• Home
• Video
• Books by Ikram Sehgal
• About

The indispensable man

The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) on March 20, 1996 nominated Senator Waseem Sajjad, to continue as the Chairman of the Senate. Since the President and the PM are both from the Punjab one would expect more sensitivity to the fact of giving the smaller Provinces needed balance in the upper reaches of hierarchy. Ilahi Baksh Soomro provides this for Sindh as Speaker of the National Assembly. While Balochistan has been somewhat accommodated with the election of the Deputy Chairman Senate, NWFP does not have any representation in the upper reaches of governance. In contrast, Senator Sartaj Aziz, who one would surmise is the most qualified candidate from the PML side, has once again been “superseded” in the “larger interests” of the country and the Party. Others may not articulate contrary opinion out of discretion (in fact this analysis, coming from one who is privileged to be his friend may embarrass him), the fact remains that the choosing of Waseem Sajjad over Sartaj Aziz is grossly unfair to the man, to the PML as a Party and to the country. Senate Chairman Waseem Sajjad may be a fine, upstanding man, the sum total of his services to the Party, especially when he was Acting President in 1993 and he let the elections be manipulated under his very nose, is zero. Can anyone recall anything that he has gone out of his way to do for anyone?

Senator Sartaj Aziz did not come to politics through the back door. He had a full career as a civil servant before entering politics and no affluence to show for either stint. His livelihood is mostly dependant upon his UN pension as a retired FAO official and till date despite his high profile as Secretary General of the PML and Finance Minister in both Nawaz Sharif’s governments, he has maintained an enviable record of integrity and competence. In a country racked with corruption and full of lurid stories about billions being bilked by people in high places, a reputation like that is worth much more than its weight in gold. He inspires confidence among all who deal with him, his knowledge and experience in dealing with international financial institutions being invaluable to a country invariably on the receiving end of their anger. Not many people know about his research papers on China in the early 70s, in particular the one which became a book “Rural Development Model — Learning from China”, more or less forecasting Deng Tsao Peng’s initiative and modus operandi opening the Chinese economy late in the 70s decade, starting in phases. On their part the Chinese took note of and appreciated the thrust of his analysis. More known domestically is the complete document he produced in the 80s as the Chairman of the Agriculture Commission. A self-effacing and modest person, most of this team man’s significant achievements have remained anonymous because he has shunned self-publicity in favour of the overall good of the whatever organisation he has served, a quality scarce among all our leaders almost without exception. An organised man with an eye for detail, the role of Secretary General of PML came naturally to him, his grasp of facts and figures awe-inspiring. While there is no doubt that it is primarily Mian Nawaz Sharif’s personal popularity that has propelled the PM to power the second time around, the infrastructure of that success was painstakingly built in hundreds of constituencies during months and years of hard, grinding work by the PML Secretariat in Islamabad. A universal belief is that PML came well funded, those who endured the drought in funds in the PML House on Margalla Road in Islamabad know better. The past three years in the cold had to be seen to be believed, in the knowledge that every phone was tapped, that almost all the rooms were bugged and some of the employees suspect. In one incident, private security guards from an adjacent location surprised people in the night were surprised in the act of carrying away files from the PML House in the dead of night. While Nawaz Sharif travelled far and wide, the indefatigable Mushahid Hussain invariably in tow, Senator Sartaj Aziz kept his base firm and intact, putting in 16 hour days seven days a week, at his age quite a performance.

Sartaj Aziz could have been President in 1993 except for a monumental blunder by the PML hierarchy, which was then (as now) engaged in quite a few gaffes. A narrow margin of “contrived” victory in the 1993 polls faced Benazir with the prospect of less than reliable allies who would blackmail her during her tenure as PM, she briefly toyed with the suggestion that a detente with PML could be achieved by offering the Presidency to a PML person. Despite being close to Mian Nawaz Sharif, Sartaj Aziz’s reputation of an upright person who would always do the right thing, putting the integrity and the sovereignty of the nation first, made him the only choice as regards PPP strategists such as Aftab Sherpao, etc. While PML kept on waffling about other names totally unacceptable to the PPP, Javed Ashraf Qazi, (then DG ISI), neatly twisted the arms of MQM and independent legislators enough to ensure a solid PPP victory in the form of Farooq Khan Leghari. We then saw the rather unseemly sight of a desperate Mian Nawaz Sharif last gasp attempt to get Nawabzada Nasrullah, Sardar Akbar Bugti, etc anybody into the slot of President but a PPP person. The PML faced more than three years in the wilderness because of that costly indecision, Benazir Bhutto today openly regrets the day she ever chose Leghari. That I suppose equalises the “blunders” made by both the sides.

It is ironic that Senator Sartaj Aziz, supposedly No.2 in the Party and close to the PM, had to wait almost till the last moment before coming to know that he was not to be the PML nominee for the Senate person. One supposes that mainly this is because the PML cannot find any other person to inspire confidence as Finance Minister as Sartaj Aziz and to bear Atlas-like the burden of an economy almost on the verge of collapse. As the Finance Minister will loyally (and repeatedly) tell you, there is nothing more important today in Pakistan than the economy. Given that entrepreneur Mian Nawaz Sharif supposedly has a magic wand that will rejuvenate the economy, it seems incredible that there is really no one to fill Senator Sartaj Aziz’s shoes as Czar of Pakistan’s economy. The obvious choice, one would surmise, is Commerce Minister Ishaq Dar, who has impeccable credentials but is still on a “learning curve” as regards his own Ministry. The PM probably calculated that the cost of his education (on-the-job training) as Finance Minister would be too high for Pakistan’s economy to sustain. Despite the famous quote “the graveyards are full of indispensable people”, for the PML and Pakistan, Sartaj Aziz remains very much an indispensable man. Physically in sound condition, how long will he be able to take the 6 am to midnight beating seven days a week at his age? Is this fair?

Sartaj Aziz strongly believes that merit and merit alone defines the measure of any success. The tragedy is not only that recognition and reward are seldom available at the appropriate moment but that Senator Sartaj Aziz feels that since he is required more in tackling the economy that’s where his place should be. If that is not an absolute acceptance of “karma”, what is?

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.