I admit, I waste time on those crazy facebook quizzes and I do it almost every other day. Last week, I came out with my list of five people I would like to meet and US President Barack Obama was one of them. If someone wants to judge me for my demented groupie-ness, I can live with that but I really would like to meet him before I die.
I was seriously miffed when I saw the picture of President Obama flanked by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and our own much loved President Asif Zardari flashing his newly acquired set of pearlies. Imagine how miffed I must have been to see Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, sitting next to his daddy. Nothing – and I say it with absolute confidence – can either explain or justify the presence of a twenty year old sophomore in an official meeting at the Whitehouse. For heaven’s sake, it was NOT a garden party where President Obama was introducing his little girls to the children of President Zardari, it was a high level tripartite government meeting and a kid gets to attend it because his daddy happens to be running (read ruining) the country?
I thought Asifa Bhutto Zardari’s presence in a meeting with former US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was in absolute bad taste, but at least Asifa had the excuse that Dr. Rice was visiting her home, the Presidency. This, on the other hand, is pampering your child at the expense of not only the national exchequer but also the last remnant of national integrity.
Shame on you President Zardari.
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44 comments:
these pictures sucks big time....
selfish zardari...
I so totally agree!
i bet Zardari rationalizes this as getting his son "exposure" to the international diplomatic circles. because ofcourse, the sophomore will be next in line to take over the party/country.
Tazeen, you're a little optimistic if you think there was a remnant of national integrity still left!
From the day this accidental president has hit Pakistan, we are just imploding as if on cue from a curse.
Honestly, I have still not been able to come to terms with the fact that he is PRESIDENT.
About providing early diplomatic lessons to his offspring at "historic" moments, I reckon he thinks he's following into the footsteps of his illustrious daddy-in-law.
But daddy-in-law was a colossus called Bhutto, and who was guiding a far more prodigious daughter like Benazir. But that was done with the air of a man who knew his calling.
And what have we here? A crook masquerading as prez and trying to thrust a totally unwanted legacy on a kid, who has yet to grow up and have a mind of his own (if he had one, he would probably have made his dad known that this is not done).
What have we done to deserve this, really?
Aarghh....look at the way Asifa is dressing.
I remember Zardari's first speech after taking oath "Bilawal bhi hoga, Asifa bhi hogi, Bakhtwar bhi hogi. Benazir kay teeno chehre hongay".
Only today's morning I was telling my colleague what the hell Bilawal is doing in WH except for striking a colgate smile. He looked so Duhh throughout the Congress meeting.
Reminds me of our own Bilawal moment here in India when the Maharashtra chief minister brought his son and his Director/Producer friend along with him while touring the Taj after the Mumbai 26/11.
Idiots all!
Didn't he only recently graduate from Oxford? Must be some awesome gap year.
Saesneg,
He is doing his sophomore year at Oxford. He is only twenty, he needs to spend one more year in university before he is done with his bachelors.
Kamran and Sidrah,
I want some exposure as well, should I suffer because my dad was a moral and upstanding citizen who never curried favors for his kids?
sigh sigh sigh.. we're not happy one way or the other.. when bilawal became chair we didn't like it. now when he's being thrust into these positions to learn something before he takes up real leadership, we're not happy.. what do we want from our leaders? no wonder the world says pakistan has yet to discover it's identity or what its people want.
He was there as our president-in-waiting.
President Obama is a self-proclaimed socialist, who is loosing popularity in the US. Ultimately it will be reflected in his ability and credibility abroad.
Shame on Pres. Zadari - and on Obama as well.
Oh please, people who call Obama a socialist know nothing about socialism. That's just standard republican rant: fear socialism, fear taxes, fear taking responsibility for our stupid fiscal policies. They conveniently forget that the current mess is not of Obama's creation and the bank-buying spree (nationalization if you will) started with Hank Paulson.
Anyhoo, coming back to the topic, as Kamran said, I too still have trouble believing this smug jackass is the president (of any country). And after Bilawal brought his buddies into the parliament dressed in Shadi-type outfits as if they were there to see the circus I've prepared myself for endless disgrace, and many more displays of bad taste and audacity. National integrity has gone on a long, long vacation. This punishment doesn't seem to end.
Well, Zardari is the crown prince of the Bhutto Dynasty and that makes his presence in the meeting justifiable.
well, on what basis is Zardari the President? He just happened to be the husband of BB. This is actually not a huge step away from that. It's just the feudalistic mentality. After all his son is the King in waiting, and Pakistan is his fiefdom, or so he thinks.
What a disaster.
Its no secret Zardari is very crude and unpolished... one can expect anything of such a person.
But one would think even Prince Charles didn't get to attend things only because his mommy was the Queen.
I can't help but feel he's trying to copy Z.A.Bhutto who took Benazir to conferences... but he didn't let her sit next to him! Naql key liyay aql ki zaroorat hotee hey, :P
What is more amazing is 5/10 years later when Bilawal wants to run the country people will vote for him. ON WHAT BASIS?!!!
I totally agree with you. How can one take a 20 year old sophomore at the expense of taxes you folks pay? But again he could have paid for the trip from his own pocket. Nevertheless, a 20 year attending a high profile meeting just because he is the president's son is completely ridiculous.
When r v gonna get rid of him???;-(
& the bigger question what r the alternatives????
Q2. How can I get celebrity parents? Do you think Mr Zardari can adopt me? I also want to meet Obama.
I think we will get rid of these idiots soon ,such a shame . I m so freaked to know about Zardari and Billawal in WH, I curse them every moment.
He wants to make sure they are seen, and known.
Tazeen,
When I was at uni me and friends would complain about kids whose parents would buy them a car, a house, or ply them with money like they were screaming 10 year olds.
We had no god damn idea, didn't we?
why are so many indians coming to this side? Nowadays it is very hard to find indian-free place. They have polluted all the software companies and now even on net they are here to comment on pakistan politics. As a pakistani, the only distinctiveness left that I could proud is anti-indian and I fear that our nation is compromising on it.
May Allah gives our nation the strength to be pure in love and hatred (ameen)
Oh my...Catastrophe!!
@Khawar ur entire identity is anti-India, so is ur country's, which has brought u to this situation where MR 10% brings Mr 1% to important meetings while Mr 100% (Talibans)are burning ur a$$es!
good to see you spirited again ...
keep up
I don't think President Zardari can *have* any more 'shame on him'. I think there's a time when 'shame' feels 'ashamed' and runs away to hide. I think this may be it.
@Madiha W.Q.
Kudos, and thank you. perfectly stated. people must be educated on the basics of economics and the multiplier process to understand that an injection of government spending isn't "socialism" but rather "saving your goddamn ass".
i'd wish my government would bring some of this "socialism" here too.
It is ridiculous to write such words as Shame On Zardari etc or same feeling as by the interactors...
When a party who achieved more than ten millions votes is not tolerated to rule...I think we the so called PADHI LIKHI generation are looking forward for another Dictator...
Bilawal is Chairman of that PPP....which has its presence in all the provinces...
I know PPP is not more than just group of Feudals....But if we will support political culture and tolerance,these elements will be replaced with time....But when Dictators will come and if they will target popular leaderships....then Bhutto ibn bhutto and Nawaz ibn Nawaz will rule...
If Americans can tolerate Duffers like Bush for 8 years... then why not Zardari??? for 5 years..Come and replace him through political process...not by wishes,Bad Duain and Curses...typical Molviana style or Jamaatis...
I am tired of this useless discussion. They are going to do what they want to do. If WH has no problem with bilalwal, why should we. It only tells us about the good relationship Pakistani president has with US. Doesn't WH has any protocol, any standard who should and should not be in the meeting.
I still can't believe that Zardari is president. Its shameful to call him president but then most of our presidents have been nothing but shameful, with nothing but wicked minds. Zardari just has a pathetic smile, so what...Democracy - my foot. Pakistani never and will never have democracy. We are the nation of false promises and meaningless ambitions with no integrity whatsoever. We never had any in the past. Ofcourse there are good people, but can you be good and even survive in pakistan. Can you not carry gun and protect your families. Can you not pay bribe and get your necessary things done.. NO.. there is no integrity and thus no character. Zardari or Bilawal, who the f cares. We have nothing but thugs and looters funded by Obama bhai. :)
I sleepily turned on TV this morning as my coffee was percolating and guess who was on Morning Joe, but Mr Zardari, actually an excerpt of an interview with him- now I will have to wake up early to watch that.
To the person who was so anti-Indians here, LOL, seriously do you mean it. I am used to very anit-Pakistani sentiments, so it is very amusing to me. Seems as neighbours, we Indians and Pakistanis have a lot more in common than we would like to admit!
"I look forward to our discussions specially our meetings with President Obama with whom the whole world attaches a lot of hope and especially our coming generations in Pakistan"
Maybe the "Bhuttos" are dreaming of taking over the Whitehouse?
Yeah, I know, absurd comment. ;)
politics everywhere.. i agree
:(
chriz
I like Zardari.
He's a simple man.
Does whatever he wants to do and doesn't care about anything.
=/
when he said "har ghar se bhutto niklay ga" i had no idea that included the white house.
he may be a crook, but you've got to hand it to him, he's a clairvoyant crook.
Bilawal is there as his father is elected President of Pakistan.It is you Pakistanies who must show guts and thinking and elect anyone other than Bilawal when he stand for election.Alas you are a feudal nation just like India or bangladesh.So put up with a guy who looks descent and handsome though feudal!!!!!!
Madiha: You need to brush up on American politics and economics. Paulson had nothing to do with what you are asserting.
Well bilawal is a TP (training president) of Pakistan. This was his practical training. At least he is given an oppertunity to learn before he comes into the field
Alright since we're on the subject, let me throw in my two pennies!
Next Generation Bhutto
goes to the White House
By KAMRAN REHMAT
ANY official visit by a Pakistani leader to the White House is always treated like a showpiece event back home. Even body language and sartorial choices become the subject of debate and much is discerned by way of who said what or simply gestured. The idea is to try and grasp every little byte or bit that can lead to the denouement!
Historically, given the extent of influence the United States wields with the Pakistani state, the success or failure of such visits are deemed per se as the level of support — or lack thereof — the government in Islamabad has on the Capitol Hill.
It is difficult to recall a Pakistani head of state, who came to the White House with so much riding on his person than President Asif Ali Zardari last week.
Pakistan is a country where any government — particularly, if it has come to power on the back of a popular vote — is liable to meet an early end thanks to the octopus-like reach of powers that resent civilian supremacy.
Faced with the consequences of a debilitating war-on-terror, Zardari and his ruling Pakistan People’s Party are already waging a battle to survive in office.
For that predicament, he has largely himself to blame. After taking a one dimensional view of governance — the consolidation of power at all costs — and lurching from one crisis to another in failure to achieve those ends, he had the ignominy of seeing his government publicly described as “fragile” by the US president.
But even if there was no trouble brewing in the land, Zardari was carrying a tremendous burden of history on his way to the coveted White House rendezvous.
His slain wife, the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the Muslim world’s first woman prime minister and Pakistan’s youngest head of government at 35, was accorded royal treatment when President George Bush Senior welcomed her with a bouquet of roses in an elaborate outdoor ceremony in 1989. And this was a precursor to the rare honour bestowed on Ms Bhutto — the address to a joint session of the US Congress.
Well before she earned her stripes, her illustrious father and Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, strode to the U.S. like a bit of a knight in shining armour.
He was accorded a formal welcome with military honours at the North Portico by President Richard Nixon before being eulogized at a dinner reception to embarrassing proportions in 1973.
Those were the times when Pakistani leaders could hold their own and Washington strained to listen.
Not even his staunchest loyalist can suggest President Zardari is in that league although to be fair to him, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then and he is where he is more by an accident of fate than design.
It is reasonably safe to assume had his wife not been assassinated on a dark December day in 2007, she would have created the kind of buzz in the East Room that among the current crop only Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has seen a visitor make.
In the harsh world of diplomacy and statecraft, there can be no excuse for a slip-up. Zardari may have been trying to get the best mileage for Islamabad but every now and then he falls short thanks to either a misplaced sense of history or exaggerated self-worth.
Consider this. Zardari brought his son, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari (the hyphenated surname was appended to the original only after Ms Bhutto’s death) — still a sophomore at Oxford and only 20 — to the rendezvous for a tripartite dialogue hosted by US President Barack Obama for Afghan President Hamid Karzai and himself early this week!
Bilawal, who unlike his mother at his age, has shown no sign of talent for history, geography or indeed politics — he doesn’t even speak Urdu, the national language, with any degree of facility — was taken to the high-level State Department and White House meetings and, in the photo-ops, shoved in front of top ranked ministers.
One picture, in particular, betrays his impressionable streak, where the young scion is looking at President Obama in awe, sitting next to his father with a smarmy smile.
But most analysts, not to speak of ordinary Pakistanis, have criticized the “paternal streak” that looked palpably out of place where it was attempted to be nurtured.
The general perception is that Zardari was picking on a bit of history, which forms a part of the Bhutto legacy although in his case, an obvious calling such as entitlement and political standing, remain open to question.
Journalist Shyam Bhatia’s biography of Benazir Bhutto — Goodbye Shahzadi — released last year made interesting references to her rites of passage into politics although some of these have been documented before as well.
One passage reads: “Benazir was, from an early age, exposed to foreign VIPs with whom her father interacted, including such statesmen as (Chinese premier) Chou Enlai and (US secretary of state) Henry Kissinger. When John F. Kennedy was shot in 1963, 10-year-old Benazir was traveling with her father in the provinces of Pakistan. She recalled how her father woke her up, telling her this was no time to sleep because a great tragedy had occurred.”
Subsequently, Bhutto took Benazir, still an undergraduate at Harvard, to New York in 1971, where the United Nation’s Security Council was to deliberate on the Indo-Pak war.
She was also with him at the historic Simla resort when Bhutto and Indira Gandhi worked out an agreement that continues to be a document of great relevance to the myriad of issues giving the sub-continent giants periodic headaches.
It was at Simla that Benazir became a celebrity overnight. By the time Benazir graduated from Oxford in 1976, she was game to fulfill her ambition of joining Pakistan’s Foreign Service but her father made sure she stayed on for an additional year to obtain a postgraduate diploma.
But in Circa 2009, it is unlikely young Bilawal may have learnt the lessons his father may have genuinely wanted to impart his son.
Reportedly, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (she has a soft corner for the children of Benazir, whom she admired) were courteous in overlooking the potential distraction caused by his presence in serious sessions with President Zardari on how to stop the Taliban surge in Pakistan.
However, few were impressed by the obsessively personal intonation of the president’s call for “protecting” democracy at home, which was inferred as US support for his person and government.
Zardari’s references to “my democracy” and “democracy will avenge the death of my wife” during an appearance at the State Department were seen not only as a manifestation of this but also noted by some — given Bilawal’s intrusive presence — as a dynastic advance for the next generation of Bhuttos.
So much for democracy!
ENDS
To be fair, didn't ZAB also take BB to Simla when negotiating the peace deal with India? That doesn't of course justify the head of state taking his children along on the State's expense, but it DID help polish her, didn't it?
http://www.cagle.msnbc.com/news/Pakistan09/main.asp
New collection of Cartoons on Pakistan
I hate that lunatic Zardari!!!!
P.S. sorry haven't been around lately!
I can't believe such a complete moron is our president.
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