grey boy 2
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Legal trouble for Asif Zardari may clear path to power for his son - Times Online November 28, 2009
Bronwen Maddox
If Pakistans President gets into new legal trouble will it prove the catalyst for his son also the son of the assassinated Benazir Bhutto to step into the political limelight?
As Bilawal Bhutto nears the end of his degree course at the University of Oxford he has been prominently at his fathers side in key speeches and meetings in London and Washington, towering over his father by a head and sweeping into the room in Pakistani dress. He has been moving around openly in Pakistan in visits to the Bhutto family home in Larkana albeit in a bulletproof vehicle to the point where the press raised safety concerns, bearing in mind his mothers violent death in December 2007. He has sworn off media interviews until after graduation but senior party officials think that he may then step fully into the title he nominally holds: chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
That would perpetuate the dynastic politics that some feel is Pakistans worst feature. It might provide an exit for his father, Asif Ali Zardari, who is proving a much steadier President than many expected but is still in a desperately vulnerable position.
The possible resurrection of corruption charges is a hazard of political life in Pakistan but also a serious challenge. He may be able to argue successfully for immunity while in office; then again, he may not. He, and Benazir while alive, claimed that the charges were always malicious
Corruption charges have long been the first political weapon for incumbent and opposition alike. Mr Musharraf, who used them against Ms Bhutto and another former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, may now be threatened by them himself (though he is safe in Bayswater). That does not mean they are always poorly based; corruption and patronage weave through Pakistans political life.
Mr Zardari faces twin threats: from lawyers and from the army, uneasy at his strategy of hitting the Taleban hard. He has proved more pro-Western than the US and Britain had expected.
Equally, that has made him the target of the huge anti-US movement in Pakistan. That could create an opening for his son if he wants the job.
Bronwen Maddox
If Pakistans President gets into new legal trouble will it prove the catalyst for his son also the son of the assassinated Benazir Bhutto to step into the political limelight?
As Bilawal Bhutto nears the end of his degree course at the University of Oxford he has been prominently at his fathers side in key speeches and meetings in London and Washington, towering over his father by a head and sweeping into the room in Pakistani dress. He has been moving around openly in Pakistan in visits to the Bhutto family home in Larkana albeit in a bulletproof vehicle to the point where the press raised safety concerns, bearing in mind his mothers violent death in December 2007. He has sworn off media interviews until after graduation but senior party officials think that he may then step fully into the title he nominally holds: chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
That would perpetuate the dynastic politics that some feel is Pakistans worst feature. It might provide an exit for his father, Asif Ali Zardari, who is proving a much steadier President than many expected but is still in a desperately vulnerable position.
The possible resurrection of corruption charges is a hazard of political life in Pakistan but also a serious challenge. He may be able to argue successfully for immunity while in office; then again, he may not. He, and Benazir while alive, claimed that the charges were always malicious
Corruption charges have long been the first political weapon for incumbent and opposition alike. Mr Musharraf, who used them against Ms Bhutto and another former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, may now be threatened by them himself (though he is safe in Bayswater). That does not mean they are always poorly based; corruption and patronage weave through Pakistans political life.
Mr Zardari faces twin threats: from lawyers and from the army, uneasy at his strategy of hitting the Taleban hard. He has proved more pro-Western than the US and Britain had expected.
Equally, that has made him the target of the huge anti-US movement in Pakistan. That could create an opening for his son if he wants the job.
