‘About Nawaz Sharif, my observations although from short encounters in late nineteen eighties remain unchanged; rather get reinforced due to his conduct during later years. On 6 September 1985, when he had taken over as Chief Minister of Punjab few months back, he was to lay floral wreath at the monument of Major Aziz Bhatti, Shaheed, Nishan- e- Haider at BRB Canal east of Lahore. I was to host him on that short military function. Before his arrival, a car load of his cronies arrived. From their conversation in exchanging notes I could make out that each of them had made a few Crore rupees in some deals in those few months of their being close to the new Chief Minister. (Crore rupees was a very big amount in those days). Nawaz Sharif arrived and was straightaway conducted to lay wreath, a short ceremony, over in about fifteen minute’s time. Those cronies got closer to him when he was leaving. He was barely audible while talking to them, giving impression of an insecure person, unsure about himself and his position. On another occasion he was brought along to Lahore Garrison Golf Club by the President, General M Zia ul Haq who took him around the course trying to teach him golf. My unit, 27 Punjab was responsible to develop the newly laid golf course, and I, as Secretary of the Club was to remain closer to them. I was amazed at the patience of General Zia ul Haq who made Nawaz Sharif hit the balls a number of times from one spot before moving forward to take next shot. I could not make out what was real purpose of undertaking such seemingly useless exercise by the President. Being in the profession of dealing with men, my observation was that Nawaz Sharif was a dumb person, easy to exploit, a perilous weakness in a person leading government of a nuclear armed country.
Jokes invented, although not true, reflect the bent of mind of target persons. In the backdrop of reports of getting huge kickbacks and commissions in mega projects by the ruling elite, a famous joke invented some years back goes as follows. On inauguration ceremony of a major road completed with lot of fanfare, a sycophant suggested that the chief guest performing opening ceremony should be given the title of ‘Sher Shah Suri Sani’ (Sher Shah Suri, the Second). Curious, the chief guest asked, “Who was Sher Shah Suri?” When he was told that Sher Shah Suri was a King of India who laid the Grand Trunk Road covering his Kingdom from Peshawar to Bengal spanning thousands of kilometers; spontaneous remarks attributed to the chief guest were that “He must have made lot of money”.’ 🙄
