Zardari's return will add fuel to fire

- Anil Narendra

Rumours about Zardari fleeing the country have proved to be wrong and baseless. In fact, it was being said that under the pressure from military, Zardari has fled to Dubai, from where he will go to London. Zardari is not ill at all. He has proved everybody wrong and has returned to Pakistan from Dubai. In a statement by the President House, the Sopokesman, Eijaz Durrani has said, 'Zardari has been treated of his illness and now, his health is fine. He will remain in Karachi for a few days, before leaving for Islamabad and very soon he will be active politically.' Though with the return of Zardari, all rumours about a coup has been laid to rest, but it has been seen that in the past, most of the Pak leaders had returned empty handed, whenever they had gone out of country. We have two such examples. First example is of Benazir Bhutto, who had gone in exile to Dubai, when the President sacked her government for allegations of corruptions and she had to face defeat in 1997 elections. Similarly, Parvez Musharraf, who had been the President of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008, resigned and left for London, just before he was to be impeached. He is still in London, though he has been telling people that he will be returning to Pakistan in January 2012. Zardari's return is not likely to quell the political tremors being felt in the country. Now this is an open secret that after memogate, the Pak military is after Zardari and his government. ISI chief, Ahmed Shuja Pasha had gone to a secret visit to Gulf Countries after the killing of Osama bin Laden. By then, he had prepared his scheme of dethroning Zardari and he had taken these countries into confidence and secured their agreement to his plans. The Americn national of Pak origin, Mansoor Eijaz disclosed about this on his blog in May. He had claimed in his blog that suddenly Shuja Pasha disappeared after the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2, he had, in fact, left for Arab countries. Eijaz had also made public the confidential letter written by Zardari seeking America's help, in view of apprehension of a military coup. Geo Channel gave this information quoting Journaist, Omen Waraich of British newspaper, The Independent. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army Chief, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, accepting the existence of secret memorandum document (memogate) said that it was a conspiracy against Pak military and national security. A thorough investigation of this issue must be carried out. Kayani said this in the affidavit submitted in the Supreme Court. All told, nine petitions calling for investigation into this matter have been file in the Supreme Court. The Court had directed President Asif Ali Zardari and nine others to submit their replies by 15th Dec.
Apprehending military coup in the wake of killing of Osama bi Laden by American commandos in Abbotabad, Zardari had written a letter to the US President seeking help. The coming to the light of this letter, it created storm in the Pak poitics.In his reply to this matter, Pakistan Inter- Services Intelligence, ISI Chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha said that he is not satisfied with the evidence provided by the American businessman of Pak origin, Mansoor Eijaz in support of the secret memo, whereas Kayani has demanded that whole truth linked with the secret memo must be un-earthed. He said that this episode has adversely affected the morale of his troops. There has, however, no reply filed on behalf of Zardari so far. The government wants that the petitions seeking investigations into the matter must be rejectd, as it has already constituted a Parliamentar Committee to investigate the memogate issue. Tensons due to the memogate continues in Pakistan. Pak Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani has said that conspiracies are being hatched against his government to install the Senate elections due next year. Talking to reporters in Lahore in a personal chat, Gillani said that all these conspiracies aim at installing Senate elections. He declared that there is no place for martial law in Pakistan. Though he did not clarified abour the origin of these conspiracies, but he was raising finger towards the military.
These political tremors are not going to end. This is a fight between military and the elected government of Zardari. Some other political parties are also secretly supporting the Army. Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan want to further their own interests. Pakistani Army is bent upon to dismiss the Zardari & Co, as such nothing can be said that how the matter turns out in days ahead? Pakistan is once again standing at the cross-roads.