Letters to Pakistan

Another General bites the dust; courtesy Asif Ali Zardari

I stay on the side lines when it comes to politics or political analysis of any sort. It has been a good few decades when I was a journalist in my homeland, Pakistan. I do read the press at times and some social media gets Whatsapped to me. One day, the journalistic curiosity got to me. I wanted to get to the bottom of it all. I gave it a good few days to bring myself up to speed. This may all be my figment of imagination. Humour me any ways. 

Everyone is looking towards the good General Bajwa to steer the country out of the chaos that he himself engineered in the first place. Or he thought he did. He was played like a guitar. He had the misplaced confidence, like all generals before him, that he will put the house back in order and the nation will thank him as the saviour if not a hero. He thought wrong. Pakistan Army has a direct line to the Pentagon and Pentagon takes instructions from the White House. Pakistan has a civilian government that is put in place by the Army or the establishment as it likes to be referred as. The chief of Pakistan Army's is always hand picked by the American administration. No, not Pentagon but the people in the White House. 

I shall fast forward to Asif Ali Zardari. He is co-chairman with his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, of Pakistan People Party. He has Hussain Haqqani, the ex-Ambassador of Pakistan, in Washington DC on his speed dial. Asif Ali Zardari, unlike Nawaz Sharif and the other Sharifs of his family, spares no expense on positioning Bhutto as the future Prime Minister of Pakistan. He is one up on the good General who all along thought that it was him who Washington will turn to, to deliver. His shelf life as a General is fast approaching sell-by date so the US admin is not putting too much stock in him, 

As things stand, the general has been asked to stand down. Zardari is the goto man for the White House. His son has been moved around in world capitals under the guise of diplomacy since he was sworn in as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. Zardari knows that Bilawal is only safe if he is out of Pakistan. While General Bajwa is facing the music and everyone is blaming him for all the ills of the nation and expecting him to get Pakistan into General Elections. They can't be more wrong. He is toothless and is bidding his time for a safe passage out of Pakistan in his twilight years. Not just the aces but Zardari is holding the entire deck of cards and sitting put in his palatial homes every where.

This story will have a familiar end, that of General Musharraf. One more general will bite the dust. Bravo Zardari.