Wikileaks on Pakistan

The Wikileaks have made some startling disclosures. The aging monarch of SaudiArabia, King Abdullah is reported to have made scathing remarks about the leadership of Pakistan. He has called President Asif Ali Zardari as the greatest obstacle to Pakistan’s progress, saying, “When the head is rotten, it affects the whole body.”

Whatever be the case as a Pakistani I am hurt by the Saudi monarch’s such remarks. After all, unlike the King, AAZ is a duly elected President of the country. Casting aspersions on him is tantamount to insulting the people of Pakistan. He is our President and it is our right to question and criticise him which right we cannot pass on to others and outsiders. Anyone doing so, is clearly interfering in the internal affairs of another sovereign country. 

It is, however, another matter that we in Pakistan have little to choose in electing our leaders as ALL of them seem to be the chips of the same block.  They spend tens of millions to be ‘elected’ which proves of their definite interest in being elected. And once in power they make the most of the heyday. I strongly think that things cannot be put right until we act upon the saying of the great sage – Hazrat Ali (a.s), “Do not elect a person who offers himself for an office. He has an interest in it. Instead pick up the best amongst you and ask him to lead, if need be force him even at the point of the sword to do so”.

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)