The developments in Pakistan in the past few days are distressing. Mr. Zardari, the President of Pakistan has been behaving like a dictator in the fledgling democracy. I have utmost contempt for Mr. Zardari who is a good for nothing and would have been languishing in a jail on corruption charges, had he not been married to Benazir Bhutto, who was sadly assassinated last year before the elections in Pakistan. As is the bane of both our countries, we seem to cling to the idea of dynasties and thrust power on the people not on merit but based upon the families they belong to. The same had happened in India at the time of Indira Gandhi’s death, when Rajiv Gandhi, a political novice was flung into politics. The same happened with the PPP in Pakistan, who wanted to hold onto the memory of Benazir and since her son was too young to lead fell back on her husband to pick up the mantle.
Mr. Zardari, has been constantly interfering with the functioning of the PM, Gilani. He has done nothing to reverse the extra constitutional powers which Musharraf had enjoyed which do not work in a democracy. He has refused to reinstate the judges whom Musharraf had forcefully removed to install his puppets. Mr. Zardari continues with his own set of puppets as judges who have a deal to not open the umpteen corruption cases against him. He also uses them to dismiss the democratically-elected government in the Pakistan’s Punjab and to disallow Mr. Nawaz Sharif and his brother, the dismissed CM of Punjab, from contesting elections.
The country has been steadily descending into chaos since then and now Pakistan sees the biggest civil-disobedience movement on the streets of Lahore with the Long March to Islamabad to protest against the wrong decisions of Zardari and to reinstate the rightful judiciary. The Paki army chief has already warned that he is itching to take over power and restore it in the hands of the Army, where it has always belonged in Pakistan. Mr. Zardari seems to be buckling under International and local pressures and though the crisis is far from over, it reflects very poorly on the strategies of the head of the state. We will wait and see how the drama unfolds in the coming day or two.
For a country reeling under widespread unemployment, lawlessness, high inflation, terrorism, the threat of Taliban, this is the last thing they need. Pakistan is spiraling towards destruction at a very fast pace. It is only the people of Pakistan who can in some way prevent that from happening. The corrupt, blood-sucking politicians are ensuring otherwise.