Zardari claims he’s best for PM’s job

[mujahideen]

Zardari claims he’s best for PM’s job

By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON, Feb 5: Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has indicated that he may be the next prime minister if the Feb 18 elections bring the party to power.

In an interview to Newsweek, Mr Zardari based his claim to the country’s highest office to Benazir Bhutto’s will who, he said, clearly named him as her successor.

“There is not one single personality [in the party], apart from me, who anybody even knows,” said Mr Zardari while explaining why he thought he should be the prime minister. “No one else has a consensus.”

Mr Zardari, described by the Newsweek as Ms Bhutto’s ‘controversial widower’, also gave a copy of his wife’s handwritten will to the magazine.

In the will, Ms Bhutto addresses “the officials and members” of the PPP and writes: “I would like my husband Asif Ali Zardari to lead you in this interim period until you and he decide what is best.”

The magazine, however, notes that shortly after his wife’s assassination on Dec 27, Mr Zardari named his and Bhutto’s 19-year-old son, Bilawal, party chairman and indicated that the party’s prime-ministerial candidate would be vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

But in a phone interview with Newsweek on Monday, Mr Zardari suggested he might be interested in the job, saying that he had the widest name recognition in the party.

The magazine also noted that a whispering campaign at home that he might not be Ms Bhutto’s legitimate heir, forced Mr Zardari to release a copy of her political will.

In his first news conference after his wife’s death Mr Zardari had refused to release the will for public, saying that it was a ‘personal property’ of his son and no one else had the right to see it.

The Newsweek quotes two long-time associates and loyalists of Ms Bhutto’s as saying that they have no doubt it is her handwriting. “I know her style,” said Mark Siegel, her long-time friend and Washington-based representative. “She wrote this document.”

The magazine notes that many election observers, including Bush administration officials, believe the PPP will dominate the voting, in part because of the anguish over Ms Bhutto’s murder.

But US officials, already concerned about Pakistan’s stability in the wake of widespread protests against President Musharraf’s rule, worry about Mr Zardari’s prominence in the party.

“A former playboy and polo star, Zardari is considered a mistrusted — and divisive — figure in Pakistan,” the report points out. “He is widely blamed for the tangle of corruption that strangled and cut short Bhutto’s terms in office.”

Mr Zardari, asked whether he was now interested in the prime ministership, at first demurred. “In order to be prime minister you have to be a member of Parliament. I’m not running for this Parliament at the moment,” he said. But, Mr Zardari added that the party leadership would ultimately decide who the PM candidate should be. “We’re not saying I am [one] or saying I’m not,” he said. He also argued that he had earned credibility by having gone to prison on what he says are trumped-up charges of corruption.

Zardari claims he’s best for PM’s job -DAWN - Top Stories; February 06, 2008

 

[mujahideen]

‘Goods’ and ‘bads’ of Zardari

By Amir Mateen

AS the PPP gears up for the elections, the impact of Benazir Bhutto’s absence is beginning to unfold.

It took her 30 years to structure the party the way it is. Everything revolved around her. The norms of things big and small, they were all set by her. PPP workers and leaders — everybody looked up to her even for minute things. They are still trying to fathom the enormity of the loss. And at a time when she was needed the most.

The biggest task before Asif is to keep the party together. Not just the Sindhi members of the PPP but the numerically stronger Punjab leadership. There is a motley crowd of intellectuals, feudals, lawyers to downright ‘jiyalas’ to deal with. Jahangir Badr, a Lahori to the core, may be poles apart from the sophisticated Makhdoom Amin Fahim. There is a diverse array of characters like Joji Butt, Meeda Kashmiri, Arif Faisalabadi on low end of the spectrum and the suave breed of politicians like Raza Rabbani, Aftab Shabaan Mirani and Nisar Khuhro on the other. Benazir perfected the art of keeping them together in 30 years. Asif will not have the luxury of that much time. For the time being, the lure of elections and power is keeping everybody at bay. And together. Come elections, whatever the results, the situation will change. Here starts the touchy part.

The biggest challenge for Asif Zardari is more personal than political. He needs to get rid of his past for the sake of his future. In simple words the man is haunted by his friends, you know which kind. He must have reflected a lot on this issue in his eight long years in jailbut to change your personality after half a century is easier said than done. The new Ceaser, like in most political parties, was surrounded by courtiers, each one of them vying for a pound of flesh. The journalist team, of which I was a member, missed the flight to Sukkur because the ‘Saiths’ of Karachi, the wheeler-dealer kind, got us offloaded. Everybody wanted to be in Larkana. We found some of them still waiting outside Asif’s room when we landed in Naudero after a rough bus ride of 12 hours. Also present were the Mafioso types who shared jail days with Asif. Now, what should he do? If he sees them we get a juicy story. If he does not, that’s not Asif the ‘Yaron ka yar’.

The good old H K Burki once advised Asif when he was bragging that he stands by his friends come hail or shine: “Let me tell you ‘mundia,’ it may be a virtue to be a sincere friend in private life, it becomes a sin when you doit in public office at the cost of merit.”

It was obvious that Asif was making an effort to heed the advice of the late Burki Sahib but it’s not as simple as it sounds. The mix of people in Naudero and their reactions gave a glimpse of the difficulties that he faces. A circus of sorts was going on among the courtiers. The most interesting was the tussle among the battery of media managers. No wonder Asif is messing up by exposing himself overly to media.

For us, the fellow penpushers, Farhatullah Babar and Sherry Rehman, were good enough. But there was an extra troika of media maidens competing with each other for the ears of the Ceaser. One of them, wife of a one-time Bhutto-hater, has had a shouting match with another competitor. She is now quite close to the PPP power centre. Quite a comeback for a man who remains in self-exile in the USA, especially after his spilling, at one stage, all the PPP beans that he had at his disposal to become part of the Musharraf regime.

In any case, sooner or later, the impact of Benazir’s absence was bound to unfold. For many, Benazir’s legacy may be bigger than her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. One, she was a continuation of ZAB whose political career was relatively short. It spanned a little over a decade if we take the PPP formation as the milestone. In Benazir’s case, a whole generation grew up with her.

“She was a national darling that we had become accustomed to having around,” aptly said a colleague. “Either you loved her or loved to hate her, there was no middle way.” That she was a woman added to her courageous aura.

Zulfikar Bhutto was controversial in some ways. He was accused of being unfair to friends and rough to his foes. He was known to be a man of strong emotions, harsh opinions and had some moral inadequacies. Benazir was a soft and chaste person with impeccable moral record. There was just one accusation against her: financial corruption. She may have washed that stain by, knowingly, giving her life. That the present PPP is more of Benazir’s party than of her father may seem valid.

Her death has evoked many questions. Will the PPP survive her absence? How will the second tier of PPP react to Asif’s ascension in the long run? Will party maintain its national character? Is there a possibility of a merger with Ghanwa Bhutto? How and when will the next generation of Bhuttos-Bilawal, Fatima and Zulfikar enter the arena? How will the provincial wings of the party react to the new realities? How will Amin Fahim and the rest of the Sindhi leadership behave? What will be Aitzaz Ahsan’s role? Who will join which group in the new power play? The fundamental question remains that how will Asif Zardari carry Benazir’s legacy.

Whatever the answers to these queries, the fact remains that the best person suited to keep the party together at this stage is Asif Zardari. Amin Fahim, Aitzaz Ahsan, Aftab Shabaan Mirani, nobody could have done it better than Asif. Like it or not, as said by Safdar Abbasi in a recent visit to Naudero, it had to be a Sindhi and from the Bhutto family.

The fact that the PPP is contesting the elections in one piece confirms Benazir’s wisdom of nominating Asif for the party leadership. So far, so good, that is. Asif Zardari, one has to admit, acted wisely by helping normalise the violent situation in Sindh within four days. If he had not made extra effort to curb the wave of violence the material and human losses might have been colossal. The anger in Sindh was such that it could have possibly led to a secessionist mood. The anguish was widespread after a team of journalists took a tour of interior of Sindh. A group of Sindhi students were particularly perturbed over the advertisement campaign sponsored by the Punjab Chaudhrys announcing that Muslim League House in Lahore would shelter Punjabi victims of Sindh.

“You show us a single case where any Punjabi has been victimised because of his ethnicity,” said Bashir Solangi, President of Larkana PSF. “We are the real victims, we are here since BB’s funeral and all of us have cases registered against us back home in our villages.” The filing of cases against PPP leaders, at a time when the scars of BB’s assassination are still fresh, is not a good omen for the federation.

Asif Zardari deserves credit that he has been overly careful in curbing parochial sentiments. It was not easy in a situation where everybody was talking about Islamabad parcelling four body bags of Bhutto family in four decades. In fact, the Sindhi nationalists were trying to capitalize on the situation, egging PPP workers against the establishment symbolized by the Punjab and the army. Pervaiz Elahi’s ads were providing just what they needed.

‘Goods’ and ‘bads’ of Zardari -DAWN - Top Stories; February 06, 2008

 

[mujahideen]

National government minus PML-Q needed: Zardari

* PPP co-chairman says party to decide on PM candidate after polls

By Qazi Asif and GM Khuhro

NAUDERO: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Wednesday that a national government sans the former ruling party would rewrite a ‘contract’ between the state and its subjects after the polls. He said the ‘contract’ had vanished after former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, adding that the contract should be according to the Constitution of 1973.

He was talking with a Karachi Press Club delegation who visited Naudero to condole Benazir’s death. About his statement in Newsweek magazine regarding his interest in the country’s premiership, he said, “It was a misinterpretation by a foreign journalist who could not understand that a candidate for the premiership needs to be a member of the National Assembly, which I am not.”

PPP candidate for PM: “I didn’t express my interest in becoming a candidate for the PM. I have asked Babar Awan not to make statements in this regard,” he said, adding that the party would decide about its candidate for the premiership after the elections.

Admitting that his party had not ended negotiations with the establishment at any time, he said the Bhuttos would not compromise on the real issues of the people of Pakistan for whom they had laid down their lives.

About former premier Nawaz Sharif, he said Nawaz had learnt a lesson from the past and now wanted to do something better for the people of Pakistan.

Separately, Zardari expressed grief over the loss of senior army officers in a helicopter crash in South Waziristan.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[Muradk]

Yeah sure what ever is left in Pakitan suck it out.

 

[mujahideen]

Yeah sure what ever is left in Pakitan suck it out.

Come on man he wouldn't take everything, he only takes 10% and I am sure he wouldn't want to break the pattern by taking more then that.

 

[mujahideen]

I may or may not be PM: Zardari

* Says he is only person who is known by all party men
* 11-year imprisonment makes him more credible than any other party leader

Daily Times Monitor



LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has suggested that he might be interested in premiership if the PPP was elected to power in the elections because he “has the widest name recognition in the party”, according to a recent Newsweek report. In a telephonic interview with Newsweek on Monday, Zardari said there was no single personality in the PPP, apart from him, who anybody even knew. According to the magazine, Zardari directed that a copy of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s will be made public to prove that she named him as her successor, after facing a whispering campaign at home that he might not be Benazir’s legitimate heir. Addressing party office-bearers, Benazir wrote in her will that, “I would like my husband ... Zardari to lead you in this interim period until you and he decide what is best,” the magazine quoted her handwritten will. “Zardari is considered a mistrusted — and divisive — figure in Pakistan. He is widely blamed for the tangle of corruption that strangled and cut short Benazir’s terms in office,” according to the magazine. Newsweek also quotes Syed Farooq Hasnat, a scholar at Washington’s Middle East Institute, as saying, “Pakistanis are not ready for Zardari.” Asked whether he was now interested in the prime ministership, Zardari told the magazine, “In order to be prime minister you have to be a member of parliament. I’m not running for this parliament at the moment.” He added that the party leadership would ultimately decide who the PM candidate should be. Prison credibility: “We’re not saying I am [one] or saying I’m not,” he told Newsweek, arguing that he had earned credibility by having gone to prison on corruption charges, which according to him were fabricated. “The fact of the matter is that there’s nobody in the party with my seniority who has been to prison for 11 years,” he said in the interview. Asked how he could justify the rather feudal practice of making a modern political party a family legacy, Zardari told Newsweek that he was following his wife’s lead. “She herself started her career as co-chairman with her mother.”

 

[mujahideen]

Asif is a man of courage and honour: Benazir’s will

* PPP releases will endorsing Zardari as successor

ISLAMABAD/NAUDERO: Former premier Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) made public on Tuesday the will in which she said her husband Asif Ali Zardari was “a man of courage and honour ... He has the political stature to keep our party united.” In the letter, Benazir endorsed her husband by recommending that Zardari lead the party “in this interim period until you (party officials and members) and he decide what is best”. Party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the will was being made available to halt speculation about its contents. He told AP that it was not a deliberate attempt to strengthen Zardari’s position within the party. “His credentials as party leader were already polished up” by his endorsement by Benazir in her will and by the party leadership in December,” Babar said. He said the party would discuss who it might put forward to lead a new government only when the election results are in. Separately, AFP reported that PPP Information Secretary Sherry Rehman told a news conference as she made the contents of the will public, “Some enemies wanted to create chaos in the party by spreading false speculation about the contents of the will. That is why the party high command has decided to share the will with the public and the media to foil all such controversies and keep the party united.” She said the will would be included in Benazir’s autobiography. agencies

Courtesy Daily Times

 

[Neo]

He's a parasite!

 

[Muradk]

Come on man he wouldn't take everything, he only takes 10% and I am sure he wouldn't want to break the pattern by taking more then that.

This time he will leave 10 % and take the rest 90%.

 

[niaz]

When Benazir became PPP leader, founding fathers of PPP such as Mumtaz Bhutto, Jatoi, Dr Mubashar Hassan, Haffez Peerzada etc broke away. IMO this was the main reason for the rampant corruption during both the BB's periods as the PM.

Now Asif Zardari!!!. He does not have the charisma of the Bhutto name. PPP would probably win this election on sympathy vote, but if Asif actually decides to became PM himself, would surely spell and end to the PPP as we know it. The stalwarts such as Makhdoom Amin Fahim would probably abondon Zardari and join the Murtaza's PPP with Fatima Bhutto as their head.

Let us face it, Zardari's corruption is an open secret and Ghunwa Bhutto to date blames Asif Zardari for eliminating Murtaza Bhutto.

 

[JK!]

Zardari Prime minister?!?!?!



If that should happen that will be the greatest joke/scandal in the political history of Pakistan.

 

[Proud to be Pakistani]

.....

 

[mujahideen]

I will destroy Establishment if polls rigged, warns Zardari

FAHEEM RAZA

THATTA - Co-Chairman Pakistan People’s Party, Asif Ali Zardari here on Saturday said that he along with millions of the PPP supporters would counter the manipulation of elections by the regime and they were ready to go behind the bars for this purpose. He, while addressing 100,000 gathering, vowed to “destroy” the establishment if upcoming elections were rigged
He said if you try to rig the election, you would be crushed. He warned not to test the voters and their patience. When this time I will go to jail, I will not be alone as millions of people will be with me and whole the country would stand up and tanks and bullets of those who want to rig the polls would not be able to stop us, he maintained.
The Co-Chairman PPP expressed these views resuming the party election campaign from Thatta where he addressed the people at Municipal Stadium.
PPP vice president, Makhdooam Amin Faheem, PPP Punjab president, Shah Mehommad Qureshi, PPP finance secretary, Babar Awan, PPP Sindh president, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, PPP Sindh information secretary, Dr Fehmida Mirza and PPP nominated candidates from Thatta district also addressed the PPP election campaign rally.
“We are not acceptable to the establishment because we resist oppression, we oppose injustice and struggle for the rights of downtrodden people,” he maintained adding that Benazir Bhutto was killed by the system that dominates Pakistan.
“People want employment and alleviation of poverty. Benazir Bhutto wanted to do this for the people but the present system opposed it,” PPP Co- Chairman said.
He said Benazir Bhutto was assured by the world community of their support but she left behind her mission and it is our obligation to fulfil her mission.
“The system has assassinated her. She wanted to change the system, that is why they are against us,” Zardari said to the cheering crowd in Thatta.
He said that Bilawal Asifa and Bakthwar asked him as to why their mother was assassinated when her motto was peace, harmony and struggle for the rights of the people.
PPP Punjab President Shah Mehommad Qureshi said that PPP rejected the Scot Land Yard report.
PPP central leader Babar Awan who spoke in the Sindhi termed the PPP Thatta rally referendum against the anti-democratic forces saying that entire PPP leadership was united under the leadership of Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

The Nation

 

[roadrunner]

^^He should be thrown in prison for that remark. It's a threat, and a realistic one. I don't see how the elections can be rigged with international observers there, and the election counts being done in front of the party nominees.

 

[mujahideen]

^^He should be thrown in prison for that remark. It's a threat, and a realistic one. I don't see how the elections can be rigged with international observers there, and the election counts being done in front of the party nominees.

He is a traitor. I couldn't help it but to see similarities between his remarks and the remarks Mujib made in the 1060s and 1970s. Even at Benazir's chelum he spoke in Sindhi, if the PPP is a national party he should of spoken in Urdu. The PPP is going to get nowhere if he stays around. I personally see a spilt in the PPP, in the near future.