Zardari attacks judiciary, detractors
Pakistan's beleaguered President Asif Ali Zardari today broke his silence to take on his detractors and the judiciary for speedily acting only on cases that went against the government.
Addressing a crowd of over 50,000 people on the fourth death anniversary of his wife Benazir Bhutto near the Bhutto family's mausoleum at Garhi Khuda Baksh in Sindh province, Zardari sought to sweep aside the crises faced by the government led by his Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and questions about his future in the wake of a standoff with the military over the memo scandal.
"We want to make history, we do not want to make headlines. Politics, which has been left to the Prime Minister and the cabinet, is the art of the possible. Making a nation is the art of the impossible and I believe I am doing the art of the impossible," Zardari said while speaking from behind a bulletproof glass screen.
This is the first remark made by 56-year-old Zardari on speculation that erupted over the future of the government after he was rushed to Dubai on December 6 for medical treatment.
The President, who has been under pressure from the security establishment over an alleged memo that sought US help to stave off a military coup in Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin Laden in May, made no mention of his problems with the military.
He reserved his sharpest criticism for the judiciary and Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Referring to the tardy prosecution of the case related to Benazir Bhutto's assassination, he said: "I ask Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry what has happened to (Bhutto's) case? The courts are not under me."
"A minister is in jail for one-and-half years and that is not noticed, but they notice other cases very quickly. My case (for reviewing the death sentence awarded to former President) Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is not noticed," Zardari said.
The PPP, Zardari said, had fought many heavyweights in the past. "If the time comes, we will come before you, you can do what you want but while remaining within the constitution," he said in the course of his rambling speech.
This was Zardari's first public appearance since he spent almost a fortnight in Dubai earlier this month to seek treatment for what aides said was a heart condition.
He appeared healthy and smiled several times during his speech. The President, who was clad in black and wore a white Sindhi cap, sought to dismiss his recent health problems, saying they were like a "pulled muscle".
He said: "Someone said I am medically out. My team has lakhs and crores of people and they say I am alone?"
Zardari took several pot-shots at cricketer-turned- politician Imran Khan, whose Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party has shaken up the political arena by organising a string of massive rallies across Pakistan.
In an apparent reference to Imran's description of popular support for his party as a tsunami, Zardari told the rally that last year's floods were a "real tsunami".
Earlier in a statement, Zardari asked the countrymen to "foil all conspiracies" against democratic institutions, a remark that comes amidst tensions between the army and the civilian government over the memo scandal.
Referring to the assassination of his wife, former prime minister Benazir, on this day four years ago, Zardari said in a special message: "Today we pay tributes to her. The best way to do it is to defend and protect democracy and democratic institutions in the country and foil all conspiracies against it".
