Just when one thinks the PPP rulers can disgust no more, they surprise us once again. And so it was that one had to witness with revulsion the President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari awarding our Hilal series of national awards (second in rank after the Nishan series) to an American official whose sole claims to fame in Islamabad are his frequent visits to pressurise the Pakistani state into submitting to U.S. diktat.
To see Richard A. Boucher being given the Hilal-e-Quaid-e-Azam
award was to see our leaders slapping the Pakistani nation on
its face. After all, Boucher represents the US administration that has destroyed the Pakistani polity through daily killings of the Pakistani people in drone attacks and through consistent demands to ‘do more’ even as we have seen the fallout of the insane ‘war on terror’ bring suicide bombings, terrorism and polarisation into Pakistan as never before. Yes, we had our share of sectarian terror much before 9/11, but it was limited and on the wane before the U.S. struck Afghanistan with its deathly military might.
So what is Boucher being rewarded for? Killing Pakistanis in the
tribal belt? Pushing forward a debilitating agenda for Pakistan? Putting Pakistanis into Guantanamo Bay and other US prisons? Getting our military political leadership to participate in renditions and torture of Pakistani citizens? Or getting our civilian political leadership to give in to the new round of Indian histrionic demands post-Mumbai? Are all these what our rulers see as the furtherance of US-Pakistan ties? What a shame and disgrace to this long-suffering nation of Pakistan.
But there should be no surprise in this. We now stand devoid of strong
institutions, moral and ethical leadership and any modicum of dignity
and self-respect.
