"Stupid Jadoogar. I'll Expecto Patronum him one of these days."
Forbes magazine just released their “World’s Most Powerful People” list, and guess what – Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani, our very own political magician, made the cut. Ranked at #38 (out of 67), one slot behind Osama bin Laden and two behind Indian PM Manmohan Singh, Forbes wrote,
Less powerful than bin Laden—can’t find him in his own country. Oversees Pakistan’s fledgling civilian government, ceded responsibility for tracking down terrorists to military. Busy fending off Obama, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, deposed militant groups. A little defensive? ‘We want stability in the region. We ourselves are a victim of terrorism and extremism.’ Still has keys to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
What Forbes fails to factor in is how well Gilani manages to fend off such forces, or whether it is he we should credit for being able to manage it all in the first place. If the Taliban, Al Qaeda and deposed militant groups are the topics du jour, than shouldn’t Gen. Ashfaq Kayani – the man commanding Pakistan’s armed forces – have made the cut? Moreover, it could be argued that President Asif Ali Zardari is really the “human pinata” who takes beatings from all sides, as evidenced by the recent letter sent by President Obama to his Pakistani counterpart. In the letter, delivered by national security adviser Gen. Jim Jones, Obama said “he expected Mr. Zardari to rally the nation’s political and national security institutions in a united campaign against extremists threatening Pakistan and Afghanistan.” Failing to do so, noted the NY Times, “would undercut the new strategy and troop increase for Afghanistan” he is preparing to approve.
In a recently released article infused with the byline, “Zardari Attempting to Fend off Maneuvers by Military, Intelligence,” MSNBC discusses the fate of Zardari, “who is engaged in seemingly never-ending battles with the country’s powerful military and intelligence establishments.” It seems that as Zardari is increasingly buried under heaps of criticism, political stand-offs, and scandals, [French submarines, anyone?], his Prime Minister – henceforth known as Jadoogar (“magician”) Gilani is sitting pretty, relatively unscathed, and now a member of the Forbes fraternity. How do you like them apples? As Nadir Hassan over at Newsline noted, this isn’t entirely undeserving, given that Gilani has won some political victories. Moreover, he wrote, “Gilani’s power has increased as Zardari has alienated more and more Pakistanis. Fairly or not, Gilani is seen as a counterpoint to Zardari which has allowed him to oppose the president as the country turns against him.”
If I were the Pakistani establishment, I would take the Forbes rankings with a grain of salt, especially considering that Osama bin Laden somehow snagged the 37th spot and Oprah Winfrey is ranked all the way up at #45, [she gives cars to her audience and threw her weight behind Barack Obama, for God's sake!] Another curious and bizarre decision? Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, India’s most wanted man, is apparently the 50th most powerful person in the world. The Forbes reasoning further solidifies why these rankings should be laughed at rather than taken seriously – “Rumor has it he’s hiding out in Pakistan, protected by appearance-altering plastic surgery as well as friends in the Pakistani intelligence community.”
errr … errrr Forbes just lost all the credibility in my eyes. I mean seriously!!!!
ROFL at the caption of the picture ahahahahahahAHahAHA
[...] slot behind Osama bin Laden and two behind Indian PM Manmohan Singh, […] Read more at: CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan ashfaq, asif ali zardari, beatings, civilian government, forbes magazine, jim jones, kayani, [...]
Jadoogar, haha! I wonder how Forbes measures how powerful these leaders are.
Here is the logic according to Forbes:
“In compiling our first ranking of the World’s Most Powerful People we decided to define power in four dimensions. First, we asked, does the person have influence over lots of other people?
Then we assessed the financial resources controlled by these individuals…For heads of state we used GDP, while for CEOs, we looked at a composite ranking of market capitalization, profits, assets and revenues as reflected on our annual ranking of the World’s 2000 Largest Companies.
Next we determined if they are powerful in multiple spheres…Lastly, we insisted that our choices actively use their power. Ingvar Kamprad, the 83-year-old entrepreneur behind Ikea and the richest man in Europe, was an early candidate for this list, but was excluded because he doesn’t exercise his power.”
Yeah, based on this logic, it STILL doesn’t make sense.
True. I say Gilani is still dwarfed by Kiyani and AAZ but he is gaining more and more power as both other men fight it out. Rankings as you know are always subjective; one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter as goes the saying.
Anyways, Forbes should just stick to ranking personal wealth. Wonder where Kiyani, Gilani and Zardari would rank in that?
i must admit.. i was surprised to see him on there.
Looking at the Stoopid Jaadogar photo, Mr.Sharif doesn’t look pleased with forbes here like the rest. I guess Nawaz will go on a halwa poori strike for the weekend
To be honest, I poached this photo from another blog post I wrote – so it’s out of context, who knows if Nawaz even heard of the Forbes ranking. Haha, but I’d like to think if he did, this would be his face!
Read Anjum Niaz’s column in today’s The News titled, “Gilani: One in a hundred million”. She does a wonderful job in explaining why Gilani was the choice and not Kiyani or Zardari. Yes, he’s a political magician…so aptly put by you.
Thanks for the tip Yawar, here’s the link for everyone else: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=209050
This was a good point:
“I leave it to the readers to determine Gilani’s role and power in “multiple spheres.” All I can humbly add is that, until recently, our honourable prime minister and president remained hunkered down in their respective palaces, donning shiny suits and snazzy ties to meet each other and talk serious stuff without daring to travel afar. The most visited city in Gilani’s itinerary remained Multan, his hometown. To try to know in which other sphere our PM shines requires a lot of head scratching.”
This is shocking! I can’t believe that Gilani made it on this list.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=209050
from the link above:
The only “active use of his power” that one can credit Gilani with is steering the ship of democracy towards calmer waters despite having President Asif Zardari as the helmsman, bent on destroying the PPP and the democratic norms of the country.
And this, indeed, is a match clincher.
Quietly, gently, diplomatically, Yousuf Raza Gilani has faced the political storm within the country and abroad. As soon as he was selected for the job by the father-and-son combo – Zardari and Bilawal – he calmly allowed the two to reign supreme without ever getting competitive. He was dignified, decent and decorous in his dealings with Zardari who, according to The Financial Times (August 26, 2008), suffered in 2007 from “severe emotional instability, dementia, amnesia, concentration problems and major depressive disorder.”
For this alone, and much more, Gilani deserves his 38th position among the “world’s most powerful people”!
He has won respect from the surly Sharif brothers; he has no detractors in the cavernous GHQ; he has navigated like a master mariner through the shark-infested waters of the judiciary, set up by none other than his own president, and has succeeded in handing back the Supreme Court to the brave judges and their chief maliciously ejected by Musharraf. He has not made enemies in the media.
Also, dealing with the dodgy, corrupt and NRO-stained clique forming a close circuit around the Presidency is no small feat. Gilani gets on perfectly well with this tainted lot without dying himself in their wool. And, yes! Keeping his coalition partners and slick politicos like Altaf Hussain, Asfandyar Wali Khan, and Maulana Fazlur Rehman in their place is praiseworthy.
While Gilani would inarguably fail the Forbes magazine’s eligibility test made up of four questions, he deserves the 38th position for holding up the sphere of democracy in the same way Atlas held up the heavens in Greek mythology.
(On a lighter note, I love Nawaz’s expression in the picture above! Ha Ha!!!!)
Great minds think alike Oms!
I think the columnist didn’t so much as agree with the ranking as kind of patronize the whole logic behind it all – and it’s a little sad that the only thing that Gilani is deserving of is is NOT pissing people off!
Apparently, and rather surprisingly considering it’s
‘the’ Forbes, the power ranking are done through a very shallow analysis of actual powers vested with individuals. Stands very true for Gillani who’s merely the one playing the show and not the one calling the shots.
Btw, why do you think Dawood Ibrahim doesn’t merit the ranking? The guy ruled the underworld there, the last time I heard of him, no? o.O
Oh yeah, I was just making fun of their logic – it seems his face-altering plastic surgery played a part!