Talk:Shaukat Aziz
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Khalidkhoso 22:09, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
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[edit] NA seat elections
On 27 May 2005, an edit by 202.176.233.35 (talk • contribs) added the following:
- "The elections were extemely controversial. The independent and locally respected Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) reported widespread ballot rigging and incidences of blatant mass stamping of ballots. HRCP also confirmed that opposition party members were harassed and detained by the local police. In the end Mr. Aziz received a record vote count, which in the circumstances was hardly surprising."
This was non-NPOV and the lack of context might lead the uninformed reader to form a negative opinion of Mr. Aziz. Let's look at the facts.
- Mr. Aziz ran simultaneously from two districts, Attock and Tharparkar. He did not personally manage his election campaigns, which were run by the political machines of PML-Q and its allies. Attock and Tharparkar were considered "safe" bets because: (1) Attock is pro-Army, pro-goverment, and pro-Musharraf and (2) Tharparkar is the stronghold of Sindh Chief Minister Dr. Ghulam Arbab Rahim, who backed Shaukat Aziz. Nobody seriously expected Aziz to lose. There was no need to rig the elections.
- The government invited foreign observers to the election to make sure that they were free, fair, and transparent. [1]
- In Attock, Aziz obtained 76,156 votes vs. 29,497 for Sikandar Hayat of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
- In Tharparkar, there was a more lopsided result: Aziz got 153,485 votes vs. 10,732 for Mahesh Mallani of the PPP. Aziz also got 1280 postal votes.
- Since he could only hold one of the seats, Aziz decided to give up his Tharparkar seat and retain his Attock seat.
- While campaigning in Attock, Aziz's car was attacked by a suicide bomber. Nine people were killed, including the driver. Aziz, who was in the back seat, fortunately survived.
- Although he may have received a sympathy boost as a result of the attack, his victory in Attock was relatively uncontroversial.
- Asma Jehangir, the (controversial, IMHO) chairperson of the HRCP, wrote a letter to Dawn (http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/21/op.htm#4) in which she described irregularities in the Tharparkar election. Even in this highly critical letter, Ms. Jehangir acknowledges that there was "expectation of fair play on the day of the ballot since Mr Aziz's election was a foregone conclusion and there was no need for any fixing."
- However, even critics of the government, such as Hans B. Bremer, found Ms. Jehangir's accusations hard to believe. [2]
- Other observers also said that there was no rigging: "Polling agents of the contesting candidates posted inside the polling booths have so far made no serious complaints of any kind of rigging" [3]
In any case, since Mr. Aziz vacated the Tharparkar seat and retained only his Attock seat, the legitimacy of his seat and his membership of the National Assembly is well-established. It's common in Pakistan for those who lose elections to cry foul, so almost any election could be labelled "controversial" but such a label unfairly besmirches the good name of this honest candidate. Even in the "controversial" Tharparkar election, Mr. Aziz's opponents agree that his election was a "foregone conclusion", because of Dr. Ghulam Arbab Rahim's endorsement of Aziz. 68.20.179.133 00:39, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Shaukat Aziz son of former minister?
According to this article, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is a son of Mr Aziz Ahmed, a former minister and a senior bureaucrat.
I see a problem with this statement. It appears that his father was not a minister in Pakistan. But, the other part of the statement that his father was a senior bureaucrat - some say a former diplomat - seems to be correct and valid as this is widely reported in media.
Could somebody verify this and make the correction?
Incorrect: Shaukat Aziz's father was Aziz Ahmed a government servant but not to be confused with Aziz Ahmed, who was the former Foreign Minister of Pakistan and diplomat (Ambassador to United States) and mentioned elsewhere in Wikipedia.
[edit] "It strange to see..."
This section starts with a weasel-worded implication of bias or corruption. It is unsourced. patsw 12:28, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
