Following the script!

The whole country is agog with speculation concerning just about everything bordering on the happening, or not happening, or about to happen syndromes. Mostly, these conjectures paint doomsday scenarios about our consistent and unstoppable slide into the realm of anarchy in the foreseeable future. The seeds of these wild, mostly provocative analyses can be traced to the utter legal, moral and constitutional bankruptcy of policies that are being followed by the ruling concoction.

Having publicly reneged on spoken and written commitments made amidst the bright glare of the clicking cameras, Mr Zardari has succeeded, beyond expectations, in building a hallow of untrustworthiness around his persona. Some make a vain effort to defend him by calling it his political 'wisdom' while others refer to it as his 'shrewdness', for ever pontificating that this is what politics is all about. Not quite so as, first and foremost, it remains an ideal instrument to sow seeds of mistrust and disaffection among a large section of the national leadership and populace who cannot disassociate the newly-elected president from a history that is anything but transparent. They read this predominant untrustworthiness as a natural sequel to the shenanigans of a past that is deeply mired in controversy. Having led to the collapse of the ruling coalition, Mr Zardari's histrionic efforts to adopt the War On Terror as Pakistan's very own are causing further ripples among a vast majority of the people who perceive this as a war that we are doing every thing to thrust upon ourselves. It is neither our war, nor is there a need to make it ours. Instead of becoming a target of extremism resulting in the death and injury to scores on a daily basis, we must revisit the option of negotiations to find a viable and lasting solution to the scourge of violence. Agreed, there may be areas where the writ of the state, or whatever remains of it, would not be compromised, but there is also no justification for making the country a pitiable hostage to the evil machinations of the US in its effort to dominate the world through a naked and brutal use of firepower.