The World According to the Zar-Naw Brothers!

Those who are interested in nation-building and in understanding what has happened in our motherland, Pakistan, in the last 8 years of democratic rule can probably recognize that the word Zar-Naw in the title of this column is an abbreviation of two names.

The first is Asif Ali Zardari, the former president of Pakistan, the husband of late Benazir Bhutto and a senior member of her cabinet, the present co-Chairman of the Pakistan’s People’s Party, and the father of Bilawal Bhutto, the imprudently, injudiciously, and above all, undemocratically imposed Chairman of the PPP. Let us be reminded that Asif Ali Zardari is the same man known for his public speech  threatening  an important national institution and to shut down Pakistan, saying “aent se aent baja dang gey. ” He’s the well-known Mr. 10% (during Benazir’s tenure as Prime Minister), the ex-owner of Surrey Palace in the UK, and the holder of unknown, unspecified bank accounts in Switzerland and other countries. He’s allegedly the owner of several sugar mills in the Sindh Province, thousands upon thousands of acres of land in Pakistan and holds unspecified properties in France, the US, the Gulf States and some other counties worldwide.  And he’s generally accused of being the godfather of corrupt mafia-type outfits in the Sindh province.

The other name is Nawaz Sharif, the 3-time Prime Minister of Pakistan, former Cabinet Minister and Chief Minister of Punjab, and the re-elected party leader of the PMLN after being disqualified as Prime Minister recently by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on charges under constitutional rules (62 and 63) and being indicted in a NAB court for massive corruption and amassing wealth beyond known and legitimate sources of income. Above all, he is the relentless proponent of the Sharif dynasty as the future political masters of this nation and proud promoter of his daughter, Maryam Nawaz Safdar, as the future leader of his party and of this country. Indeed, this introduction to Mian Nawaz Sharif would not be complete without mentioning his son-in-law, Capt. (retired) Safdar, a spectacle to watch and a disturbing phenomenon to hear as he makes nauseating parliamentary speeches and public remarks full of venom unbelievably hurtful to our diverse minority citizens and harmful to the nation’s unity. It must also be mentioned that Mian Nawaz Sharif’s two sons, (bearing most revered Islamic names) Hassan and Hussain, while sitting in London have publicly disowned Pakistan, asserting that they are British citizens subject to no Pakistani laws (though they claim property rights in London and elsewhere seemingly bought by Pakistani money).

Morale della Storia

Let us start this article from the bottom up: conclusion first – but details later. It is rather an unusual practice in English journalism, but this imperfection is desired here to alert the readers of the argumentative improvisation that is going to be an impetus to reverse reasoning. For as witnesses to history, we, as citizens of a country and as human beings, go backwards into the past to examine events and historical realities. How else can we get to know anyone, any nation, or for that matter, a political leadership without going into their past?

Clarity about important national issues are also linked and intertwined with the past. In other words, neither appreciation nor understanding of vital national events are possible without reference to past history.  To go forward, we need to step backwards first – that in itself is the definition of history’s significance.

Let us get back to the moral of the story:  It is shameful to personally submit  to an idea, concept , notion, ideology or specifically to a particular political leadership when such a submission leads to the loss of personal integrity — when one loses one’s balance of rationality and intellectual equilibrium, against all common sense, to an extent that it compromises the fundamentals of decent and appropriate political behavior—by, in effect, setting aside moral and ethical responsibilities  to accept a certain political activist or a political actor or a political leadership.