Zardari’ Paranoia

I used to be an avid listener of Dr. Shahid Masood. His credibility as a straight shooter was unquestionable for the most part and although I see no reason for a political commentator like him to be ‘partial’, he did use to at least have someone in his show who would give an alternative point of view. The reason I don’t think you can remain ‘balanced’ on issues like restoration of judiciary, removal of a uniformed dictator or NRO is because in my opinion these are fundamental violations of not just the constitution of Pakistan but also they defy basic moral norms prevalent in civilized world.

I used past tense regarding my following of Dr. Masood’ show because once he took up the highly lucrative job as MD PTV, I felt a little betrayed as a listener. I know that late Tony Snow also took up the post of Bush Whitehouse spokesperson but then again he was an anchor at FOX so he just made it official.

Coming back to Dr. Masood’ ouster from PTV, it was a sordid affair all around to say the least. The rumors were plenty and we didn’t know who to believe. Dr. sahib insisted that he left because he couldn’t reign in the defaulters of PTV due to their clout with the administration and the government blamed that he wanted more money. Fact however is that he was offered a pretty lucrative position advisor to P.M after he resigned/sacked from PTV and he refused. It’s also a fact that ever since Dr. Masood started his ‘Mayray Mutabiq’ back post PTV stint, he seems to be on a personal vendetta against Zardari.

It’s a different matter that most of what he accuses Zardari of is pretty much on the money but at the same time as an audience member, I felt sometimes he sounded like a broken record. Post ouster from PTV he would have 3 guest, all known to be fierce critics of Zardari and pretty much all of them kept on repeating each other. Like I mentioned earlier that doesn’t mean that what they were saying was completely false but the tone of the show just became mundane and more of a ‘tabarra’ on Zardari then an interesting analysis of the political scenarios that were developing.

Pakistan Peoples Party does have a valid point that all of a sudden Kamran Khan of all people have started to get a whiff of one corruption scandal after another while he usually appeared in a comma when military establishments were running a amok in the same fashion for years in the past. There are some very shady characters with very dubious agendas in our media but where PPP looses the battle is that whether it’s the steel-mill scandal or PIA, whether it’s NRO or 300 acre grab land, whether it’s IPP’s fiasco or sugar crises, none of the above are without merit. No amount of fear-mongering regarding the General ‘Aayinda Khan’ deter from the fact that there is complete failure of governance and unprecedented corruption from the ministers of PPP.

The manner in which the president of Pakistan has addressed the rally in Karachi screams of insecurity, fear and guilt. Banning TV-shows ala Musharaf in this day and age of facebook, twitter and web is a sign that the administration has lost its mind in anger and angry people usually do stupid things that eventually end up in their demise. Instead of breaking the mirror, wipe the dripping nose (urdu translation behti naak would work better obviously) and not only sack but apprehend the ministers that looted and plundered public exchequer. This is another absurdity in Pakistan that it’s almost expected that we the people will say thank you in gratitude if somehow the thieves are just sacked or at the most return the part of the loot. How about jailing them and loosing the keys in Arabian Sea for a change. Democracy is the only way forward, and under no circumstances whatsoever there should ever be a ‘mayray aziz hamwatnoo’ by another general aayinda khan but Zardari & Co. would be well advised to cash in one golden egg a day rather than ripping apart the hen’ stomach.

Neo-cons used to tell us that ‘they’ hate us because of our democracy and freedoms; I had a suspicion that it probably had a little more to do with bombs made in Wichita ks. killing their children. In the same vein Zardari think that media is nagging on him because the media hates democracy, again I’ll go on a limb and say that it’s the utter incompetence, lack of governance and unparallel corruption that’s driving Zardari’s (dis)approval ratings recently conducted by Gallop.

Zaban-khalq ko naqara-e-khuda samjho.