You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.Abraham Lincoln, (attributed)
16th president of US (1809 – 1865)
MAKAAR ZARDARI’S LATEST TRICK: NOORA KUSHTI AND TOPI DRAMA WITH BILAWAL TO DISTANCE HIM FROM ZARDARI’S TAINTED PERSONALITY AND MAKE HIM ACCEPTABLE TO PEOPLE
Zardari is a master schemer and makaar as evident from his latest ploy. He is ostensibly playing a game, where Bilawal can become more palatable to the people of Pakistan. In this game Bilawal is shown to have “falling-out” with Zardari. That way Zardari is kept at a distance from Bilawal, who can again use his “shaheed” mother excuse or victim syndrome to gain sympathy from the people. Bilawal is now no more tainted with the corruption of Zardari, as he is now a White Knight, who fought with his Prince of Darkness father, Asif Zardari, and therefore, is ready to continue “BiBi’s Mission,” without the taint of his Zardari’s evil shadow. This is yet another master stroke from Zardari to dupe the naive electorate and PPP Jiyalas of Pakistan; and thereby salvage the sinking ship of PPP in the coming election. Zardari is a megalomaniac. He is completely power drunk to the point of power inebriation. He will try any trick to hang on to the Presidency, come hell or high water. He is a civilian dictator like Saddam Hussain, Manuel Noriega, Augusto Pinochet, and his personal hero Muammar Ghadafi. He is like a thief, who has been given keys to Fort Knox He will continue to enjoy the 5 lakhs/day or more open expense account of the Presidency. He will continue to loot the nation leading to Pakistan’s default and bankruptcy.
TOPI DRAMA PROLOGUE
Bilawal Bhutto leaves Pakistan after tiff with Asif Ali Zardari over PPP affairs
SCENE ONE OF TOPI DRAMA
Bilawal, who was recently named patron-in-chief of the Pakistan People’s Party, developed differences with Zardari and his sister, Faryal Talpur, over the party’s handling of key issues, including militant violence, sectarian attacks against Shias and the award of party tickets for the polls scheduled for May 11.
Two sources privy to the development told PTI that Bilawal had made it clear to his father that he felt the PPP had not strongly taken up issues like the shooting of teenage rights activist Malala Yusufzai by Taliban fighters last year and three devastating bomb attacks on Shias in Quetta and Karachi that killed nearly 250 people.
Bilawal Invites his Indian Cousin Rahul Gandhi to Pakistan
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THE TOPI DRAMA SCENE TWO
- Bilawal was also upset with the PPP’s handling of issues that affect the youth, especially in the wake of efforts by other parties like Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf to woo the youth ahead of the polls, the sources said.
- The 24-year-old nominal chief of the PPP was angered by Faryal Talpur’s refusal to award tickets to certain candidates in Sindh province that he had recommended, a source said.
- “Last month, Bilawal had recommended the names of some 200 PPP workers and asked former Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to give them jobs but Talpur had intervened, causing bad blood between them,” the source said.
- Bilawal discussed these matters with his father and sought authority to take decisions in party matters.
- But Zardari sided with his sister, who plays a key role in the PPP’s affairs, the source said.
- “When Zardari told him that he would be handed over the command of the party after he is groomed politically, Bilawal got upset and left for Dubai,” a source said.
- Matters got so heated on one occasion that a source quoted Bilawal as saying: “If I had to vote, even I wouldn’t vote for the PPP.”
- Bilawal’s abrupt departure for Dubai last week has caused considerable disquiet within the PPP as the party had been banking on him to appeal to the voters who have traditionally voted for the Bhutto family.
- “Bilawal had been projected as the PPP’s star campaigner as the President cannot participate in the campaign due to pressure from the courts,” a PPP leader said.
- “Without Bilawal, the PPP cannot touch the emotions of the people, especially the hard core PPP workers,” said the PPP leader, who did not wish to be named.
- The leader said he feared the PPP might not be able to get the “Bhutto vote” if Bilawal did not take part in the campaign.
- PPP leaders have acknowledged that Bilawal will not be present when the party launches its election campaign on April 4 from Garhi Khuda Buksh, the traditional stronghold of the Bhutto family in Sindh.
- However, they contended that Bilawal was not participating in the event for “security reasons” and would instead deliver a telephonic address.
- Latif Khosa, recently elected secretary general of the PPP, told PTI that there were security threats to the party’s leadership, especially Bilawal.
- He said: “Bilawal may not attend election rallies due to security concerns and is likely to address gatherings on telephone or via video-conferencing.”
- PPP spokesman Qamar Zaman Kaira too said Bilawal would not attend the rally on April 4 because he was “facing more threats than other leaders of the PPP”.
- Party leaders are also concerned that the PPP’s campaign is now likely to be led by former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani, who is known for his lack of charisma.
This would place the PPP at a disadvantage as it is up against seasoned campaigners like Imran Khan and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.
Gilani sought to play down the issue of Bilawal’s sudden departure from Pakistan, saying there were no differences between Bilawal and Zardari or Talpur.
“In our families, our children give immense respect to their elders,” Gilani told PTI.
Hasham Riaz, Bilawal’s chief of staff, said Bilawal had gone to Dubai for “routine business”.
He claimed the reports of differences between Bilawal and his father “mere rumours”. Asked if Bilawal would come back to Pakistan, Riaz said: “Of course.”
Bilawal himself will not be eligible to contest polls till he turns 25 in September. The PPP had formally launched his political career at a massive rally in Garhi Khuda Baksh that marked the death anniversary of his mother, former premier Benazir Bhutto, in December last year.
American Press Toe US Government Line to Build-up US Puppet Zardari.
THE INEPT, MAKAAR, CONNIVING, INCOMPETENT & MURTAZA BHUTTO’S MURDERER ASIF ZARDARI
FROM:LOS ANGELES TIMES
PAKISTAN LEADER’S LEGACY: THE ART OF POLITICAL SURVIVAL
As President Asif Ali Zardari ends a history-making five-year term, his approval ratings are low, but he has hung on.
The government of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, center, ended its five-year term Saturday, setting the stage for the country’s first transfer of power from one civilian government to another. (Emilio Morenatti / Associated Press /September 6, 2008) |
March 16, 2013, 11:09 p.m.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Throughout his presidency, Pakistan’s Asif Ali Zardari has looked over his shoulder. Would the military bounce him from office? Would an aggressive Supreme Court find a legal lever to send him packing? Would infighting and dissent erode his fragile coalition government?
Now, as he and his government make history by becoming the first civilian administration to ever complete its five-year term — despite public approval ratings as low as 14% — Zardari’s legacy is clear. He turned political survival into an art form.
“You give Zardari a roomful of politicians, and he will find you 51%. That’s an art he has perfected that no one really knew he had,” says Cyril Almeida, a Pakistani newspaper columnist. “By and large, he has done his own thing and cut whatever deals he needs. But he hasn’t gone after enemies and opponents, and that has kept the political temperature at a manageable level.”
Known to most Pakistanis as “the accidental president,” Zardari fell into the job after the slaying of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated in 2007 as she was launching her political comeback. Many Pakistanis still call him “Mr. 10%,” a reference to corruption allegations that have followed him since stints in previous decades as a Cabinet minister.
Zardari’s government ended its five-year term Saturday, setting the stage for the first transfer of power from one civilian government to another in Pakistan’s 65-year history. Every other civilian government’s term has been interrupted by military coups or politically motivated ousters.
A caretaker government is slated to assume power as the country embarks on a campaign season that will culminate in parliamentary elections, expected in May. Members of the federal and provincial assemblies will then select a president later in the year. Zardari, 57, remains president and, unless he wins reelection, will step down upon the inauguration of a new president.
Zardari’s prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, will step down as soon as the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and its main opposition, the PML-N, agree on a caretaker replacement. Parliament and the Cabinet dissolved Saturday.
The transfer of power through the ballot rather than military might is seen by most Pakistanis as a crucial step in the country’s democratic evolution.
But as Zardari’s PPP enters what is sure to be a tumultuous campaign, it faces an electorate deeply disappointed with the ruling government’s failure to remedy the country’s biggest ills.
Daily power outages that in the summer can last 12 hours or more shackle the economy and make everyday life miserable. Zardari has never been able to tamp down Islamist terrorism, and a recent wave of sectarian attacks by Sunni Muslim militants against the country’s minority Shiite Muslim community poses a new national security threat with the elections around the corner. The federal government remains heavily indebted to international lenders, and corruption taints every echelon of society.
An annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment” report delivered to the U.S. Congress last week by James R. Clapper, director of national intelligence, criticized Zardari’s government for being unwilling to tackle “problems that continue to constrain economic growth. The government has made no real effort to persuade its disparate coalition members to accept much-needed policy and tax reforms, because members are focused on retaining their seats in upcoming elections.”
The same sense of frustration with Zardari’s government runs through Pakistani society.
“This government has ruined the country in the last five years,” says Azhar Iqbal, 50, owner of a cookware shop in one of Islamabad’s central shopping districts. “It’s bad everywhere. Every night when we go home and turn on the television, we hear about this or that number of people killed.”
Despite popularity ratings as low as 14%, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll, Zardari and the ruling PPP government aren’t necessarily doomed in the upcoming elections, and in fact might be able to garner enough backing to engineer another coalition government and retain power.
The PPP and its primary rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif‘s PML-N party, already have entrenched support bases, and cricket legend Imran Khan’s upstart Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party is expected to cull more voters from Sharif’s vote bank than the PPP’s, analysts say. And while dissatisfaction with the government is widespread, historically Pakistanis haven’t expressed their frustration at the ballot box. Turnout in Pakistan’s national elections has always been low, ranging from 36% to 45%.
The ultimate winner may not be the top vote-getter, but the better coalition builder.
“Political polarization in Pakistan is sharp,” says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based political analyst. “The PPP may lose some seats in Parliament, but they still will have the capacity to form a coalition government. Whereas Sharif isn’t seen as someone who can build a coalition. … So by default, the PPP may be able to pull through because they can produce a better coalition.”
During the last five years, Zardari’s most formidable opposition has not come from Sharif, but from the military and the Supreme Court, both institutions that have always viewed the president as a liability. Both the court and the army have hounded Zardari, at times stoking fear within society that the government would collapse.
But neither institution ever pushed Zardari and his government over the edge. The Supreme Court ousted Ashraf’s predecessor, Yousuf Raza Gilani, on a contempt charge in 2012, but since then has eased up on the government.
“While the army’s high command is angered by the mismanagement of the economy by the Zardari government, there’s also an understanding that they don’t really have solutions themselves,” newspaper columnist Almeida said. “And the Supreme Court can’t oust a political government because its entire public standing is based on the fact that it resisted unconstitutional moves by [former President Pervez Musharraf] in 2007.”
That year, Musharraf, who saw Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry as a threat to his authority, ousted him, a move decried by lawyers and opposition parties as illegal.
“So the routes have been shut,” Almeida continued. “There’s no obvious route to dismantling this government.”
Press Trust of India | Updated: March 26, 2013 14:00 IST
