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19 February 2011 By Saeed
Qureshi It does not behove the PPP
ministers to castigate and revile their former
counterpart Shah
Mehmood Qureshi, holding the
prestigious portfolio of the Minister of Foreign
Affairs. These foul mouthing ministers retaken in the
cabinet are no angels themselves. I wonder if these
guys including Babar Awan, Fauzia Wahab, and Ahmad
Mukhatar possess an iota of dignity and honorable
conduct as to heap indignities and diatribe on Shah
Mehmood whose ouster was patently not on the basis of
certain pious principles but for ulterior motives that
are now well known. A respectable colleague is now
being branded as villain and unwanted simply because
he did not agree with questionable postures of the
prime minister and the
president of Pakistan on certain
foreign policy issues notably that of Raymond Davis
who killed two Pakistan citizens, Even if someone like
Mr. Qureshi who has been and is still a party loyalist
cannot concord with certain decisions of the party
command or the prime minister, he should be given a
warm, hearty and honorable send off. Has Shah Sahib's personality
undergone a metamorphosis in a matter of a few days
that he is being vilified and despised with bitter
acrimony and scathing remarks? By doing so the minions
of the PPP in power are demeaning themselves and not
Shah Sahib. If the PPP high command is
sending a message that whosoever takes an independent
stand would be shown the exit door, then it is a
sordid attempt on self defacing and shows shallowness
of the prime minister and his
cabinet ministers. The
condemnation of Shah Sahib by the PPP ministers does
not lower his stature and rather it has been glorified
further. If Shah Sahib takes a tough stand
against the Indian duplicitous attitude towards
Pakistan and also cannot endorse
that Raymond was a diplomat and enjoyed the
diplomatic immunity,
then instead of punishing him by way of relieving him
of his post, he should be praised and commended for a
highly moral, principled and rightful stand. There must be enormous pressure
on the president and the prime minister from America
for dispensing with Mr. Qureshi. The sacking of Shah
Mehmood Qureshi bears out the unpalatable fact that a
person now under trial for killing Pakistani citizens
was more powerful and important than the foreign
minister of Pakistan who is also a member of the
ruling party with resolute loyalty and unflinching
commitment. It appears that the PPP high
command treats its ministers as garbage to be disposed
off if it becomes too burdensome. The PPP is being run
on personal whims, likes and dislikes and with
vendettas against the dissenting voices within the
party. The critics no matter how sincere and
well-intentioned they may be are being penalized for
offering saner and sound counsels. The PPP"s revolutionary fervor
has been down sliding ever since the incumbent lot of
this party came into power. It is one of the
incomprehensible enigmas of the present times that a
person who is overburdened by serious allegations of
corruption and money laundering is now the president
of Pakistan as well as an all powerful chairman of his
party. That he takes the crucial decisions about the
destiny of Pakistan and makes high profile
appointments of ministers, ambassadors and the chief
executives of the state corporations is simply
mind-boggling. He has such worthies in his
retina of power and glory who not long ago were
treated as the scum of the earth, bootleggers, and
were running errands of bureaucrats for small favors.
The law minister is the worst enemy of law and the
defense minister is a past master in all such matters
that ruin the security and imperil the safety of the
citizens of this hapless nation. These pygmies in
power have no fear of God and openly defy and ridicule
the rulings of the superior judiciary. The level and
dimension of misappropriations of national wealth and
pulling all the dirty tricks and immodest machinations
for self-enrichment have never been as frightening and
limitless as of now. Every good plan or suggestion is
sidetracked and every vicious and self perpetuating
scheme is floated. The uproars of the masses suffering
due to myriads counts, be it power outrages, the
scarcity of water, lawlessness, travesty of justice,
unemployment, health and education hazards, the
poverty and poor utilities the government seems to be
impervious. Even in case of Haj scandals certain
questionable and inappropriate appointments were made
in haste to scuttle the
due process of law. The PIA scandal that entailed
colossal financial loss to the country and immense
sufferings and hardship to the air passengers was
taken lightly and no timely remedial action was taken
one of which was to remove the controversial MD of the
airlines. So in case of Raymond Davis, the
PPP government is bent upon taking the side of the
culprit who killed Pakistani citizens in cold blood
for no compelling reasons. To argue that he is a
diplomat and therefore should be released I would bet
that if a Pakistan diplomat kills even one person in a
western country he will not be allowed to go his home
country. Let all the diplomats carry arms, kill at
will and with abandon in a host country and then be
released because of the diplomatic status they enjoy
under the Vienna Convention. The diplomats seldom
carry firearms on their body and roam in the crowded
suburbs where the ordinary people live. Let a
Pakistani diplomat kill a Saudi national for very
pressing reasons and just watch what happens to him.
The incumbent Pakistani
government is weak, morally bankrupt and unable to
withstand the external pressures because it has no
popular support or legitimate domestic locus standi.
It is a kind of a stooge that can lower itself to any
depth even if it means sullying the national honor.
What about the devastated families of three young men
who lost their lives and what about Shumaila who
committed suicide as she could not bear the shock and
loss of her husband Faheems's gruesome murder? Do we have an iota of feelings
about the young bride who embraced death in a state of
sheer mental agony and utter helplessness? Even after
her death there is no national mourning that she
deserves. The people in power have stony hearts.
Senator John Kerry now in
Islamabad is a friend of Pakistan. He along with
Senator Lugar sponsored the so called Kerry-Lugar bill
for allocation of $ 7.5 billion aid to Pakistan over a
period of five years. During his press conference in
Islamabad with regard to Raymond Davis case, he
maintained a low and humble profile. He quoted the
sayings of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad in order to appease
Pakistanis and solicit support by way of pardoning the
American citizen. But at the same time he weighed the
adverse implications for Pakistan in case Raymond was
nor freed. His main thrust of the argument
was that by virtue of his diplomatic status Raymond
was entitled to be released and handed over to the
United States for the American courts to try him. He
also argued that it was not an infringement of the
laws of Pakistan if Raymond was released under the
provision of diplomatic immunity. The Raymond case puts Pakistan in
a very tight corner and it would be interesting to
watch how Pakistan government can accommodate American
request or pressure for release of Raymond Davis and
simultaneously justify it before the people of
Pakistan as well as meet the imperatives of Pakistani
laws. The writer is a Dallas-based freelance
journalist and a former diplomat writing mostly on
International Affairs with specific focus on Pakistan
and the United States. |
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