Day of destiny

By midnight of today, Saturday the sixth of September 2008, Pakistan will have a new president. He – there are no female candidates – will almost certainly be Asif Ali Zardari, widower of Benazir Bhutto. For many he is a controversial candidate, and some commentators have described him as 'risky'. Miles of newsprint and hours of airtime have been consumed discussing the pros and cons of his candidacy, the ups and downs of his political and social life, his physical and mental health and the state of his bank accounts. One might be forgiven for thinking that we know all there is to know about Asif Ali Zardari, but there is yet a known unknown that we have to discover – if, by due process, he is indeed elected we do not know -- cannot yet know -- what sort of president he will be. We can make as many assumptions as we like, as many convoluted extrapolations of arcane statistics, as many interpretations of rumour and conspiracy theory – all as we like; and be no closer to knowing just what sort of president Asif Ali Zardari might turn out to be. We do, however, have some inkling as to the sort of president we would like him to be.

On Sunday morning, if elected, he will wake up as the most powerful person in the entire nation. What he does with that power in the days, weeks and months that follow – and he will not have long to prove his worth, three or four months at most – will tell us the kind of president he is. Whether he is benign, a healer who is able to dress the wounds that leak blood and life from a stricken land; whether he is a bridge-builder, who comes with bricks and mortar and a strong pair of willing hands to join with others to throw the first ropes that will make the bridge across the rushy streams that divide the political landscape. Whether he will come in days of rage, sword-handed and with a list of enemies who will swiftly find themselves in places they would rather not be. Whether he will be a president who speaks of peace and plays at war. Whether he will be a light for us, clear and bright, or a guttering flame that dies and leaves us again in the crepuscular gloom that has so often enveloped the Land of the Pure.

What we the people would like is a person who we can trust, who represents us and our country on the world stage and has the respect of other nations in so doing, we would like a person who, despite his own personal wealth, is not so rich as never to be able to understand what it is like to be poor. So if you awake as president on Sunday morning, Asif Ali Zardari, look out of your window at the peons, the gardeners, the chowkidars, the driver who waits to take you on your first drive to the President's House – and raise a hand in greeting, palm outwards. It would be a worthy start.


Even as parliament lashed out angrily against the first US ground action inside Pakistan, other aircraft believed to carry US colours cast their ugly shadows over the skies of North Waziristan on Sept 4. A missile dispatched by the unmanned drone is reported to have struck a house in a village close to the Afghan border, killing several people, including a number of Arabs. Ominously, the US media has warned there will be more attacks. Equally alarming is the point-blank refusal by both the White House spokeswoman and the US Secretary of State to make any comment on the raid in Pakistan, said to have been conducted by US Special Forces. The Pentagon too has had nothing to say. This conspiracy of stealthy silence is being read as a signal that the US plans more such action. Sources in Washington have been quoted as reinforcing past complaints that Pakistan has not done enough to tackle terrorism and that specific targets within the Northern Areas are being struck.

For Pakistan's government, the situation is an almost impossible one. The foreign minister and other senior government leaders have stated the ground attack marks a 'serious escalation' in the actions of coalition forces based in Afghanistan inside Pakistan. But beyond words and efforts to convince Washington to re-think its strategy, it is doubtful the government can do very much to stop the US from going ahead with its plans. So far it seems obvious the protests within the country have fallen on largely deaf ears in the offices of US policy makers. Many fear the worst could still lie ahead. Washington, after all, is hardly known for its sensitivity to the concerns or interests of others.

While the civilian government has just reason to feel aggrieved that the US has decided to act now – rather than during the long years of rule by its ally, former president Musharraf, when the militant issue grew and took firm root – it must tackle the situation with wisdom. Washington needs to be persuaded the anti-terrorist cause will be damaged greatly by the rising tide of national rage against US-led missions in the area. Pressure on Pakistan to halt its own anti-militant operation in the tribal areas has grown, with FATA legislators withdrawing support for Asif Ali Zardari. To make its bid to bring about a re-think in strategy on Pakistan successful, Islamabad must present a concrete blue-print of its own for tackling the problem. This must include dealing with the awkward issue of links between intelligence agencies and militants that has been brought up. The task is admittedly not an easy one, but then the alternative is a loss of what remains of Pakistan's sovereignty as US actions continue and more people die. The choice then, seems clear. We must act ourselves and prove Pakistan, its people and its military are capable of driving terrorists off our soil once and for all, and that we can do this better without intervention from the outside.

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Regards,
P.R.