The game of Zardari in Washington

The game of Zardari in Washington

Dr. Jassim Taqui

The PPP co-Chairman of the PPP has landed in Washington in a mysterious mission. In order to play a deception game with the LEAs, Zardari claimed that his mission was to convince Senator John McCain to sell F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan.

However, Zardari is an absconder. He fled Pakistan fearing arrest on charges of murder,  corruption and money laundering. He does not hold any official portfolio and nobody nominated him as Pakistan envoy.

Furthermore, the government has already declared that it was planning to buy used F-16 fighter jets from Jordan after the $699 million deal to buy the jets from US failed owing to the Congress refusal to sanction it.

Zardari has fallen from the grace. In fact, even his son and Chairman of PPP, Bilawal Zardari has openly disagreed with his father’s secret understanding with the prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Bilawal openly demanded the resignation of Sharif and his trial. He criticized  PPP’s Opposition leader, Khursheed Shah , a close confidant of Zardari,  over hush-hush attitude and delaying tactics to investigate the involvement of Nawaz Sharif and his family in massive corruption as disclosed by Panama Leaks.

Like Hussain Haqqani, Zardari is trying his luck to lobby against the military establishment on behalf of prime minister Nawaz Sharif. But it is highly unlikely that the US administration would support two top corrupt personalities, Nawaz Sharif and Zardari, who are also involved in corruption and money laundering.