The Way Forward For Pakistan?

Despite my proclivity towards Gen. (R) Musharraf and his government, my extreme abhorrence for President Zardari and equally strong feelings of hatred fpr Nawaz Sharif, I would not like to see yet another military coup in the country now. My regular readers may label this a change in my thinking, but it is not. The reasons will be explicated as I present a background for this particular post.

Pakistan is currently surrounded by external threats. The problem of security is compunded with the internal threats. Electricity was always a problem in Karachi, now the whole country faces it. Petrol is mysteriously missing from various large cities. Stock Exchange is being restored to the position of October 99. Higher education sector has taken a bad blow. Political rivalries of the 90′s are back with full throttle. One man is running the show in Pakistan, despite it being a democracy. The list is just endless.

There are calls from certain quarters demanding the topple of the present setup. It is, indeed, extremely unlikely to continue the full tenure (which I guess the ruling elite realises and hence doing all personal favours in haste). Now let us suppose for a moment that the current chaotic conditions continue, pressure grows and Pakistan Army steps again to take control and vow to bring back the country on track. It will be welcomed by the people (again) and they will regret it later, as usual. An army interference at this stage is not a solution because then the politicians will have yet another chance of saying rightly that they weren’t given a chance. For example, if Raja Pervez Ashraf claims to end load-shedding by next year (my understanding being an end to electricity will mean no load-shedding), and the government is being toppled then he can say that he wasn’t allowed to finish his mission. So, the army should exercise patience and let the politicians stay in power for five years. (more…)

Zardari's Lame Speech

President Zardari’s address was far from impressive. I don’t really feel like writing anything about politics these days, but Zardari deserves some bashing. I’ll pen my first impressions about his speech here.

1) Why was the speech in English? Who was he trying to address and please?

2) He said “Never in the history of this country has a President standing here given his powers back”, the question is, Will you, Mr. President??

3) His way of speaking sucks big time, especially the way he tries to enforce some words at the end of his sentences.

4) I’d have liked him to wear a sherwani, but I’ll let this one pass.

5) There was no direct mention of US attacks on our borders.

6) There was a very liberal use of the words “Shaheed Mohtarma”

Conclusion: The speech was inconclusive.

Will Zardari Back Out Of The Presidential Bid?

Are there more surprises in the bag of the co-chairman of PPP? Rumors are rife about the possibility of Zardari stepping down as the presidential candidate of PPP at the last possible moment. The covering candidate is Faryal Talpur, whose appointment to the office of President was almost sure at one time. Will Zardari back out or not? Let’s have a look at the pros and cons for him.

I’ll first discuss the advantages for Zardari if he decides to go ahead with his nomination.

This is perhaps the first and the last chance for Zardari to play such high level power politics in Pakistan. Getting elected to the powerful office of President will legitimise his current role of pulling the strings in the country. He is, undoubtedly, the most powerful man in the country right now and hence being the president will legalise his role in policy-making.

Getting elected to the office of President, Zardari will have no fear of the judges (if they’re restored) or the cancellation of NRO because the constitution of Pakistan does provide protection to the president in office such that none of his previous cases can be reopened as long as he is in office while any current charges cannot be taken up in the courts, the only forum being the Parliament where his party enjoys a viable majority.

If Zardari decides to go ahead, he will have to declare all his assets. These may not be difficult to hide for him, but I suppose the list is long enough to hide. So this can be a troubling aspect. If a lot of it is declared then we all know what that can lead to.

In case he backs out, will that decision be fruitful for him?

He will still have the fear of NRO and hence cannot restore the judges, which apparently he isn’t interested in doing in any case.

Backing out in favor of someone else might have been popular decision, but giving the chance to his own sister will raise eyebrows.

The people of Pakistan may breathe a sigh of relief if Zardari backs out, so the decision may appear to be one respecting public sentiments.

Zardari may be able to gather more votes from other parties if he himself is not the one standing for the chair.

At the moment, nothing can be said with certainty. There is a lot at stake for Zardari. Both decisions can have far reaching effects. A deep analysis of the situation isn’t conclusive enough to predict the events of the next two days.

So, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed hoping for some common sense to prevail.

Welcome Back To 90's

It didn’t take long for Nawaz Sharif to declare an open war against PPP. This was the script of the show with the departure of Pervez Musharraf, the reason PML-N stayed in the coalition for so long. Now that Pervez Musharraf is out, they had to oppose PPP to continue their politics, mostly that of confrontation.

The ground is all set for the battle in Punjab, which is the most important province to conquer if one is to sustain a government in center. The appointment of Salman Taseer was a key indication of PPP’s foresight.

Nawaz was quiet all along and kept hanging on just to jam all ways of PPP’s alliance with Pervez Musharraf. Now that his agenda is fulfilled, it didn’t take him long to part ways with his bitter enemy.

Many bloggers predicted this the day Musharraf resigned. Ammar talked about the start of a cat-fight, which is precisely what is happening between the two parties.

The stage is set for the next showdown in Punjab. PML-Q will play the role of kingmaker, as their alliance with any of the two parties will decide the fate of the government.

Its neither the issue of judiciary nor the choice of president that have caused this coalition to break but the imprudence and incompetence of this lot of politicians has resulted in the failure of this coalition. They were never sincere with the issues of the people, all they wanted was to get rid of Musharraf and get a share of power to fill their pockets. The provincial assemblies are busy criticising Musharraf and endorsing Zardari, completely ignoring the issues of the people of Pakistan.

This has always been the real face of these political parties and those who believed in a certain change of betterment after 18th Feb were living in a fool’s paradise.

The parties are busy playing the dirty game of politics with the camouflage of democracy. This should remind us the last few words of our former President:

Pakistan Ka Khuda Hafiz

Can't Help Admiring Zardari

No matter how much I hate him, I have to admire the man for his moves, courage and foresight.

First of all, despite the whole world labelling him as a notorious politician, corrupt, murderer and everything else, he never admitted any of those crimes. He went on to stay in prison for eleven years even when he had offers of exile. He kept his cool, stuck in, knowing there was light (and a lot of it) at the end of the tunnel.

He started his new era of politics on the back of Benazir’s death. On the front he continued to boast Nawaz Sharif as his big brother knowing very well that the coalition is temporary and hence preparing the ground for PML-N’s disgrace at the back-end.

A close analysis of the presidential issue shows that at first it was PML-N  who wanted Musharraf out of the scene, but the way our dear President bowed out gave most of the credit to PPP rather than PML-N.

While the judiciary issue is the backbone of PML-N’s current success Zardari made numerous promises and then backed out leaving the fool Sharif standing in no man’s land. This has dented PPP’s reputation undoubtedly, but PML-N’s popularity is also hurt by this tactic of Zardari.

This is politics at its best. To dent PML-N further, Zardari created an environment where PML-N is left with no option but to quit themselves, and in case the system is wrapped it, the blame will go squarely on PML-N for destabilising a democratic government.

Zardari, as president, can also reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry as th CJP because the president has some protections of not facing all those cases of corruption. So President Zardari will have no fear of NRO being revoked by the judiciary. And then he can also take the credit of restoring the judges himself.

He has forced PML-N in a closed chamber having Salman Taseer in Punjab and now having talks with PML-Q for support.

All this is leading to the politics of 90′s, which we all detest. But we have to admire Zardari for excellent political gambits. Despite all such political excellence, I, and most of us, will continue to hate Zardari!