Prime Minister, if need be


Written by Javed Ansari • Cover Stories • May 2008

From his comfortable penthouse and pet dogs in Manhattan to the Zardari House in Islamabad, it has been quite an eventful journey for Asif Ali Zardari – a journey of pain and tears, beginning with a late night flight from Dubai to Islamabad to receive the body of his slain wife, Benazir Bhutto, and then on to Garhi Khuda Baksh for the burial the next day, writes Javed Ansari

But this may just be a shuttle stop for a man who now lives in his new-found glory of a kingmaker. If events play out right, Zardari may soon be moving house again, this time to the Prime Minister’s House – and, if all goes well, for a good five years. The saga of the fall and fall and then abrupt rise of Asif Ali Zardari is stuff that dreams are made of. Did this son of the Zardari tribe ever visualise himself as the country’s prime minister? It is interesting though that if and when Mr. Zardari moves into the PM’s House, he won’t be a stranger there because he has been an occupant of the same house on two occasions before – as the spouse of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Asif Ali Zardari has certainly come of age and it’s such a pity that his wife Benazir is not around to witness this great dawn of maturity on her husband’s persona. After all, it was the Asif Zardari factor more than anything else that was said to be responsible for Benazir’s removal from prime ministership on the two occasions that she held this office. Last year, when Benazir was in the process of negotiating a deal with President Musharraf that would pave the way for her return to Pakistan from self-exile, there were those who said that this time around she had asked Asif to stay clear of her political life. Talking to the media after Benazir made her triumphant return to Pakistan, about his future role in politics, Asif was heard saying that active politics was not for him since he had medical problems and had been advised by his doctors to take it easy.

In the fullness of time, there has come about in Asif Ali Zardari, the erstwhile playboy, a perceptible change both in attitude and demeanour. Gone is the haughty and brash man about town. Pictures like the one of a smug prime ministerial spouse sitting rather arrogantly before the Saudi monarch during Benazir’s visit to the kingdom in her first stint as prime minister are still clearly etched in public memory. Fast forward to the present and you find a suave, soft-spoken and polished politician who talks in measured tones and, to top it off, talks a lot of sense!

Following Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, when the emotionally charged crowds in Naudero shouted "Pakistan Na Khapan” (‘Pakistan not wanted’), Asif demonstrated a great deal of political maturity. He came out from his residence and said in no uncertain terms, "Pakistan Khapan” (Pakistan wanted).
Later, amidst all the stories that were circulating in the aftermath of Benazir’s assassination about who could be responsible for the murder, while talking to a daily newspaper, Asif said: “I do not want to belittle my martyred wife’s struggle by accusing any individual or group for her assassination. I ask all of you to get together for a change in the system, for national reconciliation. Revenge is not my motto… we have reached at that point where, if we do not come together, we can lose Pakistan."

Asif Zardari is someone who has never been directly involved in matters of statecraft before and has watched things happen from the sidelines. Therefore, cobbling together a coalition government in Pakistan’s frenetic political cauldron and then making it stick together despite so many forces pulling in different directions, calls for patience, understanding and quite a bit of pragmatism. Somehow, he has succeeded in pulling off the act – at least so far. Like someone wrote, “this means playing a beleaguered nanny to all the whining, crying babies of Pakistani politics!”

For one, there is Nawaz Sharif and his oversized ego that Asif Zardari has to massage at all times. He is caught right in the middle of Mr. Sharif’s vendetta with President Pervez Musharraf on the one hand and his one-point agenda of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry being reinstated as the Chief Justice of Pakistan, on the other. Then there is the MQM to contend with. Despite the fact that quite a few of his party people are strongly opposed to doing business with the MQM in the Sindh administration and even at the centre, Asif Zardari had the gumption to visit Nine Zero in Karachi and extend a hand of friendship to the Muttahida leadership and workers. This was a practical demonstration of what he has been saying all along, that the PPP must move forward in the running of the country and the provinces hand in hand with all the political forces that matter. He has succeeded in pulling this off both in the Punjab as well as in the NWFP but it is Sindh that is proving a hard nut to crack.

All is not said to be hunky dory within the PPP either. Asif Zardari may have succeeded in dragging the rug from under Amin Fahim’s feet but there are other fires that need to be doused. There are quite a few PPP veterans, it is said, who hold a dim view of Asif’s leadership capabilities – and the fact that, after BB’s departure, it is he who leads the party and not one of them. They seem to resent the manner in which Asif Ali Zardari has taken the NRO route and come out ahead of their game.

Asif also seems to be playing his cards pretty craftily with the strong Pakistani military establishment and the well-entrenched bureaucracy. And it is just his good luck that the powers that be in Washington, London and Brussels happen to be in a mood to accept a Pakistani leader with a moderate bent of mind – a slot that Pervez Muharraf, Asif Ali Zardari, Asfandyar Wali and Altaf Hussain conveniently fall into but Nawaz Sharif and his cronies don’t!
It has become quite obvious by the way events have played out in recent days that Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif don’t see eye to eye on the ‘restoration of the judiciary’ issue, the reinstatement of Iftikhar Chaudhry and getting rid of Pervez Musharraf. Nawaz Sharif hardly talks about anything else and his concept of ‘judicial reforms’ appears to be nothing else but ‘individual-focused’ – namely, the reinstatement of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as Chief Justice of Pakistan. Period. On the other hand, Asif Zardari and the PPP have maintained all through that judicial reforms should be brought about on an institutional basis. For them, there are other key national issues that also need full and immediate attention, such as the food and energy crises, rampant inflation, unemployment and security of the people.

So what exactly are Asif Zardari’s ambitions? Is he content to still sit on the sidelines or is he eyeing the prime minister’s job more seriously? Now that the ‘graduate’ restriction has been withdrawn as the result of a ruling of the Supreme Court, there is nothing that obstructs his path to the PM’s house. The PPP’s large mandate and the sympathy that he enjoys after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, are factors that work in his favour – at least in the short term.
On the eve of the February 18 elections, when Asif Zardari was asked if he was interested in becoming prime minister, he had said that he did not desire the Prime Minister’s office and his main motto was empowerment of parliament. Has his mind changed? In a recent interview with the BBC’s Urdu Service, he said that he would be taking part in the coming by-elections and, ‘if need be’, he could become the prime minister.

Is there really a need for Asif Ali Zardari to become prime minister? That is the big question. For all intents and purposes, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani seems to be doing pretty all right but you never know how the political climate may change. The judicial crisis has everyone on tenterhooks and offers all the potential to develop into a major showdown, not only between the politicians and the establishment but between the major political parties as well. It is only if the going gets tough for the incumbent prime minister and he is not able to hold on to the controls that there will be grounds for change. Considering the mature and level-headed manner in which Asif Zardari has handled everything and maintained an even keel, he could be just the right change man.