He said Zardari’s failure typifies the tragedy of Pakistan and its people, held hostage to a visionless ruling elite that has no finite limits to its greed or political ambition, acting as if they were above the law of the land and the law of nature, since they feel they are born to rule and bound to get away with anything under the sun.
Mushahid called Zardari an accidental president who, he said, has played out a script that even the best Hollywood writers, with all their vivid imagination, could never have conceived. “A cross between The Count of Monte Cristo, who comes in from the cold to take revenge, and The Godfather, apparently Zardari’s favourite movie, since he models himself as a mafia don in the tradition of Michael Corleone, surrounded by corrupt cronies, always smiling, polite but ruthless regarding his ambitions and interests.”The PML-Q leader said that till December 26, 2007, Zardari was supposed to be an exiled, apolitical billionaire, looking after the kids while his wife was getting ready for another date with destiny. But the tragic events of December 27 propelled him to the top slot, making him Pakistan’s most powerful person, he added. “What went wrong? Zardari refused to reinvent himself; he ended up repeating old mistakes, making it worse with the traditional Achilles Heel of overly-confident Pakistani rulers: an arrogance of power. All his difficulties are of his own making, his wounds self-inflicted,” Mushahid added.
He said the much-maligned Pakistani establishment quickly reinvented itself, post-Musharraf. Holding a free and fair election that enabled the opposition to come to power, giving the parting kick to Musharraf to ensure his exit and exile, and fully facilitating, without any hanky-panky or impediments, Zardari’s ascent to the highest office in the land.
But, despite all this, Mushahid said, Zardari still saw a khaki ‘threat’ all the time, unlike his prime minister. Some of the well-documented tales of corruption circulating among Pakistan’s business elite would even probably make Marcos or Mobutu blush, he added.
The PML-Q leader said loss of credibility apart, Zardari had shown a singular lack of leadership in Pakistan’s most serious situation since 1971. “After Mumbai, he panicked on a hoax call from India, almost sparking a near-war. On the judiciary’s restoration, he lied several times, and was finally forced into a humiliating climb down. On the Kerry-Lugar Bill, he again misread the popular mood, forced to back off when his own prime minister disassociated his government from some of its worst clauses.”Mushahid said Zardari’s pet project, ‘Friends of Pakistan’, has been an abysmal failure, with no money coming in. “Despite Zardari’s sycophancy, President Obama has carefully avoided being photographed with him, refusing any joint press conference, relegating him to the likes of Richard Holbrooke and Hillary Clinton. In fact, Obama’s disdain is evident when he equates Zardari with Karzai, as two ineffectual and corrupt flunkies.” In the past, the PML-Q leader said, Zardari has shown the tenacity of a survivor, but right now the stakes are higher for the government, the country and international community.
