Daily Times

Asif Ali Zardari has done it again. Sort of. He has dropped a political bombshell — or hot potato, depending on where one is standing. Everyone, according to the former President, comes to power in Pakistan through a “deal” of some kind. Not only that, he goes on to single out Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan as known beneficiaries.

After having spending that last few weeks alternatively cosying up to the ruling PTI and then the PMLN — it seems that the PPP co-Chairman is trying a new tactic whereby he throws everyone under the proverbial bus. Yet it is the country’s democratic tradition that has been hardest hit this time around.

Never mind that analysts still contend that it was Gen (rtd) Pervez Musharraf’s National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that paved the way for the PPP government to take the reins at the Centre back in 2008. Such rhetoric is unbecoming of someone who was once head of state. For the simple reason that it begs the question as to what Zardari did to strengthen democracy when he had the chance. Admittedly, there is the 18th Amendment.  But there is also according the country’s last dictator a safe and honourable exit; while at the same time calling on Interpol to arrest Musharraf and bring him back to Pakistan.

Yet the PPP supremo is not even underscoring at present how the long arm of the law appears to only bring civilian leaders to book. No, he is essentially trying to pit one politician against another. And that, as everyone knows, is just bad strategy. As are his recent comments about how any moves to successfully jail him would send his popularity skyrocketing. Ditto the remarks about how the inside of a prison cell is not unfamiliar to him. To be sure, Zardari was incarcerated for some eight years without ever being convicted of a single crime. Yet such logic should give him even more impetus to try and safeguard democracy here in this country.

Instead, he is lashing out at his rivals while discrediting any so-called PTI gains; insisting that he had been there and achieved these first. All of which might be true. But rather than being grateful that Pakistan is on the right path — say, in terms of continued trade with China in local currencies — he is engaging in petty politics.

None of which will ultimately serve either the PPP, the country or, indeed, himself in the long-term.  *

Published in Daily Times, November  8^th 2018.