More musical chairs in
Pakistan By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - The resignation of Pakistani premier
Zafarullah Khan Jamali at the weekend will do little to
alter the course of the country as determined by the de
facto ruling oligarchs, and the change amounts to no
more than an elaborate game of musical chairs.
At the heart of the matter is that President
General Pervez Musharraf and his circle of retired and
serving army officers who wield the real power are bent
on sculpting the political landscape to ensure that when
- and even if - Musharraf hangs up his uniform by the
end of December as he has pledged, the "general" will be
an all-powerful president.
Intense media
speculation came true on Saturday when, after a brief
meeting with Musharraf, Jamali, the weakest premier in
Pakistan's history, stepped down, dissolved his cabinet
and nominated the ruling Pakistan Muslim League
president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as his interim
successor.
Later, Shujaat said that Jamali's
finance minister, Shaukat Aziz, a senator, would replace
him (Shujaat) after being elected to the National
Assembly within the next few months. Most likely,
Shaukat will contest a by-election in Okara, where a
seat will be vacated by former defense minister Rao
Sikandar Iqbal. However, the decision-makers are
reviewing more secure seats in other areas.
In
the interim, Shaukat will perform most of the prime
ministerial functions in his capacity as a senior
minister.
Right up until Jamali's resignation,
opposition parties, including the Muthahida
Majlis-i-Amal alliance of six religious parties, the
Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians and the
Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz urged him not to resign,
but Jamali dared not to stand up to Musharraf.
The replacement of the "over-obedient" Jamali
with the dynamic but politically-isolated Shaukat sheds
some light on the machinations of Pakistan's oligarchs.
Jamali was a by-product of the oligarchs and
chosen from the ranks of the Pakistan Muslim League
Quaid-i-Azam, which was formed by the Inter-Services
Intelligence, as he was sure to obediently implement
Musharraf's directions in parliament without letting on
that the general was the one pulling the strings: the
oligarchy needed a "face" behind which they could
continue to rule without too much criticism.
But
Jamali turned out to be just too passive towards the
army, and never even made an attempt to assert himself
as chief executive: "I cannot dare to differ with
Musharraf as he is my boss" was his constant refrain.
"General Pervez Musharraf is the real power. He is my
master as well."
This attitude was not a part of
the plan, and several times Musharraf advised him to
appear to be more dynamic, to no avail. So Shaukat was
identified as a replacement as he comes across as much
more lively and assertive. Shaukat, born, raised and
educated in Karachi, is a former senior executive at
Citigroup. He left his Wall Street career to return as
finance minister following Musharraf's coup in 1999. The
fact is, though, that he does not have a power base of
his own and will simply be a more presentable face for
Musharraf.
Oligarchs of the time of the coup who
are still close to Musharraf include the then commander
of 10th Corps, Lieutenant-General Mehmood Ahmed (now
retired and serving as managing director of Fauji
Fertilizer, the country's largest fertilizer plant owned
by the army's Fauji Foundation), former chief of army
staff General Jehangir Karamat, former director general
and now a senator, retired Lieutenant-general Javed Qazi
etc.
The agents of implementation for the
oligarchs are civil service and police bureaucrats,
including Tariq Aziz (who was in Musharraf's class at FC
College Lahore and who enjoyed a meteoric rise to the
top of the bureaucracy) and Shoaib Sadal.
In
comments on Sunday, Shaukat said that national consensus
would be achieved to resolve all major issues
confronting the nation, and he stressed the need for
developing a "vision of Pakistan".
As things
have gone in the past, though, that vision can be
expected to be not that of the nation, but of Musharraf
and his clique.
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