MileStone
MPA (400+ posts)
Few Words About Nawaz Sharif - America's Next Favorite in Islamabad
By Bilal Qureshi
Is there an end to Pakistans perpetual misery? Of course, there is no easy answer for this question. Moreover, it also depends on who is answering this untimely and rude question.
If you ask the coalition partners running the government, you are likely to get a tough, but realistic answer. But who cares about tough love, honesty, or facts, or honesty? On the other hand, if you ask the PML (N), you might get figures (dont worry, they wont add up in the end!) about how much more revenue can they generated without expanding the pie, bravado and artificial optimism with a caveat. What is that caveat? Well, they would argue, falsely, that if only Nawaz Sharif is given one more chance (never mind his two awful and failed stints) to lead the country, things will improve, inflation, lawlessness, water and electricity shortage and poverty etc will come under control, and believe it or not, it will happen instantly.
So, why cant we appoint Nawaz Sharif Amir-ul-Momineen,? By the way, Nawaz Sharif did try to become Amir-ul-Momineen in 1998, when another man had declared himself Amir-ul-Momineen. Guess who that man was? Yes, Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban and Nawaz Sharifs ideological soul mate.
Once Nawaz Sharif takes over as Amir-ul-Momineen, we should give him all the power to control the judiciary, military, press, television, radio, police, secret police, intelligence agencies, banks, embassies, ambassadors, etc to run everything. If you do this, you are likely to have peace in Pakistan within years, or perhaps decades, but, lets not rush to judgment here. Let the man start work!
But, make not mistake about it. Only a Sharif can govern in this country. What? You dont believe me? Just look at Punjab where Nawaz Sharif have hundreds of MPS from his own party, but he chose his own brother to be the Chief Minister. Doesnt this prove that Nawaz Sharif is anything, but serous?
So, isnt it tempting to have Nawaz Sharif as the leader of Pakistan? Why is it taking so long for Pakistanis to fall for Nawaz Sharifs illusion this time?
Lets walk down the memory lane to examine facts. Shall we?
During the recent drama to restore a highly questionable man, Ch. Iftikhar as the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, leader of one of the 2 dozens Muslim Leagues operating in Pakistan promised, repeatedly, and promised in front of the nation, that if, (and it was not even a big if), Ch. Iftikhar is restored, he, the big leader, Nawaz Sharif would not ask for anything else for five years. I mean come on, youd think that like rest of the world, I too would remember this promise, but, as you know, perhaps like Nawaz Sharif, I too am a man who regularly forgets commitments. So, please, remind me, every time I forget that Ch. Iftikhar has been restored and it is Nawaz Sharifs turn to keep his word. Okay?
Anyway, as I was talking about broken promises, or was I talking about Pakistans misery? Oh, well, lets not mix these two because these two are completely separate issue.
By the way, how can anyone define a broken promise? For example, and lets take the big leader as an example here. If Nawaz Sharif promised the leader of his own party, Junejo, that Nawaz Sharif wont do anything to damage the party unity, wont challenge Junejos leadership, wont do anything to destroy the confidence within the party, but ended up destroying party confidence, challenging Junejos legitimate leadership and formed his own Muslim League, would it be considered a bad thing? Would it also reflect badly on Nawaz Sharif? All Nawaz Sharif did was that he (some nave people argue illegally) tried to remove Junejo from the partys presidency. Why is it wrong or bad to climb up by any means necessary as was done by Nawaz Sharif? No, it is not wrong to climb up, and Nawaz Sharif did not break any law; he just broke couple of promises, and promises are meant to be broken.
This is the Nawaz Sharif way! Get used to it.
It is not good to look in the past all the time, because like Nawaz Sharif, I too am not interested in history, or learning, and pretty much anything else, but I am being forced, by you, the readers, to think of couple of more examples to exemplify Nawaz Sharif as a leader. So, reluctantly and with a heavy heart, I am going to help you understand why Nawaz Sharif is a big leader, and it is for your own good. So, take out your notepads, pencils and start taking notes!
What is a leader? A leader is someone who does what he wants to do and this unique leadership quality is found in Nawaz Sharif in ample quantity. Here is how I know Nawaz Sharif is a leader.
Nawaz Sharif showed total lack of trust and respect towards Benazir Bhutto. Benazir, whose father opted to give his life, but refused to compromise on Pakistans nuclear program, which he himself started and his daughter thought that after fighting Zia, Nawaz Sharifs political father, and after being in prisons fighting for democracy, human rights, equality, justice, and democracy, she has somehow qualified as a bona fide leader. So what if her father did so much for Pakistan? So what if he gave his life for Pakistan? Therefore, exhibiting genuine leadership qualities, Nawaz Sharif ignored all the precedent and protocol as Punjabs Chief Minister and refused to receive Benazir Bhutto at Lahore Airport whenever she was in Punjab. Comrades, this is what Shakespeare called leadership. This is what Aristotle called character, dignity, and courage, as displayed by Nawaz Sharif. (Yes, Shakespeare and Aristotle did say these things, just ask PML (N) to verify and produce these quotes with the help of Brig Imtiaz!) Take this as another example of leadership because by totally not playing by the rules, Nawaz Sharif proved to the nation his heroic leadership qualities. Abiding by the law, respect for law of the land, being a team player etc is for democratic people and Nawaz Sharif on the other hand wants to solve the problems.
Democracy, if we go by the standard and the logic of Nawaz Sharif, is not the answer, it is the problem. Forget about being a team player also, it wont do any good, at least to Nawaz Sharif.
Nawaz Sharif has proved to us that being a team player doesnt help. Nawaz Sharif tried, repeatedly, to be a team player with Benazir, but she wanted democracy. Forget her. Nawaz Sharif tried to be a team player with Asif Nawaz, Waheed Kakar, Aslam Baig, Pervez Musharraf, Ghulam Ishaq, Farooq Leghari, and Sajjad Ali Shah. But, all these important people were not team players either.
I know you might be thinking that if Nawaz Sharif was unable to get along with anyone, even his own handpicked people, isnt the problem with Nawaz Sharif and not with anyone else? Well yes, on the surface it looks that way that Nawaz Sharif doesnt have the temperament to get along with pretty much anyone else, but who knows the truth. . So, we should not speculate that Nawaz Sharif was wrong or bad when he fought and quarreled with everyone else. Lets just say that we dont know, and move on.
By they way, in the interest of full disclosure, I must say that even when Nawaz Sharif was firing army chiefs one after another, I was getting impressed with his talented leadership that is required to get rid of people, but I needed something big from him to give me this confidence that yes, Nawaz can be a leader. And it didnt take very long for Nawaz Sharif to win me over completely, when paid thugs from Lahore, (we should call them signs of strength) stormed the Supreme Court in Islamabad where the then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was hearing a petition to disqualify Nawaz Sharif because of his corruption, mismanagement of funds and abuse of power etc.
So, attacking the Supreme Court by people arranged by Nawaz Sharif and his little brother, Shahbaz Sharif gave me this confidence that no matter how big or serious the problem, Nawaz Sharif has what it takes to fix it, by any means necessary! Hallelujah, bravo, wow, is how I expressed my gratitude towards Nawaz Sharif after his thugs, oops, I meant, his supporters forced the Supreme Court to shut down and Sajjad Shah ran for his life. Ha ha ha, that must have been fun. But, lets get back to Nawaz Sharif, the big leader.
A leader is a leader and he must employee every tactic to achieve whatever he wants. End justify the means, period.
There have been other examples of Nawaz Sharifs character. Just look at the accountability process that he started under the leadership of a supremely qualified man, Saifur Rehman. Everyone in Pakistan was stunned, speechless and crying (with joy of course) as the process of accountability was unfolding. It is also important to note that while the unpatriotic press in Pakistan was publishing stories after stories (false stories, obviously planted by the enemies of Pakistan to destabilize the country and damage the big leader) about the illegal, immoral and unethical Gestapo like tactics to intimidate, malign, and harass foreign agents, otherwise known as political opponents, Nawaz Sharif totally ignored every warning sign that a weak leader might have paid attention to.
By allowing Saifur Rehman to run amok in the country as for as rule of law goes, Nawaz Sharif taught us that a genuine and a strong leader ignores all advise, doesnt accept or tolerate dissent, and plows ahead, even at the cost of sanity, humanity and decency . By allowing Saifur Rehman to test the limits of everything that stands of a decent society, Nawaz Sharif reached new heights of glory, respect and admiration, not only in Pakistan, but also in FATA.
Another example of exemplary leadership by Sharif brothers is the recent incident at Gojra. Had Punjab been under the rule of PPP, people would have lost lives, property would have been damaged, and hysterical mobs would have played havoc in Gojra. But, thanks to the leadership of Sharif brothers, nothing of that sort took place in Gojra. Just CLICK HERE to get the facts about Gojra and the leadership of Nawaz/Shahbaz Sharif.
There are other examples, where Nawaz Sharif, showing leadership, used the parliament as a rubber stamp, where he hired and fired people at will without any regard for merit or the process, where he openly admitted to be a fundamentalist, which he later clarified that he meant he is a fundamentalist in religious sense, where he routinely aligned himself with right wing anti intellectual, anti common sense, anti progress, anti tolerance forces. Like every other genuine leader in human history, Nawaz Sharif always attempted to crush liberal forces in the country, while fully supporting religious parties. Dont forget, these religious parties provided the initial frame work for the Taliban, and if give an opportunity, these religious parties have repeatedly promised to emulate Taliban style governance in Pakistan. So, it was only Nawaz Sharifs leadership that brought these religious parties together to turn Pakistan, a diverse country into an Islamic State where only Sunni Muslim, just like Nawaz Sharif would live in peace and complete harmony! After all, Pakistan was created for only Sunni Muslims, and our big leader can vouch for it. Try asking him this simple question!
Still, if you are on the fence and not totally sure about Nawaz Sharifs ability to lead the country; let me give you one last example. Do you remember that traitor Musharraf deposed Nawaz Sharif? Do you also remember how Nawaz Sharif fooled Musharraf by signing a confession statement admitting to conspiring against the army chief? Well, Nawaz Sharif fled the country with his family, servants, money, personal belongings, etc, even though he was facing death sentence for his heinous crimes (not my words), but once again, using amazing leadership qualities which at the time of reaching a deal with Musharraf looked like a cowardly act, Nawaz Sharif went into exile instead of doing time in prison within Pakistan. I mean, what good is a leader if he cant compromise and save his own skin? Right?
So, in conclusion, Id say that Nawaz Sharif is a genuine leader. Also, as reported before, he is also a big leader. And, leaders are not bound by any agreement, they act in their interest, and their interest also becomes countrys interest, yeah, ask Nawaz Sharif.
If the current set up is folded, and if the democracy fails in Pakistan, and if Nawaz Sharif and his party take over Pakistan, the joke is on Pakistan!
By Bilal Qureshi
Is there an end to Pakistans perpetual misery? Of course, there is no easy answer for this question. Moreover, it also depends on who is answering this untimely and rude question.
If you ask the coalition partners running the government, you are likely to get a tough, but realistic answer. But who cares about tough love, honesty, or facts, or honesty? On the other hand, if you ask the PML (N), you might get figures (dont worry, they wont add up in the end!) about how much more revenue can they generated without expanding the pie, bravado and artificial optimism with a caveat. What is that caveat? Well, they would argue, falsely, that if only Nawaz Sharif is given one more chance (never mind his two awful and failed stints) to lead the country, things will improve, inflation, lawlessness, water and electricity shortage and poverty etc will come under control, and believe it or not, it will happen instantly.
So, why cant we appoint Nawaz Sharif Amir-ul-Momineen,? By the way, Nawaz Sharif did try to become Amir-ul-Momineen in 1998, when another man had declared himself Amir-ul-Momineen. Guess who that man was? Yes, Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban and Nawaz Sharifs ideological soul mate.
Once Nawaz Sharif takes over as Amir-ul-Momineen, we should give him all the power to control the judiciary, military, press, television, radio, police, secret police, intelligence agencies, banks, embassies, ambassadors, etc to run everything. If you do this, you are likely to have peace in Pakistan within years, or perhaps decades, but, lets not rush to judgment here. Let the man start work!
But, make not mistake about it. Only a Sharif can govern in this country. What? You dont believe me? Just look at Punjab where Nawaz Sharif have hundreds of MPS from his own party, but he chose his own brother to be the Chief Minister. Doesnt this prove that Nawaz Sharif is anything, but serous?
So, isnt it tempting to have Nawaz Sharif as the leader of Pakistan? Why is it taking so long for Pakistanis to fall for Nawaz Sharifs illusion this time?
Lets walk down the memory lane to examine facts. Shall we?
During the recent drama to restore a highly questionable man, Ch. Iftikhar as the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, leader of one of the 2 dozens Muslim Leagues operating in Pakistan promised, repeatedly, and promised in front of the nation, that if, (and it was not even a big if), Ch. Iftikhar is restored, he, the big leader, Nawaz Sharif would not ask for anything else for five years. I mean come on, youd think that like rest of the world, I too would remember this promise, but, as you know, perhaps like Nawaz Sharif, I too am a man who regularly forgets commitments. So, please, remind me, every time I forget that Ch. Iftikhar has been restored and it is Nawaz Sharifs turn to keep his word. Okay?
Anyway, as I was talking about broken promises, or was I talking about Pakistans misery? Oh, well, lets not mix these two because these two are completely separate issue.
By the way, how can anyone define a broken promise? For example, and lets take the big leader as an example here. If Nawaz Sharif promised the leader of his own party, Junejo, that Nawaz Sharif wont do anything to damage the party unity, wont challenge Junejos leadership, wont do anything to destroy the confidence within the party, but ended up destroying party confidence, challenging Junejos legitimate leadership and formed his own Muslim League, would it be considered a bad thing? Would it also reflect badly on Nawaz Sharif? All Nawaz Sharif did was that he (some nave people argue illegally) tried to remove Junejo from the partys presidency. Why is it wrong or bad to climb up by any means necessary as was done by Nawaz Sharif? No, it is not wrong to climb up, and Nawaz Sharif did not break any law; he just broke couple of promises, and promises are meant to be broken.
This is the Nawaz Sharif way! Get used to it.
It is not good to look in the past all the time, because like Nawaz Sharif, I too am not interested in history, or learning, and pretty much anything else, but I am being forced, by you, the readers, to think of couple of more examples to exemplify Nawaz Sharif as a leader. So, reluctantly and with a heavy heart, I am going to help you understand why Nawaz Sharif is a big leader, and it is for your own good. So, take out your notepads, pencils and start taking notes!
What is a leader? A leader is someone who does what he wants to do and this unique leadership quality is found in Nawaz Sharif in ample quantity. Here is how I know Nawaz Sharif is a leader.
Nawaz Sharif showed total lack of trust and respect towards Benazir Bhutto. Benazir, whose father opted to give his life, but refused to compromise on Pakistans nuclear program, which he himself started and his daughter thought that after fighting Zia, Nawaz Sharifs political father, and after being in prisons fighting for democracy, human rights, equality, justice, and democracy, she has somehow qualified as a bona fide leader. So what if her father did so much for Pakistan? So what if he gave his life for Pakistan? Therefore, exhibiting genuine leadership qualities, Nawaz Sharif ignored all the precedent and protocol as Punjabs Chief Minister and refused to receive Benazir Bhutto at Lahore Airport whenever she was in Punjab. Comrades, this is what Shakespeare called leadership. This is what Aristotle called character, dignity, and courage, as displayed by Nawaz Sharif. (Yes, Shakespeare and Aristotle did say these things, just ask PML (N) to verify and produce these quotes with the help of Brig Imtiaz!) Take this as another example of leadership because by totally not playing by the rules, Nawaz Sharif proved to the nation his heroic leadership qualities. Abiding by the law, respect for law of the land, being a team player etc is for democratic people and Nawaz Sharif on the other hand wants to solve the problems.
Democracy, if we go by the standard and the logic of Nawaz Sharif, is not the answer, it is the problem. Forget about being a team player also, it wont do any good, at least to Nawaz Sharif.
Nawaz Sharif has proved to us that being a team player doesnt help. Nawaz Sharif tried, repeatedly, to be a team player with Benazir, but she wanted democracy. Forget her. Nawaz Sharif tried to be a team player with Asif Nawaz, Waheed Kakar, Aslam Baig, Pervez Musharraf, Ghulam Ishaq, Farooq Leghari, and Sajjad Ali Shah. But, all these important people were not team players either.
I know you might be thinking that if Nawaz Sharif was unable to get along with anyone, even his own handpicked people, isnt the problem with Nawaz Sharif and not with anyone else? Well yes, on the surface it looks that way that Nawaz Sharif doesnt have the temperament to get along with pretty much anyone else, but who knows the truth. . So, we should not speculate that Nawaz Sharif was wrong or bad when he fought and quarreled with everyone else. Lets just say that we dont know, and move on.
By they way, in the interest of full disclosure, I must say that even when Nawaz Sharif was firing army chiefs one after another, I was getting impressed with his talented leadership that is required to get rid of people, but I needed something big from him to give me this confidence that yes, Nawaz can be a leader. And it didnt take very long for Nawaz Sharif to win me over completely, when paid thugs from Lahore, (we should call them signs of strength) stormed the Supreme Court in Islamabad where the then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was hearing a petition to disqualify Nawaz Sharif because of his corruption, mismanagement of funds and abuse of power etc.
So, attacking the Supreme Court by people arranged by Nawaz Sharif and his little brother, Shahbaz Sharif gave me this confidence that no matter how big or serious the problem, Nawaz Sharif has what it takes to fix it, by any means necessary! Hallelujah, bravo, wow, is how I expressed my gratitude towards Nawaz Sharif after his thugs, oops, I meant, his supporters forced the Supreme Court to shut down and Sajjad Shah ran for his life. Ha ha ha, that must have been fun. But, lets get back to Nawaz Sharif, the big leader.
A leader is a leader and he must employee every tactic to achieve whatever he wants. End justify the means, period.
There have been other examples of Nawaz Sharifs character. Just look at the accountability process that he started under the leadership of a supremely qualified man, Saifur Rehman. Everyone in Pakistan was stunned, speechless and crying (with joy of course) as the process of accountability was unfolding. It is also important to note that while the unpatriotic press in Pakistan was publishing stories after stories (false stories, obviously planted by the enemies of Pakistan to destabilize the country and damage the big leader) about the illegal, immoral and unethical Gestapo like tactics to intimidate, malign, and harass foreign agents, otherwise known as political opponents, Nawaz Sharif totally ignored every warning sign that a weak leader might have paid attention to.
By allowing Saifur Rehman to run amok in the country as for as rule of law goes, Nawaz Sharif taught us that a genuine and a strong leader ignores all advise, doesnt accept or tolerate dissent, and plows ahead, even at the cost of sanity, humanity and decency . By allowing Saifur Rehman to test the limits of everything that stands of a decent society, Nawaz Sharif reached new heights of glory, respect and admiration, not only in Pakistan, but also in FATA.
Another example of exemplary leadership by Sharif brothers is the recent incident at Gojra. Had Punjab been under the rule of PPP, people would have lost lives, property would have been damaged, and hysterical mobs would have played havoc in Gojra. But, thanks to the leadership of Sharif brothers, nothing of that sort took place in Gojra. Just CLICK HERE to get the facts about Gojra and the leadership of Nawaz/Shahbaz Sharif.
There are other examples, where Nawaz Sharif, showing leadership, used the parliament as a rubber stamp, where he hired and fired people at will without any regard for merit or the process, where he openly admitted to be a fundamentalist, which he later clarified that he meant he is a fundamentalist in religious sense, where he routinely aligned himself with right wing anti intellectual, anti common sense, anti progress, anti tolerance forces. Like every other genuine leader in human history, Nawaz Sharif always attempted to crush liberal forces in the country, while fully supporting religious parties. Dont forget, these religious parties provided the initial frame work for the Taliban, and if give an opportunity, these religious parties have repeatedly promised to emulate Taliban style governance in Pakistan. So, it was only Nawaz Sharifs leadership that brought these religious parties together to turn Pakistan, a diverse country into an Islamic State where only Sunni Muslim, just like Nawaz Sharif would live in peace and complete harmony! After all, Pakistan was created for only Sunni Muslims, and our big leader can vouch for it. Try asking him this simple question!
Still, if you are on the fence and not totally sure about Nawaz Sharifs ability to lead the country; let me give you one last example. Do you remember that traitor Musharraf deposed Nawaz Sharif? Do you also remember how Nawaz Sharif fooled Musharraf by signing a confession statement admitting to conspiring against the army chief? Well, Nawaz Sharif fled the country with his family, servants, money, personal belongings, etc, even though he was facing death sentence for his heinous crimes (not my words), but once again, using amazing leadership qualities which at the time of reaching a deal with Musharraf looked like a cowardly act, Nawaz Sharif went into exile instead of doing time in prison within Pakistan. I mean, what good is a leader if he cant compromise and save his own skin? Right?
So, in conclusion, Id say that Nawaz Sharif is a genuine leader. Also, as reported before, he is also a big leader. And, leaders are not bound by any agreement, they act in their interest, and their interest also becomes countrys interest, yeah, ask Nawaz Sharif.
If the current set up is folded, and if the democracy fails in Pakistan, and if Nawaz Sharif and his party take over Pakistan, the joke is on Pakistan!
