Zardari: Pakistan’s Destiny or Disaster
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA

It is our earnest hope and prayer that Zardari succeeds where others have failed. And he better, because failure this time would not be a simple change in the leadership. It would be fatal for him as well as for the country. In the words of BBC, August 26, 2008,  “…Zardari stands poised to become president of Pakistan when elections are held on 6 September…. It would mark yet another dramatic turning point in the life of one of Pakistan’s most controversial figures”.

A man who once was called a jailbird, a political liability even by the party that crowns him now; who was labeled as Mr. 10%; charged with such serious crimes as murder, extortion and corruption; today rebounds like nobody else does in Pakistan. And above all, who could have a knack to shine even as much as a meteor when destined to live perennially under the shade of a Bhutto name. Well! Zardari is that person, or say Destiny does that miracle for him. To borrow the words of American poet, Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), “I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes”, at least it seems so for Mr. Asif Ali Zardari. Past is in a bottle now.

A critic once innocently asked Krishan Chander (1917-1977), the legendary short-story writer, a simple question: “Why your characters are mostly faceless?”. Krishan Chander replied in a simple manner. “I do not describe appearances; I describe the patches on their shoulders. These patches show me their true, inner faces; they tell me how they are faring in their lives, and  what turmoil they are going through day and night. I am happy that whoever looks at my own face; he feels inclined to think that I might be an office clerk; a junkyard dealer; a hair-comb seller; or even a barber. Till today, nobody has ever mistaken me for a wazir (minister), or a pick-pocket”.

Why was Krishan Chander so certain about his not being mistaken for a pick-pocket or a minister? Because he knew he was sincere to himself. A liar lives on his lies and takes them for truth.  After reading these comments, I also one day sheepishly looked at my face in the mirror. Thank God, I did not look like any politician or minister.  I knew I could be mistaken for any menial person, but never for a criminal. Why such a self-righteous claim? Because I had been taught honesty and discipline in life in a hard way, and practically ‘by hand’ by my father. He did not build mansions for me; nor did he fatten any bank accounts with money, the source of which he could not explain. He taught his family to survive in life by staying fair and honest. That was his best legacy to me.

When I was about 11 years old, I started moving around in the company of boys who  were not held in good esteem by most residents in the locality we lived in. Once or twice I was severely reprimanded by my father to stop being with them. I did not. They taught me how to play marbles, and how to waste time when in all reasonableness I should have been doing my homework. Then they taught me how to wage money while playing marbles. First they made me win a few coins. The real game started when I began losing the money that I never possessed. I remember in 1954, twelve annas, (75 paisas),  was all that I had lost in the game to them, and this was the ‘sum’ I owed to them. Gradually, as their demands for paying the ‘debt’ became more and more pressing, they also began to ‘guide’ me where to look for the money.  Finally, one day, out of sheer compulsion, I did what most would do, stole one rupee from my father’s wallet. Most criminals embark on a destructive course in life even when their total liability had been only twelve annas.

I never knew that I had been under my father’s watchful eyes for some time. He had been waiting for this to happen. Finding one rupee missing in his wallet, he knew whom to ask for it. I denied like most defaulters do. In those days, there was no such luxury as sui-gas cooking burners. Splinters of wood were used as fuel. Easily available as they were, my father picked one direct from the burning ‘chuhla’, the cooking-range. He thrashed me with it like a possessed man. A neighboring ‘uncle’, and a great friend of my father, came hearing me crying so loud. I rushed to him for help. On hearing what a ‘crime’ I had committed, he too, shunned me as if I were afflicted with plague. He too picked one sturdy log from the burning chuhla, and handing it over to my father, said, “Chaudhry Ji, do not tire yourself too much. Use this one as well”.

And smilingly he sat nearby to see that full ‘justice’ was done. Extend this analogy to any field. My father loved me more than anybody else. In later years, when I became a college lecturer at the famous Sir Syed College in Rawalpindi, I reminded him about the ‘cruel’ punishment he once inflicted on a child for just 12 annas. He looked at me and said, “Ashraf, I did not punish you. I punished the thief in you. I had to drive it out of you. Now in life, you will think hundred times before you ever think of pocketing any money that does not belong to you”. My father was not a rich person; but he certainly was a very honest person. He killed the criminal in me. From a second rate student as I was by then, I rose to secure 200/200 in Math/Algebra/Geometry in 1958.  That is the rationale that I could, like Krishan Chander, be mistaken for anybody, say a clerk, a teacher, a barber, a farmer, but never as a pickpocket or a politician.

We will not indulge much in digging up what Mr. Zardari allegedly did in the past. He terms it as politically motivated vendetta let loose on him and we willing suspend our sense of disbelief and take every word he says as true. For us he is just born, fresh and sinless. Since he is there now to steer Pakistan out of the woods, our earnest desire is that he like Krishan Chander goes in front of a mirror and looks into it to see how he looks like. Does he look like the people who have empowered him beyond belief; or does he look like the feudal lords and like the party’s Caesars and Nobles who shamelessly draw their sustenance from a party that is named as “People’s Party”, but that is governed by people who live in style and status followed by the tribal lords in the pre-Islamic period of Jahalia.

We may also remind him that asking for power and authority over people in Islam is a disqualification in itself. The only person who asked for it and who did not earn the censure of God was Prophet Joseph. Prophet Joseph said; “Place in my charge the store-houses of the land; Behold! I shall be a good and knowing keeper”. 12:55. And God made him the keeper of the land. On assuming this grand Trust, Joseph then said:

“O my sustainer! You have indeed bestowed upon me something of power, and have imparted unto me some knowledge of the inner meaning of happenings. Originator of the heavens and the earth, You are my guardian and protector in this world and in the life to come: let me die as one who has surrendered himself unto You, and let me join the ranks of the righteous!” 12:101

The purpose here is not to deliver a sermon, but to remind you, Mr. Zardari, of the following points.

1. Do not let yourself be fooled by this notion that you got it because you were clever, exceptionally intelligent or a highly pious man. God wished this to happen, and it happened so.
2. Remember what Abraham Lincoln once said, “He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when the sentence was about to be pronounced, pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was orphan”. The party you head is never tired of reminding the nation of the sacrifices its leaders have made; and the years they have spent in jail. Thriving on sympathy or pathos works only for a short time. Success comes only through merit and performance. Remember what William Faulkner (1897-1962), the famous American author once said, “A mule will labor ten years willingly and patiently for you, for the privilege of kicking you once”. So is the general public. The swings of their moods are often erratic. Like the mule in the saying, they just lie in waiting when to get the opportunity to kick. Avoid that moment.
3. In the words of the British newspaper, THE INDEPENDENT, “The dictator has gone. Now the battle for his spoils begins”. The search for “grateful judges”, by both the major parties gives credence to this perception. Pakistan is shaky, unstable, and just about ready to default. You once were heard saying, “I dream one day our daughter, Assifa in the president house and chanting the slogan, Jeae Bhutto”, or making a statement twice in your interview with Hamid Mir, “This 3’ and 4” man” did not incur our anger or revenge. Your grievance against Justice Nasim Hasan Shah may or may not be legitimate, but addressing a human being in such derogatory terms on national TV hardly befits a leader of your stature. You never addressed Mr. Raza Kasuri, who relentlessly pursued a case that finally led to Mr. Bhutto’s execution, in such belittling terms. It is our hope that your search for the presidency has not been for a photo-session only. You are in serious business now.
4. The real major task is how you balance the internal and external security compulsions, and how you tackle the two most important issues confronting the country: ending extremism, and providing economic relief to the people. In the words of Mary Dejevsky, the columnist of The Independent, August 19, 2008 , ‘We may yet miss Musharraf”, in two respects the task of balancing the internal and external security should be easier for you than it was for Musharraf. Her logic is, “Washington’s post 9/11 preoccupation with the ‘war on terror’, which made Pakistan seem so necessary an ally, is winding down. That will be one less source of outside pressure. Second, the new president will have a legitimacy that Pervez Musharraf, for all his civilian aspirations, never fully gained. Pakistan’s gain, though, is Washington’s loss. Any new regional alliance it wants to forge will never be on such advantageous terms”.
5. The points stressed above can only be achieved though the appointment of some creative, highly professional and intelligent people in the foreign office. You never win by just buying a referee.
6. The morality plays which by theme always used to be religious; became more secular in tone and more people-oriented when the venue of their enactment shifted from the church hall to the outside yard. Same way, first time, the PPP is going to be led, without Bhutto dynasty, but with equal or even more power invested in you.  A similar possibility arose in 2005 when you returned but then Ms. Benazir Bhutto was alive. You have yourself destroyed all chances of retreat. With the PM, Speaker, Chief Justice, and President, all centered in your personality, “What more Radha could ask for to start the dance?”.
7. Let the people feel that Bilawal Zardari Bhutto will be something in life on his own merit, and not because he is the son of Ms. Benazir Bhutto, or the grandson of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Oxford is reputed for producing heads of state. Why belittle that budding young man and the party that claims itself to be democratic by creating a feeling that it is a party owned and run by a dynasty.

The main yardstick of measuring your success will be how often you look into the mirror of your performance, and see how you look like. Your task is harder than it was for your predecessor, because of the backpack of your past. It would always remain as a live arsenal in the hands of your adversaries who are not in small number. Since you sought power not for a position but because you thought you could deliver, so it would just not be acceptable if you and your team keep lamenting of the past legacies. It is a done deal. You asked for it; now you must own it.

 

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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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