Opinion Incremental progress?

In the month of Ramzan,considered a period of revelation,President Zardari provided one such revelation at an iftar he hosted for journalists,as reported by Dawn on September 15: “President Zardari confirmed that the ‘safe exit’ of Pervez Musharraf was the result of a ‘deal’ arranged by international powers with interests in South Asia. He didn’t name the players but said they were ‘guarantors’. He said they had decided ‘Musharraf would play golf in his post-presidential life…’ It is believed that because of interventions by Saudi Arabia and the US,both the PPP-led government and Nawaz Sharif have softened their stance and there is a notable reduction in the rhetoric against Musharraf.” The News added: “The president said he would ask the PM to establish a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ to promote the process of national healing and unity… This Commission should be headed by Asma Jehangir,he said.”

Dawn reacted sharply to this disclosure in its editorial on September 16: “So,where does Zardari’s admission and Sharif’s recent meeting with the Saudi king leave PML-N’s demand to try Musharraf for treason? As a matter of principle PML-N is not required to adhere to a deal struck with outside powers without its consent on an internal issue. But what PML-N must do is respect the collective voice of parliament… If PML-N wants to see Musharraf tried,it should take up at the earliest the government’s offer and table a parliamentary resolution calling for Musharraf’s trial.”

Daily Times’ subject of praise,in its editorial,was surprising: “The one stakeholder in Pakistan that has acted less rashly than the politicians is the Army. It has seen more clearly the risks that would have affected Pakistan’s security if the populist demand for Musharraf’s head had been met.”

In this season of iftars,PM Yousaf Gilani also hosted one,only to distance himself from his boss Zardari’s statements on Musharraf. The News reported on September 17: “ ‘I have no love lost for Musharraf,’ Gilani asserted. ‘As for all this talk about some deal having been concluded with him,you would be right in calling it a deal the day his actions are indemnified by Parliament or if he were to be convicted and then pardoned by President Zardari.’ ” Zardari’s spokesman took two days to come to his rescue. Daily Times reported on September 17: “Farhatullah Babar contradicted reports that President Zardari had confirmed ‘international guarantors’ negotiated a safe exit for Musharraf… Some journalists said Babar had not sat at the same table as Zardari…”

Pak-China buy-buy

On Sino-Pak friendship,Daily Times reported on September 16: “ Pakistan and China have identified over 50 initiatives for joint collaboration and signed around three dozen MoUs in the past year,President Asif Zardari said.” An editorial sympathetic to Zardari appeared the next day in the same paper: “Zardari’s diplomacy is careful while being focused on Pakistan’s self-interest. He mentions the founder of PPP,Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,as the architect of Pakistan ‘s China policy; but the difference this time is there is no cold war polarity to contend with. His diplomacy with the US and the UK is equally focused on the national interest… Unfortunately,few in Pakistan are concerned with the dynamic behind Zardari’s intensification of contacts with China. Such is the strength of the destabilising factors in Pakistan that his visits to China are either ignored or described as the pursuit of a dubious “personal” programme. In the past,visits to China by Pakistani leaders were hardly ever criticised. But now even that restraint is gone.”

Really?

The News carried this snippet on September 17 : “Former ISI director Khalid Khwaja alleged Nawaz Sharif had persistently asked him to use his influence to stop the 2008 presidential election.”