Why Zardari wants to be Pakistan’s Sonia Gandhi

Mail Today

Bharat Bhushan on the peculiar dynastic politics of India and Pakistan

 Asif Ali Zardari says that he wants to be Pakistan’s “Sonia” if the Pakistan Peoples’ Party is voted to power in the coming elections. He told the Sunday Times in an interview: “If our party wins in February’s elections, I will not take a cabinet post but will act like Sonia Gandhi, as an advisory figure without a seat in Parliament.”
Zardari and Sonia Gandhi are in effect “outsiders” who do not carry the family charisma. Zardari’s desire to not assume direct power is comparable to the choice that Sonia Gandhi made in 1990. She had waited for eight years before she took control of the Congress Party and a full nine years after her husband’s assassination before she contested a parliamentary election.

The Churchill wannabes destroy any hope of a violence-free life in Pakistan

Guardian

Benazir Bhutto’s death is just the latest evidence of the disastrous legacy of western involvement in the country’s politics writes Pankaj Mishra

Last week the portrait of Benazir Bhutto as the last great hope for democracy in Pakistan had barely received its finishing touches in the world media when it was muddied by accusations that the former prime minister had sponsored jihadists in Afghanistan and India-held Kashmir.

Neighbour’s Envy

Hindustan Times

Barkha Dutt says that in their curiousity about the ‘idea of India’ , Pakistanis seem to be lamenting the death of democracy

THE BATTERED Toyota spluttered through the sand, its frayed edges and peeling skin the perfect, but poignant, metaphor for the times. We were navigating our way through the rocky and barren desert of Sindh, today a glamorous byline for the globetrotting journalist, but for its own people, really just the poor country cousin of the greedy and mighty Punjab – a sort of step-child left behind at home to sweep the chimneys, while the rest of the family goes out to dance at the ball.