Pakistanis- How would describe Mr. Nawaz Sharif?

[ravi kiran]

Mr. Nawaz Sharif is a great leader. he will surely make Pakistan a prosperous, developed country. may be under leadership of him Pakistan will be super power and will surpass china and America before 2020.

 

[fatman17]

Alas, no quick fixes to these problems
Ayaz Amir
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Islamabad diary

I have read two outstanding articles this morning (yesterday), the first, in an English newspaper, by Commander (r) Najeeb Anjum and titled ‘Give me back my old Pakistan’; and the second by Haroon-ur-Rashid in the Urdu daily in which he writes, titled ‘Captain’s Future’.

The commander writes: “If Imran wants a revolution, he must ask his supporters to work for an extra hour at their workplaces or better, go to their workplaces on Sundays to mark their protest.” More sensible words would be hard to come by. And he says that enticing people not to pay their taxes is to make both people and government more lax and irresponsible.

Haroon, who wrote about the PTI when no one else did, says, “Beyond anything else, the Tehreek-e-Insaf stands in need of organisation…Talent is honed by training.” The whole should not only be read but memorised by PTI supporters. Imran himself should read it twice over.

Haroon’s column is devoted exclusively to Imran, although to emphasise his argument he mentions Bhutto’s qualities and his grievous shortcomings. The commander mentions Imran in passing. But when they talk of the present both mention no other personality other than him because the sad fact remains that in Pakistan today there is no one else worth mentioning. Imran is no Achilles…let us be clear about this. But the rest of our straw heroes are not even rank-and-file Greeks or Trojans.

Imran began his agitation as a protest against the alleged rigging of the last elections. But as he took to the field what he had begun morphed into something bigger than rigging…a yearning for change. Can he build on that and wait for the next three years, using this time to expand his support and further organise his party? He leads a raw army, high on enthusiasm. Can he turn it into a battle-tested army, high on cohesion and discipline? That’s his challenge.

It is also the nation’s need because what Pakistan faces is a bankruptcy of leadership. If we were not aware of this already, the events of the last two weeks, since the Peshawar tragedy, should make this more than clear. Stalin and Roosevelt did not create as many committees during the Second World War as Nawaz Sharif has created in the last few days. Probably we need just one more committee to find out why we need so many committees.

Gen Raheel Sharif has his task cut out for him. He can either lead this war or he can attend meetings at the Prime Minister’s House. Given the number of times he is seen to be travelling to Islamabad he can’t do both at the same time.

We don’t have to blame Nawaz Sharif. He is doing the best he can. It’s just that his best is not good enough. When your resources of imagination are limited, when this is all the capacity you have, then it should not be considered strange if endless talking becomes a substitute for action. The PM says he will lead this war against terrorism. Hasan Nisar’s comment was apt: “Aap kya, aap kee qiyadat kya”. In Urdu this sounds poetic. In English it sounds a bit harsh: “You and your leadership”.

Butter can only be extracted from milk. You churn water from morning till night, it will remain water. The faces we see sitting around the PM’s war table, are they to be taken seriously? Ahsan Iqbal, my friend Irfan Siddiqui, my friend Asif Kirmani, the inevitable Fawad Hasan Fawad and a few other bemused attendees. This seems to be the best the ruling party has to offer, beginning its homework only now. The Taliban can be forgiven if they want to laugh up their sleeves.

Remember the time when the PM had discovered rape and he would visit rape victims every day, his compassion played out on television every evening? He has now discovered terrorism…and the approach seems to be the same as for the hapless victims of rape: a lot of coming- and-going (aanian-janian) carried out for the benefit of the cameras.

Is an all-parties conference required to deal with purveyors of hate and apostles of sectarianism? Does the elected government have to lean on other pillars of support in order to decide what to do about convicted prisoners? In the two weeks between the Peshawar tragedy and now what have our political bonzes done except debate to death the option of military courts? And they are going about it in such a belaboured manner that already we can hear more voices coming out in criticism of this move.

This is not leadership; this is abdication of leadership, although a strenuous effort is underway to manufacture an impression of decisiveness for the cameras. Is this likely to fool anyone?

Military chiefs are being roped in for this exercise too. There they sit stony-faced listening to the babble of talk around them. The army is supposed to be in command and it is the army’s agenda which is supposedly being followed. But the army is not getting its way for free…it is being made to run a tough obstacle course. The meetings in the PM’s house would test the patience of figures more saintly than our army commanders.

Anyone inclined to think there is a quick fix to any of this should think again. We can all hope and pray for decisive action but hanging a few terrorists, or even making a cult of hanging, will not solve our terrorism problem. The seeds of it are planted too deep in the ground. It will not be resolved in 2015. It will not end with the end of Gen Raheel’s tenure as army chief. We are in it for the long haul. We need the mailed fist. Without it we can’t even start this fight. But the mailed fist is not enough…with it must come the overhauling of Pakistani society, the reformation of the Pakistani mind.

Who will do this? Not Nawaz Sharif, not the PML-N, who/which are not the answer to Pakistan’s problems. It will take some other St George to slay the dragon of religious extremism, the militancy riding on the back of a perverted version of Islam which is the foremost challenge facing this nation. For this we require new resolve and fresh dynamism. History thus beckons…but who will respond to its call?

The maelstrom is not over; we are in the midst of the storm. Look at the situation in Afghanistan. Isaf and Nato have announced the end of their 13-year mission – longer than any of America’s wars – but for security reasons they couldn’t show the closing ceremony on live television. So far from that conflict being over, another phase of that drama is about to begin, even as in Pakistan we finally open our eyes to the demons of whose existence we should have been aware long ago. We are in it together as this problem straddles both sides of the Durand Line.

The civilian leadership gives proof of its competence every day. But the army can’t go it alone, not having the capacity to wage war and carry the weight of government at the same time. A ‘national government’ is no solution because that will only mean another collection of used crockery and cutlery. So we are stuck with what we have, and the PML-N has three more years to go.

This should be no cause for despair. Rather this should be an opportunity for whoever aspires to lead the nation. Let me therefore (for the umpteenth time) fall back on Neruda:

He trained himself like a long lance/He habituated his feet in cascades/He lived in the burrows of the snow/He ambushed the prey of eagles/He burned in infernal gorges/He made himself out of taciturn fibres/He oiled himself like the soul of the olive/He became glass of transparent hardness/He studied to be a hurricane wind/He fought himself until his blood was extinguished/Only then was he worthy of his people.

It is not easy, the education of the chieftain.

Email: bhagwal63@gmail.com

Mr. Nawaz Sharif is a great leader. he will surely make Pakistan a prosperous, developed country. may be under leadership of him Pakistan will be super power and will surpass china and America before 2020.

i salute to your optimism but read the article i have just posted - regards.

 

[ghoul]

He basically has no ideology. His only ideology is to win in the elections, whichever way possible. I would describe his basic ideology as pseud- center-right. He gets good support from the mullahs(extremists) and sectarian hate groups from the Punjab province, from where he mostly wins, but at the same time gets labelled a traitor by the far right Pakistanis when it comes to his India policy.

The proper right wing party of Pakistan is PTI led by Imran Khan. The proper left wing party is the MQM, but it is also an ethno-nationalist party hence its support is limited.

As for his economic agenda; it's full blown capitalism, hence right wing.

 

[Pakistani E]

Good topic @US_statedept_retired , I still think you are think tank material,

I am going to put my personal bias aside for the sake of being objective. So here goes, please keep in mind I have not been to Pakistan for several years and have not taken that much of an interest its political affairs for some years.

• Economy ( pro business or pro labor, taxation policies, spending vs. cutting, big government vs Private sector )

Definitely Pro Business, introduced numerous schemes to help business ( we won't get into the debate about corruption or mismanagement because that will be probably defeat the purpose of this thread).
Favours Privatisation, almost reminds me of the conservatives in the UK with their insistence on minimising government interference.
Again because of his ideology he usually cuts government subsidies.
But as @FaujHistorian (I hope you don't mind me plagiarising ) said, goes for large scale infrastructure projects like motorways, metro bus, power stations etc.

• Security ( hard handed or conciliatory )

A mix bag. Last time he was in power he came down hard during Karachi operation and the lawless situation in Sindh.
Also established Anti terrorism courts. I also must give him, no matter how minimal his influence, on the action taken against the Taliban recently.
On the other hand, he's pretty conciliatory to the Balouchis with their legitimate grievances, again have give him credit for including Baloch Nationalists in his government.

• Foreign policy ( open to all governments, bold or conservative)

Mostly conservative, although I think he's rocking the boat with his conciliatory approach to India.

• Religiously ambiguous or prone to regional politics

Appeals to the Muslim trader class, I think he's very conservative in his thinking. His candidates couldn't have won some seats in Punjab if his party hadn't done deal with shady sectarian groups. Well he was with Zia, I don't think there is anything more to be said on this.

 

[Devil Soul]

I'm looking for your opinions on where you think Mr. Sharif's ideology would best fit in.

I understand many of you dislike him or are frustrated with him But- if you were to define him on his ideology vs. record- would he more like a Republican or Democrat or middle of the road. How do you view him on his overall political ideology?

My perception of him as the old Nawaz I knew- is that he is a middle of the road politician, left leaning on international affairs, yet right leaning in terms of economic agenda . Can you help me understand what your feelings are about him?

How you would grade ( left/ right or center) on:

• Economy ( Pro business or Pro labor, Taxation policies, Spending vs.Cutting, Big government vs Private sector )
• Security ( hard handed or conciliatory )
• Foreign policy ( open to all governments, bold or conservative)
• Religiously ambiguous or prone to regional politics

i'll keep it very simple & honest...So far i've seen NS Gov very weak in handling political crisis, on other fronts slight improvement is their as compared to previous Gov's, but not up to the expectation of people who were expecting that all their probs will be solved once he takes oath as PM, a lot more need to be done......

 

[Winchester]

But still hobbled by leftist and anti-US educated elite and bureaucracy, and media.

Our leftist bureaucracy

You really have no idea about the educated elite!
The bureaucracy being leftest???
Go to any ministry and tell me who is holding off your "pro-business" ministers from flooding the state institutions with their supporters !
The urban middleclass in this country is very much right-wing
Their contempt for PPP and things like income support program are proof of that.

I'm looking for your opinions on where you think Mr. Sharif's ideology would best fit in.

I understand many of you dislike him or are frustrated with him But- if you were to define him on his ideology vs. record- would he more like a Republican or Democrat or middle of the road. How do you view him on his overall political ideology?

My perception of him as the old Nawaz I knew- is that he is a middle of the road politician, left leaning on international affairs, yet right leaning in terms of economic agenda . Can you help me understand what your feelings are about him?

How you would grade ( left/ right or center) on:

• Economy ( Pro business or Pro labor, Taxation policies, Spending vs.Cutting, Big government vs Private sector )
• Security ( hard handed or conciliatory )
• Foreign policy ( open to all governments, bold or conservative)
• Religiously ambiguous or prone to regional politics

as you put it yourself he is a middle of the road politician
He likes to do things which are in your face rather than them having a great deal of impact on people's lives...case in point the metro he is building in Islamabad !
His focus is on indirect taxation...he won't let anyone touch the trader class because they form his support base !
When it was popular he was trying to be conciliatory and now the public wants blood he is acting up trying to be hard handed...lets wait a month or two to see if he can act against the sectarian groups associated with his party.
He is Pro-Saudi....tried to open up to India that was a bold step.
He has shown in the past to be prone to regional politics.

 

[Viper0011.]

He basically has no ideology.
The proper right wing party of Pakistan is PTI led by Imran Khan. The proper left wing party is the MQM, but it is also an ethno-nationalist party hence its support is limited.
As for his economic agenda; it's full blown capitalism, hence right wing.

How is the PTI a "proper" anything? What I know by sitting in the UK, majority of you IK fan boys don't know. PTI was one of the BIGGEST supporters of Talibans. How's that proper per your post? The very group of barberic terrorist who spread destruction from the borders of Afghanistan till the Coastline of Karachi....

IK has no agenda, his team doesn't know economy and he breathes blood of innocents every time he talks. The article above says, if IK wants to protest, he should tell his people to work an extra hour. THAT is the right way to do it. Nations that go forward, have positive "revolutions". Protests in Japan mean they produce thousands of extra cars by working overtime. End result, the labor gets what it wants as the point is made peacefully.

Right now, Pakistan needs TWO things to set its core foundation: PEACE and Economic Growth. For those two, IK is no one on the list. I am no NS fan, but I do know that his agenda (if term completed without further drama), will provide and setup basis for a much stronger and peaceful Pakistan

Those who think others have magic should know that the electric power, education, gas and all these basic things will remain the same or worst if "an alternative" comes into power. 70 years of backwards movement can't be fixed over night. The article also insinuates that the "military" doesn't have the bandwidth to fight and run the country.

This creates the SAME sense of false protection that the Pakstanis are made to believe that the military can do everything, including running the country. That's not the case. In fact, the credit for Pakistan being where it is, economically and stability, goes to the very military. Had the military not ruled the country for over 40 years out of 70, I think you'd have seen a LOT more progress, just like what you'll see when this current government leaves.

 

[coffee_cup]

Mr Shariff still enjoys immense popularity, post BB's murder he is the only politician left with enough stature and clout to unite the whole parliament behind him on issues of national significance. The recent events against him were GHQ sponsored and should not be taken as a reflection of public mood. He is historically a rightist/ conservative (republican) who has taken a more pronounced centrist approach starting from 2008 onwards. Still rightists make the bulk of his vote-bank and he will need to tread very carefully in war against TTP.
.

Oh really, is that so?

Thats why he needed to rig the election and afraid of audit? lol

 

[xyxmt]

You are forgetting that you are retired !

Retirement in America and other western countries is different than retirement in Pakistan. here life begins after retirement, before that you are only a robot.

 

[FaujHistorian]

He basically has no ideology. His only ideology is to win in the elections, whichever way possible..

True for every Tom, Dick, Imran, Altaf, Sartaj etc.

 

[ghoul]

Mr. Nawaz Sharif is a great leader. he will surely make Pakistan a prosperous, developed country. may be under leadership of him Pakistan will be super power and will surpass china and America before 2020.

I sense deep sarcasm in your post.

 

[TankMan]

How you would grade ( left/ right or center) on:

• Economy ( Pro business or Pro labor, Taxation policies, Spending vs.Cutting, Big government vs Private sector )
• Security ( hard handed or conciliatory )
• Foreign policy ( open to all governments, bold or conservative)
• Religiously ambiguous or prone to regional politics

His economic policy has been compared to 'Bushonomics' a lot,though it isn't that good of a comparison, it should give an idea as to why people dislike it. Very ambitious, grand, 'megaprojects' and all but at the end, just fails to deliver.

Pro business, typical capitalist style - which makes sense as NS himself is a big industrialist and owns a significant amount of businesses and industries.

He's been favoring the 'Private sector', but it isn't proper. Some good articles on this topic:
Bushonomics in Pakistan - Sayem Z Ali
Can Nawaz Sharif fix the economy? - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
PML-N’s financial wizardry - Sayem Z Ali

As for security, he did manage to launch a military operation but the Army is on its own here, the civilian government hasn't done anything to support it. The National Counter Terrorism Authorit (NACTA), for example, is under-equipped and under-staffed, has inadequate funding and is practically dead - Military intelligence and the ISI have to do counter-insurgency and terrorism too, so that's a big failure there.
NACTA’s Resurrection

In foreign relations, he is mostly perceived to be a 'puppet' type and definitely more on the 'conciliatory' side; not exactly bold.

Definitely prone to corruption and regional politics

PTI was one of the BIGGEST supporters of Talibans.

No, not really. Hardly a supporter, PTI had more of a 'hearts and minds' approach to the terrorism issue, which was pretty reasonable (still is) but it needed to be coupled with military operations. PTI's pacifism was stupid but not in support of the Taliban.

IK has no agenda

Oh really? I thought he wanted to take over Pakistan with his Army of evil pashtuns, what happened to that theory? Not an agenda?
On a serious note, he does have an agenda Manifesto

his team doesn't know economy

Oh really?
Economy
Asad Umar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

he breathes blood of innocents every time he talks

And you accuse me of doing paid propaganda. No, he does not. This speech doesn't 'breath blood of innocents', neither does this one, or this one, or this one, or this one - need more? It'll be easier to list those that do, because there aren't any at all. But of course you can't tell since you don't even understand Urdu.

I am no NS fan, but I do know that his agenda (if term completed without further drama), will provide and setup basis for a much stronger and peaceful Pakistan

Well then you seem to know more than the World Bank, Asian Development bank, IMF, every analyst and every media outlet combined. The only way NS can set up basis for a stronger democratic Pakistan is by massively changing his economic policy and letting the electoral investigation and reforms take place.

 

[Pakistani patriot]

You really have no idea about the educated elite!
The bureaucracy being leftest???


.

Exactly. Nawaz sharif is supported by the old guard, conservative middle-class pro-business folk
though i wouldn't conflate all educated elite and petty bureaucrats
educated elite have more variety when it comes to supporting or not supporting people

 

[FaujHistorian]

His economic policy has been compared to 'Bushonomics' a lot,though it isn't that good of a comparison, it should give an idea as to why people dislike it. Very ambitious, grand, 'megaprojects' and all but at the end, just fails to deliver.

Pro business, typical capitalist style - which makes sense as NS himself is a big industrialist and owns a significant amount of businesses and industries.

He's been favoring the 'Private sector', but it isn't proper. Some good articles on this topic:
Bushonomics in Pakistan - Sayem Z Ali
Can Nawaz Sharif fix the economy? - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
PML-N’s financial wizardry - Sayem Z Ali

As for security, he did manage to launch a military operation but the Army is on its own here, the civilian government hasn't done anything to support it. The National Counter Terrorism Authorit (NACTA), for example, is under-equipped and under-staffed, has inadequate funding and is practically dead - Military intelligence and the ISI have to do counter-insurgency and terrorism too, so that's a big failure there.
NACTA’s Resurrection

In foreign relations, he is mostly perceived to be a 'puppet' type and definitely more on the 'conciliatory' side; not exactly bold.

Definitely prone to corruption and regional politics


No, not really. Hardly a supporter, PTI had more of a 'hearts and minds' approach to the terrorism issue, which was pretty reasonable (still is) but it needed to be coupled with military operations. PTI's pacifism was stupid but not in support of the Taliban.

Oh really? I thought he wanted to take over Pakistan with his Army of evil pashtuns, what happened to that theory? Not an agenda?
On a serious note, he does have an agenda Manifesto

Oh really?
Economy
Asad Umar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


And you accuse me of doing paid propaganda. No, he does not. This speech doesn't 'breath blood of innocents', neither does this one, or this one, or this one, or this one - need more? It'll be easier to list those that do, because there aren't any at all. But of course you can't tell since you don't even understand Urdu.


Well then you seem to know more than the World Bank, Asian Development bank, IMF, every analyst and every media outlet combined. The only way NS can set up basis for a stronger democratic Pakistan is by massively changing his economic policy and letting the electoral investigation and reforms take place.

off all the people at the top of the heap, only NS has seen up close how big business works.

Rest of the politicians are just bunch of kids trying to shove fingers in to the Teletubbies toys.


Thanks for quoting Z Ali's essays.

The guy writes well but his attacks on NS are for the criticism sake.

We have working economic models from Asian tigers like S Korea, Taiwan and China

NS really wants to be like them. In his first stint, he successfully brought in S Koreans into big ventures. But thanks to leftist baboos and Bhutto Klan, that effort was thwarted.

Now he is trying to bring in Chinese companies and $tupid kids like IK have been trying their best to stop it.

And all these childish attacks on him make no sense.

 

[Pakistani patriot]

. The proper left wing party is the MQM, but it is also an ethno-nationalist party hence its support is limited.
.

dont believe in altaf's acting up on pseudo-secularism or anything of that sort
they are just an etho-centrist right-wing party,

their support base proves it
the party plays on certainn ideas which make it seem liberal lol