How did the Sharifs climb so spectacularly up the ladder of political power in Pakistan? Considering this article was written well before Musharraf came to power, the last bit was very prophetic.
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/990613.htm
Eighteen years ago Nawaz Sharif was picked up from his foundry by my friend Lt General Ghulam Jilani and converted into a politician. Jilani, who died last week, did us a good turn when, as Bhutto’s favourite chief of the ISI, he kept his COAS, General Zia-ul-Haq informed of the destruction planned by Bhutto and gave him enough warning for him to act as he did on July 5 1977.
It was during Jilani’s time at the ISI that Bhutto, by an executive order, created a political cell to execute political dirty-tricks. This cell, in 1990, disbursed some Rs.900 million of the people’s money (with whose permission and under what authority?) to Nawaz Sharif and his cronies to help them gain power. We are still waiting for the Supreme Court to establish who is responsible for this act.
As governor of Punjab, General Jilani did much good for his province, and for this he deserves to be remembered with gratitude. Whilst discussing Nawaz Sharif’s follies I often used to ask, ‘What sort of a man have you landed us with, General?’ He would say, 'Someone had to be found to neutralize Benazir Bhutto and the PPP, and we thought a businessman, uncorrupted by politics, might do better, might help enrich the country and the people. That he enriched himself and his family is unforgivable. ** But then we all make mistakes.'Nawaz Sharif might now think that he has made himself impregnable by destroying every institution that could have stood in his way. He knows that he rides a tiger from which he cannot dismount. **