News from Pakistan! Nawaz Sharif, whose party PML won the recent elections, is going to be sworn in as the prime-minister, a position he knows well.
Sharif was the prime minister of Pakistan years ago, and like his predecessor the late Benazir Bhutto, spent time in exile, after he was ousted from power.
It is more than a decade later ..Yet the faces are still the same in the Pakistani politics: Nawaz and his brother Shahbaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari - the controversial widower of Benazir Bhutto
Only one fresh player - Imran Khan! Former cricket star has been around for years. But this time around, he got chunk of seats in the parliament. Khan who was injured while campaigning, claims that the elections were rigged - a usual claim post Pakistani elections (though chances are, that he is right!) ...
So how come, the PPP lost power so fast, after victory last elections? Why did people in Pakistan choose to vote against the People of Pakistan's Party??
And - how did the Sharif brothers score such a victory, benefiting from the people's disappointments of the PPP, or its current leader, Asif Ali Zardari???
***
I know all players well. I have formed close relationship with Shabhaz and his partner Tehmina Durani. I like Imran and have known him and members of his family for years. His passion for democracy in Pakistan is sincere! And of-course Benazir Bhutto was very close to me. She and her husband Asif spent so much time, under my wing in NY, after Asif was released from jail ..I wrote about it in my book: "My Benazir", which is in development into a script these days: http://www.amazon.com/My-
The reason of the quick decline in popularity for Asif (and the PPP under his leadership) is simple: The party lost its DNA. It just didn't have any ID people could and would identify with.
After Asif won the last elections, he invited me to his home - the one which belonged to Benazir, while she was in power.
He was acting like many leaders, who just won elections ..There was power in the air. Many people who were seeking to be a part of this power, and wanted few seconds with him. And he bought into it! He was full of power
He told me then: "Since you, the US, have financial problems now, we are not going to depend on the US (referring to the previous approach under president Pervez Musharaf). We have many rich people in Pakistan ..Yes, yes, we do! We are going to depend on ourselves - NOT ON THE US!"
Strong words, by all means. And some people would have been happy to agree with him. Yet ..few weeks later - he changed 180 degrees, and became more dependent on the US than Musharraf was..
That put him into an impossible position: On one hand - to please us, the US, the hand that feeds him. On the other hand - to show the locals, that he was not a US puppet ...
This kind of zig-zag creates problems of trust from all sides, and - can not last long.
Then - came the old corruption cases (against him and Benazir) , which ousted his prime ministerYusuf Ali Giuliani ..But I do believe that that was one of the side effects of the real problem of the PPP - lack of ID.
Meanwhile - the Sharif brothers managed to keep their (and the PML's) DNA very clear. Re corruptions: They opposed the immunity, Bhutto had asked for on 2007.
They told me: "We have done nothing wrong! Why would we agree for an immunity??" They quit the government with the PPP, when they felt, it was against what they had promised the voters. They have always favored a proud Pakistan, which is not dependent of money from the West. It may be realistic or not? But that has always been their position. At least, when it comes to Sharif and the PML - what you see is what you get! Its ID is there!!
***
And there was another memorable thing Asif told me that night at his home in Karachi: "As long as my son Bilawal is in the game, and I am holding the chair for him, THEY will vote for me .."
A naive sentence, said by somebody who was in jail for 11 years, and then - 3 years in New York. ..Somebody who was out of touch with the people of Pakistan. Bilawal himself (whom I know and like a lot) did not grow up in Pakistan - but with his then exiled loving mother Benazir, in Dubai.
Asif appealed to masses when people were still emotional about the assassination of Benazir. He really thought that everything associated with her - her son, even her hated husband - would live forever.
But without Benazir's charisma ..Without continuing on the path that she believed in ..Benazir Bhutto's ID started to fade out ..People no longer remembered her exact DNA: The kind of clarity one needs before deciding whom to vote for.
Sharif was the prime minister of Pakistan years ago, and like his predecessor the late Benazir Bhutto, spent time in exile, after he was ousted from power.
It is more than a decade later ..Yet the faces are still the same in the Pakistani politics: Nawaz and his brother Shahbaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari - the controversial widower of Benazir Bhutto
Only one fresh player - Imran Khan! Former cricket star has been around for years. But this time around, he got chunk of seats in the parliament. Khan who was injured while campaigning, claims that the elections were rigged - a usual claim post Pakistani elections (though chances are, that he is right!) ...
So how come, the PPP lost power so fast, after victory last elections? Why did people in Pakistan choose to vote against the People of Pakistan's Party??
And - how did the Sharif brothers score such a victory, benefiting from the people's disappointments of the PPP, or its current leader, Asif Ali Zardari???
***
I know all players well. I have formed close relationship with Shabhaz and his partner Tehmina Durani. I like Imran and have known him and members of his family for years. His passion for democracy in Pakistan is sincere! And of-course Benazir Bhutto was very close to me. She and her husband Asif spent so much time, under my wing in NY, after Asif was released from jail ..I wrote about it in my book: "My Benazir", which is in development into a script these days: http://www.amazon.com/My-
The reason of the quick decline in popularity for Asif (and the PPP under his leadership) is simple: The party lost its DNA. It just didn't have any ID people could and would identify with.
After Asif won the last elections, he invited me to his home - the one which belonged to Benazir, while she was in power.
He was acting like many leaders, who just won elections ..There was power in the air. Many people who were seeking to be a part of this power, and wanted few seconds with him. And he bought into it! He was full of power
He told me then: "Since you, the US, have financial problems now, we are not going to depend on the US (referring to the previous approach under president Pervez Musharaf). We have many rich people in Pakistan ..Yes, yes, we do! We are going to depend on ourselves - NOT ON THE US!"
Strong words, by all means. And some people would have been happy to agree with him. Yet ..few weeks later - he changed 180 degrees, and became more dependent on the US than Musharraf was..
That put him into an impossible position: On one hand - to please us, the US, the hand that feeds him. On the other hand - to show the locals, that he was not a US puppet ...
This kind of zig-zag creates problems of trust from all sides, and - can not last long.
Then - came the old corruption cases (against him and Benazir) , which ousted his prime ministerYusuf Ali Giuliani ..But I do believe that that was one of the side effects of the real problem of the PPP - lack of ID.
Meanwhile - the Sharif brothers managed to keep their (and the PML's) DNA very clear. Re corruptions: They opposed the immunity, Bhutto had asked for on 2007.
They told me: "We have done nothing wrong! Why would we agree for an immunity??" They quit the government with the PPP, when they felt, it was against what they had promised the voters. They have always favored a proud Pakistan, which is not dependent of money from the West. It may be realistic or not? But that has always been their position. At least, when it comes to Sharif and the PML - what you see is what you get! Its ID is there!!
***
And there was another memorable thing Asif told me that night at his home in Karachi: "As long as my son Bilawal is in the game, and I am holding the chair for him, THEY will vote for me .."
A naive sentence, said by somebody who was in jail for 11 years, and then - 3 years in New York. ..Somebody who was out of touch with the people of Pakistan. Bilawal himself (whom I know and like a lot) did not grow up in Pakistan - but with his then exiled loving mother Benazir, in Dubai.
Asif appealed to masses when people were still emotional about the assassination of Benazir. He really thought that everything associated with her - her son, even her hated husband - would live forever.
But without Benazir's charisma ..Without continuing on the path that she believed in ..Benazir Bhutto's ID started to fade out ..People no longer remembered her exact DNA: The kind of clarity one needs before deciding whom to vote for.
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