Beloved leaders and others

Zardari and Altaf Hussain are surrounded by courtesans and courtiers, corrupt and servile, thus easy to dominate.

Well, goodness, gracious us! Kim Jong-il of North Korea, the ‘Supreme Leader’ who is officially titled ‘Dear Leader’, has been overtaken in the affection stakes. Our very own Sindh Assembly has shown us it is capable of one-upmanship.

From a resolution read out in the assembly on November 18 : “This House strongly condemns such people who have levelled false, frivolous and baseless allegations, and used indecent, unethical and provocative language against our beloved leaders, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, president of Pakistan and co-chairman of PPP, and Mr Altaf Hussain, founder-leader of MQM.”

This was the provincial parliamentarians’ answer to prime media entertainer and fast friend of Asif Zardari, formerly of the PPP (or is he still a party member?), Zulfiqar Mirza and his fiery, highly amusing media tirades, which were a welcome break amidst the drab and totally non-amusing and non-informative things known as talk shows which dominate the electronic media.

‘Beloved leaders’ indeed — particularly the latter with the string of accusations that stand against his name and, of course, his conversion to a British national. Both ‘beloved leaders’ are masters at the art of political survival through their varied and differing methods of control. Both are surrounded by courtesans and courtiers, corrupt and servile, thus easy to dominate. The latter’s control of his party is now more complete than the former whose grip at the moment is somewhat shaky — despite the adoration of his assembly in Sindh. He has had a few things on his plate which rightly should have somewhat disturbed the icy-cool impression he normally projects.

As for that assembly of mostly extremely dicey characters, when it comes to the parties of the ‘beloved leaders’, revealed in this publication on November 22, is the fact that 13,183 acres of forest land in this province being rapidly deforested were sold for Rs9 per acre. And there is nothing anyone can do about it as democracy reigns supreme. The minister concerned has ordered the usual ‘inquiry’ but the deal has been done and will, of course, stand.

But all this, plus Mirza, plus Imran Khan’s sudden rise in the political scene, has been overtaken by media madness and the mystery of the wretched memo and the resignation, manipulated through some mightily nasty intrigue, of Pakistan’s man in Washington — alas, no more. As with all national mysteries, this will probably remain a mystery unsolved as that would be the most convenient way of dealing with it for those who have survived (so far) and are implicated — whatever, chances are it will remain unrevealed to the nation unless there is some sort of upheaval.

The pound of flesh has been taken and, as wrote the executive editor of this newspaper on November 23, “I don’t think the former ambassador deserved the kind of treatment that has been meted out to him by the ‘ghairat’ brigade within our establishment and the media”. Absolutely not, but then the media remains largely uninformed and unaware of how to exercise some sort of restraint and moderation. And it has not so far realised that one of the worst and most damaging of sins is stupidity.

Pakistan has lost an able man in a post where sense and moderation, tact and the ability to win friends are vital attributes in these days when the relationship with Washington has, through the policies of the present government and the establishment (or should it be the other way around?), reached an unusual low.

Jeffery Goldberg wrote in Bloomberg View this past July: “The ambassador with the hardest job in Washington is undoubtedly Pakistan’s Husain Haqqani, a skilled and wily diplomat who faces the near-impossible task of representing a country that Washington considers at once a crucial ally and a treacherous adversary. . . . some of his critics, including many of Pakistan’s generals, benefit materially from Haqqani’s work as his country’s most effective interpreter and apologist [one who defends by argument].”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2011.