Friends Of President Asif Ali Zardari Condoleezza Rice, David Miliband And Nahyan
Politics Sunday, September 28th, 2008A supposedly ‘grieving’ President Zardari went on to openly flirt with Sarah Palin, who came to condole him on his late wife’ s death. At U.N. Mr. Zardari wasted two-thirds of the speech on his late wife.
His pain [not Palin!] is understandable but he was standing there as President of Pakistan and not as Husband of BB. This was a visit focused on redeeming him in the eyes of the foreign powers that brokered the ‘deal’ that brought Mr. Zardari to power in exchange for pushing the American agenda and doing things that the military was resisting, like allowing U.S. military boots inside Pakistan. This is how ‘Friends of Pakistan,’ the business event organized in New York to seek economic aid, turned into ‘Friends of Zardari’, with all of the original backers of the ‘deal’ – U.S.’s Condoleezza Rice, U.K.’s David Miliband, and U.A.E.’s Abdullah al-Nahyan – surrounding their man in Islamabad.
President Asif Ali Zardari put on his best serious face and started his U.N. speech last week “in the name of my wife,” creating a strong impression of a mourning husband. The next thing we know, the supposedly grieving Pakistani President was openly flirting with the Republican V.P. candidate Sarah Palin.
As if saying ‘gorgeous’ was not enough, Mr. Zardari proposed to ‘hug’ her. She almost snubbed him by keeping her distance while giving a polite smile. She was embarrassed: She has a husband who is always by her side, she is close to Christian fundamentalists and is a believer in family values, and she has young children who look at their working mother as a role model. And here is the President of Pakistan, supposedly grieving [remember how he placed his wife’s picture next to the microphone before U.N. speech?], strongly coming on to her in the full glare of the media in an election year. Palin is already accused of lack of international experience and this incident hardly improved her credentials. The U.S. media had a field day. You can bet that Palin’s media strategists were upset that a meeting that could have projected Palin as an international stateswoman turned into a campaign nightmare.
This was an American visit for all practical purposes, despite Mr. Zardari’s claims that he is going to the U.N. summit and not to the United States and that China will be his first official visit abroad. China has been set aside, giving credence to reports that Zardari government wants to change Pakistan’s foreign policy to become closer to Washington and its allies Afghanistan and India and lessen the emphasis on China, Pakistan’s traditional strong ally.
Reports are already emerging that Mr. Zardari conducted serious business with U.S. and British officials, focusing on promoting the U.S. agenda in Afghanistan, the Pakistani military’s strong resistance to U.S. border violations, and what appears to be renewed planning to defang Pakistan’s ISI after the initial failed attempt in July.
Anglo-American Support
This was a visit focused on redeeming Mr. Zardari in the eyes of the foreign powers that arm-twisted a besieged Musharraf last year into entering a ‘deal’ with Benazir Bhutto that whitewashed millions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth by the Bhutto-Zardari couple. U.S. and U.K. enlisted the help of United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) to bring Bhutto to power in exchange for pushing the American agenda and doing things that Musharraf and the military were resisting, like allowing U.S. military boots inside Pakistan.
This is how ‘Friends of Pakistan,’ the business event organized in New York to seek economic aid, turned into ‘Friends of Zardari’, with all of the original backers of the ‘deal’ – U.S.’s Condoleezza Rice, U.K.’s David Miliband, and U.A.E.’s Abdullah al-Nahyan – surrounding their man in Pakistan.
Dr. Rice almost betrayed the real purpose of this meeting when she proposed the name of the event be changed into ‘Friends of Democratic Pakistan’, which was an indirect way of hitting at the Pakistani military and also endorsing U.S. support for Mr. Zardari.
The purpose of this meeting was obvious. The high profile attendance of U.S., U.K. and U.A.E showed it. Saudi Arabia was absent and Pakistan’s other allies like China and Turkey were represented at lower levels. The Chinese are already beginning to feel the somewhat hostile attitude of this Pakistani government, which I have detailed in an earlier column.
Weak Advocacy
President Zardari did not impress many Pakistanis back home on the count of vigorously defending Pakistani interest.
He spent the better part of his U.N. speech on his late wife and forgot to mention Kashmir. While it is easy to understand Mr. Zardari’s personal grief and tragedy, he was there as President of Pakistan and not as a husband of late Benazir Bhutto.
The biggest surprise was that President Zardari forgot all about Kashmir, Pakistan’s number one security and strategic issue, in his important policy address at United Nations. This is a monumental oversight considering that India today is at its weakest in occupied Kashmir than it at any other time since its occupation, with Indian media for the first time in half a century raising the question of ‘freedom’ for Kashmiris who have mounted impressive anti-occupation demonstrations against Indian army recently and have successfully registered their refusal to legalize Indian occupation and rule.
Why would the President of Pakistan waste this historic opportunity to talk to the world about Kashmir, which is also a security issue for Pakistan and a crucial water source?
If this was not enough, Mr. Zardari signed a joint statement with the Indian prime minister opening the doors of the Pakistani market for Indian goods without asking anything in return, not even when the Indians are stopping river water from Kashmir into Pakistan, are exporting terrorism from Afghan soil into Pakistan and are directly involved in a terrorist insurgency in Pakistan’s Balochistan. Not mention massive rights violations in Kashmir itself.
The stunning part is that senior Pakistani journalists accompanying Mr. Zardari saw the joint statement as very pro-India with nothing in it for Pakistan. Yet the Pakistani ambassador to Washington, the Husain Haqqani, and Zardari’s new permanent U.N. envoy, Husain Haroon, both of whom assisted in drafting the statement, saw no problem in it.
As for his meeting with President Bush, Zardari was too submissive, repeatedly thanking America for brining democracy to Pakistan, forgetting that it is the people of Pakistan who voted him into power. But least Mr. Zardari was being honest. His corruption record was cleaned under American pressure.
There is no question that Washington and London are heavily relying on President Zardari to target the Pakistani military and contain its ability to stand for Pakistan’s interests in the region, especially concerning Afghanistan and India. Kabul’s Karzai has said this several times.
Mr. Zardari will return to Pakistan armed with direct support from Washington. The military chief will be returning from China, where he was the guest of the People’s Army of China. It will be interesting to see how Mr. Zardari tries to convince Pakistanis to buy the American agenda. Ahmed Quraishi
Short URL: http://www.daily.pk/?p=723
on Sep 28 2008. Filed under