Asif Ali Zardari’s ascendency to the candidacy of president of Pakistan has been nothing less than a masterstroke of Machiavellian genius. But, if he does become president, it will be a watershed time when it will be recognised quite possibly that he has endangered the fledgling return to democracy.
With Zardari as president, there is no chance for the judges to be restored. Imagine the crises that will brew if the judiciary ever struck down the NRO on a sitting president who has a multitude of criminal cases pending that are revived.
Again, with Zardari as president, imagine a scenario where the government falls and the whole chaos of a prime minister battling the president causes constant uncertainty. We know Zardari does not believe in promises or signed documents, are we sure he is committed the oath he may have to take as president?
The stage is set for further turbulence, and Zardari manipulating this nomination for himself means we will not get the steady ship we are looking for. It’s almost as if by changing Musharraf we got another Musharraf, because both Zardari and Musharraf have a similar problem – legitimacy.
Zardari of the 90s was one of the most detested people in Pakistan, allegations and cases followed him like a homing beacon plume. But after his wife’s tragic assassination, his deft moves not only helped win the PPP the election but saw his standing reversed. A lot of people, including myself, believed that his long hard stint in jail had transformed the man.
In fact this reminds me of a set of dialogue that is apt for Zardari in Shakespeare’s Henry IV where one of the lead characters Prince Hal led a life unfit to be a King, but when Prince Hal contemplates changing he says, "herein will I imitate the sun" (I.ii.197), emerging from behind the "contagious clouds" (I.ii.198) and "I’ll so offend, to make offense a skill, Redeeming time when men think least I will" (I.ii.216-217).
After his wife’s assassination, Zardari stunned the nation by moving to consolidate a party left in the wilderness. His moves to reconcile with the next biggest player the PML-N has rewritten what is possible in Pakistani politics, and ultimately keeping the Nawaz League at bay long enough to use their might to get rid of a entrenched former dictator in the presidency.
But from this reverence, the revulsion is coming back. The judges whose fate seemed to sign back to life several times seems dead and gone, the agreements not worth their weight of the paper they were cordially written on.
The PML-N, long in the sucker ride, has finally jumped ship in a public divorce after it realised that after the latest in series of broken promises, Zardari as president shall make Taseer as governor look like a minor slight.
The presidency was truly supposed to be the be all and end all of reconciliation, but now this slot has fallen prey to partisanship as well. And if we look at the PPP’s performance over the last few months, we see the cronyism back in full swing. Appointments have been made of people who were thought to be beyond redemption, whose only real qualifications is that the NRO has given the legal system amnesty amnesia which may be legal, but definitely not moral. Last but not least, the separation of powers will not be a fancy name given to a nonfunctioning constitution because the president and the prime minister shall be in bed with one another.
This may sound outlandish, but with this presidential election I fear the Taliban have won. The stage is set for constant bickering, grandstanding, political collision and rogue underhand politics. Where will they find the vision to defeat the greatest enemy this country has ever seen, maybe even greater than India at a time of war?
Asif Ali Zardari went from being a man reviled, to one revered, and is now slowly sliding back to being reviled. Let’s hope as president he can pull of another transformation, but given the period he was reviled he has proven that it was under an ear to ear grin that masked a forked tongue. Let’s hope he sees reason while he barrels ahead to put the symbol of the federation (the presidency) at the altar of personal ambition.
Once a long time ago I read about an interesting difference between the two great law schools of the world had between them, Harvard Law and Yale Law School. It’s said that Harvard teaches you what the law is, while Yale teaches what the law should be. It’s a perfect example of why what’s legal may not be what’s right. Asif Ali Zardari can be a legally elected president with the support of the legislature but the consequences of this will be beyond the good intentions of the laws framed.
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