, the 120-day period allowed by the Supreme Court for securing the approval of the National Assembly will run out on November 28 – the day this piece appears in print.
The government announced on November 21, the names of 8,041 persons who have benefited from the NRO. This has opened the Pandora’s box, and it reveals the extent to which the ruling elite of the country is littered with corrupt scoundrels.
The Kerry-Lugar aid bill of the United States has also created a cleavage between Zardari and the establishment, i.e. the Army. For, the bill seeks to restore the supremacy of the civilian leadership over the military. That has provoked the reservations of the military towards the aid bill. It authorizes an allocation of $1.5 billion annually in support of welfare and development projects concerning the civilian population of Pakistan. This allocation is separate from the defense aid given to the military. But, it has placed certain restriction on the total autonomy enjoyed by the military due mainly to the civilian powers that were usurped by military dictatorships during its four stints covering almost half of the country’s existence. The army became a government within and above the government. So much so that the entire defense budget was taken out of the purview of the Finance Ministry’s supervision. It figures only as a one-line budget in the official documents, hence not open to discussion in the parliament.
The men in uniform suspect that the inclusion of the conditions in the aid bill was done at the behest of Zardari through his surrogate in Washington, Ambassador Haqqani.
This has widened the rift between the GHQ and the Presidency. Earlier, President Zardari had sought to transfer the ISI, the country’s premier intelligence agency, from the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Interior. Within eight hours, Zardari was made to withdraw the orders. He had, similarly, to resile from his offer to India about no first nuclear attack by one on the other. Pakistan’s army sees its atomic arsenal as the equalizer in a war against a much bigger war machine of India.
Mr. Zardari and his cronies blame the media for promoting antagonism towards him among the masses. Fact of the matter is that the media is constrained to play the role of opposition, as the Parliament has become a dormant body with the opposition, that is ML (Nawaz) pursuing a one-point agenda of vendetta - keep tarnishing Musharraf and army rule.
Over the past year of Zardari’s watch, life of the man in the street has become direr. Shortages of items of daily use, frequent disruptions of power and water supplies, bomb blasts, deteriorating law and order situation and sky-rocketing cost of living have broken the common man’s back. Corruption, according to Transparency International’s latest report, has shot up placing Pakistan at #42 in a list of 180 countries. With Zardari at the heap of the corrupt of the country, it is now almost unpatriotic to be honest. It is not that his period has only negative developments, but the positive attainments are not even a patch on the entries on the debit side of his ledger.
arifhussaini@hotmail.com
