‘Together we swim, together we sink’

Zardari is reported to have said this at the PPP CEC meeting while holding Gilani's hand firmly.

ISLAMABAD: “Together we swim, together we sink” were the words a shaky (President) Asif Ali Zardari uttered towards the end of a crucial meeting of his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), holding the hand of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

“We have come together (to the power arena) and will go together (out of it),” Zardari said, tightening his grip on a ‘flexible’ wrist of Gilani with a trademark and ‘often-overstretched’ smile on his ‘worried’ face.

This was the climax of a full-of-political-upheaval last week in the country’s intricate politics.

Things have appeared to be settling down for Zardari, albeit for the time being, since he chaired the meeting of the PPP Central Executive Committee (CEC) on Monday night.

Though only sketchy details have appeared in the print media on what transpired during the meeting, insiders said they had noticed Zardari ‘over-emphasising’ to maintain unity in the party rank and file.

“It wasn’t unusual … happens whenever we meet, but this time around it was little bit more pressed,” a participant from the Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa explained.

“Zardari Sahib’s holding hand of Gilani Sahib was something we haven’t seen before. He was being little over-conscious about what has been happening a week before,” the CEC member said.

“The unity was the keyword … was it directed to Gilani? Many of us couldn’t understand.”

“There was confusion about that particular gesture and it still remains,” he added.

There has hardly been any instance in which Gilani gave an impression that he could go against Zardari to save his government.

Gilani was always spared not only by these ‘assertive institutions’ but also by the major opposition parties.

Even the various formulae have recently been in discussion to bring about a political change didn’t exclude Gilani, though Zardari hardly appears in any of them with the prospects of a bright future.

The CEC recalled an incident in one of party’s meetings recently in which Gilani was advised by a vocal member not to try to become Farooq Leghari (former president who betrayed the PPP in 90s).

“Later we found out that Zardari Sahib had actually asked that member to warn Gilani,” he revealed.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2010.