From: shafqat@neuro.duke.edu (Saad Shafqat)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Re: Private Education in Pakistan
Date: 26 Dec 92 16:24:30 GMT
Organization: Duke University; Durham, N.C.

In article <1992Dec26.032031.20490@newton.ccs.tuns.ca> jamalin@newton.ccs.tuns.ca (Nadeem Jamali) writes:


>A large part of your postings is about Asif Zardari. You have referred to him as
>a corrupt person a lot of times. I really wonder what makes you so confident
>about these claims. So far, each of the cases decided upon has shown him
>innocent. 

Nadeem sai'n, lets be objective about this.  Asif Zardari is innocent
only by default.  Witnesses have not come forward to corroborate the
charges against him.  This is not surprising considering that the judge
appointed to hear the case, one Mr. Junejo, was gunned down to his
death in broad daylight by masked gunmen on one of Karachi's main
thoroughfares.  Note that I am not accusing Asif or his sympathizers
of the murder.  I am merely saying that this has scared potential
witnesses into silence, regardless of who might have done it.

It is easy to see why Judge Junejo's murder would be taken so
seriously.  There has been an undercurrent of anarchy in Sindh
for some years now.  Young boys looking for excitement have
robbed banks during working hours and gotten away with it.  
Dacoits rule residential neighbourhoods at night and the law
remains powerless or chooses to be so.  Cars are stolen more
often than they are sold.  It is an atmosphere that has bred
insecurity and validated the gun culture.  Is it little
surprise then that an explicit or implicit death threat,
such as the murder of the judge appointed to rule in the
case, will have so powerful an impact ?

In fact, the reason I feel safe in talking like this is
because I am not in Pakistan.  In 1989, Asif Zardari
evicted a family from their house on Marine Drive in
Clifton saying he needed the land for property development.
I know this because the people kicked out then rented a
house from my father.  I was deeply incensed by this event
and drafted a letter to Dawn, leaving my name out of fear.
It was never printed.  Perhaps if I had penned my name it
might have, but then I might not be here today.  Earlier,
in 1987, I was rotating as a medical student in the
Emergency Room of the Aga Khan University.  One Friday
evening Asif Zardari was wheeled in on a stretcher.  He
had fractured his leg playing polo and was admitted under
the Orthopedic service.  This man was a nuisance: foul-
mouthed and viscerally arrogant, harassing the nurses and
female medical students with total abandon.  His manner
betrayed a crass and thoroughly classless upbringing.  This was
before he was even married to Benazir, so it is easy
to see what he would have "evolved" into once he became the
Prime Minister's spouse with all its attendant license for
badmashi.  (BTW, the reason he was tolerated in AKUH in 1987
was because his half-sister, Azra Hakimali, was a resident
in Pediatrics at the time - perhaps you know her).

Is Asif Zardari guilty of what he has been charged with ?  
It is not yet clear.  All the cases have not yet been heard.
But what if evidence continues to be lacking, should he then
go free ?  Of course he must.  No evidence, no case.  But
what goes around comes around.  In Sindh's anarchic atmosphere,
one doesn't need a court to convict.  One of his many enemies
will undoubtedly get back at him sooner or later.  Perhaps,
in fact, he is safer in jail, like Mark David Chapman ....


With regards,

Saad.


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