Anjum Niaz
Governor Salmaan Taseer says the whole system will implode were Asif Zardari to go. "Nawaz Sharif too will suffer collateral damage. The economy will take a nosedive because US will withdraw aid to Pakistan. Hillary Clinton told me that her biggest selling point to the US Congress was undiluted democracy in Pakistan, with the press being free and a multi-ethnic functioning parliament in place. She has told the khakis not to derail democracy, otherwise America will slap sanctions."
The bottom line: Asif Zardari will not only complete his term but will be in the saddle until 2018! "Why should he step down?" Taseer asks me in an interview at his Islamabad home. "Some media people, you included, like to manufacture stories of his exit. He's the head of the largest political party in Pakistan; he's the one who spoke of 'Pakistan khappay,' he's the one keeping the federation together."
The 17th Amendment will go by the end of this month. "The president has told me himself," says Taseer. "He has the support of his coalition partners, except the PML-N, who keep coming up with new demands."
Asked will the president become a mere figurehead with all the powers vested in the prime minister, Taseer dismisses my question. "The 58 (2) (b) is already defunct. The president is not going to dissolve the National Assembly. As for the 'appointments and disappointments' (Taseer's coinage) of judges and army chief, the president is not interested. Mr Zardari derives his power from being the head of PPP. The prime minister is never going to be more powerful than the president because he cannot move without the party and its chairman."
Hush! There's a tacit agreement between the two: while the president plays the bad cop, Gilani plays the good cop!
Just as Zardari's exit is but a dream, Salmaan Taseer's departure as Punjab governor is but a fantasy. Taseer categorically states that the Swiss cases are closed forever. So we should forget about them. As for the Sharifs' demand that the Punjab governor should quit, he gives out a laugh.
What is most endearing about Taseer is his spirited audacity, that uncurbed usage of words which typify Taseer. Since school days (yes, one's known him for half-a-century), 'Billo' as he was called because of his green eyes, gravitated in his own swagger. He has changed little since then. As a chartered accountant, he accumulated his wealth through hard work; not corruption. He drives his own car without hooters, tooters and footers. He lives in his own house, not the Governor's House in Lahore.
Today Taseer is Zardari's biggest acolyte. He watches over him like a hawk, preventing the Sharifs from encroaching into the PPP domain. "The president can only remove me; no one else," says Taseer. Naturally, why would AZ move him when he has one of the loudest and most loyal spokesmen in Pakistan's biggest province?
Taseer's psychological warfare against the chief minister is proving unnerving not for the Sharifs but for the province.
"They ran a torture cell under the guise of an FIA investigative unit in Model Town which was recently bombed. Rogue operators like Maj (r) Mushtaq and Rana Maqbool, the former IG police, Sindh, notorious for AZ's tongue slashing incident, and now a Grade-22 secretary prosecutions, were running a parallel intelligence outfit outside the purview of ISI and IB."
Taseer's nitpicking against the Sharifs is unending. "Look at the kind of people being voted into the assemblies on PML-N tickets. They belong to qabza groups, are accused of molesting women, are fraudsters and barbaric law- breakers…they are the dregs of the earth! Daily we hear their MPA or MNA featuring in the press for breaking the law."
Isn't Asif Ali Zardari too breaking the law, employing jailbirds, bank defaulters, outlaws, villains, NAB convicts to sensitive posts? Two wrongs don't make a right.
Email: anjumniaz@rocketmail. com
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