Daily Times

It is not politics as usual for Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who appears to have foregone all personal designs in his razor-sharp focus on the assignment. The top diplomat has been doing the rounds in New York and Washington DC, trying to draw international attention to the unprecedented scope of the climatic-induced disaster that has submerged one-third of his country. The editor-in-chief of a leading global affairs magazine had no clue about what hit him when Mr Bhutto-Zardari very firmly asserted, “it’s preposterous that we’re even having a conversation (about US-China conflict) while talking about my country’s survival.”

And seldom has been any political leader so up-front about his priorities. Calling on both superpowers to help Pakistan deal with cataclysmic flooding, the minister was in perfect synchrony with the compassionate appeals he has been making for the past few weeks. That the powerful imagery, punctuated with the traditions part and parcel of a storied dynasty, has had little to do with a generous announcement to boost assistance from Washington would be an injustice to his diplomacy. Pakistan is suffering nature’s wrath for the crimes carried out by the grand industrial designs of others–despite contributing one of the lowest amounts of greenhouse emissions–had been known to all and sundry for quite some time. The miseries of our 30 million brothers and sisters as their access to food have been cut off and the perils of countless diseases inch closer to their heads were also painted on the wall. But a glimpse of footage about devastation while switching channels can in no manner be equated with a committed campaign to make leaders from around the world empathise with our pain ensuing from a catastrophe of biblical proportions.

In a country that does not believe in giving a pat on the back, we, the Editorial Board of Daily Times, wish all the best to the dynamic face of our country–in fact, the youngest in the history of foreign office–as he continues to astonish everyone with his remarkable maturity and a pinch of honesty. From refusing to air our dirty laundry before the public eye to showing a united front in extraordinary times to this wholehearted and brilliant representation before potential donors, people much, much older than him should learn a thing or two from the new boy on the block. *