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| The president, his massive support, the big disappointment |
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
By Shaheen Sehbai
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari began his tenure as a popular head of state in an ideal setting, with all his political friends and foes strongly supporting him and the entire bureaucratic and military establishment ready to give him a chance.
For him it was a great day, the best day of his life, but somehow the new president did not let the people of Pakistan celebrate the day with him, as he chose not to make any major announcement, did not address any of the burning issues which have divided the society and offered them no hope on his debut, though he may try to do so later.
With top military, political, business, media and civil service leaders, in others words the entire ruling elite of the country, gathered at his swearing-in ceremony to express their solidarity and support, Zardari has been put on the spot as now he has to deliver.
Never before has any one person received such support, across the board, except probably General Pervez Musharraf when he had toppled Nawaz Sharif on October 12, 1999. Then the general was almost in a similar position, able to turn anything around if he so wanted or had the ability to do so.
Musharraf then had spelled out a seven-point programme, which in the end turned out to be a farce as he was not interested in anything but prolonging his own rule. Zardari, with almost universal support of the country, is in a similar position but he has chosen not to make dramatic decisions or to raise unnecessary hopes.
Some of the very divisive issues which many believed he may try to address in the beginning of his tenure, such as the restoration of the deposed judges or balancing powers of the president vs the prime minister, were not touched by him on his inaugural appearance before the media, the country and the world.
In fact, for unexplained reasons, he diluted the impact of his own day of triumph by associating President Hamid Karzai in the solemn and historic proceedings of the day. The joint news conference of the two presidents was almost an anti-climax as a great day in the lives of Pakistanis was turned into a petty bilateral tennis match with each of them lobbing the ball in the other's court, mixed with some pleasant-sounding rhetoric.
While the presence of Karzai at his oath ceremony was understandable and welcome, there was absolutely no need and justification for the joint press conference. This was the day when the new President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan should have given the disturbed and expectant nation his vision of hope, his plan of action to bring political stability, his display of magnanimity to put burning issues behind him, his capacity to rise to the occasion and send a message of harmony, peace, stability and his readiness to show that democracy was a much better concept of governance than a one-man rule.
Almost none of this happened on President Zardari's inauguration and not just the hundreds of media men but the entire nation was left guessing what had gone wrong and where. There were silent whispers in the air that Zardari would announce something big in a day or two but that would not have the big day impact. It would be just another series of promises which many may look at with suspicion.
The first day of his presidency, a height of political power which anyone can achieve, should have been used to reinvent him, as many analysts and political observers have written about. President Zardari needs an image makeover, a political makeover in fact, to be able to govern with confidence and give the people of Pakistan the assurance that they are in safe hands.
It would have been perfect to say that during the political process, some promises were made and broken but he was sorry for betraying the people's trust. He should have offered a simple and unqualified apology and would have moved on to address the issues that have denied the country the stability which the Feb 18 elections should have brought.
He should have talked honestly and candidly to Mian Nawaz Sharif to persuade him to attend his oath-taking ceremony as an agreement was possible between the camp of deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and the Zardari government to resolve the judges’ issue.
I know with authority that this agreement was based on the premise that like other deposed judges, Mr Chaudhry should also be administered the oath of Chief Justice under the Constitution and very strong signals had been given by the lawyers leaders that they could have persuaded the deposed CJ to agree.
The only question was what to do with Chief Justice Dogar and since he has only a few months of his tenure left, President-elect Zardari could have persuaded him to resign or retire with full benefits and that would have allowed CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry to administer the oath of office to the new president. It would have been a new world in Pakistan and Mr Zardari would have been on top of it.
Some questions about the new oath were discussed by the lawyers' camp but they were also not difficult to answer. One question was whether the deposed CJ should be given oath as an SC judge first and then as the new CJ. The answer which was agreeable to the CJ camp was that both the oaths could have been administered at the same time, at the same ceremony and the issue would have been over, giving President Zardari the full support of everyone and a clean slate to begin his tenure.
But all this is now history as Zardari chose to take his oath from a controversial and disputed Chief Justice, something which will go down in history as a negative for his presidency, howsoever successful it may turn out to be in the end.
Still the country and the nation are waiting for President Zardari, PM Gilani, Speaker Mirza, their chief ministers in Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP, to come up with something which the people can celebrate. They say Zardari has got his Big Day, when will the people, in whose name he rules, get their break.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
