To Rise Above the Personal

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, "Will Yousaf Raza Gilani change Pakistan?" - Middle East Times - Cairo, Egypt
Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Perhaps the most notable aspect of Yousaf Raza Gilani's conduct upon his ascension as Pakistan's new prime minister has been his lack of apparent vitriol toward President Pervez Musharraf.

Gilani languished in prison for five years under Musharraf's rule, charged with making illegal government appointments during his term as the speaker of parliament.

Gilani has told Pakistan's English-language daily Dawn that the charges were "concocted" and "fabricated" in an effort to make him abandon the Pakistan Peoples Party, which was at the time led by Benazir Bhutto.

Yet thus far Gilani has not taken the confrontational approach toward Musharraf that many observers anticipated, and that some Pakistanis transparently hoped for.

Husain Haqqani, an associate professor of international relations at Boston University whom Gilani recently appointed as ambassador-at-large, told this writer: "So far, the two have interacted quite positively, notwithstanding Gilani's own suffering at Musharraf's hands.

Quite clearly Gilani is able to rise above the personal to make things work for the country."

Though Gilani, 55, was born in Karachi, his family hails from Punjab. In Punjab, the Gilanis are prominent landowners and recognized spiritual leaders descended from the Sufi saint of Multan, Moosa Pak Shaheed.

Haqqani explained that Gilani's spiritual upbringing has influenced his political views, in that Sufism makes him "very clear in his vision of tolerance and pluralism as Islamic virtues."

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Gilani was Pakistan's minister of tourism from March 1989 to January 1990, and its minister of housing and works from January to August 1990.

He was also elected to parliament in 1990 and 1993, serving as speaker of the national assembly from 1993 to 1996. Benazir Bhutto personally selected him for this latter position; though some of her advisers were concerned about Gilani's young age, she was impressed by what one Pakistani newspaper described as his "high-stake human management skills."

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Though Gilani has been known primarily as a domestic politician, Western countries are keenly interested in his anti-terrorism policies due to Pakistan's increasing centrality in the global war on terror.

Gilani has told Pakistan's national assembly with respect to the rise of militancy: "Unfortunately, some people have adopted violence as the way of expressing their opinion…. We are ready to talk to all those people who give up their weapons and adopt the path of peace." He has proposed both political and economic reforms in tribal areas.

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