Nawaz Sharif’s Lexus!

Here’s an interesting insight about “The Man from L.O.N.D.O.N” from my Toyota days when I headed their Marketing and Sales in the early nineties.

Nawaz was then doing his first stint as PM.

One day, in mid or late 1992, I received a call from the PM house requesting that the Government wanted to officially buy a Toyota LEXUS for the PM.

It was Capt. Safdar. Not sure if he was married to Maryam Safdar then!

Safdar’s tone, as begets small people, finding themselves in positions of power, was very haughty, imperious and arrogant. So, I decided to put him in his place by asking for his PMA course number, immediately sharing mine, knowing he would most likely be junior to me, and said.

Deeply humbled by the response to ‘A Short Personal Story’

Haan Safdar, buthaao.What can I do for you?

His tone changed immediately and very politely, prefixed and postfixed with Sirs, he asked if we could order a Lexus for the PM.

I said, I’ll check and asked him to call me back the next day. Yes, deliberately told him to call me back, just to rub it in. I enjoyed putting arrogant flunkies like him in their place, but frequently gave my employers heart attacks.

Toyota Japan flatly refused stating that Lexus’s could only be exported to countries where they had been formally launched and a dealer network existed to support them.

Rubber hoses for Spines

As I mentioned earlier, this was mid to late 1992, and we still hadn’t launched our locally manufactured Toyota Corolla and neither was our full scale 3S (Sales, Service, Spare Parts) dealership network in place.

So it pretty much seemed like a snowball’s chance in hell for a Lexus. PM or no PM, was Toyota’s message.

I conveyed the same to Safdar. All hell broke loose. Safdar pleaded, trying to use the old Army card, then senior PM house staffers got involved. A Rear Admiral amongst them. And, frankly, even I and our Chairman the late Ali Habib, felt that our dignity as a country and the office of the PM was being undermined.

So we pushed the Japanese really hard and they finally gave in but at a very expensive price tag.

We had to buy not 1 but 3 vehicles. 1 for the PM,1 to replace it immediately if it broke down. The Lexus Promise, and the third as a “back up to the back up”. Hilarious! The Japanese are just an amazing lot!

Plus we had to cough up several more millions or so to buy special Lexus service equipment, spare parts and specialised training of our Islamabad dealer and their service staff, all in Japan at our expense.

Otherwise, Haider San, no Lexus said the Japanese with that stern, grim uncompromising look only they can conjure up.

Long story short. We said yes.

Why I still say this is our best fighting chance!

The Government paid for one Lexus and we footed the entire remainder of the bill. Two Lexus’s, service equipment, spare parts and training of our service people! It was a pretty hefty price tag.

But at least, we felt our national pride had been somewhat redeemed!

Nearly every week the PM house would call for the status on “Gaarhi kubb aay gi? till I stopped taking their calls and handed them over to our Fleet Sales Manager, a sweet fellow, who could talk you to death on the phone without committing anything and you felt he’d agreed to everything you said.

And he loved these long conversations with the PM house, as I listened to him merrily chatting away, sitting a short distance away from me, in our open seating Toyota style offices.

But what happened next is pure, unadulterated Karma!

I still vividly remember the day in April, 1993, when the ship arrived with “Nawaz’s Lexus” and received the expected call from the PM house, who’d been earlier advised of the imminent arrival.

This time it was a Brigadier, much senior to me, likely brought in to pull rank and talk to that “Toyota may aik Paagal Kuptaan General Manager” – me.

Enhancing Learning Quality in Pakistani Schools

I gave him the good news and informed that it’ll be cleared in day or two etc.

The next day Nawaz’s Government was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq, and the person who eventually ended up driving the Lexus was none other then Asif Zardari, who is now also, finally facing his comeuppance.

I guess, The Man From L.O.N.D.ON misses his Lexus and much much more, given his current meltdown we’re witnessing!

Allah is The Best of Planners!

In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act!