If all goes well Zardari is to land in Karachi today after a self-imposed exile though his apologists claim that it was his illness which kept him away from the country and now when his doctors have given him permission to fly he has decided to return in time to observe the death anniversary of his spouse scheduled to be observed on 27 th of the current month.
Such a long absence from one’s country on the part of our politicians is not something new in this country. The proper word for such self composed exile is diplomatic illness. The politicians are prone to leave the country when the going becomes tough for them or when they fear arrest in real or framed up cases of corruption. By remaining outside they wait for the opportune time to return after they strike any political deal or feel that the sitting government is playing on a weak wicket and would therefore be not in a position to lay its hands on them.
One cannot say with any certainty whether it is Bilawal who is calling the shots within the PPP or it is Zardari who is pulling the strings from behind. Since one sees the same old faces surrounding Bilawal it is not difficult to fathom that nothing really has changed for the good in the PPP. This being the position one doubts whether this party will have the capability to bounce back in the 2018 elections?
The precedent of the NRO is very much there under which Musharraf had pardoned many criminals involved in corruption cases. Who knows similar tacit understanding might well have reached already between Zardari and the government thus facilitating his return to Pakistan? Everything is possible in this country.