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Zardari Winner, Winner Sharif
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By
Aamir Latif, IOL Correspondent
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Zardari is all be set to be elected president next Saturday. (Reuters) |
ISLAMABAD — The way it looks is that Asif Ali Zardari and his Pakistan People's Party (PPP) are the only winner in the new political game in Pakistan.
The party, which doesn’t even enjoy a simple majority in the national assembly, is leading the government, grabbing the premiership and about to take over the presidency.
Yet, some believe that by quitting the coalition government over the reinstatement of sacked judges, former premier Nawaz Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League (MPL-N) saved their political future.
"Apparently, Zardari has appeared to be the big achiever, but he is going to face the toughest task of his life," Sabihuddin Ghousi, a Karachi-based veteran political analyst, told IslamOnline.net.
"The country is passing through one of its worst periods and Sharif has very cleverly put Zardari in the eye of storm," he contends.
"That’s why I say, Zardari is a winner, but Nawaz too is not a loser."
Sharif quit the six-month, four-party ruling coalition and joined the opposition benches on August 25 after Zardari backtracked on his promise to reinstate the deposed judges for the third time.
"Zardari has assumed a huge task for him, which will decide his future," says Ghousi.
"The current conditions are not conducive to rule. And Sharif knows that very well."
Inflation is running at 25 percent a year, there are widespread power shortages.
Since the beginning of this year, the local currency has lost value against all major international currencies, declining as much as one-fifth against the US dollar.
Foreign-exchange reserves have declined by more than half to $6.6 billion, enough to cover just three months of imports, according to Standard & Poor's.
No Loser
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| Many think Sharif has saved his political future and has his eyes on the next elections. |
MP Farzana Raja, a senior PPP leader, says her party is the winner and credible party in the eyes of the masses because of its planning, sincerity, and better politics.
"Yes, I agree that we are the winner because of our sincerity and better politics. But we are not happy. We are sad. We never wanted them to leave us," she told IOL.
"The people of Pakistan gave us the mandate of February 18 to join hands and pull the country out of its simmering predicaments. We have not forced them to leave, they have left us at their own will. We still want them to rejoin us."
Qaiser Mahmood, a Karachi-based political analyst, says that though Zardari is a winner, Sharif is no loser.
"Sharif apparently seems to be out of power, and Zardari seems to be in," he notes.
"In any case, he could not install his own prime minister because his PML-N is the second largest party in the center. As far as the presidential post is concerned, here too the PPP has an edge because it has more votes than the PML-N in three out of four provinces.
"But Sharif is not a loser either."
Mahmood says Sharif still has the upper hand in Punjab, the country’s most populous and richest province and the powerbase of its politics.
"In Punjab, the PML-N is the largest party and it has its own chief minister. But the biggest achievement of Sharif is that he has kicked out his arch enemy (Musharraf) with the help of Zardari. Both Zardari and Sharif can dub Musharraf’s ouster as their biggest achievement."
MP Raja, the senior PPP leader, agrees.
"I agree he has also achieved some of his goals, especially the ouster of Musharraf."
Analysts believe that Zardari will need the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League PML-Q, which has 85 members in Punjab provincial assembly, to topple the PML-N government in the province.
PPP is the second largest party in the Punjab assembly and needs at least 84 votes to gain a simple majority to form the government.
Credibility
MP Raja claims that her PPP is emerging from this crisis with more credibility.
Shaheen Sehbai, a veteran political observer and a close aide to slain Bhutto, disagrees.
He insists that Zardari is the one who actually lost whatever credibility he had gained.
"No one challenges his democratic credentials as head of an elected party but the personal credibility of Zardari has become a serious issue," Sehbai told IOL.
He disputed Zardari's claim that the establishment, which mediated and guaranteed many deals, had expressed serious reservations about the restoration of the sacked judges, specially Chief Justice Chaudry.
"I have been clearly told there was no such reservation and never any one of any rank had interfered in the matter telling him what to do or not to do."
Sehbai thinks that Zardari has suddenly put too many things on his plate and it was almost impossible for him to handle them single handedly.
"This one-man show cannot continue, as one person cannot physically be the party head, de facto PM, de jure president, party strategist, economic czar, wheeler and dealer, manpower manager, political mastermind. This all-in-one approach was detrimental to the country."
The expert argues that instead of getting all political parties united to address the very sensitive and highly critical security and economic issues, Zardari’s hit and run style of politics has splintered the political spectrum in a way that a Pandora’s box has reopened.
"All the small time political actors and jokers have overnight become holders of immense political clout and even the balancing power, blackmailing and horse trading rates have skyrocketed and in this mess, the urgent need to address the issues has been ignored."
Sardar Rahim, a senior PML-N leader, argues that the contention about Zardari’s win is a short-term view.
"If a person hoodwinks you, and gets all the key posts, but loses credibility in the eyes of people, then who is the loser?"
Rahim asserts that the ouster of Musharraf remains the PML-N's biggest success.
"We had joined hands with the PPP against a dictator, and we have achieved this target. Musharraf is out now," he told IOL.
"The second target was the reinstatement of the deposed judges. We signed agreements with the PPP on that. It’s not that we verbally believed Zardari. Everything is documented and has gone into the public. If someone cannot respect his promises, then who will believe him in future?" Rahim contends.
"We are not loser, we are the winner, as we have won the trust of the people, whereas the violators of agreements have lost their credibility."
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