September 10, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 09, 1429

Standing on the dais in Aiwan-i-Sadr’s main hall and taking the oath of the office of the President, Asif Ali Zardari was visibly nervous. At times he even fumbled in his delivery while repeating the oath after Chief Justice Dogar, and perhaps heaved a sigh of relief once the brief ceremony was over.

But then all this was quite understandable.

For Mr Zardari it was more than a mere ceremony to get installed as the country’s new president. It was the culmination of a long and arduous journey, interspersed with periods of political oblivion, controversies, scandals, incarceration, personal loss of a leader and wife, and much more. Anyone who until a few months ago had not even imagined being at the centrestage in politics, not to mention being the president, would have got jitters while standing before an audience of over a thousand dignitaries, family and friends, to take oath as the new head of the state.

Being a veteran back-bencher at numerous such oath-taking ceremonies, both of presidents and prime ministers, in the 5th floor hall of the President’s House, one can say with certain amount of confidence that this time round the atmosphere was quite different. As the PPP ‘jiyalas’, including many MPs and ministers, raised slogans of ‘jeay Bhutto’ and shouted in praise of the slain party leader, Benazir Bhutto, one couldn’t take his eyes away from young Bilawal and his two sisters. And, of course, from Sanam Bhutto, as for her it was impossible to control her emotions. And if during all this political hullabaloo there was a breach of decorum, like continuous sloganeering when the national anthem was being played, it didn’t appear to be intentional.

Having known Asif Zardari for well over two decades, and having seen the tremendous ups and downs in his personal and political life, it’s hard to imagine him as the President of Pakistan. In the best of times in his previous incarnation, his political identity was that of being Benazir Bhutto’s husband. In fact, Mr Zardari always said in his conversation with his friends and party loyalists that his identity, popularity, and sufferings were all because he was Benazir Bhutto’s husband.

During all this period few people ever bothered to notice that Mr Zardari too was a politician and had his own ideas and a vision of sorts. Perhaps such ideas were mostly dwarfed by the wisdom and political sagacity of Ms Bhutto, but they were nevertheless there and were often presented by him before those who used to meet him during his days of incarceration.

Though I knew of Asif Zardari and his shenanigans from as far back as the early 1970s, it was only after his marriage to BB and after their coming into power a year later that I had my initial interactions. Still, some of my most detailed and memorable meetings with him were at the time when he was in prison on charges ranging from financial corruption to misuse of authority, and even murder.

In those days the best place to meet and chat with Mr Zardari was Rawalpindi’s accountability court. By that time he had become a veteran jailbird and having learnt the trick of creating a medical situation, he had gotten himself shifted to a hospital. So, on most occasions he used to be brought to the court house in an ambulance and to the courtroom in a wheelchair. The court proceedings rarely moved beyond the discussion on deciding the next date of hearing, and for the rest of the duration the place used to turn into what can best be described as Zardari’s court-house, ‘darbar’.

All kinds of courtiers used to frequent the place. Some used to come with valuable information about political developments, some with business or political problems and a few political activists like Qazi Sultan just for the love of BB, considering it their duty to attend to her incarcerated husband.

Having seen people breaking down after having spent less than a year in jail, it used to be an amazing site to see Asif Zardari meeting and greeting people with the same kind of enthusiasm. He always had a smile on his face, and often cracked jokes, and rarely discussed what he had been going through. However, he was always aware of the political developments taking place in the country, movements of various political forces, and the games that military regime had been playing. It was during this period that he had used the election results of 2002 to his advantage to re-establish his contact with the security establishment, which ultimately paid a dividend a few years later.

Even in jail, Asif Zardari was never able to develop a love for book reading, and he openly admitted it. One was never sure if he even had the time, or appetite, to read newspapers. However, jail made him a regular listener of news on radio, and in those days my acquaintance with him was largely due to news and analysis on BBC Urdu service. In the few discussions that took place in the court-house meetings, it was not difficult to make out that Mr Zardari certainly had views on politics, economy and global affairs. Still, it was difficult to say if they were anywhere close to the happenings of the real world. However, what one was able to gather was that he certainly had his pulse on the rapidly changing politics, and he remained in contact with those who in future could become PPP’s political allies.

Indeed, his days in prison had somehow convinced him that in future there was a major role for him in the country’s political affairs. Whether that was a wise thought, or a misplaced ambition of an incarcerated member of a major political family, remained a matter of debate till the time he made an appearance, albeit accidentally, on the country’s political stage. Since then there has been no stopping in his rise from one major position to another, culminating in the office of the head of state.

So, if it was his dream to be the country’s president, it has certainly come true. But if the dream was that as the head of state he would be able to use his position and influence to change the fate of this nation, he would have to do much more than indulging in mere rhetoric, or by giving half-baked solutions to some of the most complex problems the country is faced with.

Perhaps, as a starter, he may need to counter the prevailing perception in the country that he is not a man of his word. The way he has walked away from some of the promises he made with his political allies like Nawaz Sharif, has certainly dented his credibility. He needs to do something about it. Then, if he plans to govern the country from the President’s House even in the presence of an elected parliament -- something that seems to be on his mind -- President Zardari will then have to come out with his vision about Pakistan and the challenges it is currently faced with. Again, rhetoric alone won’t do.

In the eyes of most observers, his maiden news conference has been a huge disappointment. For most people it was a non-event and it shouldn’t have taken place if he didn’t have anything concrete to present before the country. On almost all the major issues from countering terrorism to economy, and from sovereignty of the parliament to the matters of governance, his response, at best, was vague.

Most observers believe circumstances have thrown up for Mr Zardari a huge opportunity to make people forget the perception about him, which mainly has its roots in the past, and to rise to the occasion to provide the kind of leadership that may restore the public confidence in the elected civilian forums.

It is being said that the people of Pakistan have given him a golden opportunity to prove the world wrong. Perhaps, time alone will tell if he has the capability and the political will to deliver.