The Pakistan Policy Blog

Asif Zardari has an op-ed in today’s Washington Post.  The piece is designed to allay Western fears over Zardari’s virtually guaranteed election to the presidency on Saturday.  Zardari — through the words of the fellow who penned the piece–seeks to present himself as a victim of Pakistan’s establishment.  

He describes the establishment as “an elite oligarchy, located exclusively in a region stretching between Lahore and Rawalpindi-Islamabad.”  

He adds: “The provinces of Sind, the Northwest Frontier (Pashtunkhwa) and Baluchistan, as well as all of rural Punjab, have often been excluded from governance.”  [Correction -- it should be Pakhtunkhwa.]

This laughable assertion is recycled from a September 2nd piece in The News written by Farahnaz Ispahani, the wife of Zardari’s chief advisor and Ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani.  (Ahsan at Five Rupees also writes about this.)

In it, Ispahani writes:

“The federation will continue to come under strain if the voices of the smaller provinces are not heard and the Lahore-Pindi power corridor continues to insist on its monopoly over power.”

The Huffington Post published an article by Ispahani on September 3rd.  Here comes the chorus:

“Pakistan’s political history can best be understood as a struggle between democratic political forces from all parts of the country and an establishment belonging to the power corridor geographically located between Lahore and Rawalpindi-Islamabad.”

It is troubling that the PPP seems to be playing the ‘Punjabi domination’ card with John Q. Gora.  Moreover, the reference to Lahore seems to be a strong attempt to link Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan’s establishment.  He was once their baby, but became their bad guy in the 1990s.

Playing the ethnic card has no place in policymaking circles here in the United States.  The reality is that Zardari is part of that Pakistani oligarchy of which he writes, and — perhaps this is news to Zardari — most opinion shapers in the United States are well aware of his background.  He is no messiah, no angel — far from it.  From corruption to links with organized crime and murder, Zardari’s rap sheet is far longer than his list of political achivements.

The reality is that most Pakistanis live near or below the poverty line, while Zardari is a billionaire.  Pakistan — and more specifically, Pakistan’s state exchequer — has been good to him.  In contrast, he and his family have not been good to Pakistan and its people.  In this, the Bhutto-Zardari family differs little from the rest of Pakistan’s elite — civil, military, Punjabi, or non-Punjabi.  He just seems to be the worst caricature of this deletrious, rapacious lot.    

Go visit Larkana, the home of the Bhuttos.  You’ll never believe it’s the hometown of two prime ministers.  For all their wealth, political opportunities, and economic populism, the Bhuttos failed to deliver even minimally to their prime constituency.  Why?  Because they are feudal elites.  If they provide education to their indentured servants, do you think they’ll still have employees?  Who will tend to the land while the Bhuttos sip their brandy?  

Not only is Zardari part of Pakistan’s oligarghy, he cannot be cleanly disassociated from its establishment. His major ally against the Muslim League - Nawaz is Salmaan Taseer, an individual who was formerly active with the PPP, then became a businessman and very close to Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan’s establishment. There are other links and common objectives.

Above all, Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, and Pervez Musharraf and the rest of Pakistan’s civil-military elite share a miserable past that has produced Pakistan’s dangerous present and questionable future.  Zardari’s attempt to present himself as a savior belies the reality and the way most in Pakistan and even the United States see him.  Billionaire Zardari is part of Pakistan’s feuding oligarchy, not a revolutionary against it.  

The sad fact is that most Pakistanis have been hostage to this sadistic version of Bill Murray’s Groundhog’s Day for 60 years.  There will be no messiahs in Pakistan.   Pakistanis need the rule of law — neither Baitullah Mehsud’s law, nor Farooq Naik’s law — and a system with real checks, balances, and accountability to free them from their malaise.

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