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| After setbacks, Zardari is an improved, chastised man |
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has apparently improved as a leader as compared to how I found him in my three previous interactions. He appears more sombre than before, is no more a chatterer as he used to be, admits mistakes unlike the past, rarely uses the expression “I” that has been the trait of his monologue, and above all sounds practical.
Meeting the president for two hours along with a group of journalists and columnists and dining together in the Presidential palace on Monday night turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It is not that the man sitting in the Presidency would change the destiny of Pakistan and bring prosperity and happiness in the lives of its people, but this meeting has helped me dispel some serious apprehensions that I had in my mind about Mr Asif Ali Zardari.
Though it was an off the record and a background discussion, President Zardari proved himself to be a disappointing source of information for the media. Despite being assured that he would not be quoted, he did not share any startling information. For news gatherers it was a boring occasion. But I have quite a few reasons to come out of the Presidency a satisfied man.
One comforting aspect of the meeting was that President Zardari desires to give every chance to the ongoing peace process in Swat and is not influenced by the internal and external pressures to rescind the agreement. On this particular issue, he is patient and has the realization that the military option would be the last resort because it would mean deaths and killings including those of innocents.
He wants to give Maulana Sufi Muhammad every chance to honour his words and is confident to persuade Washington during his forthcoming visit as to why the peace deal is so crucial and must be allowed to succeed.
My previous three interactions with Mr Asif Ali Zardari since Nov 4, 2007, one in Dubai at his residence to which he also referred in the Monday’s meeting and two in Islamabad after the Feb 18, 2008 elections, did not go so well as on almost each occasion we ended up in a verbal clash.
He used to be talkative to such a limit that he would not allow others to speak their mind. His philosophy, his reasoning and his arguments were not convincing, at times incomprehensible. He also used to sound arrogant, at times degrading others. But the Zardari I met and observed on Monday is an improved version of his past.
I am not sure whether he has been counseled for this or was acting like an experienced man but what we all saw was that now he listens to others too and does not sound arrogant as he used to be. He admitted that he had made mistakes and could have done better than what he and his government actually did. He did not contest to the general impression that there seems to be no government in Islamabad as the good governance remains a far cry. But he assures that things would improve and insists that the present situation is the outcome of a peculiar background.
During the recent months, I have been conveyed by quite a few that President Zardari does not like me because of my critical writings. I know that General Musharraf also had similar feelings for me. But the difference between the two is that one still opted to interact with me. Even otherwise a democratically elected ruler, irrespective of his reputation and personal conduct, is better than a dictator, who may or may not have a very good personal character and reputation.
Mr Zardari’s appointment as president after his repeated backtracking of promises and in view of his known reputation had caused a lot of concern amongst many. I was amongst those, who did not conceive his election positively and feared far more problems coming our way. I knew that President Zardari is not going to restore the Nov 2 judiciary and holds personal venom against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. But he had to bow before the public pressure and restored him contrary to his personal will.
In case of General Musharraf when pressure was exerted on him, instead of respecting the voice of the people, he ruined the institution of judiciary on Nov 3, 2007. This is perhaps a perfect comparison between dictatorship and democracy and to prove why democracy, no matter how bad it is, is always better than dictatorship.
Later President Zardari also honoured Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s advice for the appointment of the top judges’ choice men as judges of the Supreme Court and as Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court.
The signing of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation by President Zardari is yet again another indication of the negation of his personal views for the sake of bringing peace in Swat. Now he is determined to protect the peace accord to all possible limits. But there are too many challenges the country is still facing for which President Zardari perhaps needs to change a lot more.
We the media would be there to encourage him for everything positive that he would do for Pakistan. He though feels that the media has been too critical of him during the last one year, the time would prove that he would get appreciation for every good thing that he would do but receive reprimand where he would go wrong only for the sake of Pakistan and for the people of Pakistan. It is wrong to expect from the media to be loyal to personalities or political entities. They have to be loyal to the interests of the state, its institutions and its people.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
