Daily Times

Where do I start? So much to cover but I am afraid I need to stick to certain space limitations, so brevity will be the best policy as usual. I am glad that my words are safe as expected, and another revolutionary disturbance has disappeared from Islamabad. I am amazed at the people who in this day and age donated cash and jewelry to someone who said he was going to save the state and cleanse politics for good. Can I also bring a few naïve people with me and create my own Tahrir Square in Islamabad? I am afraid no one will be there to listen, and no interior minister will be going berserk spending Rs 200 million for my security from the national exchequer. One may ask why not. Well, the reason is plain and simple: I do not carry the heavy-duty prefixes of Hazrat, Allama, Maulana, Sheikh and so on with my name. The basic principle that I was taught in my marketing management class was that you could only create hype in a segment to market your product provided the segment contained your potential customers. Sadly, there is no dearth of gullible people who think that a person who was out of touch with them for a while can alter their rather wretched system overnight.

Those who were smart enough were able to decipher what the real drift of Dr Tahirul Qadri was, which was buried somewhere within the lines. So the next few weeks will unfold what truly transpired in that bunker-cum-container. What was the so-called ‘Islamabad Accord’ all about? How did someone who was comparing his struggle to the trials of Hazrat Hussain (AS) at Karbala finally settle for a settlement? I have immense sympathy for people who bore the freezing weather while Dr Qadri enjoyed the comforts of his insulated bunker. Who knows where these people came from and what they got in the end for their ordeal, but a wild guess is it was perhaps nothing. The one who profited was the great leader; a political nobody was transformed into a political somebody through this farce. That is the beauty of clever marketing and promotion.

About the rally at the Minar-e-Pakistan, no one knows or wants to talk about who paid for it. The ‘independent of reasoning’ media’s time devoted to Dr Qadri was equally farcical. Remember, these media houses look for their self-interest and ratings as the paramount reason to compete. Why and how did a rather obscure and forgotten figure become the saviour of this sorry state all of a sudden? I would remind a few who may have forgotten. Before the former Prime Minister (PM) Shaukat Aziz was elected, the gentleman who was considered the major mouthpiece of the saviours was adamant on TV that he was going to be elected from both his constituencies. How does this relate to the former PM’s election, you may ask. So my response is, before anything happens here, the pawns are in action to sell the narrative. I was equally amazed at a veteran anchor who in his programme claimed that the usual saviours had distanced themselves from the new saviour — Dr Qadri. As if the usual saviours have owned up to their follies of the past. The recent Asghar Khan verdict has exposed these saviours and their rather silly tricks. I am not an analyst or a seasoned anchor, I am just a novice observer, and in my simple observation, I was able to read what Dr Qadri was peddling. The ‘container accord’ was perhaps another masterstroke by President Asif Zardari. I have criticised the man on multiple occasions and multiple venues but let me say something categorically that I often say on the social media. The overzealous saviours have finally met their match in President Zardari. There is no politician in Pakistan who can come close to him when it comes to playing on the political chessboard. I may disagree with his moves here and there, but he is truly meant for the treacherous Pakistani politics. He has been giving a dose of democracy being the ‘sweetest revenge’ ever since he took the oath of office. Therefore, he may have thwarted yet another attempt by the usual detractors to dislodge him.

Only time will tell what was really traded between the parties in that container. But no one can deny that it takes a real politician to defuse a potential threat without incident. The legal eagles have given their verdict on the legality of the accord. It is deemed unconstitutional. Well, maybe the president capitulated to the demands of Dr Qadri while being aware of that. Who was taken for a ride, besides the people who froze in Islamabad for four days, only time will tell. The fact remains that there is a man who is a survivor for the last five years. Love him or hate him, it is entirely up to you, but think twice before playing a trick on him. He may have a befitting response coming your way rather rapidly. There is another conspiracy theory as usual being floated that this whole drama was his own brainchild. If that is true then it is yet another clever move to marginalise the opponents. Whether any of this is true, that is something only time will tell. I can assure you that the coming months will be quite interesting and there will be plenty of surprises ahead for all of us.

The writer is a Pakistani-American mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar