Zardari leaves critics breathless, again

By Kamran Rehmat/Islamabad

FURY: MQM activists burning an effigy to vent their anger following a vitriolic statement against their leader and community by Sindh Senior Minister Zulfiqar Mirza

Only last month, in this space one described President Asif Zardari as the shrewdest politician in Pakistan. Finally, his critics are grudgingly acknowledging this.His winning over a troubled — and troubling ally — on Monday against all odds was the latest manifestation of Zardari’s envious ability to wriggle out of impossible situations. Few could have foretold that this would be the case until the breaking news flashed on TV screens.Following the great fallout between his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and now-on now-off coalition partner Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) over disputed elections in Pakistan-administered Kashmir last month, the latter walked out yet again.This time however, it was deemed more than just a tiff - or a fixed match as critics as critics are wont to suggest sarcastically - once MQM’s Governor Ishratul Ebad resigned.The resignation was seen by most pundits as a likely divorce, not a familiar separation, a situation which was accentuated by a series of steps the Zardari-led PPP dispensation took in its wake to unsettle the MQM applecart. This included the restoration of the old commissionerate system in Karachi.The PPP step was designed to weaken the stranglehold of the MQM on the country’s largest metropolis and reinforce its own position with a view to the 2013 elections. Showing that he meant business, the president then unleashed Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, his most trusted lieutenant and a sworn MQM enemy, by bringing him back as senior minister.It didn’t take Mirza too long to rattle the old enemy. Calling the MQM chief a “criminal”, he belittled the Urdu-speaking community before urging the people of Sindh to get rid of “the damned”.As a result, Karachi once again paid the price for the impulsiveness of one man’s loose tongue, which was matched in its ugly avatar only by another man’s egomania. At least 17 people were sacrificed and 40 vehicles torched just to establish who was the bigger bully in town. But did Mirza really have a no-holds-barred licence to shrill — the track record apparently, suggested so — or was there a method to the adventure with an eye on 2013?Whatever the truth, it didn’t serve Brand Zardari well — prompting him to take another mission impossible. All that the diatribe achieved was to reinforce the power of the MQM to hold the city to ransom. It was so well scripted that the PPP was left with no choice but to ask firebrand Mirza to eat his words — not just for peace per se but retaining power in the long term. Conventional wisdom suggests one can comprehend a man’s character better when he is in a position of power. In Mirza’s place, one is supposed to be wedded to responsibility in one’s actions. There is now the small matter of coming to terms with the undeniable fact that his loose tongue eventually contributed to the killing of innocent people and loss/damage of property worth Rs2bn. Any thinking, caring citizen’s heart would bleed at the wanton loss of lives — it is not just individual lives lost here but families entwined to their existence in terms of succour and more. It makes one wonder if Mirza can live down the inherently flawed idea of brinkmanship. The general perception is that he takes his cue from the presidency. Be that as it may, Mirza must now rethink the reprehensible idea of a hunting hound that literally kills, not just belong to a feudalist sport. The belated zipping, at the president’s behest, fooled few, if at all. Agreed that the PPP co-chair showed fine acting skills in essaying the impish childhood of Pakistani “chocolate hero” Waheed Murad in the 1969 flick Saalgira, and has since confounded the best with his craft, but the direction/production in Mirza’s “summoning” at the palatial presidential palace beggars belief. The takers in this drama were far and few between. To be sure, the one playing the admonishing principal to the errant pupil in this case had an own case to answer. Only last month, the president was calling his arch political rival names. “Maulvi” Nawaz Sharif was borne out of precisely such fevered pitch.  Sharif was so called to berate his alleged leaning to the right, drawing intense criticism from virtually all commentators. And while most Pakistanis were left wondering if it is so convenient to go to sleep in the profound knowledge that one man’s vitriol has snuffed out the lives of so many innocents and financially, ruined it for their families, it brought into sharp focus the tactics of the exiled MQM chief Altaf Hussain in London for his audacious timeout before issuing the calm order. Hussain commands the kind of loyalty few in Pakistan could justifiably claim as their calling. All the more reason, critics say he should have pandered to those gray cells, not allowed the work of raw nerve to go on display in the city of Pakistan’s founder. The MQM may have considered it necessary in the cut-throat arena to show their gladiatorial reach but an early word of restraint from Hussain would have not only saved Karachi much strife but also won him greater respect across the aisle. But perhaps, the instant fear — and resultant leverage — that a body count provides is not matched by overtures of peace. Also, amazing is the audacity of taking Mirza to the cleaners but conveniently, overlooking the similarly racist overtones within the MQM ranks. Just as much as the PPP firebrand had no business looking down upon Urdu-speaking community he labelled as bhookey nangay (naked and hungry), MQM’s Waseem Akhtar should have minded his when he trashed Punjabis with cutting suggestions about their penchant for mujras (dance by courtesans) ghar ghar mein (in every household) and prostitution.  Even as Pakistanis wondered at how low their political leaders would stoop, President Zardari used his cards so deftly that by the weekend he had won over the MQM once again with the events of the last week already looking like having been consigned to the dustbin of history.

**** The writer is a freelance journalist based in Islamabad and can be reached at kaamyabi@gmail.com