What we had been fearing all along is happening. Benazir Bhutto’s husband seems most likely to become the country’s next prime minister. After Benazir died the question that had arisen was ” after Benazir, who?” It was not an easy question to answer. The answer being suggested by the PPP is not good news for Pakistan. But more of that later.

After the killing of Bhutto the PPP had hastily anointed Bilawal as the next leader of the party. Bilawal is a college student and an absolute novice in politics. His father Asif Zardari has emerged as the real power in the party. But there had been hope in some quarters (including this writer) that it would be best for Pakistan if the party elected an experienced leader with a good image. The name of Makhdoom Amin Fahim kept cropping up as the likely PM.

But that hope has been dashed. ‘Mr. Ten Percent’ is also a Machiavellian politician too it seems. After the PPP emerged as the largest party it became evident that a PPP man would become prime minister. Zardari began to play his little games to nudge Fahim out of the race. His friends in PML (N) came out with anti-Fahim statements. Meanwhile Zardari’s supporters in the PPP began to build a Zardari-as-PM wave in the rank and file of the party. Then the last blow to Fahim was when he was not invited at the Zardari-Nawaz Sharif parleys at Murree.

It seems likely that Zardari will become the next PM of Pakistan. Though some minor hurdles remain. One is that he has not got a graduate’s degree (Pakistan constitution says the prime minister should have it). The resourceful Zardari will surely find a way out. But his ascendancy to power is bad news for Pakistan. The country needed a strong and clean leader at this juncture. Zardari is hardly that. Musharraf and Islamist militants must be silently cheering.

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Source: Independent