Zardari and Pakistan : Playing the clever victim

Perhaps no other country manipulates the world media like Pakistan does. Or rather no other country's leaders have proven to be as efficient in managing media like those from Pakistan.

We have seen it with Benazir Bhutto booted out of her own country on allegations of corruption even as her husband was put behind bars. She played the victim with such grace and perfection that even the best PR guys of the world would have a lesson or two to learn from it.

Now comes General Musharraf who ruled Pakistan as a military dictator anointing himself as the President and posing to the world as someone who has brought good and hope back to the hell (Pakistan). He was so graceful when he visited the US to promote his book on the back of an international summit in the US and took time off to visit every other late night comedy show to give answers on the controversy that he himself helped create to sell his book.

Now comes Ms. Bhutto back from London where she lived in exile after striking a deal with the 'brutal military dictator' posing as someone who is sacrificing everything of her life whereas in reality she struck a deal with the General that she shall not be arrested upon her return and her husband shall be acquitted of all charges and released from prison where he stayed for almost a decade.

Then comes the master of all Asif Ali Zardari. He beats everyone to it when he plays the victim. I have not seen a single interview of his where he would not say "has anyone suffered more than my children and I have" pointing to the death of his wife in a suicide attack that killed scores of ordinary people as well. He throws this line at anyone and everyone who would ask him about the menace of terrorism that has deep roots in Pakistan owing to the decades old complicity of the ruling establishments from time to time.

In the immediate aftermath of the Mumbai attacks he started off saying his heart bleeds for Indians and the pain they are going through. Then he tries to blame who he calls "NON STATE ACTORS" who do not operate from the confines of any borders. After a couple of weeks into the brutal attack on Mumbai, today he says he is responsible for the Non state actors as well if they operate from his country. And as clever as anyother Pakistani leader he again says India should provide evidence. What more of an evidence does he need to follow up on the lead of the father who has recognised his son who was the only terrorist caught alive ?

This is Zardari for the world. The best public relations manager I have ever seen, I mean when he addresses world media. His popularity in his own country is debatable though. Without a doubt, as I put all of his statements together, I can say he does not mean anything he says and all he is doing is just a touch up so he would be perceived as someone who means what he says.

And that is Pakistan for the world. Be a silent spectator to what has been brewing up in its own backyard, let it spill over to other countries by providing assistance of all kinds including cover fire when they try to infiltrate into Kashmir from the other side. And now it is the same Pakistan that is playing the victim as the agents that they helped build and amass ammunition take on their own ilk.