Logo

Nawaz Sharif was twice elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan, serving two non-consecutive terms. His first term was from November 1, 1990 to July 18, 1993, and his second term was from February 17, 1997 to October 12, 1999. His party is the Pakistan Muslim League N (Nawaz group). His rule came to an abrupt end following the overthrow of his government by the General Pervez Musharraf-led military coup in 1999 months after the Kargil War.

On the development front, Nawaz Sharif completed the construction of South West Asia's first motorway, the 367 km M2, linking Lahore and Islamabad. The motorway, which was initiated during Nawaz Sharif's first term, was inaugurated in November 1997 . The peak of his popularity came when his government undertook nuclear tests on 28 May 1998 in response to India's nuclear tests two weeks earlier. However, after these tests, matter started going downhill. He suspended many civil liberties, dismissed the Sindh provincial government and set up military courts when the stability of the government was threatened. He was accused of cronyism and being too supportive of Punjabi candidates for office, which marginalized his party in the south.

During his first term as prime minister, Sharif had fallen out with three successive army chiefs: with General Mirza Aslam Beg over the 1991 Gulf War issue; with General Asif Nawaz over the Sindh "Operation Clean-Up" issue; and with General Waheed Kakar over the Sharif-Ishaq imbroglio.

PPP Co-Chairman, Senator Asif Ali Zardari was born in a prominent Baloch family from Sindh. He is the son of veteran politician Mr. Hakim Ali Zardari. Mr Zardari received his primary education at the Karachi Grammar School and his secondary education at Cadet College Petaro.

Mr Zardari served as a Member of the National Assembly twice (1990-93 and 1993-96), as Federal Minister for the Environment (1993-1996) and as Federal Minister for Investment (1995-96). He was the principal architect of the Benazir Bhutto government's efforts to transform Pakistan's energy power sector by encouraging major investment opportunities in power generation. He was also the initiator of the Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline project.

Mr Zardari was elected Senator in 1997 and served in that capacity until the dissolution of the Senate following the military coup of 1999. He was elected Co-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party in January 2008 following the assassination of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.

Mr. Zardari's political career spans two decades spent working closely with Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. During this period he helped formulate policies that expanded the freedom of the media, revolutionized telecommunications and opened Pakistan for foreign direct investment. During Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto's first term in office CNN and BBC were allowed broadcasting rights in Pakistan and mobile telephone services introduced at Mr Zardari's initiative. During her second term in office, in addition to the independent power producers (IPPs) being allowed in, Mr Zardari encouraged the introduction of FM radio in the private sector.

He is the 11th President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Asif Ali Zardari was born in 26 July 1955. He is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Zardari is the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who twice served as Prime Minister of Pakistan. When his wife was assassinated in December 2007, he became the leader of the PPP. It has been claimed that Zardari is among the five richest men in Pakistan with an estimated net worth of US$1.8 billion (2005).

Early life and education

Asif Ali Zardari belongs to a Shia Muslim Sindhi Baloch (Sindhi speaking) family from Sindh. He was born in Karachi and is the son of Hakim Ali Zardari, head of one of the Sindhi tribes, who chose urban life over rustic surroundings. His mother is from the family of Khan Bahadur Hassan Ali, who was among the founders of the first educational institution in Sindh, "Sindh Madarsa-tul-Islam Karachi".

Zardari received his primary education from Karachi Grammar School and his secondary education from Cadet College, Petaro. Zardari also attended St Patrick's High School, Karachi. While a candidate for parliament, a position for which a 2002 rule requires a college degree, Zardari claimed to have graduated from a college in London called the London School of Economics and Business (LSEB). The 2002 rule was overturned by Pakistan's Supreme Court in April 2008.

Early political career

Zardari married Benazir Bhutto on 18 December 1987. In 1988 his wife won the seat of Prime Minister, and Zardari became a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan. He served as investment and environment minister in Bhutto's governments. It was during this time that Zardari's opponents began using the nickname, "Mr 10%", in reference to the charges of corruption against him.

Bhutto's government lost in the 1990 elections. Zardari soon came under investigation in Switzerland over alleged receipts of kickbacks from two Swiss-based companies. Zardari claimed the charges were political in nature, and in 2008 Switzerland closed the case and released Zardari's frozen assets. The chief prosecutor said he had no evidence to bring Zardari to trial.

When Bhutto returned to office in 1993, Zardari was released from jail and became a government minister. In 1996, after a change of government, Zardari was again arrested. From 1997 to 2004, Zardari was kept in jail on various corruption charges and accusations of murder. Pakistani investigators accused Zardari and his wife Benazir for embezzling as much as US$1.5 billion from government accounts. He was also accused of allegedly plotting the murder of Murtaza Bhutto, the brother of his wife Benazir Bhutto. He was later cleared. Another allegation involved an estate in Surrey which Pakistani press speculated was purchased by Zardari. Zardari was similarly accused of purchasing 307 acres of land in Islamabad at "below the prevailing market price" in 1994 through an intermediary. In March 2009, a company owned by Zardari and his son Bilawal purchased the land for Rs 62 million. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) valued adjacent land at Rs 850,000 per kanal (Rs 6.8 million per acre); if the 307 acres of land were valued on a similar rate, it would be valued around Rs 2 billion. Zardari's financial history was one case study in a 1999 US Senate report on various vulnerabilities in banking procedures.

A New York psychiatrist found in March 2007 that Zardari's time in jail left him with memory impairments. Zardari claims to have been tortured. When Zardari stood for the Pakistani presidency in 2008, the Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, said that Zardari had no current mental condition requiring psychiatric help or medication.

In October 2007, the president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, issued the National Reconciliation Ordinance which granted amnesty to politicians in office from 1986 to 1999.

Co-chairman of the PPP

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on 27 December 2007, shortly after returning to Pakistan from exile. On 30 December 2007, Asif Ali Zardari became the co-chairman of the PPP, along with his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is currently studying at Oxford. Bilawal is intended to fully assume the post when he completes his education.

After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Zardari reaffirmed his lack of interest in the prime ministership. Chairman Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif, leader of the PML-N, along with some smaller political parties, joined forces in an electoral coalition that won a heavy majority in the elections and unseated Musharraf's ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q). After the election, he called for a government of national unity, and divided cabinet portfolios among coalition partners on proportionate basis. Asif Ali Zardari and former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on 21 February 2008 that their parties would work together in the national parliament after scoring big wins in the election.

On 5 March 2008, Zardari was cleared of five corruption charges as part of a court ruling which "abolished the cases against all public office holders" under the National Reconciliation Ordinance. He had another trial on the remaining charges on 14 April 2008, when he was cleared under the same NRO.

On 19 April 2008, Zardari announced in a press conference in London that he and his sister, Faryal Talpur, would participate in the by-elections taking place on 3 June and that, if necessary, he would contest to become the country's next Prime Minister, even though his party voted by a 2/3 majority to announce that Yousaf Raza Gillani would be the PM for a five year term.

Presidential candidacy

Zardari, in alliance with Nawaz Sharif, was preparing to impeach president Pervez Musharraf, and a charge-sheet and draft of impeachment had already been prepared, when Musharraf, in accordance with his advisors, resigned from the presidency on 18 August 2008. Chairman Zardari was confirmed by the Central Executive Committee of the PPP as well as endorsed by the rival ethnic party MQM as candidate for the post of President of Pakistan. There was nevertheless strong disagreement among the current coalition partners, and Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party was threatening to leave the coalition as a result. According to the Constitution, elections must be held within 30 days of the previous president stepping down. The electoral college is composed of the Senate, the National Assembly, and the four provincial assemblies.

Pakistan's Election Commission on 22 August announced that a presidential election would be held on 6 September, and the nomination papers could be filed from 26 August.

The New York Times reported that Zalmay Khalilzad, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, had been unofficially advising Asif Ali Zardari. Khalilzad, an Afghan native, had been rumored to be flirting with the possibility of returning home to challenge President Hamid Karzai when his first term expired in 2009.

President of Pakistan

Zardari was elected president of Pakistan, as Chief election commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq announced that "Asif Ali Zardari secured 281 votes out of the 426 valid votes polled in the parliament," In Sindh, Zardari had 62 of the 65 electoral votes while his two main opponents got zero votes; in North West Frontier Province Zardari got 56 votes against 5 by Siddiqui and one by Hussain; in Balochistan, 59 votes while Siddiqui and Hussain got 2 each. However, Zardari did not win the majority in the nation's biggest province, Punjab, where the PML-N's Siddiqui got a clear majority. BBC reported that Zardari "won 481 votes, far more than the 352 votes that would have guaranteed him victory." New York Times said that Zardari would be sworn in "as soon as Saturday night or as late as Monday or Tuesday, diplomats and officials said.

Zardari was challenged by Justice (Retired) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, a former judge nominated by Nawaz Sharif's PML-N, and Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who was nominated by the PML-Q, which backed Musharraf. According to the Constitution of 1973 presently in vogue (but declared for major amendments by Zardari) the President of Pakistan, who must be a Muslim, is elected by an electoral college composed of members of the two houses of parliament - the 342 seat lower house National Assembly and the 100 member upper house Senate, as well as members of the four provincial assemblies - Sindh, Punjab, North West Frontier and Balochistan. The assemblies have total of 1170 seats, but the number of electoral college votes is 702 since provincial assembly votes are counted on a proportional basis. The new president, who obtains the largest number of votes, will serve for five years as Pakistan's 11th president since 1956, when the country became an Islamic Republic, excluding acting presidents and CMLAs during times of military rule. Voting was in progress at the Parliament House, while the Senate members finished casting their votes.

Zardari was sworn in by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar in a ceremony at the presidential palace on September 9, 2008. He addressed the parliament for the first time on September 20, 2008, but the event was overshadowed by the suicide bomb blast which destroyed the Marriott Hotel, Islamabad. Although Asif Ali Zardari was elected constitutionally, he was administered the oath of office by Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar who took oath as Chief Justice of Pakistan under the Provisional Constitutional Order. Earlier, a supreme court ruling by a 7-member bench of the SC had overturned the PCO. The ruling by the 7-member bench stated: "Appointment of the chief justice or judges of the Supreme Court or chief justices of the high courts under the new PCO would be unlawful and without jurisdiction.

Shafqat Mahmood, a former associate of Ms Bhutto, has said: "Mr Zardari has an image problem, because of a lingering reputation of corruption, despite not having been convicted of any wrongdoing. He will need to change this image.

Constitutional reform

In 2009, President Zardari told the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that he wished to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan Article 58 2(b) of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan to limit the powers of the President of Pakistan that had been expanded by previous administrations. Zardari ceded several of his most important powers, including the chairmanship of the agency that oversees Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, to Prime Minister Gillani.

Relationships with world leaders

Zardari picked China for first state visit after being elected in September 2008. He went to the United States to attend the U.N. General Assembly on 25 September 2008 and 25 September 2009 respectively, and gave his trademark speech with a framed picture of his assassinated wife, the late Benazir Bhutto nearby to remind the world that he's her husband. Chinese President Hu Jintao has pledged to work with Zardari to build a stronger political and economic partnership between the two countries.

On September 24, 2008 while in the United States, Zardari met the U.S Republican Party's Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. His tongue-in-cheek comments to Palin, while shaking hands, that "I might hug you", created controversy and was the cause for a (non-violent) 'fatwa' against him because his "praise of a non-Muslim lady wearing a short skirt" was un-Islamic.

Zardari met with U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai at the White House in May 2009 to discuss security issues in the region.

Upon the re-election of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Asif Ali Zardari phoned Dr. Singh and offered his congratulations and an offer to work with the Indian government to address challenges in the region.

In October 2009, he met with Pope Benedict XVI in order to discuss the situation of Pakistani Christians in context of blasphemy law.

Name: Chaudhry Iftikhar Occupation: Cheif Justice Born On: 12- December Websites: Chaudhry Iftikhar Detailed Profile: None Wiki Page: Chaudhry Iftikhar

Name:	Kashmala Tariq
Occupation:	Politician
Date of Birth:	24-Jan
Websites:	None
Detailed Profile:	Kashmala Tariq
Wiki Page:	Kashmala Tariq

Kashmala Tariq a well known Human Right activist and Politician of Pakistan is a graduate from Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore, LLB from Punjab University and LLM from London School of Economics. She is a member of National Assembly Of Pakistan from the Women Reserve Constituency NA-277 for the Province of Punjab and has mainly worked for Women Identity, Empowerment and rights. Her political career started as President of Peoples student Federation (PSF) Punjab and subsequently got elected as Students Union President at London School of Economics (LSE).She has also worked as Chairperson of Common Wealth Women Parliamentarians’ Chairperson CWP in CPA Annual conference held in India, member and Executive Director of Parliamentarians Commission for Human Rights (PCHR), and also working with organizations like United ILO, OHCHR, US Aid, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, etc. a community centre made by her development funds is one of her remarkable achievements. Being a human rights activist, she has raised her voice for gender equality and rights for (women, children, minorities and victims of HIV/Aids.

   Name: Pervez Musharaf Occupation: Ex- Cheif of Army Staff/ Ex- President Pakistan/ Writer Born On: 11- August Websites: None Detailed Profile: Pervez Musharaf Wiki Page: Pervez Musharaf

Pakistan desperately needs genuine leadership

By KASHIF KHAN

KARACHI - Our economy is on a dangerous junction, says Shahbaz Ali Baig, Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan’s top HR Consultancy Firm. After working for 17 years abroad, Shahbaz has done marvelous job by training workforce in a number of organizations including HBL, KESC, etc.

He warns that if we don’t solve our core issues such as security problems, political stability, corruption and discrimination – soon the bubble will burst. We need to be better predictors and we need to change ourselves now before it’s too late.

In an exclusive interview with KAROBAR ONLINE he says that bad times happen very quickly and within a heads up. Preventive measures are always better than corrective measures. Let’s not wait till things go bad. Also corporate world needs to cut down costs. We are spending too much on marketing – instead we need to focus on growth, quality, and operations. Many companies in textile industry and others failed because their costs were too high. We need to be lean – we need to go back to the basics – focus on our core competencies like agriculture. We need to discourage imports on consumer goods. We need to focus on self sustaining our economy which is not difficult to do. We can learn from our neighbors. I have studied economies of Malaysia and India and Bangladesh and there are lots of lessons we can learn from them. We need will and leadership and support to make it happen. We need to simplify things and not complicate things more.

K.K- Detail of your education?

SAB – MBA and Bachelors in MIS and Marketing. Also Project Management Professional certified. I am Six Sigma certified Master Black Belt. I am certified lead auditor for ISO and FDA. I am one of the few highly selective certified implementers of Entrepreneurship Operating System (EOS).

K.K Tell about your career

SAB-I have over 17 years of professional experience. I have worked for some of the top companies in USA such as US Oil, Citibank, Georgia Pacific, Wisconsin Tissue and majority of my career was build at General Electric. I was promoted 4 times in a span of 5 years. I started in GE as a project manager in IT. My first project was to make sure there are no issues during Y2K. I quickly became the program manager and later a Six Sigma black belt. When Project management office PMO was formed I was the first one to be inducted in PMO. I later moved away from IT and became Quality Assurance Manager for all of GE Healthcare. My role was to ensure compliance across our facilities. Make sure I train quality representatives globally on Quality policies and procedures, six sigma. I also was responsible for managing our global compliance and complaint handling tool. Through out my career at GE, I was involved in people development, organization development, change management, training and managing global projects.

After a successful career at GE, I became a Director at Servicemaster. Servicemaster is one of the largest companies in the service industry. I was Director and Deployment champion of quality, six sigma and continuous improvement. Once again, my role required me to bring change management in the business, train people and resolve issues and conflicts so teams can focus on customers rather than operational issues. I was managing projects in both our head quarter which was in Chicago and also our main business center which was in Memphis.

I had always planned to learn as much as I can in USA and apply it back in Pakistan. In my fifteen years in USA, I worked twice as much as an average person because my goal to was maximize my time here and learn all the best practices and go back to Pakistan to apply them.

I left a life of luxury and success and at peak of my career left USA and moved back to Pakistan. I joined HBL and developed a Quality Assurance department. In the first few months, I traveled all over Pakistan and trained our branch managers on service quality. I also listened to their challenges and developed a SWOT analysis. I managed the first ever Customer Care Week at HBL which was a huge PR success and it motivated employees and excited customers. I resigned from HBL to take on position of Head of HR and OD for KASB Securities but my resignation was not accepted and I stayed at HBL to work as project lead with Bankworld and IFC to develop a training strategy for HBL. I was offered to head OD and training for HBL as per recommendations of IFC consultants but due to internal reasons I was not given this opportunity. At the same time, I was Director of Executive Development Center for DIHE. In my role, I organized several workshops and seminars and talk of people from corporate sector and political leaders.

I resigned from HBL and formed Virtual CEO a consulting firm whose purpose was to make a remarkable difference. One of my clients increased their revenue by 26% in one year due to my advisory services.

My success of Virtual CEO brought me to KESC where the HR gap was organization development and lack of training. I was hired as Director and head of Learning and OD for KESC. I felt that KESC is critical to Karachi and Pakistan hence though the organization had many internal and external challenges such as politics and operational issues; I wanted to make a difference. I conducted training needs assessment and leadership perception analysis and developed a training plan accordingly. I was also responsible for managing our training center. KESC was a challenge as I had to deal with internal bias and external pressures but I held my ground and kept doing projects that motivated and energized employees. For ‘karkuns’ we developed a grade progression scheme. My team also managed the largest management trainee program of any company in Pakistan. This hiring process took me to best institutes in Pakistan and we hired top talent. We also developed a testing assessment center to ensure that only deserving people are hired. I also facilitated roll out of performance management system for 5500 employees. Working for KESC was a patriotic act for me. I left KESC because I felt in the current scenario I cannot make more progress and help such as employees, management and customers. I came to Pakistan to do the right thing and not just to get a job and I want to only work in places where I can make a difference.

My professional values are: do the right things, grow or die, do as you say you will do, be humbly confident, help people first.

I joined Engage HR as an Executive Director. Engage HR is one of the most recognized HR consultancy firm. Masood Naqvi, Khursheed Hadi, Arshad Nawab and Anwar Mateen are the board of directors and they are KPMG and I respect them for their professionalism hence I said yes to running this company as this gives me the platform to make a difference – hire right people for the right jobs, help companies grow, reduce operational costs in companies and coach and train leadership of companies so they learn how to grow their business even in difficult times.

K.K- Why you have decided this field?

SAB- My background is diverse...I have vast experience in IT, business development, entrepreneurship, human resources and training and development along with quality and project management. I find that in this new business era – one needs to have a cross functional background so one can understand the business challenges...if someone knows how to manage people, process and technology – one can be successful.....I have a toolkit that helps me solve business solutions

K.K- What human resources your company have?

SAB-I have merged my practice of Virtual CEO with Engage HR. Now I have a broader platform and I get to work with ethical and professional people whose expertise are in Executive search, outsourcing, HR policies and procedures, HR infrastructure, and technology based HR solutions. We have some proprietary solutions that will help SMEs, MNCs, banking, manufacturing and service industries.

K.K- What problems you are facing?

SAB- The problem I face is corruption, discrimination, racism and prejudice. Unfortunately there is still all of this in corporate world as well as semi public companies. My objective is to help business leaders remove these issues and make sure that companies hire and retain people based on merit only. We also need to learn to identify the innate talent in people. HR unfortunately focuses on text bookish things like policies, performance management forms but doesn’t focus on human element of how to motivate your people and how to energize employees. Also internal branding is important. If you can keep your employees trained and motivated they become your ambassadors. This is where I come in. I use best practices and timeless methods of solving issues. But – I can’t solve issues for companies and leaders who doesn’t want help. Hence I work with leaders who are open minded and willing to improve and grow and want to do right things and not make decisions based on corruption and bias.

K.K- What you demand from the government?

SAB- I want to help government in using the money we are getting for flood victims effectively. USA and other countries are willing to give us funding but they require us to develop projects and project plans for improving our economy. I want to help the government develop their vision and roadmap that will take us to economic growth in the future. I need government to not just give these assignments to people with ‘sifarish’ but give assignments to professionals who are also patriotic and are value driven so they get the best out of them. I am willing to help the government. Question is does the government want to be helped?

K.K- How do you see competition?

SAB– Human Resource Management (HRM) and Human Resource Development (HRD) are still infant industry in Pakistan. I see that we hold too many workshops and seminars but the same people attend these seminars and still true change doesn’t come. People are working without work life balance and still not producing. In USA and other countries they work 5 days a week 40 hours work week and produce more than we do. I feel competition is very commercial. Either they focus on seminars and workshops which are in most cases time wasters. Others are selling text bookish solutions. Very few people in this industry have the passion to actually make a positive difference. My team does not sell products and services – we listen to our customers and find solutions for them. We keep our costs less and provide value. We partner with our clients and our success comes from our client’s success. If our interventions and solutions can help business achieve its vision – we feel we are successful.

K.K- Your leadership style?

SAB–I have a 3 strike rule. I make sure my team knows my professional values and I expect them to live by those values. 3 strike rule means if 3 times they violate those values – than our professional relationship ends. We can be friends but we can’t work together. Most people don’t leave jobs they leave their bosses. If you interview people who have worked for me – you will know that I focus on their development. I elevate their performance and help them see their abilities. I do not discriminate and always make my decisions objectively about people.

K.K- How do you spend leisure time?

SAB- Sports – cricket, tennis and gym. Sports keep you energized, competitive and young. Sports make you use not just your body but your brain as well. I am sad to say that our young generation doesn’t play sports like they should. We need to encourage our youth to play sports. I also enjoy good movies, books both fiction and of personal and professional development. Also my hobby, passion and my second job is of Current Affairs host on PTV. I host various live programs on PTV News and PTV Home where I get to express my views and to meet dynamic people and interview them. My programs are well received and I have done over 50 live programs in the last 6 months. During these six months I have covered topics from international relations, terrorism, economy, sports and politics.

K.K- Most difficult decision?

SAB – Most difficult decision was to move back to Pakistan after living abroad for 18 years.

K.K- Most difficult part of your work?

SAB- Time. We need a sense of urgency to fix things and we have so much to fix. Challenge is to make sure others have the same sense of urgency.

K.K- Type of music?

Pop music – Michael Jackson is my all time favorite. I also like good Pakistanti music and Indian music. Sajid Ali is my favorite Pakistani singer.

K.K- Believe in astrology?

SAB- I don’t but what ever is written about Scorpios in the books is very accurate and reflects my personality.

K.K- Spend vacations?

SAB- I travel to USA as part of my family is there. I work so much that I don’t actually get to take true vacation like I used to.