Zardari in policy blunder by ignoring Democrats

ISLAMABAD, October 06 (Internews): Strategic mistakes were committed during the 8-day New York visit of President Asif Zardari which may cost Pakistan dearly, analysts here say.

One of these, which could haunt Pakistan as early as the American presidential elections on November 4, was the well calculated manner in which the Democratic Party was ignored and President Zardari was kept away from meeting policymakers and think tanks of the party which already controls the House of Representatives and which is expected to win the Senate and the White House, according to most opinion polls.

Handlers of President Zardari say the leaders of the Democratic Party Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden talked to President Zardari on the telephone and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright came to see him while Zardari called on former President Bill Clinton where his influential wife Hillary also joined them.

However, say the analysts, these discussions were more cosmetic than substantial as compared to the long line of Republicans of all shades who were coming in and out of the presidential suite at the Hotel Intercontinental Barclays in Manhattan.

Independent analysts say the Clintons are important with a very high international and domestic profile, but they are not going to call the shots in the Obama Administration in which Senators Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, both of Massachusetts, are the key players and President Zardari was not allowed or persuaded to meet or talk to any one of them.

In fact Senator John Kerry is being tipped in many circles as the next secretary of state in the Obama Administration or definitely the Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Attempts by some Pakistani-Americans to arrange a quiet evening with him, and some of the other import players were shot down as of no consequence, though Kerry had agreed to meet Zardari.

The fact that John Kerry and Joe Biden were the main players on the Democratic side to help Benazir Bhutto to get back to Pakistan under the Musharraf regime was conveniently and easily forgotten.

“Joe Biden, who has moved the Biden-Lugar bill in Congress to provide Pakistan a huge $15 billion in the coming years, should actually have been the most sought after leader by the Pakistani presidential camp, but no advance preparation was made and last minute attempts could only result in a telephonic conversation with President Zardari, which is by no means equivalent to a face to face meeting,” an analyst said.

Influential Pakistani-Americans who are great friends of key Democrats mince no words in complaining that they were deliberately kept away from President Zardari because the people who were in charge believe that the Republican candidate, John McCain, would win the presidential election and thus there would be a continuity in the present policy of President George Bush as far as Pakistan is concerned.

“This could turn out to be a huge and critical misjudgement, and it could cost Pakistan immensely, but President Zardari cannot be blamed for the lapse,” a member of the presidential delegation concedes.

“How can anyone bet on John McCain even if he is a sure winner because the purse strings would be controlled by a Democratic House and the Senate anyway,” the member said.

^{« »}