Butter for minorities & butter-milk for majority
The heading, on the face of it, may look odd and or illogical which is fat too distanced away from the ground reality otherwise just refer to the 1st main news of The Post flashed on Friday 20th September saying "˜ Tensions over power sharing "˜
President Asif Ali Zardari is being approached by the political parties which voted for him in the presidential election and to be honest these parties must be rewarded for the votes they have casted in favour of Zardari so from this angel there is absolutely nothing wrong. It is very reliably confirmed that PPP had struck deals with all those parties who promised to support Zardari that they will be given some share in government whereby some of their nominated personalities will be sworn in as cabinet ministers. Now ever since JUI (F) and MQM had already voted in favour of Zardari, both the parties are asking to man not any ministries but certain specific ministries. I do not wish that it had happened like this but there can be some possibility even slightest that ever since before the presidential election, the political scene was very much liquid because Justice ® Saeeduz Zaman and Syed Mushahid Hussain were very much in the run to be seated as President. and therefore PPP had no easy and favourable options but to bag as many votes as possible at whatever price and consequence.
Maulana Fazal Ur Rehman who heads his own faction named JUI (F) has asked for just three ministries only though the final count be somewhere between 25 to 30 if not more. Asif Ali Zardari being President of the country enjoys an inborn prerogative to accept or reject what has been asked for by but I wonder why there should be any heart burning between the Zardari and Fazal since both are quite seasoned politicians so they know the rules of the game. I personally feel that Maulana being an Islamic religious person should not dictate his terms rather on the contra he should ask for what had been agreed upon at the time when PPP contacted him to vote for Zardari in the presidential election. To my understanding both the parties must have agreed upon to at least the numbers if not ministries and therefore they must honour their commitment which had been mutually agreed upon rather than disputing at this time when in very near future many new ministers are due to be inducted to complete the federal cabinet.
It has been surfaced in the news that Maulana Fazal is asking for three ministries namely defence, foreign and religious affairs and one way or the other President Zardari is not agreeing to accept the request. I being a completely impartial person would like to say that Religious ministry must be given to Fazal who fits to the job for very obvious reasons which I need not elucidate any further. However how and why he is asking for defence and foreign can not be understood. Did Zardari agree either in writing or verbally that if JUI (F) votes for him and he succeeds to become President then he will bestow defence and Foreign ministries to Maulana is the most important and pertinent question? It goes without saying that though defence and foreign are also ministries like any other ministry but in reality the two are much too much different to other ministries both in contents and spirit. In our present given situation when Afghanistan is added as a hostile country alike India, we as a nation must be absolutely very choosy to select the best of the lot as to who should be our defence minister. Foreign ministry is always the most important ministry to liaise with the foreign ministries of other member nations at the global level so it singles out itself from other ministries. There must be some logical if not political rationale with Maulana to ask for defence and foreign and not otherwise. I am neither known to him nor have ever contacted him directly or indirectly but still can very comfortably and vehemently say on my honour that Maulana does know which ministries he is asking for and that too from PPP which commands majority in the center. He knows very well that there is hell of a difference between his preferential ministries of defence and foreign and other ministries and this very fact as such prompts him to at least to put forward his claim otherwise his importance is at stake.
MQM is the other political party which also, for very obvious reasons, had been contacted by PPP before the presidential election and this political party too had been taken into confidence like JUI (F). It did what it was supposed to do as per the terms of the deal struck between them and now in reciprocation it is asking for only two ministries and not three like JUI (F) but, as per the newspaper, President Asif Ali Zardari has out rightly rejected its demand of gifting finance and interior to MQM . The news further says that Sindh Governor Dr Ishratullah Abad who himself is a staunch MQM member had put up the demand of the said ministries but as the bad luck had it, President out rightly rejected and in implied sense has replied that that MQM can not and should not ask for some specific portfolios. Importance of finance simply can neither be ruled out nor diminished whatsoever be it a house, office, company or even a country and MQM does know very well as to what it is asking for and why. MQM if given finance can cap any project or expense and who would like to govern empty pocketed.
Interior in a sense is more authoritative than others in a sense that even at minimum it can slap any one it likes if not jail and therefore from this point of view it is most awful particularly in a country like mine where, normally speaking, as and when some one comes in power then he or she wants to settle all the pending grudges and conflicts. Police and other law enforcement agencies are invoked to settle the score and therefore why and how MQM should not ask to grab interior unless it is agreed otherwise. Our history is full of the instances to prove that the people in the power have very ruthlessly used police against others on as and when needed basis.
Summing up, I can say that both JUI (F) and MQM have touched the very nerves of President Zardari so far as distribution of ministries is concerned amongst PPP and its allies and one is to wait and see what happens next. Who gets what is the million dollar question and time only can answer such a baffling and mind boggling question? It will not so easy for President to totally ignore both the allies but at the same time it is not that easy either to completely ignore both JUI (F) and MQM. Let me quip at least for academic discussion if not otherwise that if on one hand defence and foreign is given to JUI (F) and on the other hand MQM gets finance and interior then my caption "˜ butter for minorities and butter-milk for majority' comes true.
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With my honest and solemn prayers
Sincere Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Kuwait / zaidi_x_diplomat@hotmail.com
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