ISLAMABAD – The issue of Raymond Davis, our mole said, worried President Asif Zardari the most and he visibly looked flustered while chairing the meeting of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s core committee on Tuesday night as he shared with his close aides the enormity of external and internal pressure he was faced with after the Lahore incident.
“It is a difficult situation,” the president was quoted as saying while referring to the arrest of the American citizen who had killed two Pakistanis. Though the president did not go into minutiae of the issue, he informed the participants that the US congressional delegation, which called on him early this week, had asked for Davis’ release tacitly conveying a strong message that the issue, if not resolved, would create problems for Pakistan.
“We are under pressure from our people,” the president quoted the delegation as telling him. The president candidly explained the possible consequences which the country might face in case the issue of Davis’ was not resolved, explicitly telling his team that the United States could use various leverages to pressure Pakistan for the release of its “diplomat”.
What the president was upset with was that the US could go to the extent of stopping military aid and withdrawing its support from pushing the International Monetary Fund to help Pakistan at a time when the country was in dire need of continuing the $11.3 billion stand-by arrangement which was already in jeopardy. When Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the source said, wanted to speak on the issue, the president stopped him. “I will talk to you separately,” Qureshi was told and he laidback.
Before the arrival of the president to chair the core committee meeting, the members, informally exchanging views on various issues, asked the foreign minister to tell them whether Davis enjoyed diplomatic immunity or not. “What should I say,” an-always-cool Qureshi said in an unusual demeanor and unambiguously expressed his frustration that he was asked to remain silent on this issue as the interior minister had been mandated with this job as well.
The source said the president reaffirmed his commitment to continue the government’s policy of reconciliation in spite of negative signals coming from others. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Religious Affairs Minister Khurshid Shah supported him. The participants proposed that Fazlur Rehman should be brought back into the coalition. “He will not come back … he has gone beyond a point of return,” the president was quoted as saying.
While there was a general satisfaction over the on-going talks between the government and the Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PML-N), the participants noted that the PML-N was unnecessarily creating hype by making statements only to play to the galleries. On inclusion of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in its 10-point reforms agenda, Law Minister Babar Awan informed the meeting that Ishaq Dar had told him that the issue of the NRO was included in haste, suggesting that the party was not serious to pursue it.
Babar Awan, who had announced the government’s decision to dissolve the federal cabinet without the approval of the president and the prime minister, was snubbed. “Who had asked you to speak out on the cabinet issue?” the president asked Awan, catching him off-guard and he visibly looked jittery with his detractors smiling sarcastically.
The source, however, said the issue of the cabinet’s right-sizing was not discussed in the meeting of the core committee and it seemed that the president and the prime minister had now decided to put it on the hold as ten ministries were already being devolved to the provinces and this process would complete by June 30.
