Musharraf-Zardari brotherhood in offing?

Asif Ezdi

In Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, it took a little child to cry out, as the emperor passed in a procession, that he had nothing on and soon the whole people were saying that their ruler was not wearing anything. If Andersen was alive today, he would have seen his fairytale acted out in real life in Pakistan, though in a rather different way.

In this case it was not a child but a courageous judge who exposed our very own emperor. When the chief justice stood up to Musharraf’s bullying, intimidation and blackmail, the whole nation followed suit. And just as the fairytale emperor’s ministers feared for their jobs if they were to tell him the truth, the advisers of our uncrowned king also counselled their master that all was well and all he needed to do was to get rid of one troublesome judge.

The similarity does not end there. In Andersen’s story the emperor, dressed in his birthday suit, shivered, it seemed to him that the people were right; but he thought, “I must go through with the procession.” And he carried himself still more proudly, and the courtiers carried the train which did not exist at all. More…