Seeing is believing: PPP’s former ‘loyalist’ may join Imran’s party
Observers say Babar Awan involved in PTI’s legal affairs, also advising PTI chief
Senator Babar Awan. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
Senator Babar Awan, once a died-in-the-wool Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) loyalist, is getting closer to Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), people with whom he holds court say.
A series of recent correspondences between the two on different political, legal and personal matters lends credence to this development.
As a practicing lawyer, Awan has also started overseeing almost all legal affairs of the PTI, including private matters of the party chairman quite like his past ventures with the PPP.
Awan is also considering quitting the upper house of parliament, according to people close to the senator.
One ought to ask this question: has Imran Khan replaced Asif Ali Zardari by building camaraderie with the one who had a ubiquitous presence in the PPP circles?
Awan is representing Imran in a defamation case filed by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, incidentally his own arch-nemesis, for under his judgeship he had lost his practicing licence. He also accompanied the PTI leader during his key meeting with the chief election commissioner (CEC) this week related to election affairs.
Frequent visitors to Awan also observed that the senator has reduced the number of Bhutto family memoirs and portraits from his drawing room and now one can hardly find Benazir’s portrait there.
Awan has also taken back a house he had gifted to PPP to serve as People’s Secretariat in F-8, a posh sector of the capital city. The former law minister was among a few of former president Asif Zardari’s kitchen-cabinet members.
Awan won the Senate election unopposed in 2006. He was re-elected to the upper house again in March 2012, but was removed from all senior party posts when he did not appear before a bench of the apex court as a witness in a contempt of court case against then prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the NRO case against Asif Zardari. Awan first came to the limelight in the 1990s when the second Benazir government was ousted and several leading PPP figures were implicated in corruption cases.
Subsequently, he started appearing on behalf of Benazir and Zardari in different courts. A ‘loyal’ PPP activist Awan used to be Benazir’s speech writer and her negotiating link while she was in exile. She once dubbed Awan her younger brother. In 2004, Benazir appointed him as the finance secretary of the party. Besides a member of CEC, Awan was former vice-president of the party.
He was an activist throughout his academic life. Initially, he was affiliated with Islami Jamiat Talba during his student life and Pakistan Muslim League under the Zia regime.
He joined the PPP in 1996. It was a tough time for the PPP and many lawyers refrained from having any contact with the indicted politicians during Nawaz Shairf’s tenure followed by Gen Musharraf coup détente. Awan was the best choice for these indicted politicians. He assumed his post as a federal law minister in November 2008 from which he resigned in April 2011 in order to appear before the court in the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto reference.
Awan has proved to be a bitter rival of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and has often expressed his views against ‘Sharif brothers’ in public speeches. He was also harsh towards Imran Khan during several talk shows.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 5th, 2015.
Senator Babar Awan, once a died-in-the-wool Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) loyalist, is getting closer to Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), people with whom he holds court say.
A series of recent correspondences between the two on different political, legal and personal matters lends credence to this development.
As a practicing lawyer, Awan has also started overseeing almost all legal affairs of the PTI, including private matters of the party chairman quite like his past ventures with the PPP.
Awan is also considering quitting the upper house of parliament, according to people close to the senator.
One ought to ask this question: has Imran Khan replaced Asif Ali Zardari by building camaraderie with the one who had a ubiquitous presence in the PPP circles?
Awan is representing Imran in a defamation case filed by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, incidentally his own arch-nemesis, for under his judgeship he had lost his practicing licence. He also accompanied the PTI leader during his key meeting with the chief election commissioner (CEC) this week related to election affairs.
Frequent visitors to Awan also observed that the senator has reduced the number of Bhutto family memoirs and portraits from his drawing room and now one can hardly find Benazir’s portrait there.
Awan has also taken back a house he had gifted to PPP to serve as People’s Secretariat in F-8, a posh sector of the capital city. The former law minister was among a few of former president Asif Zardari’s kitchen-cabinet members.
Awan won the Senate election unopposed in 2006. He was re-elected to the upper house again in March 2012, but was removed from all senior party posts when he did not appear before a bench of the apex court as a witness in a contempt of court case against then prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the NRO case against Asif Zardari. Awan first came to the limelight in the 1990s when the second Benazir government was ousted and several leading PPP figures were implicated in corruption cases.
Subsequently, he started appearing on behalf of Benazir and Zardari in different courts. A ‘loyal’ PPP activist Awan used to be Benazir’s speech writer and her negotiating link while she was in exile. She once dubbed Awan her younger brother. In 2004, Benazir appointed him as the finance secretary of the party. Besides a member of CEC, Awan was former vice-president of the party.
He was an activist throughout his academic life. Initially, he was affiliated with Islami Jamiat Talba during his student life and Pakistan Muslim League under the Zia regime.
He joined the PPP in 1996. It was a tough time for the PPP and many lawyers refrained from having any contact with the indicted politicians during Nawaz Shairf’s tenure followed by Gen Musharraf coup détente. Awan was the best choice for these indicted politicians. He assumed his post as a federal law minister in November 2008 from which he resigned in April 2011 in order to appear before the court in the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto reference.
Awan has proved to be a bitter rival of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and has often expressed his views against ‘Sharif brothers’ in public speeches. He was also harsh towards Imran Khan during several talk shows.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 5th, 2015.