As the 25-year-old case against Asif Ali Zardari came to an end recently, critics once again targeted him as usual. President Zardari is the only politician who went through character assassination and criminal cases but far from insulting any institution, not a word has been ever said by him against any institution of the country.
Every government targeted Asif Ali Zardari, the irony is that in his government when he was the President of Pakistan, he at that time, remained the target of anti-Bhutto enemies, and the propaganda machine against him did not stop even during the period when he was in power.
But Asif Ali Zardari always proved by his character that difficult times pass and he is a leader who has the skill to get out of difficult times. When he was asked about Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari responded by saying, “Maryam is like my daughter, I will not talk about her.”
This episode took me back to the 90s when Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s father left no stone unturned in portraying Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s daughter as an enemy of the country. This incident also forces me to hold Imran Khan and his government to account for making statements on women’s rights that in a civilised country would probably be grounds for resignation.
The lack of principles in Pakistani politics has made it so muddled that the young generation is not ready to play any role in politics. In such a situation, Asif Ali Zardari’s style of politics feels like a fresh breath of air because Asif Ali Zardari has always been principled rather than opportunistic.
He relinquished power while he was the President of Pakistan. He empowered the parliament and brought his worst opponents to the table through a policy of reconciliation, perhaps if someone else had replaced him, it would have been impossible to erect a mountain like the 18th Amendment which is now part and parcel of Pakistan’s constitution. One must ask his opponents—what has benefited the state from what the state has done to Asif Ali Zardari during the last 34 years?
Where are the makers of false cases today? The media, which has been a part of the mindset against Asif Ali Zardari for three generations, will sometimes be forced to think that the state and several governments invested as much capital and energy to prove Asif Ali Zardari as corrupt, if even half of it has been spent on education, the literacy rate in our country would have been 100 percent today. 32 years have passed, Asif Ali Zardari was tortured by being called “corrupt” and kept in jail for 12 years, and then the torturer sat at the feet of President Zardari with his mother and asked for forgiveness, everyone who maligned him, sooner or later was seen asking for pardon.
34 years and not a single case has been proved against President Zardari, why? Was the state powerful or Asif Ali Zardari? NAB, Police, FIA and every other state institution remained active against him but not a single claim or blame has ever been proven. Asif Ali Zardari is 67 years old and the son-in-law of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto from youth to old age has spent 35 years in courts and prisons, facing these engineered cases.
The late Hakim Ali Zardari must also wonder why his son had to go through this character assassination even though he and his family were known for being major movers and shakers of Pakistan’s business community, from owning several important buildings and thousands of acres of land, including Bombino Cinema, in the 60s.
Also, it should be remembered that Hakim Ali Zardari’s position in the 60s was that if any international delegation came to the then capital Karachi, the people in the delegation would want to meet and have a banquet with Hakim Ali Zardari.
We can infer this from the fact that during the Pervez Musharraf era, when the situation on the border was not good and both countries sent delegations to each other to improve the situation, LK Advani came from India and he too preferred to be Hakim Ali Zardari’s guest where he had met members of civil society, this has been the status of Zardari family. Those targeting Asif Ali Zardari’s family are probably unaware of his childhood.
Asif Ali Zardari’s mother was the granddaughter of the eminent Muslim intellectual Maulana Khan Bahadur Hasan Ali Effendi, thus Maulana Effendi was Asif Ali Zardari’s great-grandfather. Hasan Ali Effendi was associated with the All-India Muslim League and was also a member of the Muslim League Parliamentary Board. From 1934 to 1938, he was also a member of the Sindh Legislative Assembly and was the founder of Sindh Madrasatul Islam.
Asif Ali Zardari is imprisoned by every government and then after some years pardon is also sought from this him by whosoever has kept him behind bars, there is a long series of pardons from Asif Ali Zardari which starts with Ghulam Ishaq Khan who arrested Asif Ali Zardari and then a few years later, the late Ishaq Khan was seen taking the oath of the federal minister from the same Asif Ali Zardari and apologised for the accusations he had made.
This is what Saifur Rehman and the Sharif brothers did, then we also heard that General Shuja Pasha also apologised to Asif Ali Zardari in the Memogate scandal. Imran Khan is famous for U-turns anyway; the day is not far when Imran Khan will appear to take a U-turn on the allegations against President Zardari.
More than 2 dozen cases have been made against Asif Ali Zardari from the 90s till today, he was honourably acquitted in the cases made in the 90s. A person who was defamed in false cases of corruption for 30 years and was kept as a political prisoner for 11 years, but not even a word against the state institutions came out of his mouth, he did not call for a strike to demand the resignation of Pervez Musharraf. To have Musharraf resign there was no long march, no bloodshed, no containers placed anywhere, and no roadblocks.
The time has come for us to close the doors of political role-playing and benefit from the global connections and experience of public leaders. We should take forward his policy of reconciliation and all political parties including PTI should adopt the same policy and give up their interests for the development of Pakistan. Asif Ali Zardari’s policy can be a beacon of light in this deteriorated political crisis as the concept of reconciliation coined by President Zardari is the way out to take Pakistan towards the road of progress, unity, faith, and discipline is only possible if government and oppositions adopt President Zardari’s vision and policy.