“At 84, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, mysterious, influential and scorned by Pakistan’s protesters, fixes things when military rulers take over here, scripting temporary charters and new oaths of office as constitutions are shredded and judges dismissed.”
Thus starts the New York Time profile of the man who has been on the beck and call of every single military dictator of Pakistan; and it quotes the old vulture as saying:
“The question of conscience in law hardly matters as long as you influence the authorities to be moderate and exercise restraint. Otherwise they take extreme steps.”
Presumably, he believes to be doing much good to the nation by saving us from the “extreme steps”. (As if confinement of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and 60 superior court judges, and beatings and arrests all over the country were mere indulgences!)
So the rulers he helps into power must be better than those you help out of power? On the contrary:
“Half the time there has been military rule, and half civilian rule. Both were alike in despotism and corruption.”
So what good is your conscience-proof existence, Mr Pirzada, if one may ask?
Jane Perlez, who wrote the profile titled “On Retainer in Pakistan, to Ease Military Rulers’ Path”, serves Pirzada right by providing anecdotal evidence of him being a pathological liar and a climber.
“Mr. Pirzada stresses his early pedigree as an assistant to the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the lawyer-politician who insisted on a separate country for the Muslims of British-ruled India. He often mentions his association, and plays up a 1944 photograph he says was taken of him standing between Mr. Jinnah and Gandhi, even though his friends insist the photo is a fake.”
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