Tweedledum and tweedledee has been the nature of political dispensation in Pakistan. One goes out, another follows. All discharge their duties caught amdist uncertainities./ Be it an Army chief, or a democratically elected leader.No wonder the state goes adrift.
SK Verma
Once again, another Prime minister of Pakistan has been forced to leave office without completing his full term. As Nawaz Sharif stepped down as prime minister after the country’s Supreme Court disqualified him on corruption-related charges. Since Pakistan’s foundation in 1947, not one prime minister has served his or her full term as assassinations and military takeovers happen regularly.
Report : Interim Innings
This is the third time when Sharif has been unceremoniously removed from his office. Despite political and social changes that have occurred in Pakistan electoral politics has remained largely a family enterprise.
A limited number of families continue to dominate Pakistan’s legislatures, turning them into oligarchies. So it runs like a family business.
And when you have a responsibility to run a country and the self-interest is the driving force to decide what is to be done.
Ayub Khan and family
Trained at British Sandhurst Military College, Ayub Khan fought in World War II as a Colonel in the British Indian Army. He opted for Pakistan and joined the military. He served as chief of the staff of Pakistan Eastern Command in East-Bengal and was made first native commander-in-chief of Pakistan Army in 1951 by then-Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in a controversial promotion over several senior officers.
From 1953–58, he served in the civilian government as Defence and Home Minister and supported Iskander Mirza’s decision to impose a martial law against Prime Minister Feroze Khan’s government in 1958. Two weeks later, he took over the presidency from Mirza after the meltdown of civil-military relations.
The popular discourse about the Ayub era (1958-1969) is that of economic growth, prosperity, and the growing stature of Pakistan on the world stage.
But after 1965, the public criticism of his personal and son’s wealth increased and Ayub’s image was shattered when his son’s actions after his father’s election in the allegedly rigged 1965 Presidential elections against Fatima Jinnah. After Ayub Khan’s death, his family members became active in national politics in the 1990s.
However, his family members and sons have been subject of controversy since then. His son, Gohar, is an active member of conservative PML(N) and was the Foreign Minister in Sharif ministry in the 1990s but was removed due to his controversial statements. His daughter Begum Nasim Aurangzeb remained active in politics and was married to Miangul Aurangzeb, the Wali of Swat.
Gohar Ayub Khan also faced criticisms during that time on questions of family corruption and cronyism through his business links. Gohar Ayub co-established an industrial firm under the business umbrella of Universal Insurance Company Limited, founded by his father-in-law retired Lieutenant General Habibullah Khan Khattak. (He also served as a federal minister during Zia-ul Haq’s regime.)
One Western commentator in 1969 estimated Gohar Ayub”s personal wealth at the time at $4 million, while his family’s wealth was put in the range of $10–20 million. Ayub’s grandson, Omar, served in the Shaukat Aziz ministry as a Finance Minister in 2000s but joined the PML(N) in 2010; he was declared ineligible for general election held in 2013 due to the allegations of electoral rigging.
Bhutto and His Family
Born in Sindh to Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, who was the dewan of the princely state of Junagadh, and enjoyed an influential relationship with the officials of the British Raj. Educated at Berkeley and Oxford, Bhutto trained as a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn.
He entered politics as one of President Iskander Mirza’s cabinet members, before being assigned several ministries during President Ayub Khan’s military rule. Riding on the waves of a sentiment of distrust and rage against Ayub Khan after Pakistan’s defeat in Indo-Pak War of 1965, he founded Pakistan Peoples Party in 1967. In 1971 he became the President of Pakistan.
Although he was a flamboyant politician and statesman he had a dark side too. According to renowned lawyer A G Noorani “he was treacherous to India, his country of birth, and simultaneously to Pakistan, the country of adoption.”
In India, he pursued cases to establish that he was an Indian citizen, whose properties could not be declared evacuee property, while pursuing, around the same period, claims for compensation in Pakistan as its citizen who had lost properties in India.
Two entries of March 3 and June 30, 1967, in Ayub Khan’s Diaries, have said all about it. In one of them, Ayub wrote “Certain documents from India came into my hands, stating that Mr Bhutto had been, till 1958, claiming that he was an Indian citizen and that he was staying in Karachi only temporarily. I have asked for further confirmation. It just shows how unscrupulous and soulless this man is.”
And in another Ayub wrote “he was selling his soul for about one lakh fifty thousand rupees. All this was not known to us till recently when the matter was discussed in the Indian Parliament and came out in that press.”
According to the official report of the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha on November 19, 1965 (Vol. LIV; No.12) Mahavir Tyagi, the Minister for Rehabilitation, said that (Bhutto) on the one hand was contesting the decision that he was an evacuee and disowned any connection with Pakistan, its nationality or domicile, on the other hand, he had filed an application in Pakistan as an evacuee, claiming payment of a court deposit lying with the High Court, Bombay.
After Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came to power in 1973, he introduced a planned economic system to revitalise the stagnant economy. This led to the introduction of the nationalisation programme bringing entire private industrial corporations under the government ownership. Political interference opened doors for corrupt political practices to seep into the nation’s economic planning processes. The nationalisation programme badly affected the reputation of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party.
After the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the mantle of leadership passed to his daughter Benazir Bhutto. Benazir was the first woman Prime minister of Pakistan and was like a gush of fresh air in the male dominated territory. She served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. But in her early stint as a Prime Minister, she earned considerable notoriety. Bhutto was criticised for being indecisive and unable to maintain control. Her husband was also accused of receiving kickbacks and earned the nickname “Mr Ten Percent”.
She was also sentenced in her absence to five years” imprisonment for corruption, disqualified from holding public office and fined more than $8 million in April 1999. The court also found Bhutto and Zardari guilty of receiving kickbacks in a government contract with a Swiss firm during her second term in 1994. The prosecution alleged that the contract was awarded for illegal monetary gain, leading to a huge financial loss to the national exchequer. Bhutto’s second government was dismissed abruptly by President Farooq Leghari in 1996 amid allegations of widespread corruption and economic incompetence.
But her assassination in 2007 heralded the rise of a new political dynasty led by her husband Asif Ali Zardari. Besides himself being the country’s president, Zardari has two sisters and one brother-in-law who are members of the National Assembly. Furthermore, his sister Faryal Talpur is elected from the Bhutto family seat in Larkana.
Nawaz and Family
Born into the upper-middle class Sharif family in Lahore, he is the son of Ittefaq and Sharif Group founder Muhammad Sharif. He is also the elder-brother of three-time (and also current) elected Punjab Chief Minister, Shehbaz. (Shahbaz Sharif also held the position from 1997 to 1999)
Nawaz Sharif started his political career during the period of nationalisation policies introduced by former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. In 1976 Sharif joined the Pakistan Muslim League. In May 1980 Ghulam Jilani Khan, the recently appointed Governor of the Punjab Province and a former Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), promoted Sharif making him Finance Minister of Punjab. In 1981, Sharif joined the Punjab Advisory Board under General Zia-ul-Haq and principally rose to public and political prominence as a staunch proponent of the military government of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq during the 1980s.
Abbas Sharif, who died in 2013, was the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. He was also elected as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1993. Maryam Nawaz is the daughter of Nawaz sharif and in 2013, she entered politics and was made in charge of Nawaz Sharif election campaign during the 2013 general election. In 2013, she was appointed as the Chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme.
Muhammad Hamza Shahbaz Sharif is the son of Shahbaz Sharif and current member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League (N).
Muhammad Safdar Awan is the son-in-law of Nawaz Sharif and husband of Maryam Nawaz. He served as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013 and again from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), he had also held the post of the president of the PML-N Youth Wing.
Ishaq Dar, the finance minister of Pakistan, also have close relationship with the Sharif Family. In 2004 Dar’s eldest son married Nawaz Sharif”s daughter, Asma Nawaz in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
According to the documents (Panama Papers), Sharif was one of 12 world leaders in Pakistan whose family or associates were found to own assets stashed offshore but never declared to the Pakistani people. Sharif’s wealth includes companies scattered across continents, luxury apartments in London, and business connections with Persian Gulf royals.
Other Important families
According to Newspaper Dawn “in Pakistan, there are 102 families holding more than 50 per cent of the seats in the federal and provincial legislatures. That says a lot about the state of representative democracy in Pakistan.
With few exceptions, all political parties are, in fact, extensions of powerful families with hereditary leadership. Their politics mainly revolve around managing and strengthening family interests. Elections are all about gaining control of state patronage.
Clan, tribe, caste and biradari play a major role in the perpetuation of dynastic politics. Most of Pakistan’s political dynasties are rural-based with feudal origins, but over the years families from urban, religious and military backgrounds have also emerged on the political scene.
PML-Q Led by Shujaat Hussain, the patriarch of one of the most powerful political dynasties, (His father Choudhary Jahoor Ilahi was an eminent politician who was killed by Murtaza Bhutto son of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.) This dissident faction led by him is known for providing political support to Gen Musharraf’s military regime.
Magsi family, whose influence extends to, both, Sindh and Balochistan, has at least 10 members in the National Assembly, the Senate and the Balochistan and Sindh assemblies.The Saifullahs of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is another powerful political dynasty with members distributed among different political parties.
In 2002, Hina Rabbani Khar won the father’s parliamentary seat from Muzaffargarh. Following the resignation of the then foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Hina was appointed the first female foreign minister of Pakistan in July 2011. ANP is run by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s family and its stronghold in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The military, which has ruled Pakistan most of the times, directly or indirectly, has also been responsible for the entrenchment of dynastic politics. In an effort to legitimise and perpetuate For Pakistan, the valediction of Nawaz is a conquest against corruption but this scenario raises questions about the future of the country’s flailing democracy. Next year’s general elections will see one elected civilian government successfully transferring power to another for only the second time in the country’s history. But no leader voted to power has lasted long enough to defend his record in front of the electorate.
(The writer is Bhopal-based Pak analyst)
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