BAD idea, Asif Zardari putting himself up for election as president, and worse, to do it without consulting the PML-N, the other part of the quite wonderful experiment of the two largest parties working together rather than being at each other`s throat as in the past.

It is worse still, there being several grades of bad, when the PPP now prevaricates on the withdrawal of powers vested in the presidency under Article 58-2(b) — powers that the PPP has always opposed — now that it appears that its own will adorn the president`s chair. And most egregious of all, when it was the need of the hour to have a president from the gravely wounded province of Balochistan! They say Sardar Attaullah Mengal refuses to even consider such an offer, but could it be made to him formally, leaving it to him to refuse it?

And why not Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui who has proved himself to be a man of great integrity, who has throughout the judicial crisis maintained a clear and unambiguous and courageous stand strictly on points of law, only for the rule of law?

Yes, sirs, a very bad idea indeed as Asif will find to his own and the party`s cost sooner rather than later with Nawaz Sharif poised — at the time of writing — to stalk out of the coalition. It will be interesting to see how the PPP runs the country without the help of the next largest political party.

An aside whilst those like I who saw the horrific political enmities of the late 1980s and early 1990s are heartbroken at the coalition`s coming demise, it is quite clear who is to blame for it the PPP, not the PML-N. For the PPP broke its word not once, not twice, but three times.

I might also add that it is painful in the extreme to see Asif Zardari repeat ad nauseum that accords are not the Quran Sharif or Hadith. Accords, especially those that impact tens of millions of hapless people jolly well should be sacrosanct. How else will politicians be respected as better alternatives to military dictators? More than anything, how good is a man who does not stand by his word?

So then, he`s gone, inside of 10 days of the threat of impeachment. But what now to do with Musharraf now that he is not `president` and simply cannot be adequately protected? While one would dearly like to see him in Saudi Arabia nobody wants him, not even Turkey, his second home as he himself liked to call it which broke my heart. Et tu? And then it hit me. Why not the picturesque Attock Fort?

Remember the time when Nawaz Sharif was incarcerated there and the junta and its `agencies` spread stories about how comfortable he was in the VVIP accommodation in the officers` mess, ordering his own food cooked by Pakistani versions of cordon bleu chefs? Sometimes even ordering Chinese fare from the Marriott, Islamabad the Beautiful?

Even I, I must admit, quite shamefully made fun of all the hoopla being made by Nawaz Sharif`s people when he was enjoying VVIP stay in the officers` mess! Well, sirs, if the accommodation was VVIP enough for an elected prime minister it is VVIP enough for an unelected former `president`. Indeed, for all I care, the establishment can spend another million or so rupees to make the accommodations even more VVIP for Musharraf.

A little about the repeated Saudi interference in our domestic affairs Prince Muqrin, their intelligence chief and therefore their point man on Pakistan, was here again, this time insisting he would not allow anyone (read Musharraf) to become a “laughing-stock”. Why would Musharraf become a “laughing-stock” if the people of Pakistan, through their elected representatives, decide to try him for his crimes of omission and commission please?

We must ask a harder question. While Musharraf inspected a guard of honour when he left the presidency, what was done for Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he faced the hangman`s noose, no less? Remember, ZAB unified the oil-rich Muslim states and taught them to stand up, look the First World in the eye, and demand a just price for their most precious resource which was being robbed for a pittance.

Not much, because at that time Amreeka Bahadur was also after Bhutto`s neck; this time Master Musharraf is their `tight` buddy who danced to their tune, and just like other tin-pot dictators constantly tried to be more loyal than the king. Not even apologising when innocents, his own countrymen and women and their little children, were killed in the name of the war on terror.

Which reminds me. A rather large organ that has taken upon itself to praise Musharraf come what may has cautioned the government not to include the Damadola strikes and the Lal Masjid action in the charges against him because “the world outside” will look at these charges “with disbelief and disdain”.

Says who? They are both actions that prove beyond a shadow of doubt that Musharraf knew neither strategy nor tactics, and that he is a pitiless and callous and cruel man whose actions have brought the state of Pakistan into direct conflict with its own citizens. Imagine, reader, a so-called president of a country saying, “Well, if they keep the wrong company, they will die” when asked what he thought about innocent women and children dying in Damadola. How difficult was it to say, simply, that he was sorry that innocent lives were lost?

A little about the innocent lives lost in the Wah bombing. It was a reprehensible, absolutely horrific act which is to be condemned out of hand. However, one must ask the billion $ enterprises that our `agencies` have become, why they don`t know the people who are behind the almost daily carnage.

And if they don`t know, why don`t they know? How many people are there in the country who would know how to stitch a suicide vest? How many explosives experts will know how to rig one? The ISI and MI and IB know what the perceived enemies of their masters ate last evening, so why don`t they know who the murderers are?

This is what the government should do now, even at this late date apologise for the innocent lives lost in the Frontier over the years; hold the `agencies` to strict account for gross dereliction of duty; and go after the killers of the innocent mercilessly, whoever they are. Even if they infest the `agencies` of the state of Pakistan.n

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk