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Who will be the next president of Pakistan

[20.Aug.2008 - 10:36]
Asfandyar, Mengal, Achakzai or someone else!Asfandyar emerges as leading coalition candidate
The News Internatonal Peshawar: Asfandyar Wali Khan isn’t a candidate for the office of the President of Pakistan but he will not be averse to accept an offer to take up the job if there was a stalemate on the candidature of other hopefuls. This is how ANP Provincial President Afrasiab Khattak put it when asked to comment on reports that the four party ruling coalition led by the PPP was considering Asfandyar Wali’s name alongwith others for the President’s office following General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf’s resignation. This could be interpreted as his willingness to accept the president’s job if he was backed as a consensus candidate by the coalition parties. In case the name of Asfandyar Wali is finalized as a consensus candidate and he becomes the President, he will be doing something different than his late father, Khan Abdul Wali Khan, mother Begum Nasim Wali Khan and grandfather, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, commonly known as Baacha Khan, all of whom avoided taking up public office. They had their opportunities and could have got prized public offices but no temptation could lure them. Instead, Baacha Khan probably spent more time in jail than any other political prisoner in Pakistan and Wali Khan was happy to serve as opposition leader and suffer victimization at the hands of successive rulers. Nasim Wali could have easily become minister or even Chief Minister but she did not aspire for any public office. The only member of Baacha Khan’s extended family who held public office was his brother Dr. Khan Sahib, who served as Chief Minister of NWFP and also West Pakistan when one Unit was imposed. Dr. Khan Sahib, whose real name was Dr. Abdul Jabbar Khan annoyed Baacha Khan by changing political parties,. He even joined the Republican Party, an entity that emerged from nowhere and became the platform for political turncoats. Asfandyar Wali Khan who won the National Assembly election from his native Cahrasadda District and lost from another constituency in Swabi in the February 18 general elections, may not get a smooth sailing as candidate for the President’s office. He would need support of the PPP and PML-N the two biggest parties in the ruling coalition to emerge as the consensus choice for the converted job. Though Asif Ali Zardari has denied his own candidature for the office, there are many PPP leaders and workers who would like him to take this job that is now within his grasp. On his part, Zardari prompted everyone to start speculating by casually remarking that the new President could be a woman. It may not happen in the end but true to his style he once again managed to sow confusion in the minds of many people. The PML-N has specifically mentioned two names, Sardar Attaullah Mengal and Mahmood Khan Achakzai, as its choice for the President. Both are from Balochistan, Mengal is a Baloch and Achakzai a Pashtun, and election of one of them would go a long way in healing the wounds of the people who have suffered due to successive military operations in the province. In fact Balochistan Chief Minister Sardar Mohammad Aslam Raisani, who belongs to the PPP, has publicity demanded that the next President should be from his Province. However, the PML-N’s nominees for the President’s office would get the job in an ideal situation only. The military establishment too would have to be consulted while finalizing the name of the Presidential candidate and it is possible that Mengal, Achakzai and others don’t get the nod from the GHQ. Some one commented that the PML-N may have floated Mengal and Achakzai’s names to block Zardari’s candidature. Whatever the truth, it would be through give and take between the PPP and PML-N that the final choice for President would be decided. It is interesting to note that PML-N has not promoted Asfandyar Wali’s name for the new occupant of the Presidency. One the PML-N and ANP were allies but that was in the 1990s. Now ANP is closer to PPP, which would have the final say in deciding the future President due to its greater strength in the Parliament and the Provincial assemblies. The decision to make Asfandyar Wali or someone else as President largely rests with Zardari, who could spring a surprise as he did while nominating Syed Yousuf Raza Gailani as the PPP candidate for the Prime Minister’s office.
Asfandyar emerges as leading coalition candidate Rauf Klasra
Islamabad: Major coalition partners of the PPP have almost agreed on ANP’s Asfandyar Wali Khan as the candidate for the next President of Pakistan and after initial hesitation, the ANP Chief is also willing to accept the job, bringing a lot of pressure on Asif Ali Zardari to revise his public commitments of putting a Jiyala in Presidency. After the exit of Pervez Musharraf, pressure has now started building on the PPP-PML-N coalition to fill the top slot and they only have 30 days to do so. Asif Zardari had earlier committed at the Governor’s House in Lahore that he would like to see a PPP worker like Salman Taseer sitting in the Presidency but lately he has changed his position and has been talking about a woman President. This has triggered speculations that National Assembly Speaker Dr. Fahmida Mrza may be in his mind while some namedroppers have also mentioned Faryal Talpur, sister of Zardari as the candidate. The likely choices of non-coalition players, including the strong military and civilian establishment are divided, including senior politicians from either Balochistan or NWFP as these two smaller provinces have been facing the burnt of the war against terror for the last many years of Musharraf. It may be one way to pacify them. Meanwhile background interviews with political sources have revealed that with the departure of Musharraf from the political scene Nawaz Sharif was in a more comfortable position to play his cards and get better deals from Zardari. In the early days Nawaz Sharif was behaving like a very obedient student of politics in the classroom of Asif Zardari and never raised any objections about slots at the time of power sharing between the two major parties. His main goal was to first get rid of Musharraf and then plan a strategy to deal with Zardari. One top former diplomat close to Nawaz camp commented in one of the private meetings that Nawaz might not give a free hand to Asif zardari to bring a main of his own choice in the presidency once Musharraf was history. He was of the view that Nawaz was playing his cards very smartly and was dealing with one issue after another on the basis of his own priority list. Zardari was also inclined to consider Asfandyar for the top position in the early days but slowly his choices changed because Asfandyar himself was not interested. Now his party leaders have conveyed the view that the ANP Chief was willing to make an attempt, only if the coalition puts him up unanimously. To achieve that goal, PML-N and other smaller parties have almost agreed to the ANP chief but JUTs Maulana Fazl ur Rehman has publicity stated that he would like to be the President. Analysis think Maulana Fazal is only putting in a claim to raise his leverage and price because no one would agree to his candidacy as President who is supreme commander of the Armed forces. This so because of his close links with the Taliban. Now it is not known that in case Zardari fails to bring someone from Sindh in the presidency then how he was going to satisfy the people of his own province who have failed to get a considerable share of power at the centre. All the major ministries including the slot of Prime Minister, foreign minister, petroleum, communication, finance etc went to Punjab. Presently Sindh holds one position of speaker NA and other of Chairman Senate Mohammad Mian Soomro. It is not known what would be the fate of a decent person like Soomro who is now acting as president. - Rahimullah Yusufzai.
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