Similarly, it seemed that by now the barroom brawl that memogate quickly developed into would also have begun to ebb. But that has not happened. The fact is that nothing much will come out of it unless Mr Zardari’s footprints are all over the available evidence.
Ironically though, while Salala may recede from memory, memogate will not go away so soon because the politicians won’t allow that to happen. And it is because if a president can be accused of selling off his country, including its nuclear assets, to the Americans that would finally get the public on the streets demanding his head. Mr Nawaz Sharif knew that, hence his petition.
But that is not the only reason; there is another one. A president in Pakistan is supposed to be politically neutral. Mr Zardari, alas, is neither neutral nor has he been politically emasculated.
The trouble is that no one anticipated that Mr Zardari would become as powerful a president as he proved to be. The best that his opponents can do, therefore, since he enjoys a majority in parliament, is to give him a bad name and threaten to hang him or scare him into vacating the post.
But the hopes of Mr Zardari’s opponents may yet turn sour and their tactics may fail, particularly if the evidence that the Supreme Court-appointed sleuth is able to gather is not entirely convincing. There is, after all, an important distinction between judgments made on legal grounds and conclusions drawn on the basis of political suspicion and hearsay.
What we are about to witness, therefore, is a risky attempt at staging a political trial rather than leaving it to the court. The outcome of such a high-risk adventure will reverberate for a long time to come and may well change the face of politics in Pakistan. It would have been far more mature and sensible to tolerate Mr Zardari for a while longer and focus more on the next parliamentary elections which are just a year away.
The mere attempt to have an elected leader declared unpatriotic brings a blush of shame to the country as a whole. Regardless of the outcome, it has already poisoned politics in Pakistan.
The trouble with patriotism is that in the hands of the wrong people it conceals the foulest designs against the liberty of a people. Why place so much importance on a memo of dubious authenticity when we know that no government, especially one as weak and unpopular as that of Mr Zardari, could ever have implemented the raft of measures listed in the memo? Indeed, the slightest attempt to do so would have invited the very coup Mr Zardari allegedly wished to avoid.
That is why talk of treason and unearthing evidence from the memogate caper and the antics of two well-known sensationalists are completely misplaced. Besides, this is not the first time that the Americans have been clandestinely approached by a sitting government to prevent the military from staging a coup. So why treat it as something special, unlike anything before? Let’s not lose our sense of perspective and proportion.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2011.
COMMENTS (10)
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@LOK: But the people are not allowed to vote. Trucks/vehicles are loaded with fake voters and used to vote.fake votes thus decide.
"A president in Pakistan is supposed to be politically neutral. "
Why in the world should a popularly elected president be politically neutral?
great love u sir ....... the way to defend pakistan in indian media is really appreciable
In a mature and civilised political environment it is the People who decide. In our country it appears that it is our uniformed employees and "hired guns" in the media that dictate out fate.
The biggest problem in Pakistan is that every Tom, Dick and Harry knows the exact problem and the solution. Let the people decide through a vote.
While we all elbow each other for front-row seats and applaud to the spectacle of our patriots preparing to hang Haqqani for treason, we must keep in mind that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
zardari has turned out to be shrewder than we all thought. he managed to become president, render the pm impotent vis a vis decision making and march on through unprecedented corruption and peoples dissatisfaction. amount of truth in the memogate is anyones guess, although my guess, in the light of history, is that we will never know. but yes, totally agree with you. a political trial has many potential pitfalls for the future. also, yes lets recognize that the contents of the memo , even if true, could never have become reality. by all means, let zardari complete his tenure and we shall spew our venom through democratic means (which zardari certainly does not deserve but pakistan definitely does) by voting him out and ushering in imran khan, and hopefully, a new era. pakistan first.
A balanced analysis by a seasoned diplomat. The problem with Pakistan is that the day President was elected his opponents started talking about his removal. We don't care that we are throwing the baby (democracy) with the bathwater. As long as Zardari leaves some would be happy irrespective of cost to the country. I have seen the same zeal in getting rid and hanging ZAB. Zardari was the chief of PPP when elected by heavy mandate. It was not conditional that he would leave the party. On the other hand Mush was a govt servant with the three positions, chief of army, president (his own boss) and chief of his own King's party. Why is death and treason for politicians only and not generals committing treason?
Ambassador,
We are famous for losing our sense of perspective and proportion! Nothing new there.
If Zardari is as powerfull as the dillusioned author of above has stated then why has he run to Dubia. Initiaaly it was for few days medical check up, but we all knew that he would use it as excuse to stay in Dubia untill result of memogate.