Appointment of Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo as advisor to the PM on ministries of production and industries is a step in the right direction that shows the political wisdom and sagacity of Asif Ali Zardari and the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani. If these two ministries are put on the right track, there is every possibility that the country would come out of the economic chaos and would also auger well for emancipation of the common man. It probably is a gigantic task that needs the attention of Mian Wattoo who has the vision, experience and the will to take the country out of the politico-economic mayhem that the fake reformists couldn't do during the last 8-years of Musharraf's rule. With a politician like Manzoor Wattoo around, there is every hope that political scenario may get a lead to a lessening of tensions and conflict between the fragile PPP-PML-N alliance in Pakistan. The present layout of country's political map is not very encouraging as it is devoid of political accommodation and adjustments that have made it a jigsaw puzzle. If the Feb. 18 thumping public mandate is respected and the political leaders recognize the need to pull together, the country could be on the path to national revival. Wattoo's appointment would certainly infuriate the pseudo-political hangers-on who had surrounded a military dictator and how their self-proclaimed righteousness, arrogance and delusions led to the downfall of Musharraf like a hero in classical tragedy. Wattoo had merged his faction of the political party with the PML-Q, nicknamed King's Party, in the hope that the unification of the splinter groups would once again revive the Pakistan Muslim League at the national level to bring political stability in the country. What he ultimately realized that it was not the same Muslim League that had worked under the leadership of M.A.Jinnah, which brought the Indian Muslims under one flag and won a separate homeland for them. Instead, it was a party that belonged to two erstwhile cousins from Gujrat who had mesmerized Musharraf in such a way that he thought his political survival solely and exclusively depended upon the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, who had virtually become his button-hole bouquets at the cost of alienating other much more visionary leaders. His appointment would certainly infuriate his political adversaries who became jealous not for any reason, but jealous because they were a jealous lot and could not match Wattoo's versatile role, which he tried to play after March 9, 2007 to end the confrontation between Musharraf and CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry that had come into limelight on the D-day of March 9, 2007, when Musharraf's government removed 60 judges from the higher judiciary and put them under house arrest. Of all the wise guys in the presidency, Wattoo was the only one who offered his services to end the stalemate between the Chief Justice and Musharraf. Musharraf, who was flying very high did not either consider Wattoo's offer, or was influenced by the PML-Q high command to cold-shoulder that very valid proposal since it came from Manzoor Wattoo. The jealous lot had many tongues and every tongue brought different tales, and every tale condemned him for being a villain in this behind the door power game. His efforts to bring about a rapprochement, a dtente between the president and the Chief Justice failed because these power-brokers were against it. There are strange anomalies in an authoritarian system that when a dictator is in absolute power all the beneficiaries rally around him and nobody would even suggest if he was treading the wrong path, realizing that if he fails the onus would be on his shoulders and they come out unscathed. Musharraf faced the same enigma when he called CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry to his office to tell him to quit or face the cooked-up charges. After all, he had an army of legal advisors under the then law minister and minister of parliamentary affairs who were openly arguing on the media that all the dictatorial powers he used to dislodge the CJ, fell within the constitutional purview. And the same law minister has lately argued that the vital reference against Justice Iftikhar was not signed by him as it was done over and above his head. Perhaps, Zardari is also surrounded by a similar bunch of legal experts who suggested to him that nullifying a wrong executive order issued by Musharraf on Nov. 3, 2007, would be another wrong. How come this when the issuing authority himself admitted the order was wrong? The parliament is the sovereign authority to rectify the wrong and for that it doesn't have to look for two-third majority in the House or for that matter to knock at another door. However, the apparent complete change of the power structure within the country where the president still holds absolute powers, Zardari's contention of "not rectifying one blunder with another blunder," has been a clear message to the dismay of the people that the respect for the independence of judiciary was not part of his political agenda. The delaying tactics of ruling PPP clique has completely shattered the illusion held by the people that independence of judiciary was still possible in Pakistan. The model of protection of the tenure of judges from undue interference by the executive would be irrelevant within a political system where a former military dictator holds absolute power. In politics the statesman cannot do anything he chooses, but he can wisely choose those courses that tend at least to a better and more desirable development of all state institutions and of human life. In order to achieve this he needs to understand the ground realities. Without the knowledge of the actual, he cannot tell what means are at his disposal, or how the means will turn out if used. It is time for Asif Zardari and PM Yousuf Raza Gillani to pickup wise-men from amongst the ignorant crowd around them. In Mian Manzoor Wattoo, they have picked up a political leader for all seasons; a reincarnation of Jung's "Wise old man." There are more in the "lonely crowd" that can join them to bring the country back to peace and prosperity.