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An evening with the president
By Tahir Hasan Khan
Karachi
The Taliban, and not India, are the real threat, not only to Pakistan but to the whole world, President Asif Ali Zardari said during his first detailed meeting with journalists after he assumed the office of the head of state.
President Zardari had invited, for an informal talk, a group of journalists who covered his cases and political activities while he was in jail for nine years. The President spoke about almost each and everything during the more than two-and-a-half-hours-long meeting, sans advisers and official protocols.
The meeting was held in an air-conditioned tent and authorities concerned had made arrangements according to the prescribed customs. The sitting arrangement for journalists was originally made at a distance from the President. However, all arrangements went awry when President Zardari sat closer to the journalists saying, “They are my friends who stood by me through thick and thin and there is no need for this distance and protocol. I will sit as close to them as I did while I was in jail.”
Jamil Soomro, adviser to the Sindh chief minister, started the proceedings and told journalists that the President would first deliver a speech, and later answer questions. However, the President ignored all protocol and asked the journalists to share their views about the performance of the government.
The President replied to queries of new comers but didn’t look satisfied and finally asked his ‘old friends’ to share their views.
Lack of coordination and questionable attitudes, especially of provincial ministers with party workers, common people as well as journalists, was the main complaint. A few of his friends of his in the media pointed out the corruption of some provincial ministers.
The president listened patiently and admitted that there was lack of coordination and said his official engagements and hectic foreign tours was the reason of lack coordination with old friends. He asked journalists to contact Jamil Soomro who had been working with Benazir Bhutto and him since last two decades as media coordinator, calling him his trusted man. Soomro was recently appointed adviser to the CM with the status of provincial minister. He is one of the members of the media team of the President along with Farah Naz Isfahani, Farhatullah Babar, Fauzia Wahab and Qamaruz-Zaman Kaira.
Most of the journalists asked the president about the how the Army viewed his government. President Zardari replied: “We changed the old perception. Now the Army chief and ISI chief brief the parliament and politicians. They share with us views about the security of the country. The government decided to take action against extremists and the Army is fighting in Swat against them; this is a big change. I want to change bad impressions; and this impression is wrong that Army only wants to remain in power. Our Army is brave and wants to fight with the enemies of Pakistan”.
Zardari said he knew about the conspiracies being hatched against him but he did not bother as he planned for a new political culture in the country. “I want that the PPP-led coalition government, also comprising the MQM and ANP, should not only complete this tenure but will contest the next election jointly on the basis of the government’s performance”.
He rejected the perception that the PPP surrendered before MQM and left the field open to them in Karachi and Hyderabad. “The PPP is the architect of reconciliation process and I want to it to continue. I never surrendered before the Army when I was in prison. So how I could I surrender to anybody else?”, he questioned.
The president admitted that people were not happy with the present regime. They want jobs and they knew that only the PPP could provide them with these. He said the government was trying to improve the economy of the country.
Zardari said he was in prison when the French engineers were killed and termed it a propaganda when a journalist asked him about the report about his involvement in the killing of French engineers in Karachi.
The president also rejected the impression that he was trying to sideline those who were close to the late Benazir Bhutto, such as Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Sherry Rehman and Aitzaz Ahsan.
Zardari said Sherry had jumped ship, believing it was going to sink. However, he said, the ship would not sink. Ahsan was not a minister in the last BB government - he was only a senator, he said, adding that “Makhdoom Sahab” was commerce minister right now. He said that Fahim wished to become prime minister, but the party was not in favour of this.
The News: Thursday, June 25, 2009
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