Former Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri announced his joining the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on December 20, 2011 at a public rally in Kasur. Unfortunately, the announcement was overshadowed by the fact that rally participants made off with all the chairs placed in the jalsa. For its part, the media focused more on the chairs episode rather than reporting on the former foreign minister’s decision to join PTI. The media was more concerned with what had transpired after the rally and how surprising it was that no one had stopped the people who took off with a reported 25000 chairs. It was even alleged that some in the rally had actually been hired to do this.
PTI’s Karachi jalsa on December 25 was orchestrated to display PTI’s strength by showcasing all the heavyweights who have joined the party. Surprisingly when Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri came up to speak, the compere got up twice and asked him to hurry up and end the speech.
This was not the way to treat a man of Khurshid Kasuri’s standing, when another former foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, was given much more importance and allowed to make a long and boring speech. If one were to compare the two as foreign ministers, it was during Kasuri’s time that great headway was made in India-Pakistan relations and Pakistan’s foreign policy was quite well respected.
Perhaps, Kasuri has made the wrong choice. He would be better suited to a role in APML under Musharraf, his former boss. Both of them had worked together for five years to run a successful foreign policy, and had come so near to resolving the Kashmir dispute.
APML itself needs weighty party members and Kasuri would be a good addition. It looks like he would be wasting his time in PTI where he will always be overshadowed. His meeting with Musharraf in Dubai has already won him a show cause notice from the PTI high command. This is the time when he should break the rope and join APML.
MASOOMA IMRAN
Karachi