© 2007-2008. All rights reserved. AhmedQuraishi.com & PakNationalists

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Zardari & Gilani: Like President, Like Prime Minister!

Remember President Zardari’s spelling mistakes at Quaid-e-Azam’s Mausoleum? Well, before those famous mistakes, his Prime Minister committed his own English-language mistakes on a huge scale, as huge as Washington, D.C.  Before you read, let’s remember that English is not our mother tongue. It is okay not to speak it and have a translator with during official press conferences. Read this hilarious report.

Contributed by MAQSOOD KAYANI

Wednesday, 15 October 2008.

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's inability to speak coherently in English on his official visit to Washington in early August was termed as an ‘unmitigated disaster’ because he failed to understand what he had been asked and gave answers that were unrelated to what the query had been.

Both Gilani and his country would have been better off had he chosen to express himself in a language he could speak with comfort, the Daily Times reported. He could have spoken in Urdu or Seraiki and a competent interpreter would have done the rest.

Gilani rambled and his thoughts were disjointed and haphazard, his choice of words poor and his grammar and syntax weak during his address at a community dinner at a local hotel on July 29. At the White House where he walked out from the Oval Office with President Bush, he was awkward and unable to express himself clearly, to waiting journalists. He also called Bush "Mr. President Bush" at least twice.

The three days that he was in Washington, Gilani said some most curious things. For instance, he kept saying that Pakistan does not have "sophisticated weapons" to deal with the insurgency in the tribal areas. No one in Washington has any illusions about Pakistan, nor people here are unaware of where power lies. It is known that the Prime Minister exercises little authority and all decisions are taken by others, the paper reported.

Gilani made an appearance in an open dialogue with Richard Haass, one of US leading foreign policy experts. The large invited audience contained the cream of Washington's intellectual community. Gilani first read a prepared speech, which contained the unfortunate line - that he repeated elsewhere too ­ "This is not Charlie Wilson's war. It is Benazir Bhutto's war."

Asked if Pakistan had the will or ability to fight terrorism, he replied that he had accepted the challenge and Pakistan would go for good governance.

Asked if the Pakistani state was structurally weak, Gilani replied that "we have inherited this," adding that the US is facing difficulties in Afghanistan and "this is a guerrilla war, not an ordinary war."

When asked why FATA was not being integrated with the rest of the country, Gilani replied that FATA was under the federal government and it had its senators and MNAs "who are supporting us". "Well, good luck then," Haass told him as the audience burst out laughing.

Replying to a question, Gilani said, "The US knows more about Pakistan than I do". To the question about rampant anti-Americanism in Pakistan, Gilani replied that the last government had no political support and used force.

He said the US had backed the military. Asked what the US could do to help resolve Kashmir, the prime minister declared; "The US can do what it wants".

Mr. Kayani is a Pakistani news junkie. He can be reached at maqsood.kayani@gmail.com

© 2007-2008. All rights reserved. AhmedQuraishi.com & PakNationalists

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium

without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

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