<b>Doctrine of the hundred onions</b>
<i>Islamabad diary</i>
Ayaz Amir
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Pakistanis are familiar with this tale. A man condemned to punishment was given a choice between eating a hundred onions or receiving a hundred strokes on his back. He settled for the onions, taking this to be the easier option. But when he could no longer stand the onions he shouted for the slippers. When he could stand the slippers no more, he once again wanted the onions. He ended by eating all the onions and receiving all the strokes.
Something of this higher wisdom has been evident in Pakistan these last few weeks. President Asif Zardari has done what he had vowed never to do: restore Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to his rightful place. He could have done this himself and saved himself a great deal of trouble and wounded dignity. <b>But he did it only after his hand was forced, by a combination of street power and subtle prodding from the direction of General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>General Ashfaq Kayani (the army chief), the Americans -- from their ambassador in Islamabad to Hillary Clinton in Washington</b> -- Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, had all being trying to get Zardari to back down a bit.. But locked in his ivory tower and cut off from reality, he was deaf to these counsels, insisting that he would not step back under pressure. And perhaps hoping that if he stood his ground he could ride out the storm.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Even so, as we celebrate this velvet revolution -- whose full results we yet await -- certain questions arise. <b>In which other country is the American embassy such an active player? In which other country is the British ambassador taken so seriously? And in which other country is the army chief a regular political interlocutor?</b> We lean heavily on foreign powers, or they lean heavily on us, in the realm of external relations. But as this crisis has shown, even in our domestic affairs it will be some time before we arrive at a measure of true autonomy. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->