Agh Tanveer Iqbal

 Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan Tuesday described Presidential candidate Senator Asif Ali Zardari as a man of courage, resilience and steadfastness for more than eleven years who faced all sorts of tortures and attempts on his life and who would not barter the party's interest for his own safety.

Writing on Reuters blog as a guest contributor, Hasan said Asif Zardari has become a target of a well-calculated media blitzkrieg ever since PPP announced its decision field him as its Presidential candidate especially when he is emerging as a sure winner.

"Besides an attempt to resurrect the dead horse of alleged corruption, he is also being accused of being unhealthy, of having unsound mind," he wrote.

The High Commissioner said the assassination of Benazir Bhutto had pushed the country to the edge of a precipice, into valley of death and doom.

Asif Zardari grasped the gravity of the situation and stood up to save Pakistan from break-up. His words to angry and violent masses: "Your dear leader Benazir Bhutto had laid down her life to save Pakistan and not to destroy it." And both he and his resolute 18-year old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari re-enforced Benazir Bhutto's life-long philosophy that democracy is the best revenge.

Hasan noted that the populist wrath was transformed into an electoral victory to defeat both the dictator and his collaborators. Indeed the worst adversity for him and the nation had made Zardari a man of destiny and he converted the nation's profound grief into unparalleled strength. In deference to her wishes he set himself on the task of translating her dying commitment to the nation that her death should serve as a catalyst for change.

"Not a politician in his wife's mould and having spent more than half of his married life in incarceration, the manner Zardari has handled the post-Bhutto situation has made him past master at the game.

"SAZ has definitely out-manoeuvred those who wanted to play games with him including the former President. He has achieved the much desired change peacefully and without risking the lives of his people what many other senior politicians had been seeking through confrontation," he wrote.

The High Commissioner recalled that when he left Pakistan to take up his new assignment in London, he was reassured by Asif Zardari that Pervez Musharraf would be out by August and said his critics even accused him of giving the former President unnecessary time to regain what they called his hold on power. They failed to understand that the time-delay was well-spent in evolving a fool-proof strategy to outmanoeuvre the President.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan further said Asif's singular achievement was the MQM's decision to abstain from voting in Sindh Assembly that made its no-confidence in the former President unanimous.

"His triumph was complete when MQM's leader Altaf Husain stole the march on others by unconditionally nominating SAZ as MQM's Presidential candidate soon to be followed by others."

"Indeed, Zardari was the first among national politicians to have sought forgiveness publicly from the Balochi leaders and Balochi people for the atrocities committed against them - a sample of his sincerity to carry the entire nation along with him, he said.

Speaking about Zardari's physical condition, the High Commissioner said he has known Asif very closely since his marriage with martyred Bhutto in 1987. "On no occasion did I find him absent-minded or forgetful as reported by certain section of the British media. I can vouch that Mr Zardari was never mentally sick.

"During his nearly 8 long years of incarceration (starting from November 5, 1996) he was subjected to many kinds of torture to break him up."

Despite the torture, Mr Zardari did not bend. It was his dauntless courage that kept him going through the most adverse circumstances even during the years of his continued detention under President Musharraf