President Pervez Musharraf and his political allies have a lot to rejoice because of the stalemate that hit the Dubai talks between top leaders of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on the question of restoration of the deposed judges. However, a presidential confidant did not agree with this impression and said that Musharraf would have been really thrilled had his political allies won the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections. “One man's meat is another's poison,” was the old adage that the confidant quoted while citing the reason behind the deadlock in the parleys between the two major political players on the sacked justices' issue. Musharraf's confidant said that Zardari wants grand political reconciliation and has practically worked hard in this direction by taking all the major political stakeholders on board to tackle the nagging national problems through consensus and consultations. On the other hand, he said, PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif is determined to do revengeful politics. This is the basic difference and clash between the two top coalition stalwarts, he added. The confidant said that since Pakistan's politics was personality based, no senior politician was consulting with his party on how to resolve the key national issues. He said had he been advisor to Sharif he would have counseled him not to quit the ruling coalition just on account of the sacked judges' issue but rather adopt a reconciliatory attitude with the objective of wresting with the actual colossal problems of Pakistan, which abounded. The presidential confidant said Sharif has to forget the past and try to move forward following the footsteps of Zardari. There is no point in being hostage to the past and remaining stuck in what should be bygone, he said adding that not only in Pakistan but also elsewhere, one has to be flexible in politics. When Sharif recently talked about conspiracies being hatched at the presidency, he named Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada being on the right side of Musharraf, Attorney General Malik Qayyum on his left and Maj. Gen. (retd) Rashed Qureshi in his front, but he did not point to this confidant, who did not want to be identified, as being part of such cabal. The confidant said the prime minister and all the PPP ministers have good working relationship with the president. Those who accompanied Musharraf in his China visit, he said, were duly respectful to him during the entire trip. Not only Musharraf is having the last laugh over the impasse that struck the PPP-PML-N talks but his allies including the PML-Q and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) are also elated over the near collapse of the Dubai dialogue. They are eager to see the PML-N walk out of the ruling federal coalition according to its public commitment. They dream a total split of the PML-N from the PPP. __
