Zardari

 
The hard-hitting, outburst of President Zardari against media and his chief political rival Nawaz Sharif was both stunning and entertaining. The occasion was the celebration of the 58th birthday of Benazir Bhutto at Naudero, in Sindh.
I had been pondering, since his advent in power, that he is a crafty and foxy person who has been outwitting his contenders in the political arena of Pakistan.  But the perception seldom crossed my mind that he could be stinging and scornful as well.
Perhaps he was trying to mimic his illustrious father- in-law Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in browbeating the political opponents with derisive, sarcastic and amusing phrases and anecdotes. His utterances were of the type of cheap jargon and run of the mill parlance that the street urchins exchange while playing marbles.
But despite his satirical and overly aggressive and outrageous outpourings we must admit, it was a daring display of courage and confidence in assailing not only media but also his frontline adversaries. He did not suffer from any inhibitions or restraints in pouring out scorn on the media by throwing gauntlet that he was not afraid of the bold headlines against him.
He roared and fretted that some of the news analysts and political commentators on the media channels were political actors and therefore, would be replaced by veritable intellectuals. How would he do this is hard to fathom.
It was indeed a manifestation of the pent-up revulsion, fury and frustration that was released by the president of Pakistan without any compunctions and diplomatic or political reservations. He presented himself more like the aggressive head of his political party than the head of state.
In one salvo, he tried to portray Nawaz Sharif as the cohort and rather accomplice of Taliban and radical Islamists. At the same time he tried to win the armed forces by showering accolades on the army generals.
His implicit and covert message was that Mian Nawaz was dangerous to the interests of United States and would also prove to be a strange and hostile bed fellow for the army as he was in the past.
By using the stigmatic nickname of Mualvi, he dubbed Nawaz Sharif as an extremist or hard-line Islamist like the other religious outfits who were engaged in sabotage and terrorist activities in Pakistan. He tried to establish and make a case that Nawaz Sharif