If you have a lot of money and a well-entrenched image-building lobbying firm on your payroll, you can buy space even in the most prestigious newspapers, journals or magazines in the world. You can also end up as a writer. We are living in a highly commercialized world, in which it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate between a Walter Lippmann and an Asif Ali Zardari, who has recently made headlines in Pakistan for his Oped in Forbes magazine. The Oped is titled: Strengthening A Fragile Democracy In Pakistan.
This is a very timely ‘Oped’ if the prevalent political atmosphere in Pakistan is kept in view. It comes in the wake of Hussain Haqqani’s recently published disclosures in Washington Post. And it is surprisingly not an ‘indictment’ of Nawaz regime. On the contrary, the traditional past arch-rival of MNS, and Pakistan’s ex-President has appealed to the American policy-makers to come to the rescue of the Government of Mian Nawaz Sharif, for the simple reason that he is continuing with the good work he as President had started–to fight terrorists. The message is shrewdly delivered. The epithet “fragile” used with the term “democracy” means a lot in the context of “not-so-exemplary civil-military relations’ today in Pakistan. Asif Ali Zardari as we all know had ventured to cut the wings of the military when he came to power a little more than eight years back. The failed effort is known as Memogate. Hussain Haqqani and Mansoor Ijaz had been key characters of that drama.
In the middle of 2015, AAZ had left the country quietly after delivering a highly charged speech against the “Generals”.
He is back in the country in a scenario that is pregnant with the possibility of MNS’s exit. It will not augur well for the PPP boss if it happens. The two of them — Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif— have common enemies and common destiny. They have the same direction to look into, for survival and support —–the White House—the state Department and the Capitol Hill.
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