It is truly an auspicious beginning of an expected illustrious career as Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari takes his first steps in the minefield of Pakistani foreign affairs. He is slotted to take oath as foreign minister of Pakistan soon. Whether the pregnant political future unfolds better or worse will largely depend on how he acts as the statesman in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).
Potential pitfalls are many. But the wise counsel of his father former President Asif Ali Zardari has always been his mainstay. Few know the lie of this MoFA territory better than Zardari in Pakistan. It is no doubt he who made sure Bilawal Bhutto is well armed walking in with the full time assistance of a formidable former foreign minister as minister of state for foreign affairs Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar.
Bilawal is in a triple bind. He has to outgrow from the shadow of his own very charismatic grandfather, founder of the Pakistan People Party (PPP) and former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who once led foreign affairs of the country. He also has to spearhead urgent repairs in all spheres of international relations that today stand strained if not already tarnished. And then he has the somber duty to steer the state out of its current untenable situation by leading the way internationally for his coalition partners in government.
The country is on the brink of bankruptcy. MoFA will have to get the money for the coalition government to run the state. And yet forces not that obscure did try to make sure he stumbles even before he assumes the mantle.
Astute as always, Zardari decided to wait before Bilawal took oath. It took coalition prime minister Shahbaz Sharif from the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) seven days to put a cabinet together. Yet, it was PPP’s Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar alone who took oath as minister of state on Arpil 20.
The very same day and quite out of the blue, prime minister appointed former diplomat Tariq Fatemi as his special assistant on Foreign Affairs. Shahbaz Sharif is known to be close to the armed forces and Fatemi is his family loayalist who also served as a special assistant in the last PML-N government. The move was resisted effectively by the PPP. Bilawal Bhutto visited former prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the United Kingdom which quarters say led to the withdrawal of the Foreign Affairs portfolio from Fatemi the very next day and well before Bilawal even left Pakistan.
But things are not simple. MoFA has long been a contested ground between elected governments and the armed forces in Pakistan. It is public knowledge our foreign affairs are a hybrid management regime. It is in this context that Bilawal Bhutto taking charge of foreign affairs assumes larger meanings.
The present coalition government came into power after removing former prime minister Imran Khan through a vote of no confidence on April 09 in the national assembly. And since then, it has been an unusual free for all in politics. Everyone is free to blame everyone else in the wake of IK blaming his ouster on a regime change ordered by the United States of America. He has blamed the army of directly meddling in politics and as much as confessed it were they who betrayed him after bringing him in power.
For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the armed forces of the country are on the receiving end in a
shrill political discourse wherein reason has left the context. No one can be held accountable for anything in Pakistan any more.
Another frightening facet of the ongoing internal political crisis is that IK has a large following in the armed forces. It is instructive to see serving and retired military officers supporting IK so unreasonably it becomes obvious they have no idea how countries are run. The architecture of an abstract notion solidified in state and its linkages to life and society at innumerable tiers of social organization are alien to them.
The state had long been dead in Pakistan. Nefarious curbs over media have left the whole society intellectually poorer. People survive in spite of the state and not because of it. It was tradition that always agreed upon common sense which had shielded the people from a state gone berserk. It is that bulwark now being demolished with acrimonious confusions. And it is at this juncture in our sorry history that a delusional mass in our society is bent upon forcing it apart at the seams.
What the armed forces did in nurturing Imran Khan and the crimes many committed in bringing him to power has left the military exposed and vulnerable in Pakistani politics. And there is no money to run the state which only makes things worse. Hence, it is the failure of that unconstitutional regime which has given power back in the hands of the politicians.
It is pertinent to recall it was in December that Zardari very meaningfully revealed in a public address he has been approached to topple the Imran Khan government. Interestingly, it was the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) that asked him to name names the next day! So when the senior coalition partner tries to back off the way prime minister Shahbaz Sharif did by appointing a monitor on Bilawal Bhutto, it is natural that Bilawal calls a spade a spade in the UK with the leader of PML-N, Mian Nawaz Sharif. It will become obvious what else they have agreed upon to make sure democracy is never again hijacked in Pakistan. All eyes are on Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Pakistan.
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Khalid Hussain is Resident Editor of TLTP – You may contact Khalid Hussain at resident.editor@lawtoday.com.pk
