Asif Ali Zardari’s selection as the next President of Pakistan has again demonstrated the absolute failure of the political system in Pakistan. That such a notoriously tainted individual, dubbed as ‘Mr Ten Percent’ for his prolific reputation in sourcing bribes, can return to power is beyond belief for many people not just in Pakistan, but right around the world. Yet Pakistan’s so called peoples’ representatives in the National and Provincial assemblies together with the Senate have just voted Zardari in.

Zardari’s reputation for corruption is well established; one of the most infamous examples for which he is remembered for is when he and his spouse, Benazir Bhutto, denied for several years they were the real owners of the 355 acre Rockwood mansion in the UK, better known to many Pakistanis as the ‘Surrey Mahal’. Only when a British court was on the verge of confiscating the property did Zardari admit ownership to avoid seizure. This is just but one of the many scandals Zardari has been associated with. The fact of the matter is that in Pakistan where the judiciary has been politicised since it’s inception the conviction of such rich and politically powerful individuals such as Zardari is a near impossibility. With their constant deal making and the continuous rotation of power between Pakistan’s corrupt politicians, no Pakistani government is ever going to serve real justice for fear of future retaliation. In Zardari’s case even where there was a theoretical possibility, General Pervez Musharraf graciously gave Zardari constitutional protection with the ‘National Reconciliation Ordinance’ (NRO) passed by himself. Even in the West where proceedings were being made against Zardari in Switzerland, the charges have been conveniently been dropped in the last few days. 

Zardari’s assumption of power demonstrates everything that is wrong with Pakistan today. It also demonstrates the absolute failure of the Musharraf era, where Musharraf once promised to rid Pakistan of it’s corrupt politicians’ such as Zardari and Nawaz Sharif; yet matters have come full circle where Musharraf was forced to facilitate their return to politics in Pakistan and humiliatingly exit himself. 

At the heart of this new political order in Pakistan centring around Zardari has been the brazen interference and meddling by America and Britain. Their overt meddling in the affairs of Pakistan to such an extent is an open secret and perhaps unprecedented in contemporary world politics. Anxious to retain their influence over the affairs of Pakistan they used Musharraf to his fullest extent until they realised their political asset had actually become a political liability. Musharraf, initially popular after his 1999 overthrow of the then Nawaz Sharif government, was rightly hated for being an American stooge serving American interests in prosecuting the ‘War on Terror’. However in the last year this sentiment became especially acute first with his attempted dismissal of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudary and subsequent State of Emergency together with his brutal Lal Masjid blood letting. Fearing upheaval in Pakistan, America and the West knew the time had come to back another horse. 

The baton it seems has now passed in two ways from Musharraf; to General Ashfaq Kayani, the new COAS, who has now become the chief contractor for the Americans in prosecuting the War on Terror and is seemingly even more loyal than Musharraf as the aggressive military action by the Pakistan army in recent days demonstrates. Politically, power has been transferred to the odious Asif Ali Zardari who with his puppet Prime Minister Syed Yousef Raza Gilliani and the fractured PPP has now become the most powerful civilian figure in Pakistan. 

‘Stability’ in Pakistan for the West means only one thing; continued co-operation with it’s agenda for making war in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s tribal areas. This is evident from the fact that in the last six months of democratic rule, Pakistan’s situation has deteriorated rapidly. It’s economy is in dire straits with out of control inflation, continuing wheat and food shortages, collapsing value of the rupee and almost exhausting it’s foreign exchange reserves. This has led to severe power cuts across the country as Pakistan finds it increasingly difficult to pay for the oil to power it’s electricity power plants. Internally the Pakistan army has been deployed to fight it’s own people in northern Pakistan throughout the Swat valley and the FATA areas while American and NATO forces launch cross border raids with impunity killing Pakistani men, women and children on Pakistani soil. Suicide bombings have become frequent throughout the country with no real explanation or claim from what are otherwise motiveless killings that are only furthering American aims of keeping Pakistan weak and destabilised. America by all accounts is directly contributing to destabilising Pakistan through it’s regional policy and it’s combination of threats, bribes and covert action in Pakistan; it has many numerous military, CIA and FBI stations in Pakistan. America has succeeded in sowing distrust between it’s armed forces and it’s people; with over 250,000 people being displaced by the military operation currently launched in Swat by the Pakistan army the conditions are being laid for internal civil war.  

So it is into this cauldron that Zardari find’s his new place in Pakistani politics; with all of Musharraf’s presidential powers intact, he is a President who will wield real power. However while condemning the first ever acknowledged American ground raid in Pakistan in a Pakistani newspaper, Zardari’s real intentions and double talk were made clear in an opinion piece on the eve of his election fittingly delivered in the Washington Post, saying “I will work to defeat the domestic Taliban insurgency and to ensure that Pakistani territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks on our neighbors or on NATO forces in Afghanistan…..We stand with the United States, Britain, Spain and others who have been attacked. Fundamentally, however, the war we our fighting is our war.” No other politician in any other country would be caught dead in making such a statement of intent in reassuring a foreign power of pursuing their policy aims on the eve of becoming leader; this though is testament to the fact of how much Zardari actually owes Washington in helping to elevate him to the seat of power. It is clear that while the faces may have changed, the actually policy of securing American interests remains the same. The $15 billion promised by America over the next ten years has evidently helped convince the Pakistani establishment that continued co-operation with the Americans will be a lucrative business. 

Pakistan’s history shows that both democracy and dictatorship have failed to address it’s problems. At the root of the problem is the fact that Pakistan’s ruling system and it’s legislation are so readily manipulated by the real powerbrokers in Pakistan; the feudals, the industrialists and the military to fulfil and safeguard their various interests. This is the reason why over the last 61 years Pakistan has made no tangible economic progress for it’s people, the vast majority of whom remain in severe poverty. Entering this equation of interest has been the West; with it’s monetary bribes for the Pakistan’s elites, it too has always been a manipulative stakeholder in Pakistan’s system of ruling since it’s creation. With the interests of the rich and powerful always at the forefront, democracy in Pakistan is not the answer for it’s 170 million people.  

America may well have been able to help ease Musharraf out gently and prevent a political meltdown by helping to install their new front man in the form of Zardari; yet the irony is that Zardari seems all set to pursue the same policies that made Musharraf so unpopular. Whilst Musharraf politically enjoyed an easy incoming period no such thing exists for Zardari; the man is loathed by just about everyone. Moreover Musharraf skilfully manipulated the Pakistani political scene for almost ten years; Zardari in contrast is a polarising and deeply autocratic divisive figure with very little administrative or public office experience. Zardari by any stretch of the imagination is the next disaster to strike Pakistan. With Pakistan passing through it’s severest crisis to date to say it is facing an existential crisis is an understatement. How long Zardari can remain mounted on the tiger is anybody’s guess.