The nation deserves congratulating

Perhaps we should consider making September 6 something other than Defence Day. Maybe we should make it Caring for the Mentally Challenged Day. After all, Asif got elected on this day. But it was a pretty tough election, and just because the PPP could not restore the judges without a fresh oath. And all the judges were not restored. The new President, who is also the fount of honour for the judiciary, should get moving on this, but something tells me that the judges deposed are worth the PML-N remaining without the flagcars that go so naturally with the ministries that could go to PPP stalwarts who voted the right way.

It was amazing, the amount of interest that the PPP tried to generate in the public before this election. Typical, I suppose. Generating interest among those without even part of a vote, who were not even MPAs. But the public has become very calculating. They first tried to work out whether President Zardari would bring down the price of kerosene or flour, or reduce the amount of loadshedding. Since he wouldn’t do any of these things, and since his Presidency will probably see increases in the prices and decreases in the availability, the ordinary man stayed away in droves.

The leaders of the party tried to give the impression that they, who were common men, were overjoyed, though it was clear that they had turned on the joy from a tap, and that they were rich. Perhaps not as rich as Zardari, but he claims that his riches were either made legitimately or inherited, and all that talk of corruption during the two Prime Ministerships was just talk, as I said, perhaps not as rich.

Perhaps the only person really pleased at the election was the Prime Minister, who must be sure that President Zardari does not want his job, a danger he has been living with since the February elections. After all, now the President has got a better job than him.