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The Making of the President

One does not have to be clairvoyant to predict that barring a major upheaval, natural of man-made, the next President will either be a PML person or a PML nominee from one of the smaller provinces. Less than two days before the filing of nominations, the PML leadership has yet to declare the candidacy of what should have been a certainty in the minds of the PML hierarchy, given their happy position as regards the game of numbers. Being a democratic party heading a “rainbow” coalition of smaller, regional parties, one assumes the PML hierarchy is leaning over backwards to ensure that their partners do not feel left out of the decision-making process, articulating their preferences and given suitable advice as to who would make a good President. The concept of a Federation requires that the smaller provinces must play an active part in the coalescing of consensus, democracy enjoins that the voices of all the constituent units be heard and taken into account.

PML has no party leader from Balochistan for the Presidency, the only person having some credibility being Zafarullah Khan Jamali but till very lately he has not shown any great political consistency with the mainstream PML. Balochistan at least finds representation through the Deputy Chairman of the Senate and Sindh has the National Assembly (NA) Speaker’s Sarhad has nothing. Therefore, the province having the greatest claim for representation among the ruling hierarchy is Sarhad. There is a lobby that feel that the post of Speaker NA is not enough for the Sindhis and that to assuage Sindh’s qualms there should be a President from Sindh and that in return Sindh should leave the NA post for Sarhad. The factors thus taken into account in the making of the President are, viz (1) whether the potential candidate to be supported be from Sarhad or Sindh? (2) whether a credible PML nominee is available from Sarhad? And if so (3) whether it makes sense to move the NA Speaker to the Presidency and find a suitable NA Speaker from Sarhad?

Other than the attributes clearly described in the Constitution the potential candidate should have stature nationally and internationally, he should be non-controversial and a loyal, mature person, well respected for his integrity and experience. If we were to consider the two Provinces i.e. only Sarhad or Sindh, the only PML candidates that fill the bill are Senator Sartaj Aziz (from Sarhad) and NA Speaker Illahi Baksh Soomro (from Sindh). Both are outstanding men, deserving of being President, we have to judge who has the better qualifications? Sartaj Aziz is certainly head and shoulders over Soomro as a consummate ex-bureaucrat with infinite experience considering that the Presidency is traditionally the only lifeline for the bureaucracy against perceived excesses of the elected executive. Comes the question of trust and given that in Pakistan crisis is always around the corner, would the PML hierarchy be as sure of Soomro as they would be of Sartaj Aziz during crunch time? During the November crisis one of the misgiving concerned the NA speaker, very wrongly it later transpired. At the same time, if Sindhis were to occupy the high post of the Presidency, what is to stop the MQM from demanding their proverbial pound of flesh, the projected national census will probably show that the population gap between the ethnic Sindhis and new Sindhis has narrowed to a 55:45 ratio, and in fact could very well be equal? Moving Illahi Baksh Soomro from the NA to the Presidency carries the Sindh card too far, it makes no sense unless the PML hierarchy decides that Sartaj Aziz’s candidacy has fundamental flaws. No man being perfect, Sartaj Aziz can very nearly be labelled as “the Indispensable man”.

On March 24, 1997, I wrote to quote “Senator Sartaj Aziz did not come to politics through the back door. As a young PML student leader and activist in the 1940s, he had a fully career as a civil servant, both domestically and internationally, before entering politics, with no affluence to show for either stint. His livelihood is mostly dependent upon his UN pension as a retired FAP 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 Tasao Peng’s initiative and modus operandi opening the Chinese economy late in the 70s decade, starting in phases. Of 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-effecting 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 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 little doubt that it is primarily Mian Nawaz Sharif’s personal popularity that has propelled the PML to power the second tome around, the infrastructure of threat success as 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 as tapped, that almost all the rooms were bugged and some of the employees suspect. While Nawaz Sharif travelled far and wide, the indefatigable Mushahid Hussain invariably in two, 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’s family has a history of service to the country, one of his younger brothers Captain Javed Aziz, ex 27th PMA Long course, was one of the brightest young officers in the army, a member of the elite Social Service Group (SSG), he probably would have been a Lt Gen today (about to retire) had he not lost his life in a river crossing exercise. As an army flier I was one of those involved in the late 60s in the search operation, losing in the process another friend when his L-19 aircraft went down in the River Indus near Kalabagh on a hot, June day.

Whereas his pedigree thus encompasses the broad spectrum of life in Pakistan, the only handicap in Sartaj Aziz’s armour may be his own merit. Like all businessmen, merit and gratitude have little place in the lexicon of our rulers except for blue blood cronies from Model Town and Lahore, the SA Rahmans of this world. A businessman’s philosophy is usually “use and discard”, their theory being everybody has a price label, thus available for utilisation like a person on daily wages. A lot of people rooting for them in a crisis do not even merit a lousy telephone call.

Sartaj Aziz could well become a victim of this measuring scale syndrome since he still remains an “outsider” to the “inner circle”, recognition and reward being seldom available to someone from the “great silent majority”. The ultimate tragedy may well be that he may be “convenience”. As for this man’s outstanding effort and continuing sacrifice, remember March 1997 when, to quote, “despite being No. 2 in the party, he had to wait almost till the last moment before coming to know that he was not to be the PML nominee for the Senate Chairman’s post. One supposes that mainly this was because the PML cannot find any other person to inspire confidence as Finance Minister as Sartaj Aziz, 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. Despite the famous quote “the graveyards are full of indispensable people”, for the PML and Pakistan, Sartaj Aziz remains very much an indispensable man. However, he deserves a break to a more leisurely routine. Physically in sound condition, how long will he be able to take the 6 a.m. to midnight beating seven days a week at his age? Is this fair?

Given a free vote in the PML, logic and fair-play would anoint Senator Sartaj Aziz without question as the party candidate for President, he will bring dignity and respect due to the post. One can only hope that there will be a confluence in the national interest and the interest of the hierarchy in choosing the right man for the Presidency. For my part I (and many others in the media) have no doubt that on the basis of merit and merit alone Senator Sartaj Aziz is the only Pakistani truly qualified and deserving in all respects including the vital one of accident or birth) to be President of Pakistan.

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