Pakistan: Leaders who could not lead

Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.

Over the decades, Pakistani neo-colonial dominated politics failed to produce any leaders to lead the nation to a promising future. It will be rational to describe the Pakistani politics as being of the few, by the few and for the few. Under “Zardari’s Katrina” (Foreign Policy, Aug 4, 2010), Fatima Bhutto, the niece of late Benazir Bhutto enlightens the readers with sensational insights on Asif Ali Zardari, the self-made president of Pakistan.

In “Pakistan at Crossroads” (12/2009), it was noted that Dean Nelson of the UK Telegraph (October 07, 2009), had made a pinching observation and asked: “Has Pakistan lost its honour?” The article referred to Dr. A.K Khan’s much appraised Urdu write up “Ghairat” – honor a reflection on the current sad affairs of the nation. There are growing wall posters across the globe that Pakistan is a failed state, it is ruled by thugs and gangsters despised as the Pakistan People Party (PPP), and that Zardari is a known thieve who continues to operate without any impunity from the law and order agencies in Pakistan. Fatima Bhutto is no stranger but an insider of the Bhutto family and quite open to explain the tragic events facing the Pakistani people, not just the raging floods and loss of human lives but all the encompassing miseries, from poverty, human deprivation to moral and intellectual disabilities under the PPP governance.

While the masses were entrapped in life and death crisis, Mr. Zardari and five of his cabinet ministers were entertaining themselves in London Royal Suite at a daily cost of $11,160. But few conscientious British MP of Pakistani origin refused to meet with Zardari while in the United Kingdom. Is Zardari a fool or a qualified wicked person who does not care for the consequences of his behavior? Rationally, two distinct opposing characteristics such as piety and criminal behavior cannot be combined in one human character. There is ample recorded evidence to reflect on Pakistan’s continued shame – Zardari, the president,

Recently the “Total Truth Sciences” (Google website, March 2010) listed “Ten Ways to Recognize a Fool”: Some of the indicators are quite startling and appear relevant to Zardari, if not in intent but in recognition of the facts of human personality.

 1.   A fool is anyone who despises wisdom, instruction, and
correction from a proven mentor.

2.    A fool is anyone who refuses to abandon evil even when
corrected.

3.     A fool is anyone who's conduct does not change even after
experiencing the painful consequences of their foolish actions

4.   A fool refuses to admit his mistakes even when his pain is
the obvious result of his actions.

Some of the basic facts must be clarified about Mr. Zardari who was not elected president by the people of Pakistan but he camouflaged the outcome of the national assembly elections while his wife Benazir Bhutto was killed in a public rally, and informed sources point out that Zardari might have forged the will of Miss Bhutto to assume the co-chairmanship to become president through the backdoor conspiracy and blessings of the US political operatives in Pakistan. It was a done deal through the offices of the US Government that General Musharaf, the former dictator will be given a safe passage outside Pakistan in return to phase-in Zardari to the president house. Currently, General Musharaf is residing in $1.4 million mansion in UK under the British security protection.

How did Zardari became the president, raises many truth seeking eyebrows in Pakistan but he was already known to be Mr. 10%, the corrupt person who was indicted in Pakistan and Switzerland on corruption charges and money laundering scheme of things. You won’t get a straight answer if asked about the legitimacy of Zardari’s presidency. It is a puzzle that remains a puzzle as to how an indicted criminal can assume the presidency of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan?  Under the circumstances, Pakistanis appear more and more morally and politically deprived people chastised by God for a deliberate co-existence with the evil doers. When people live in darkness, they lose sense of direction. Conscientious Pakistanis MUST face the soul-searching question, how could thugs and criminals become leaders in Islamic Pakistan and rule the country for so long unless the people were also accomplice in this scheme of things?

“Zardari takes lot of overseas trip” narrates Fatima Bhutto. Well, Zardari maintains high valued properties in France, Switzerland, UK and Dubai and elsewhere all with stolen money from his homeland, so he must keep the business as usual. The national interest of Pakistan or the sufferings of the flood victims and thousands of reported deaths of the flood victims are not part of his mental faculties. Zardari is a businessman, and he is making money and doing that all over the world. It is just that his nation is helpless and deprived of any courageous leader to speak out the truth of which Fatima Bhutto is making reflection and all the wicked people all together to rule Pakistan, not to serve the cause of the masses who have lost everything in the floods and whose sufferings are their own, not understood or shared by the ruling elite under Zardari. Pakistan is governed by thieves, so reads a welcome poster in London: “Zardari King of Thieves” and “Zardari 100% Corruption.” What an insult to the common sense of Pakistani people? Could the Pakistani people pretend not to know who Zardari gang is?  Could the old generation of Pakistani people see the mirror for keeping such thugs in responsible position? How could you expect any good to come out of the greedy, ignorant and dead ended people?

Strangely enough and contrary to the political logic, Pakistan is governed by dead-ended people. Miss Benazir Bhutto was the central reference of the political party and she met her passion to get killed, not for Islam, certainly not for Pakistan, surely not for democracy but for the greed of power. Obviously, dead people are dead and cannot be relevant to the present or affect the future. ZA Bhutto, the chief of the PPP was hanged on political murder charges. Now, Zardari is asking the court to re-open the case of ZA Bhutto. What else one could expect from dead people except to have a dead-ended agenda and remain occupied in dead affairs all the time?  Does it surprise you that nothing positive gets neither done nor any plausible change is happening in Pakistan where dead people rule the nation? If you were to ask Zardari, he would not dare to admit any foolishness or the history of corruption and devilish actions against the interest of the masses. While the nation suffers morally, economically and politically, corruption gets more and more institutionalized in Islamic Pakistan. Are there any THINKING people in tact in Pakistan to reverse the course of political blunders and absurdity?

Often corrupt people are mentally disabled and sick, not being aware of the consequences of their wickedness as they simply cannot visualize the facts of human life in the real world situation except of their own, living in the darkness of evil mongering. If the nature of the sickness is determined, it can be treated and cured but a fool pretends to be president and views all the citizens as eggs and chicken to be slaughtered easily. How do you treat such a person? That is Zardari and his gang governing Pakistan under the guise of the so called democracy. Zardari and his gang have made numerous political surgeries on the body of Pakistan - now more succumbed as a skeleton, and they think, skeleton cannot challenge or harm them and they continue to kick it around as democracy in progress. It is possible that growing resentment and people’s hatred against the corrupt politicians could reignite burning lava of ashes to engulf the Zardari regime leaving no room to escape the wrath of the ordinary folks who have sacrificed their lives and efforts to make Pakistan a living reality. Leaders create leaders. They were thieves who came to rob the nation of its precious asset - the ideology of Islamic Pakistan and hope for a promising future for the new generations of young and educated people. It is awful to be hopeful with a stolen future. Yet, these gangsters somehow manage to escape the accountability mechanism and leave the nation in far more worst conditions than when they assumed the political power. Zardari and Bhuttos had no sense of the integrity and honor of Pakistan nor were competent to offer any visionary leadership that Pakistan needed to cope with the global phenomenon of political change and institutionalized development. They lacked basic sense of moral decency and intellectual foresights to think or act like leaders except for the self-interest. Understandably, one cannot deceive all the people, all the time. When egomaniac leaders refuse to listen to the voices of reason for navigational change, they end –up in self-defeat and destruction. For sure, Zardari and some of his crime ridden ministers could soon make tangible progress and move from the powerhouse to prison – the logical conclusion is self-explanatory.

(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including: "Muslims and the West: Quest for Change and Conflict Resolution"; How America Lost the War in Iraq and Afghanistan and Mujahideen Won; To America and Canada with Reason, VDM Publishers, 2009; “Pakistan-Enigma of Change”, “ Pakistan’s Strategic Delusion”, “President Obama – War is War, Not Peace”, 2009; and “Is President Obama Remaking America?”  “Pakistan Needs Navigational Change” “Pakistan Day Strange Celebration.” Comments are welcome at: kmahboob@yahoo.com)