Foreign Policy Blogs

Zardari is not the problem

I wish that people in Pakistan would wake up and realized that hating Zardari is not going to do any good. What needs to be done is that people from all across Pakistan come together, realistically and honestly look at the problems that the country is facing and trying to find the best answer or solutions to move forward.

Pakistan, like any other country, has to deal with awful economic situation, rising inflation, alarming rate of population growth, lack of resources, almost non-existent tax base, terrorism, ethnic divide, fractured nation, depressed population and the list can go on and on and one, but you do get the picture.

So, given this background, when I see people screaming and yelling about Zardari, it just makes me sad. Zardari is not the problem – the problem is that people in Pakistan don’t think rationally. And because people in Pakistan are exceptionally sentimental, it has been very easy for the players to task their paid employees in the media to attack and paint Zardari, and the slavish thugs in the media, especially in electronic media have done a brilliant job of distracting people and today, we have a country that is ready to explode, not because anyone from outside is about to attack, but because people in Pakistan have lost the ability to be rational.

Now, Pakistan is going through crisis, yet again, and once again, it is the United States that has come forward to help, but who is being credited with helping people? The Taliban and this drives people crazy. At times, I do believe that the United States must leave Pakistan alone and see how long can the country survive the economic and military aid. People in Pakistan must know how much is being done for them, and one way of educating them is to pull back for at least a year, and once Pakistanis realize who is paying their bills, they will automatically appreciate Washington’s generosity, but to be appreciated, Washington must learn to sit on the side line for some time.

 

 

 

Author

Bilal Qureshi

Bilal Qureshi is a resident of Washington, DC, so it is only natural that he is tremendously interested in politics. He is also fascinated by the relationship between Pakistan, the country of his birth, and the United States of America, his adopted homeland. Therefore, he makes every effort to read major newspapers in Pakistan and what is being said about Washington, while staying fully alert to the analysis and the news being reported in the American press about Pakistan. After finishing graduate school, he started using his free time to write to various papers in Pakistan in an effort to clarify whatever misconceptions he noticed in the press, especially about the United States. This pastime became a passion after his letters were published in Vanity Fair and The New Yorker and his writing became more frequent and longer. Now, he is here, writing a blog about Pakistan managed by Foreign Policy Association.

Areas of Focus:
Taliban; US-Pakistan Relations; Culture and Society

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