Looking forward, looking back
President Zardari needs to look back and see what went wrong given the PPP’s poor showing on May 11.
The writer is Editor of The Express Tribune
While PM-in-waiting Mian Nawaz Sharif has to think ahead on how to deal with the challenges that come his way, President Zardari needs to look back and see what went wrong given the PPP’s poor showing on May 11. This is not the first time that the PPP has received such a drubbing but if the party does not reinvent itself, it may well be the last.
We may all love to hate Asif Ali Zardari but his biggest achievement was that he managed to hold together a democratically elected government, be it comprising largely of crooks and buffoons, for five years. The coalition partners in his government blackmailed and blackballed while the establishment played its usual politics of deception. Ironically, history will remember Zardari as the president who sacrificed the party for the sake of democracy.
Zardari survived, helped along the way by a number of factors. Credit must be given where it is due: his ability to lead and mislead, to promise and procrastinate, to agree then disagree and in all this keep a smile on his face.
But he smiled while we cried. In the past five years, governance was poor, corruption endemic and nepotism at its peak. Many a time it was the Supreme Court’s interventions that helped stay the course of the country when it seemed all else had failed.
And yet there was a silver lining. The immediate benefit of Pakistan’s first democratic transfer of power has been an over 60 per cent turnout at the polling stations. This happened because the government agreed to a neutral election commission and a caretaker government selected by consensus.
Looking back, where did our Grand Old Party go wrong? Some say this is not the PPP of the Bhuttos but that of the Zardaris. For an average Pakistani, this doesn’t make a difference given that the tenures of Ms Benazir Bhutto as prime minister weren’t spectacular either. But for the PPP worker, the fact that they see their party being stolen from within makes a big difference.
But there is more. The composition of the Central Executive Committee changed over the years to include friends and family of the President. This stifled any room for debate within the party.
Nepotism didn’t end there. Friends who were first made members of the party were given ministries. Incompetent people were given responsibilities they could not handle. One former chairman of NADRA’s CV sent to the media listed how he was related to the Prime Minister as part of his qualifications. A medical doctor was appointed finance director of the CAA for several years only because he was related to the president. Examples abound.
And of course, the corruption. How a minister in Sindh fought for years with the World Bank to reduce the pass percentage for appointment of teachers in a WB funded program only so he could stuff his candidates – many of whom had paid money to get the jobs. Sadly, his example was not an exception. Jobs were sold in almost all government departments.
It is a sad reality that both prime ministers had corruption cases against them or against members of their family. And these are not political cases. These are genuine cases of theft. Other former senior ministers also have cases against them.
If that wasn’t enough, there was the lack of foresight. The party had no economic plan. Stuffed with landlords, the party’s policies went against business and industry – the prime drivers for economic activity and employment. Money was extracted for almost everything – from the usual discriminatory corporate taxes to levies for floods and other natural disasters. No attempt was made to make the rich agriculturist pay.
What alienated the donors as well as the corporate sector was that their money was being misused and abused while the rich in Pakistan made no sacrifice.
In the final analysis, the voter was not impressed and rightly so. With law and order in a mess, the economy choking for survival and most of the plans of the government yet to be implemented, the party was voted out. We know all this. The question is how will the party learn from its mistakes? One indication that no lessons have been learnt is that Qaim Ali Shah is being considered for the CM Sindh position. Now we have to suffer him for another five years. God have mercy on us.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2013.
We may all love to hate Asif Ali Zardari but his biggest achievement was that he managed to hold together a democratically elected government, be it comprising largely of crooks and buffoons, for five years. The coalition partners in his government blackmailed and blackballed while the establishment played its usual politics of deception. Ironically, history will remember Zardari as the president who sacrificed the party for the sake of democracy.
Zardari survived, helped along the way by a number of factors. Credit must be given where it is due: his ability to lead and mislead, to promise and procrastinate, to agree then disagree and in all this keep a smile on his face.
But he smiled while we cried. In the past five years, governance was poor, corruption endemic and nepotism at its peak. Many a time it was the Supreme Court’s interventions that helped stay the course of the country when it seemed all else had failed.
And yet there was a silver lining. The immediate benefit of Pakistan’s first democratic transfer of power has been an over 60 per cent turnout at the polling stations. This happened because the government agreed to a neutral election commission and a caretaker government selected by consensus.
Looking back, where did our Grand Old Party go wrong? Some say this is not the PPP of the Bhuttos but that of the Zardaris. For an average Pakistani, this doesn’t make a difference given that the tenures of Ms Benazir Bhutto as prime minister weren’t spectacular either. But for the PPP worker, the fact that they see their party being stolen from within makes a big difference.
But there is more. The composition of the Central Executive Committee changed over the years to include friends and family of the President. This stifled any room for debate within the party.
Nepotism didn’t end there. Friends who were first made members of the party were given ministries. Incompetent people were given responsibilities they could not handle. One former chairman of NADRA’s CV sent to the media listed how he was related to the Prime Minister as part of his qualifications. A medical doctor was appointed finance director of the CAA for several years only because he was related to the president. Examples abound.
And of course, the corruption. How a minister in Sindh fought for years with the World Bank to reduce the pass percentage for appointment of teachers in a WB funded program only so he could stuff his candidates – many of whom had paid money to get the jobs. Sadly, his example was not an exception. Jobs were sold in almost all government departments.
It is a sad reality that both prime ministers had corruption cases against them or against members of their family. And these are not political cases. These are genuine cases of theft. Other former senior ministers also have cases against them.
If that wasn’t enough, there was the lack of foresight. The party had no economic plan. Stuffed with landlords, the party’s policies went against business and industry – the prime drivers for economic activity and employment. Money was extracted for almost everything – from the usual discriminatory corporate taxes to levies for floods and other natural disasters. No attempt was made to make the rich agriculturist pay.
What alienated the donors as well as the corporate sector was that their money was being misused and abused while the rich in Pakistan made no sacrifice.
In the final analysis, the voter was not impressed and rightly so. With law and order in a mess, the economy choking for survival and most of the plans of the government yet to be implemented, the party was voted out. We know all this. The question is how will the party learn from its mistakes? One indication that no lessons have been learnt is that Qaim Ali Shah is being considered for the CM Sindh position. Now we have to suffer him for another five years. God have mercy on us.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2013.