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Pakistan PM post: Gillani files papers

— PHOTO: AFP

MOVING AHEAD: Pakistan People’s Party candidate for the post of Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gillani (third from left), along with coalition partner Asfandyar Wali (left), and other party members, submits his nomination papers to Karamat Hussain Niazi, Secretary of the National Assembly, at the Parliament House in Islamabad on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD: Yousuf Raza Gillani, the Pakistan People’s Party nominee for the post of Prime Minister, filed his nomination papers on Sunday for the election that is to take place in the National Assembly on Monday evening.

The Pakistan Muslim League (Q) has fielded former Punjab Chief Minister, Pervez Elahi, as its candidate.

The nominations were submitted to Speaker Fahmida Mirza on Sunday. Following the acceptance of his nomination for an election he is certain to win with a huge majority, Mr. Gillani told journalists that he would work to strengthen Parliament.

“What is Parliament for? It is a reflection of the will of the people and I will work to make it stronger, and also to make the committee system stronger,” he said.

Questioned whether he would live and let live with President Pervez Musharraf or take the PPP-led coalition into a confrontation with him, he simply said: “I will follow the Constitution.”

He said the government’s policies would be made in consultation with the PML(N) and other coalition partners.

Retired General Musharraf, who inaugurated a military parade on the Pakistan Day celebrations on Sunday, pledged to support the new government, and said he hoped it would continue the fight against extremism and terrorism.

“The journey toward democracy and development we started eight years ago is now reaching its destination,” General Musharraf said. “A new era of real democracy has begun.”

A combination of several factors appear to have influenced the PPP’s choice of Mr. Gillani as its candidate for the post of Prime Minister, including party chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s political comfort level with him and the Pakistan Muslim League (N)’s nod to a candidate from southern Punjab.

Once the sidelining of Makhdoom Amin Fahim began and it was decided that the PPP would choose a Prime Minister from Punjab, Mr. Gillani, whose image within the PPP as someone who had sacrificed a great deal for the party, came into the reckoning.

His five-year jail term on controversial corruption charges by the Musharraf regime is cited as one important factor that increased his acceptability in the party. Accused of handing out jobs illegally during his term as Speaker from 1993-96, and using more than Rs.10 million from public funds through the misuse of official transport and telephones, setting up camp offices in Lahore and Multan and buying expensive vehicles, Mr. Gillani was convicted and jailed for 10 years.

Party folklore is that he was offered release several times by the regime but he turned them all down and served out his jail term until the Punjab High Court ordered his release in 2006.

His closeness to Mr. Zardari is also cited as another reason for his nomination. Another contender for the post, Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar, also spent three years in jail, some of them with Mr. Zardari, during which time the two also became good friends.

But what tipped the scales in favour of Mr. Gillani was that Mr. Mukhtar was too quick to acquire Prime Ministerial airs, which increased the bad blood in the party on account of the sidelining of Mr. Fahim, and made him unpopular within the party.

It is believed that the PPP co-chairman did not want deputy chairman Mr. Fahim to become the Prime Minister because it would have been difficult within the PPP to unseat a tall Sindhi leader like Mr. Fahim should Mr. Zardari want the job himself after entering Parliament in a byelection.

Mr. Gillani is an influential and well-liked leader in the PPP in his own right, but analysts say he would be amenable to standing down from the post if Mr. Zardari so desired.

On Sunday, he told journalists that he had been nominated by the party and it was up to the party to decide how long he should serve. “The party has to decide how much work it wants to take out of me,” he said. It is believed that Mr. Fahim preferred Mr. Gillani to anyone else in the party taking the job that he coveted, as he was also high in the party hierarchy, whereas Mr. Mukhtar figured much lower down.

While Mr. Gillani is from the city of Multan in southern Punjab, his family’s custodianship of the shrine of the famous Sufi, Musa Pak, gives him a substantial following in Sindh also.

Another reason being cited is Mr. Gillani’s family ties to Pir Pagara, an influential political personality in Sindh.

Mr. Gillani’s father’s sister was married to the Pir. Additionally, Mr. Gillani’s son is to get married to the Pir’s granddaughter on Monday, the day of the Prime Ministerial election.

These links are bound to ensure that the maverick Pir does not create any problems for the PPP in Sindh.

For the PML (N) too, Mr. Gillani was the most acceptable choice as he poses no threat to the party’s stronghold in central Punjab.

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