Zardari’s choice

Fully conscious of the looming economic and political challenges, Asif Ali Zardari is perhaps wise not to directly confront the initial shocks that the government is likely to face. This is also probably why the PML(N) is said to be reluctant to run the ministry of finance.

So who is Yusuf Raza Gilani, the man in the line of fire, arguably for the next five years in Pakistan?

Gilani is seen to be a tactician capable of safeguarding his own interests within the party framework. His unflinching behaviour during his imprisonment and his independent decisions in his tenure as speaker have proved that he would not easily become a ‘yes man’ playing somebody else’s game. In certain matters, as speaker, he even bypassed Benazir’s wishes. How far he will be able to implement the five E’s in the PPP manifesto — that is, employment, energy, education, environment and equality — along with restoration of the judiciary and coordinating with the presidency, is anybody’s guess.

But to go back to the beginning, the 25th prime minister of Pakistan is a scion of a traditional, feudal and influential Peer family of Multan, in the southern part of Pakistani Punjab. The family claims to have descended from the Iranian province of Gilan, tracing its genealogy to Ghous-e-Azam Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani of Iran, a well-known Sufi saint who is said to have established the Qadri school of Sufism.

The Gilani family migrated to Bahawalpur, near Multan in the 15th century. It had longstanding relations with the ruling classes of the times, Mughals and the British alike. During 1857, family members were duly rewarded for their services to the Raj. Yusuf Raza’s great grandfather, Makhdoom Ranjhan Bakhsh Gilani, was both the mayor of Multan in 1921 and member of the central legislative assembly of India, which he remained till his death. His father, Syed Alamdar Hussain Gilani, and two uncles were active politicians of their time.

Yusuf Raza came into the limelight after the death of his father when he defeated a provincial minister and became chairman of the district council of Multan in 1983. He was elected to the National Assembly for the first time in 1985 when elections were held on non-party basis. He got the housing and physical planning and railways portfolios in the cabinet of the then prime minister, Muhammad Khan Junejo.

Before the 1988 elections, Yusuf Raza joined the PPP under the leadership of the late Benazir Bhutto. He got the party ticket against the then PML candidate, Nawaz Sharif who was the sitting chief minister of Punjab, and who he defeated from Multan. He was made minister of railways in Benazir’s cabinet. In 1990, again on a PPP ticket, Yusuf Raza defeated Hamid Raza Gilani. In 1993, he defeated PML(N) Haji Sikander Hayat Bosan and was elected speaker of the National Assembly.

After the dissolution of Benazir’s government, he was convicted on charges of misusing his authority to give jobs to undeserving people in the National Assembly secretariat when he was the speaker. He was imprisoned in 2001, spent six years behind bars and could not contest the 2002 elections. It was seen to be a case of political victimisation. During detention, he authored a book Chah-e-Yusuf Se Sada (‘A Voice from Yusuf’s Well’). He was made the senior vice-chairman of the PPP in 1998.

The writer is an Islamabad-based social scientist Ashfaq_saleem@hotmail.com