Suprising all and sundry, Shaukat Aziz ‘won’:http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/19/top1.htm ‘both the seats’:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_19-8-2004_pg1_1 he was running for – now good as that may be for the country, in how many other places in the world does a canidate win a seat in a place where no one has ever heard of him before?
Now, some time earlier Aziz had claimed he would turn Tharparkar into paradise. Considering it’s one of the most backward places in the world, that’s going to be tough going. So a good test of where he places on the ‘politician chart’, is how far he goes into implementing his pre -election- selection promises of rural development. Luckily, he doesn’t have much competition, for on a scale of 1 to 10[1], must Pakistani politicians don’t even make it to a 0, and a number have to be rated negative.
‘Some’:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_19-8-2004_pg7_33 held a _black day_ against Aziz’s nomination, saying:
bq. that parliament had become a rubber stamp in the hands of a dictator.
Ummm… when was it ever not?
While there is rejoicing in boardrooms around the country, statements like these make one think again:
bq. Shaukat Aziz said he was very happy with a very clean victory. He claimed that such transparent elections were held first time in Pakistan.
Really? Is that so? One would think he would ease up on the rhetoric now…
h4. Further reading
* “Google News Search for Shaukat Aziz”:http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&tab=nn&q=shaukat+aziz&btnG=Search+News :: for up to the minute news
* ‘Can Shaukat Aziz become an agent of change?’:http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/17/ebr19.htm :: good question
* “A technocrat joins the power troika”:http://jang-group.com/thenews/aug2004-daily/19-08-2004/oped/o1.htm
fn1. Where 1 is a resounding failure…