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Monday, June 10, 2013
Reluctantly, new prime minister moves into palaceDaily Times Monitor
ISLAMABAD: In a capital city where the poor live in mud huts on the outskirts of town as the country’s governing elite enjoy terraced estates a few miles away, the new prime minister has been trying to decide what to do with his palace, the Washington Post reported.
Amid a debate reminiscent of political combat over perks for elected officials in the United States, third-time premier Nawaz Sharif announced last week that he would not stay in the country’s prime minister’s house, an expansive ranch-style mansion built two decades ago, where he had lived while serving his second term, from 1997 to 1999. Instead, Nawaz Sharif suggested he would take up residence at a smaller, though still pristine, house often used by visiting officials.
In the weeks before Nawaz assumed the post of prime minister last Wednesday, he struggled over where to call home as he tackles economic upheaval due to chronic energy shortages, high inflation and record-low foreign investment. Nawaz said his rejection of the official residence, coupled with plans to reduce the size of his cabinet, signalled a new period of austerity in a country whose leaders have long battled charges of extravagance, corruption and disconnect from the challenges facing ordinary residents. Public approval was swift.
Founded nearly 66 years ago after splitting from India, Pakistan is a relatively new country and has an even newer capital. The seat of government was shifted to Islamabad from Karachi in the 1960s, and Islamabad lacks the historical treasures found in many countries’ capitals.
But though Pakistan’s earliest leaders were fairly modest, their successors slowly built up Islamabad’s federal district, including an imposing Supreme Court building, a presidential office compound that resembles a large version of the Kennedy Centre in Washington, and a suite of office space for the prime minister that is nearly as imposing as India’s Taj Mahal.
The prime minister’s house is nestled a short distance away, where the lush Margalla Hills that overlook the city begin their rise toward the Himalayan mountains. According to past visitors and government officials, the one-story house is defined by its gardens rather than its architecture — more resort than castle.
The L-shaped estate includes a winding driveway, well-furnished waiting rooms for guests, a helipad, a basement auditorium and several staff houses, and it has a $3.6 million maintenance budget, according to the Capital Development Authority.
Some officials and journalists who have visited the property say it pales in comparison to the living quarters of many heads of states. But for Pakistanis already sceptical of their leaders, the house has at times served as a symbol of a growing wealth disparity.
“It’s garish for a country as ours,” said Sakib Sherani, who served as one of Pakistan’s chief economic advisers from 2009 to 2010. “If Islamabad is known for being 20 miles outside the rest of Pakistan,” he said, repeating a joke commonly told to depict the capital’s disconnect, “then the prime minister’s house is five miles outside of Islamabad.”
According to the United Nations, about half of Pakistanis live in poverty, and the average worker makes the equivalent of about $255 a month. But large pockets of affluence — and the garden parties and designer clothes that accompany it — can be found in Islamabad and the larger cities of Lahore and Karachi.
Most of the country’s prime ministers, including Nawaz Sharif, a textiles magnate who first served as prime minister from 1990 to 1993, and the late Benazir Bhutto, who held the post twice, have been part of that wealthy class.
And the Prime Minister’s House played a small role in both politicians’ downfalls from power.
In her second term, from 1993 to 1996, Benazir Bhutto came under heavy criticism after her husband, Asif Ali Zardari — now the country’s outgoing president — spent millions of dollars and levelled acres of trees near the residence to install a polo field. The controversy fed into broader allegations of corruption against the family, which contributed to Benazir Bhutto’s ousting in 1996.
When Nawaz Sharif succeeded Benazir Bhutto, he, too, battled critics over his use of the house. Abida Hussain, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 1991 to 1993, recalled that Nawaz Sharif relied on top designers to furnish the residence.
“He was not like India, where maintaining a modest lifestyle for top leaders flowed from the Gandhi era,” said Hussain, noting Nawaz Sharif was born into wealth and raised in lavish mansions. “We veered more and more toward the Arabs, the Gulf Arabs, whose leaders were extremely elaborate. We looked away from the Indian model of simplicity.”
Nawaz Sharif was ousted by then-army chief Pervez Musharraf in a coup in 1999, accused of corruption and then exiled to Saudi Arabia until 2007.
As he sought to return power in this spring’s national elections, Nawaz faced the energetic campaign of former cricket star Imran Khan. Though also wealthy, Khan rallied younger voters with a populist message that railed against government excesses, and he pledged not to reside in the Prime Minister’s House.
Several observers said Nawaz Sharif’s subsequent decision not to return to the house reflected concern that Imran Khan, whose Tehreek-e-Insaf party finished a distant second in the May 11 election, could again pose a threat if Nawaz did not scale back his lifestyle or move swiftly to address the country’s economic woes.
Others suspect Nawaz Sharif had more personal reasons. When he was ousted by Musharraf, the army surrounded the residence, dragged him out and arrested him in the driveway.
“He has nightmarish memories of that house,” said Muhammad Akram Shaheedi, a former federal information officer. “Those memories haunted him... He was humiliated to the core.”
Whatever the motives, within days of Nawaz Sharif’s announcement, Pakistani security officials were expressing concern through the media over the PM’s plans to instead reside in the more modest Punjab House, built for officials from the province of the same name.
Not only is it more accessible to the public — and vulnerable to rocket attacks from the surrounding hills — it does not contain the “hot phones” the prime minister needs to quickly communicate with military chiefs, they said.
So after Nawaz Sharif was sworn in on Wednesday, he and his family moved into the Prime Minister’s House, where, presumably, they will remain.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk