KARACHI – President Asif Ali Zardari is loved by all. Such is the affection that Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza graced the Assembly session on Wednesday with their presence, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Sardar Ahmed nodded vociferously when the chief minister waxed lyrical about his party’s chief, National People’s Party’s (NPP) Arif Mustafa Jatoi had no objections, and Law Minister Ayaz Soomro presented his best toady self. We all love Asif Ali Zardari in Sindh. But Punjab – that is a different matter.
With the Lahore High Court set to reach some sort of a verdict on a plea questioning President Zardari’s dual offices – the head of state and as the co-chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – the bastion of the PPP, Sindh, threw its weight firmly behind the president. All the usual rhetoric was there – as is expected from Law Minister Soomro – about how Zardari is doing a phenomenal job in times of crisis, that he is needed in both positions at the same time, that the federation was saved by President Zardari, that all others – to summarise- are nincompoops and would be lost without the president’s guidance. Fair enough.
But as it happens, the matter of the dual offices is sub judice. Yet, Sindh chose to give its backing to President Zardari, playing the Sindh card well before it needed to be shown. But the PPP was adamant, and Zardari’s standing among the political elite of the province meant that the resolution providing him with political backing went through without any hitches.
Arif Jatoi then furthered the cause of Sindh, asking for the province’s gas to be utilised for the province before giving a share to other provinces. Chief Minister Shah’s response was premised with the argument that Balochistan was the last province to receive natural gas that it produced.
Long live Sindh (card)
