When thug Zardari reached out to Adm Fallon through Hussain Haqqani in what has been come to be known as Memogate, it was a stab in Pakistan’s back. In content Dawn Leaks’ was an act of providing aid and comfort to the enemy, being a well thought out endorsement of the enemy narrative. Nawaz Sharif’s foaming fulminations against the state [recently mouthed], were an open attempt to blackmail Pakistan, and incite multiple mutinies. But no stab cut Pakistan deeper than Ayaz Sadiq’s latest statement about Gen Bajwa’s shaking knees. This statement came in the wake of Operation Swift Retort. This laid out grounds for the enemy to turn its most embarrassing defeat into victory, while showing Pakistan grovelling grotesquely despite its clear physical victory that none challenged, and a moral one which all applauded.
Pakistan is burdened by a myriad of appalling poverties. But no poverty grinds it more mercilessly than that, in this nation of 220 million, only three members of the opposition political parties have chosen to put definable distance between themselves and poor Ayaz Sadiq’s cloying attempt to prove his loyalty to his leader, who is absconding after being convicted for plundering his people.
The first of these is Hafiz Hussain Ahmad of JUI-F, who has condemned Nawaz Sharif in no uncertain terms “as a snake of the sleeve.” He is followed by Tariq Fazal Choudhary, who falls short of condemning Ayaz Sadiq, and merely finds his statement ‘regretful’. And he is followed by Malik Ahmad Khan who has deigned merely to disagree.
And this among legislators representing nearly half the population of a nation 220 million strong? And we continue to wonder why India could not turn back a single invader in 3000 years of recorded history! Whatever one’s faith, genes go deeper!
And they must go especially deep in the case of the three PMLN Lt Gens who cannot be found for comment. They must probably be hiding in Maryum’s skirts. Granted this must indeed be a very comfortable place to hide, but one did hope that from each of them would issue at least a squeak befitting their high rank, even if stature has evaded the loftiness of their status!