A tall order

Zardari has been castigated in Pakistan for putting it thus but what did he actually say and what was the context? We don8217;t know. Did Bret Stephens, the interviewer, ask him, 8220;Mr President, do you think the groups fighting India in Kashmir are terrorists?8221; Did Stephens differentiate between this and that group?

Let8217;s assume, however, that Zardari did put it like this. Indeed, I am prepared to wager my money on the fact that he did. What does it mean?

It could mean two things: that while he may have become the presiden, he still has to learn to act as one and understand that his every word will now be scrutinised; or, and this argument grants him more intelligence than he might have, he is trying hard to sell himself despite his negative baggage.

Note how the Journal interview puts it: 8220;But Mr Zardari is also known as 8216;Mr Ten Percent,8217; a moniker he acquired thanks to his legendary reputation for graft. At one time or another, he and his late wife were suspected of profiting or seeking to profit from corrupt schemes involving everything from the purchase of Polish tractors and French jets to the import of gold bullion. In 2006, he even produced a diagnosis of dementia from two New York psychiatrists as part of an effort to defend himself in a corruption case in Britain.8221; Not exactly a t-shirt slogan, this.

There is a bit of a problem with such product positioning, though. We know what sells in Washington. But if one goes by that, one is likely to get more of the same and frankly, more of the same is neither good for the US nor the rest of the world.

As for how seriously one might take Zardari or his ability at nuance, here8217;s an example from the interview: 8220;8216;I need your help,8217; he says more than once. 8216;If we fall, if we can8217;t do it, you can8217;t do it.8217;8221;

Okay. And what does he say about India. Here goes: 8220;8230;he has no objection to the India-US nuclear cooperation pact, so long as Pakistan is treated 8216;at par8217;.8221;

Really? First, he raises the danger of Pakistan likely to fail and asks for international help and then he turns around and wants the world read: the US to treat Pakistan 8220;at par8221; with India. If this is a joke, I am not amused.

Can he be taken seriously on what he might or mightn8217;t have said about Kashmir and Kashmiris and the groups fighting there; or the youth that is now up and protesting and facing the might of India, this last development being no doing of Pakistan but indicative, if such proof were ever needed, of the original sin?

No. To think that knowledge of such subtleties was ever part of Zardari8217;s 53 years in this world would have got Dorothy Parker, were she still around, to say: 8220;It may be, too, that the Statue of Liberty is situated in Lake Ontario.8221;

Here8217;s a suggestion. Zardari needs to get a Regional 101 on Kashmir and India-Pakistan relations. He must understand that well before he arrived on the scene, India and Pakistan were dealing with each other, testing approaches and vacillating between the conflictual to the cooperative. They are not friends yet, but neither are they enemies in a zero-sum mode, though that paradigm, in its dying throes, still lingers on in some sections on both sides.

The most important development is that friction in one area does not lead to overall deterioration in relations. Musharraf, now much reviled for sins other than this, has left a good legacy on India-Pakistan relations and even changed the paradigm on how to resolve Kashmir. Indeed, it is now India8217;s turn to reciprocate and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s speech at the UNGA shows he is alive to it.

Finally, Zardari must realise that he needs to position himself and become acceptable to Pakistan and the outside world on the basis of what he can substantively do rather than delivering shibboleths acceptable to mainstream politics in Washington. Specifically on Kashmir, revisiting the past, pegged as it was on a different paradigm for both India and Pakistan, does not help in moving forward.

He needs to get his sense of where things stand right. That may just be a tall order.

The writer is Op-Ed Editor Daily Times and Consulting Editor The Friday Times, Lahore; the views expressed are his own

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