How I wish that after the exchange of pleasantries the moment it became clear to Nawaz Sharif that Obama was neither going to accommodate Pakistan’s stance on the drones nor commit to exert US influence over India to resolve the long outstanding dispute of Kashmir, he should have left, but before leaving had said, “Thank you Mr. President for your time and it was nice knowing you. By the way, I understand USA is under heavy debt to the tune of 12 trillion, so please keep the 30 millions and the 1.6 billion that you plan to give us as a small gift from the people of Pakistan to the American people”.
To the waiting world media he should have simply said that since President Obama had a lot on his plate we didn’t want to burden him with any of our problems and thanking the press should have just left without any comments or answers to their questions. The entire world press would have splashed a front page story in big bold headlines the likes of which the world had never seen before. Such bravery is expected from a Muslim ruler of a Muslim country but has not been seen. The nation waits for these average people to turn into heroes, but in vain!
COL. RIAZ JAFRI (RETD),
Rawalpindi, October 25.