Go for it, Gents

By Kamran Shafi

WHY in God’s name should Asif Zardari go to the White House to beg Dubya’s indulgence to impeach Musharraf?

And why in heaven’s name should Nawaz Sharif accompany him so that Dubya is moved enough to allow the elected government of Pakistan to impeach Musharraf?

If Asif Zardari’s ‘aides’ are to be believed — they leaked such stories to the press two days running last week — Asif had asked Nawaz Sharif to accompany him to DC so that they could, the both of them, stand in The Presence of possibly the most inept, most dangerous leader the US has ever had, and ask his permission to impeach Musharraf.

If the ‘aides’ are to be believed, NS has refused to go. Well, bully for him. What does Dubya have to do with this matter anyway? The ‘aides’ also let slip that Asif Zardari is upset that Nawaz Sharif let him down in the past too: that when Asif Zardari asked him to accompany him to Saudi Arabia to plead for oil on deferred payment, Nawaz Sharif said he would go but refused at the last minute.

Hang on a minute though. A source extremely close to Raiwind told me a month ago that whilst Asif Zardari had mentioned to Nawaz Sharif that they would go to Saudi Arabia together, when the time came Asif Zardari marched off on his own. I believe this version of events because my source is more than impeccable.

This is not the way to do business, sirs, it just is not. The coalition will simply not be able to take the pressures being put on it by irresponsible ‘leaks’ to the press by ‘aides’. As it is, the coalition that most Pakistanis including I fervently hope will stay together and defeat the dictatorship once and for all is already under huge pressure, especially, you guessed it, because of the PPP’s one step forward, five back approach to the impeachment and the judges issue.

Critically, this wishy-washy, neither here nor there, approach by the PPP is hurting itself far more than it is hurting the coalition. A little anecdote: walking three days ago in the Bagh-i-Jinnah, even now known to most Lahoris as Lawrence Gardens, a group of walkers stopped me and asked if I was I.

When told that it was indeed, one of them suggested a live DawnNews show about what they called the ‘retired hurt’ members of the PPP — a group of middle-aged and ageing gentlemen sitting under one of the gazebos in the gardens cooling off after their walk. I walked across to them and talked of this and that and it wasn’t long before it all came spilling out.

It broke my heart to see these 60- and 70-year-old men literally cry tears for what they thought was entirely the wrong path their party was taking. Their anguish was heightened by the publication just that day of the survey by the IRI that told us that fully 86 per cent of Pakistanis thought the country was headed in the wrong direction; 85 per cent demanded the ouster of Pervez Musharraf and 83 per cent wanted the restoration of the judiciary.

“Why can’t Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto’s party do what the people of Pakistan want it to do and move the country forward,” they asked almost in unison. They were a forlorn lot, those good men, but the one positive that came out was that they still had time for democracy and said so too. There was another: a grudging respect for Nawaz Sharif and his sticking by his word. For those who remember that the PPP and the PML-N were daggers drawn in the past this is a refreshing change.

But back to Yousuf Raza Gilani’s trip to the mecca of all Pakistani ‘leaders’, Washington DC (wasn’t China always the first port of call for ‘new’ occupants of our highest offices in the past?): why is Asif Zardari tagging along? Well, if he is going, it will be Gilani who will be tagging along.

But why? After all Yousuf Raza Gilani is the purported prime minister of this luckless country. Is there no thought at all that because Asif is the real power behind Gilani’s chair, Gilani might be completely overshadowed? Also, governments work with governments, not with political party leaders.

Look at India where whilst Sardar Manmohan Singh sits where he does only because Sonia Gandhi wants him to sit there, Sonia Gandhi does not sit in on meetings of Mr Singh with the representatives of foreign governments. Neither does she accompany the prime minister on his foreign tours.

Critically, the Americans have shown their teeth, as it were, where the Commando is concerned. They want him right where he is, if only they can cajole and wheedle Nawaz Sharif from his firm stand that the man be impeached and tried in a court of law. So what is the point of genuflecting to them on this count? Shouldn’t the PPP do the right thing and be done with it?

If the PPP knows what is good for the country and for itself, it will immediately do what the people of Pakistan want it to do. The bells are tolling for democracy one more time, which by the way is fine and dandy as far as I am concerned because that will be the last foray of the Pakistan Army-led venal Establishment into politics.

So go on, Gents, go for it. An important aside: my pal, the good Tahira Abdullah, berated me just last evening, despite the fact that she knows me so well, for using the term ‘Sirs’ — indeed ‘Gents’ — when I refer to the Establishment. She says this is “sexist” of me.

No, not at all. I use the terms with extreme prejudice, because it is men who have brought the country to near ruin, not women. Which woman heads a corps of the Pakistan Army, Tahira? Which woman was ever military dictator of Pakistan?

So, Gents, go for it.

Bushism of the Week: “Throughout our history, the words of the Declaration have inspired immigrants from around the world to set sail to our shores. These immigrants have helped transform 13 small colonies into a great and growing nation of more than 300 people” — President George W. Bush; Charlottesville, Virginia, July 4, 2008

P.S. And, Sirs, be hugely ashamed at what My Lord Ramday said about you on live TV two nights ago.

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk