President Asif Ali Zardar - A Profile by Times UK

[ejaz007]

Zardari to retain powers to name COAS
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
By Tariq Butt

ISLAMABAD: President-elect Asif Ali Zardari will retain the discretionary powers of making key appointments, especially of the services chiefs, but will shed the authority to dissolve the National Assembly or dismiss a government, informed official circles say.

“We have no doubt that the new president wants to keep in his hand the exclusive authority to appoint services chiefs, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, the chief election commissioner, the attorney-general of Pakistan and the auditor general of Pakistan,” one official told The News.

He said there was absolutely no possibility that Zardari would voluntarily become or would like parliament to make him a Fazal Elahi or Rafiq Tarar just to earn kudos from the democratic forces.

He added apart from having a compliant prime minister, the new president, who would also be the supreme commander of armed forces, would be an effective head of state, having a dominant say in all principal domestic and foreign policy decisions.

A source said most of the PPP leaders, who were in close touch with Zardari and were of his mind, have now started talking about striking a balance between the powers of the president and the prime minister instead of reverting to the position of the two office-holders as repeatedly committed by the PPP over the past decade and as provided in the original 1973 Constitution, according to which the head of the state is just a titular figure.

The source said the ruling coalition knows for sure that the second largest party in the National Assembly, the PML-N, will be happy over scrapping of Article 58-2(b) and, therefore, will extend its support in this connection.

He said it was clear that the present ruling coalition didn’t have the mandatory two-thirds majority separately in the Senate and the National Assembly to amend the Constitution without the PML-N’s backing.

But contrary to this optimistic view, a PML-N leader told this correspondent that his party would not go for a patchwork to correct massive distortions in the Constitution and recommended that the presidency should be divested of all the discretionary powers and other authority that run counter to the original 1973 document.

He said the PML-N has come to know that Zardari is keen on keeping the constitutional powers relating to discretionary appointments, particularly services chiefs, but wants to dispense with Article 58-2(b).

“It will be an eyewash, which will not restore the Constitution to its parliamentary form where all the powers are to be exercised by the prime minister and the president ought to be a figurehead.”

The PML-N leader said Zardari would lose nothing by agreeing to abolish 58-2(b) because his own party presides over the federal government and there is no need to keep this authority with him, as the necessity to use it would not arise.

An official source said the Constitution containing former president Pervez Musharraf’s 17th Amendment and a host of other laws enacted by him would remain unchanged for quite some time because even a serious effort by the ruling coalition to amend it would meet with failure for having no two-thirds majority in parliament.

The PML-N is unlikely to be forthcoming in supporting any constitutional package of the government unless it is all encompassing and makes sweeping changes to the basic document, restoring it to its original form.

Not only Zardari but the Gilani government would be content but also extremely happy with the present Constitution because it vests all the powers in the president and the prime minister. They are unlikely to be in a hurry to change the present arrangement.

Zardari to retain powers to name COAS

 

[muse]

Theatre of the absurd
By Irshad Abdul Kadir


SINCE the tragic death of Benazir Bhutto last December, there has been a surreal quality to politics in Pakistan. But as a result of a bizarre series of events during the last few weeks the political landscape has become more akin to the theatre of the absurd.

The democratic order which was restored after a credible election has been run by the unelected heads of at least three political parties. Consequently, matters of state have progressed or regressed in accordance with the weight of countervailing influence brought to bear in each case.

The speed with which the move to impeach ex-President Musharraf became a national clarion call, indicates what can be done if one has the clout. Likewise, the foot-dragging witnessed on the other popular cause of the restitution of the Justice Chaudhry-led judiciary, is also attributable to a powerful impeding element.

The dichotomy in the power structure resulted in a paralysis of executive initiative signified by the bureaucracy’s reluctance to proceed with the business of state ‘without further orders’. A secondary cause for the inactivity is the civil servant’s customary reserve to commit himself to any course of action, lest, in the event of the government falling, he is left to justify his moves to the succeeding government.

Instances of unfettered power exercised by the controllers of the government’s destiny led to ill-conceived policy statements that have in certain instances been recalled, resulting in the kind of loss of face occasioned by the hasty withdrawal of the takeover of the ISI by the Ministry of Interior. There are also charges of reneging on commitments — as in the case of the Murree Declaration — levelled against the PPP. Consternation too has been caused by the growing list of novitiate appointees to public offices.

Such extraordinary events were made possible by the herd instinct of elected members who consider themselves duty bound to follow without question the lead given by the individual, the name or the family, even in situations compromising vital national interests. Such sadly, is the nature of the Pakistani democrat today.

Arbitrariness in high places seems to have infected the media also. Several Urdu and local language newspapers and TV channels have forsaken their traditional neutralism for partisanship. Their commentaries on the latest developments are tinged by a carte blanche approach towards rightist causes — political or militant — irrespective of the legality of or justification for the issues involved. Individual preferences dominate the requirement for professionally conducted analyses.

Confusion in public spaces is rampant, with everyone voicing half-baked opinions. No one is fully aware of the truth concerning any of the prevailing issues even though the economy is nose-diving into the clutches of the World Bank and the Taliban are at the door. Decisions taken in earlier times are retroactively declared illegal and ultra vires and yesterday’s villains are celebrated as today’s heroes.

The charged atmosphere was further exacerbated by PPP’s nomination of Asif Zardari for the office of the president to which he was subsequently elected. Much of the outcry focused on the missing prerequisites: education, experience, image and perception.

The presidential choice calls for a five-year stint (with possible renewals). During the tenure he will have recourse to protocol, presidential perks (including blanket immunity from all charges) and a ceremonial lifestyle suitable for an elder statesman. If he falls in line with democratic norms, he would have to resign from the co-chairmanship of the PPP, adopt a neutral stance, oversee the stripping of the extraordinary powers adopted by Gen Musharraf and fade away when the bugle blows as figureheads do.

If he chooses instead to adopt a political stance, he would for a period of time become the most powerful man in Pakistan in the Musharraf tradition, but in accordance with historical experience, he would ultimately meet a similar end to his predecessor.

Had he steered clear of the presidency, he would have avoided the controversy and doubt stirred by the thought of a PPP head of state operating in tandem with a PPP prime minister. As party co-chairman, he would have continued to exercise power as before. He would have had the opportunity to become an eminence grise of the Pakistan political scene casting his influence on national politics in the manner of Sonia Gandhi or Altaf Hussain, unfazed by the rise and fall of PPP or other governments or by charges of pelf and power bedevilling political dispensations.

The restitution of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is another problem that requires urgent attention. The legal issues involved are not conducive to ready resolution. The need of the hour is for a solution that operates in the best interests of the state untrammelled by the hype, hysteria and heroics that have queered a perfectly justifiable movement. The question of the restoration of the dismissed judges and the restoration of the chief justice should be addressed separately.

The latter calls for a quid pro quo arrangement restoring the chief justice and precluding him (and all other judges) from entertaining challenges to the NRO. The restoration should also be conditioned on the understanding that the chief justice would retire after being restored, in deference to the judicial tradition of retirement of controversial judges.

From a constitutional perspective, Justice Chaudhry’s presence on the Bench would be highly controversial. In all probability, he would be perceived as a champion of democracy, unassailable by any contrary force. Such a view would give rise to a sense of inequality among the pillars of the state with the judiciary dominating the executive and the legislature.

From a judicial perspective, Justice Chaudhry’s compliance with the rules of national justice would preclude him from appearing on any Bench likely to be addressed by any lawyer who had supported his cause. He would also be precluded from any Bench dealing with issues concerning individuals or causes having a nexus with the restoration campaign.

It seems though that so long as personal agendas take precedence over national causes, the balance of the state is unlikely to be restored.

 

[dr.umer]

Asif Ali Zardari sworn in as Pakistani President​

September 9, 2008

Asif Ali Zardari was sworn in today as Pakistan's new President, less than ten months after his wife, the former premier Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated on the campaign trail.

Mr Zardari, commonly known as Mr Ten Percent for alleged rake-offs during his wife's two stints as prime minister, succeeds the former army general Pervez Musharraf, who resigned under threat of impeachment last month.

“I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan,” Mr Zardari said as he recited the oath of office in a ceremony broadcast live to the nation from the presidential palace in Islamabad.

With his three children among the well-wishers and dignitaries packing a cavernous hall in the presidential palace in Islamabad, Mr Zardari beamed as the ceremony ended and shouts of “Bhutto is alive!” rang out.

But in the front row sat an imposing reminder of his task ahead: President Karzai of Afghanistan, whose government accuses Pakistan of failing to take action against - and even colluding with - Taleban militants based around the countries’ common border.

The inauguration of Mr Zardari, 53, completes Pakistan’s return to civilian rule nearly nine years after Mr Musharraf, then head of the army, seized power in a bloodless military coup. The general became an important ally of America in its War on Terror, helping in the capture and killing of al-Qaeda leaders who had fled over the Afghan border after the US-led invasion of 2001.

Now, however, the Taleban is resurgent. Both Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda No 2 Zayman al-Zawahiri are thought to be holed up in the lawless frontier region.

Mr Zardari has made tough statements against Islamic extremism, and the army says it has killed hundreds of rebels in operations against them in several parts of Pakistan’s volatile northwest. In the latest fighting, seven militants were killed this morning in northwestern Bajur region. Additionally, six civilians, including three children, died when mortar shells hit two houses overnight in the same region, officials said. It was not clear who fired the mortar rounds.

Yet the elected government has also sought peace talks with militants. Many Pakistanis blame the rising violence in their own country on Mr Musharraf’s close alliance with Washington.

Farzana Raja, a spokeswoman for Mr Zardari's Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said today that the new President, who won a two-thirds majority when lawmakers chose among the three presidential candidates on Saturday, would strengthen democracy and help the poor.

“Asif Ali Zardari is a shield, protection to strengthen democracy and provide relief to the masses,” she said. “Democracy will work and this government will complete its five years and you’ll see after five years, Pakistan will appear on the world map as a new country with new hope."

Investors and Pakistan’s allies, led by the United States, hope the election will bring some stability after months of political turmoil and rising militant violence. The uncertainty has dragged stocks and the rupee sharply lower and analysts say investors now want to see concrete action to bolster the economy.

 

[dr.umer]

Zardari, better hurry up solving problems of country before Gen. Kiyani realizes his name has Pervez too.

 

[muse]

“Democracy will work and this government will complete its five years and you’ll see after five years, Pakistan will appear on the world map as a new country with new hope."

You listening, God? from her mouth to Your ears

 

[x_man]

Had Zardari been in any other country, he would have been in jail or hanged or electrocuted or poisoned....BUT here we have the guy, who is taking oath as the President of Pakistan today...

BTW who is responsible for him becoming the president? How did the events occur that led him to this appointment? Please don’t say that Allah ki yehi marzi thi....lets keep the divine intervention theories and our biases out of this episode for a moment and try to identify the culprits...

How much exactly Zardari has embezzled, we will probably never know but figures are definitely very huge ( even in dollars $$ )...But while we are cursing, lamenting and bemoaning over his character , one wonders that why is he here for the first place, why was he was freed from the prison after such huge character flaws and corruption allegations ? ...

Since his release from the prison to becoming the president, major events in the history of Pakistan took place...e.g. death of Benazir , election 2008 , the failed accord of convenience between the baldy & Zardary , resignation of Musharraf and finally the new president...If one reads between the lines , it becomes evident that why is he sitting on our heads....The only person who could nail this Son Of .B&^% and let him rot in the jail for rest of his life was Musharraf....If Mush wanted we could get rid of this swine forever...

Everybody saw that Musharraf not only dropped all the charges (how could he....how could he????????????????...) against Zardari but his deals with Zardary led this swine to be nominated as President today....I CAN NEVER FORGET MUSHARRAF FOR THIS.....HE LET THIS NATION DOWN.....In his end speech when he said that, Pakistan ka Allah hi hafiz...he exactly knew what is coming and I hold him responsible for this.....Musharraf played dirty with this nation , he tried to manipulate wherever he could and now acting all saint....

BTW , while we leave no chance to curse Nawaz shreef , Altaf Hussain and all these hypocrite Mullahs ....But ever wondered that whose brainchild these swines were....Yet another General....oh yes...our all time favourite General Zia Ul Haq Sahib.....Zia played with this nation under the garb of Islam and screwed us to the core....His bastard children’s ( Nawaf / MQM / Mullahs) have done enough damage with this country and whatever is leftover, will now be wiped out by Mr .10 %....Alas ,a legacy of another General....

Can Musharraf ever live with a clean conscious after not nailing this idiot at the firsat place and now ultimately letting this man to be our President ?? I don’t think so...

 

[araz]

X_man
Salutations to youSir for speaking the truth.The fact is that while we glorify the rule of various Generals, They are the very ones who have made deals with the devil to save their own behinds. From Iskandar Mirza toAyub,Yahya, Zia and Musharaf, there has been hanky panky of mammoth proportions. it is all the more poignant to point out that these were the very people with absolute power to do what they wanted for the country, but all they have ended up doing was to preserve their own seats and in the process the country has been progressively deprived of the opportunity of stabilizing and establishing any institutions. Iam by no way advocating that the politicians have not caused any harm, but they have always had to deal with and keep the Army placated.
In many ways I am happy with the election of Zardari. There is no one else to blame if he does not succeed. He is a hardened criminal and we need people like him to keep the politicians on the straight and narrow. At the moment there is no role for Sharafat in Pakistani politics. If he fails he will ensure that we are rid of him for ever and always as I dont think he will ever be reelected and the rest of the aggrieved politicians of Sindh will take over the reigns of the party/ or it will splinter into different groups.
I know we will never have a corruption free Government in Pakistan. Realistically he has enough in his pocket to keep going till kingdom come. If he has sense, he needs to preserve the country for his spawns and for that we have to have a country worth saving. Somehow i feel that the situation was worsened intentionally for this day and things will start reverting to normal and become better so that the public can see the miracle that is called Zardari.
so dont just loose hope with pakistan just yet.
Araz

 

[muse]

Sobering - at least it ought to be


Khaleej Times Online
A Doomed Presidency
Peter Preston

10 September 2008
Forget labels. In reality, two giant parties struggle perennially for power in Pakistan. One is the politicians’ party, whose candidate, Asif Ali Zardari, has just been elected president. The other is the army party, which prefers bazookas to ballot boxes.

Democracy in this pivotal country is a frail blossom. And Zardari is as frail as they come.The crude apology for a party system in Pakistan is 60 years old and shows scant sign of changing. First, the politicians have an election and govern for a while. When they falter, the generals take over.

Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zia ul-Haq, Pervez Musharraf — they come and go, punctuated briefly by elected prime ministers (mostly called Bhutto). It’s a malign sort of game, growing perilously close to an endgame now. Indeed, President Zardari’s inevitably brief tenure may well be the end of it all as a third party -- young, idealistic, fervent and brave -- begins to tip the board over. You may not have heard the Taleban so described before, but that doesn’t mean that brute force isn’t with them.

In the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s murder by hands unknown last December, the Pakistan People’s party had a triumphant election. It possessed just enough numbers in the national and provincial parliaments to deliver the presidency, but you’d be hard pressed to invent a more hopeless, doomed prospectus.

This president isn’t a politician. He’s a businessman who’s been haplessly entangled in too much monkey business over the years. Nine years in prison for corruption on trumped-up charges? Perhaps they have never been fully, fairly investigated, but to too many Pakistanis he is Mr Ten Per Cent. He vows to fight against the Taleban and defend US interests, even when they include US special forces staging bloody raids inside Pakistan’s borders. He promises to put right a broken, increasingly beleaguered economy, and to spend another $15bn of American aid wisely and well. But what comes next will be failure, unpopularity and a new tide of sleaze allegations.

A year or two down the line, the men in braid will sense a familiar opportunity and mount another coup. Washington, glad to have the military back at the top, will find another $15bn. The army will buy more guns, and feed more of its private bank accounts. The looting of Pakistan’s hope and Pakistan’s future will proceed on schedule. The twin supposed champions of democracy — Zardari and Nawaz Sharif — couldn’t have made a lousier fist of the past eight months: any sense of national interest was lost immediately in an orgy of squabbling.

The governing party couldn’t have chosen a worse candidate for commander-in-chief (retaining most of Musharraf’s powers). And Nato’s American leadership, insisting increasingly shrilly that feebleness in Islamabad will give Waziristan’s cross-border invaders free rein in Afghanistan, couldn’t be hastening the demise of democracy more idiotically.

Zardari announced his arrival -- to the Washington Post -- as a warrior from Sind bent on destroying the “Lahore-Islamabad oligarchy”. The oligarchs scheduled for destruction are Sharif and a military top brass trapped between a new leadership they despise and a religious insurrection that is beginning to dismember the nation.

Yet the Taleban, whom the generals must defeat to get America’s billions, are much more than a gang of terrorist thugs. They are also a madcap reform movement of young men disgusted by corruption and the godless wheeler-dealers they think have drained the purity out of Jinnah’s “pure state”, and the success they’re experiencing in the borderlands and beyond shows that many ordinary Pakistanis agree with them. It’s a battle for hearts and minds and, on his record, Asif Ali Zardari is the predestined loser of last resort.

Guardian

 

[Spring Onion]

And if anyone thinks that Zardari is not going to indulge in monkey business anymore well dont you think a person with such an opinion is living in fools paradise ???

 

[x_man]

Why not simply leave Mr Zardary alone?? I believe that he alone is more than capable in sinking this new Government without trace before its due for the next elections and I for one would hate to do anything that might spoil his current level of distrust and sleaziness….

I understand that we all eagerly want to see him vanished into some kind of a Blackhole, and I grant you that the probable few years wait is a bit of an irritation though, but all good things come to those who wait……

Let him hang on there for a while…

 

[JK!]

Ah the pro democracy forces have got what they asked for.

Zardari will either have to man up and do whats right or he'll do what he does best which is cut and run.

I just hope his wiley nature doesn't lead to him taking shortcuts with the running of the country.

 

[user164]

If Zardari is MENTAL! thats good. Because NATO is TWICE as Mental.

We need someone who will dust the moths off the nukes and hit the ships in the Arabian sea and bases in ME. Including the beloved..

Now we have the right president in office ( things should calm down in Afghanistan pretty soon)

 

[Spring Onion]

If Zardari is MENTAL! thats good. Because NATO is TWICE as Mental.

We need someone who will dust the moths off the nukes and hit the ships in the Arabian sea and bases in ME. Including the beloved..

Now we have the right president in office ( things should calm down in Afghanistan pretty soon)

Yeh before he act upon your crazy idea of pressing the button US will get controle of that button.

Why on earth the Pentagon mouthpiece media like NYtimes and others start publishing stories about mental health of Zardari suddenly when CIA itself is involved in bringing Zardari in.
Why they did not mention it much before when Musharraf was being removed?


Do you think suddenly love pop up in their heart for Pakistan or what.

Indeed its easy for them to invade us for getting controle of our nuclear assests by saying look an insane person Zardari is having his finger on the nuclear button and he is dangerous in this position for the world, So, we are getting your nukes in our possesion to save the world.

 

[dr.umer]

Now we have the right president in office ( things should calm down in Afghanistan pretty soon)

Right President ???

 

[MHCN]

For America he might be the right person, but not for us!!