September 4, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Saani25,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: Three cabinet members, Shaukat Aziz, Razzak Dawood, and Lt-Gen Javed Ashraf Kazi have quietly begun lobbying for senate tickets, sources close to these ministers informed Dawn.

Relevant government functionaries are said to have started prospecting the field for selecting the right political parties and the right provincial senate slots for these ministers.

Regarded by the Musharraf government as the pillars of its ‘success story’ on the economic front, the finance, commerce and communication ministers are said to have been actively encouraged by the President to get themselves elected as senators after the Oct 10 polls so as to maintain ‘continuity of reforms’ in the economic field.

The continuity of the fourth pillar of the ‘success story,’ Dr Ishrat Hussain is likely to be guaranteed by extending his tenure as the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan by another five years when it comes to its constitutional end in December this year.

Shaukat Aziz is being credited by the military government for having restored Pakistan’s credibility in the international financial circles including the private risk rating agencies as well as the multilateral aid agencies like IMF, World bank and Asian Development Bank.

His continued presence at the head of the official finance team, at least for the next five years, is being considered essential for implementing the residual structural reforms.

Razzak Dawood on the other hand is said to have won the confidence of the regime by achieving greater access for Pakistani goods in the rich markets. The free trade agreements signed with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are also considered to be the result of his tireless efforts.

The regime reportedly believes that Razzak’s expertise would be needed much more in the coming years when the country would be facing more serious challenges of globalization.

Razzak Dawood is said to have won the President’s confidence even more in recent days because of the crucial role he had played in bringing Pakistan and Bangladesh closer.

He is said to have used his old links of pre-Bangladesh days to lobby for Pakistan among the influential political circles of BD clearing the way for Musharraf’s visit to BD where, in accordance with a pre-arranged understanding, President Musharraf expressed his ‘regrets ‘ for the events of 1970.

Razzak is said to have even succeeded once in getting Musharraf and former BD PM Hasina Wajid meet face to face behind the scene in an Arab capital which reportedly created the right atmosphere for later developments that led to marked improvement in the bilateral relations which had dipped significantly when Musharraf avoided meeting Hasina at the last UN General Assembly session following her generic condemnation of military takeovers.

The third cabinet aspirant for the senate seat, former ISI chief Lt-Gen Kazi, enjoys close friendship with Musharraf and he is said to have ‘delivered on the Railways against very heavy odds.’

Earlier, when the plan was approved in March this year to bring these three ministers back into government through the Senate route, there were three political parties, namely, the Millat Party of Farooq Leghari, the Tehirk-i-Insaf of Imran Khan and the ‘king’s party’ of the Chaudhrys which the government thought could be used as vehicles for their return journey to the cabinet.

Now, however, since Imran Khan has crossed over to the other side of the fence and Farooq Leghari’s chances of winning his own seat appear dim, PML(Q) alone seems to have been left in the field to accommodate the government candidates for the senate.

But, there are now indications that even the PML(Q) would, in the face of growing popularity of People’s Party Parliamentarians, and PML(N), find it increasingly difficult to win enough seats to accommodate all the government-approved senate aspirants.