Zardari’s chessboard before the elections

Some of the most famous orators in the world have borrowed verses from the poetry of Omar Khayyam to add further weight to their arguments. 

Khayyam was an 11th century Persian polymath, astronomer and poet. Bill Clinton, a former US president, Martin Luther King Jr, an American activist, and even ordinary love-struck men are fans of the poet’s distinctive style.

In one of his works, Khayyam compared the cruelty of life to a game of chess:

Tis all a Chequer-board of nights and days

Where Destiny with men for Pieces plays:

Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,

And one by one back in the closet lays.

Whether Asif Ali Zardari, the former president of Pakistan, is also an admirer of the poet, I am not too sure. But he does have a penchant for Urdu poetry. These days, you can often find him immersed in the words of Ahmed Faraz deep into the night. Maybe it’s the poetic words that inspire him to move his pawns carefully on the political chessboard. Or maybe not. Either way, these days he is readying himself for another contest.

Zardari, who has gone through multiple treatments for various ailments, has a phenomenal memory. When I met him this week at the Bilawal House, Karachi, he remembered the question I had asked him on the last day of his presidency. “You are an expert at political chess-games,” I had said back then, while recording for my TV show Aik Din Geo Kay Saath, “yet, you were checkmated in the 2013 elections?”

This time when we met, he had a reply. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), he insisted, was defeated in the last elections due to a calculated move by Nawaz Sharif who used the election’s returning officers against him. 

“Our government gave the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) its share of the development funds, as they were entitled to. Yet, they continued to stab us in the back. We ignored it, thinking they were a troublesome ally. But then Sharif came to power and his reality was revealed.” 

Today, the PPP parliamentarians and former ministers are treated as opponents. 

“The mutually agreed upon chairman of the National Accountability Bureau, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry [who retired this month] had the complete backing of the PML-N government when he hounded our party,” Zardari said, adding that, “Fake and unsubstantiated cases were initiated against Yousaf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Dr Asim Hussain.”

During this time, when the ex-president asked to meet Sharif, there was little response. The meeting was scheduled and then postponed indefinitely. This convinced Zardari that the PML-N chief would only seek his help when in trouble.

With the next general elections around the corner, the chess games have already begun. Everyone — the opposition, the rivals and the ruling party — is readying the pieces on the checkerboard. Such games aren’t new, of course. During the Crusades of the late 11th century, both warring sides would often sit down for a chess face-off. Harun al-Rashid, the fifth caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, once gifted a set of chess pieces to the French King Charles the Great. Hassan al-Sabbāh, the leader of the Persian Hashshashin, is also recorded to have presented the 64-square board game to Saint Louis of France.

Playing chess instills in a person the ability to plan, prepare and strike at the right time. It helps one strategise. That is why politicians, whether they are familiar with the game or not, often use it as a metaphor.

With around half a year to go before polling, the PPP is already shifting its pieces. In one such move, it suggested the name of retired Justice Javed Iqbal for the NAB chairman post. Now, had the PML-N objected, the matter would have ended up in court, leaving the ruling party with no choice but to agree.

There are rumours and speculations that the recent appointment was a joint strategy by the two parties, conspiring to push for a new constitutional amendment that would make Sharif once again eligible to be prime minister, after which the two parties will form a coalition government.

At the informal dinner I had with the former president, this conspiracy theory was brought up and quickly rubbished. Zardari’s anger at the PML-N and his disappointment with Sharif was evident. The late Benazir Bhutto’s husband may have engineered the NAB appointment in a way that left the PML-N no choice but to accept the decision — a move that he could use once again before the elections to corner the ruling party and bring about an interim government of his choice.

So furious is Zardari of his former ally that he even refuses to refer to the deposed prime minister as a democratic leader. During our talk, he often reminded me that he, when president, returned power to the elected Parliament, while Sharif rarely attended National Assembly sessions or made time for the opposition. At this, Senator Saleem H Mandviwalla and Dr Asim, who were both seated at the table across from us, nodded their heads in agreement.

Then, Dr Asim chimed in. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Nawaz Sharif and the establishment, he said, were in cahoots to have him arrested. “Through me, they were hoping to entrap Asif Ali Zardari,” he complained, bitterly. Just then, Zardari cut in, smiling, “My innocent rabbit. I told you not to come back to Pakistan right now, but you did anyway and then got arrested.”

The conversation next turned to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the heir of his mother’s political party. I had to ask his father about him, and how he has grown over the years into his new role. To which he replied that Bilawal is turning into a wise and exceptionally sharp politician. He seemed, for the first time, to be satisfied in his son’s political activities.

Zardari is against calling for an early election in the country. Primarily, he said, because a lot of projects in Sindh are ongoing and have yet to be completed. The PPP will have more to gain if the elections are held on time.

Once the meeting ended, we sat down for a dinner that was prepared under the supervision of Zardari’s political sisters — Rukhsana Bangash, Fauzia Habib and Mehreen Anwar Raja — who were also present that night. 

Coincidentally, the chef who prepared the dishes also cooks for the Sharif family.

Suhail Warraich is a senior journalist and analyst

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Geo News or the Jang Group.