ISLAMABAD, 27 June 2004 — Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who quit yesterday as Pakistan’s prime minister, struggled for 19 months to emerge from President Pervez Musharraf’s shadow but had to bow out due to the compulsions of the country’s military-dictated politics.
That Jamali’s days were numbered became clear earlier this month after Musharraf, wearing his army uniform, began meeting groups of MPs of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League in Parliament.
As late as Friday night, Jamali insisted there was nothing wrong in the president doing so and that his own job was not in danger.
For Musharraf, the last straw was perhaps when the six party religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal boycotted Thursday’s inaugural meeting of the National Security Council, saying it objected to Musharraf heading the body while wearing his army chief’s uniform.
The MMA in fact, had been opposed to the creation of the NSC by a presidential decree, contending it should be answerable to Parliament. The MMA had also insisted that Musharraf step down either as president or as army chief.
Observers say Jamali played a key role in persuading Musharraf to do both — to step down as army chief by the end of the year and for the NSC to be set up by an act of Parliament.
The MMA then agreed to vote on the NSC bill in Parliament in April, but Musharraf in an about turn soon after, maintained the people of Pakistan wanted him to retain both his posts. When this translated into the MMA’s boycott of the NSC, it gave Musharraf just the handle he was looking for and fitted in with his long-term goal of heading the PML, becoming the prime minister of Pakistan and reducing the president’s post to that of a figurehead.
This could only happen if Jamali was out of the way.
Jamali, ever since assuming office in November 2002, had been creating his own space in Pakistan’s political firmament that Musharraf was becoming uncomfortable with.
“He believed in politics of dialogue and consultation and would endeavor to secure the cooperation of all parties in tackling national issues both in the domestic and external fields,” said one of his colleagues.
He was seen to have brought with him a breath of fresh air and throughout the time he was in office was credited with keeping his cool.
The first words he spoke as leader of the National Assembly signaled a complete and welcome break from vindictive politics of previous civil governments. He said he would neither malign nor harass his political opponents by framing false cases against them or opening their dossiers as was the norm in the past.
Jamali during his stay, also continued the fiscal and foreign policies Musharraf had pursued since 1999, holding they had best served the interests of Pakistan.
He made it clear that he fully shared the thinking and approach of the president in these matters.
That Jamali has always been a survivor is not surprising, given his lineage. His uncle, Jafar Khan Jamali, was one of the stalwarts of the movement for the creation of Pakistan and a close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Jamali, 60, made his debut in politics in 1977, when he was elected to the Balochistan provincial assembly. He was the minister for food, information and parliamentary affairs and was twice chief minister.
He was first elected to the National Assembly in 1985 and then in 1993. He became a member of the Senate in 1997. He was minister of state for food, agriculture and cooperatives, then local government and rural development, water and power and later railways.
