Symbol of Federation (12082008)

President of Pakistan in his position as a Head of the State is considered to be the symbol of the federation of Pakistan. Therefore, the President must not be controversial and command respect and confidence of all the people he represents or atleast majority of the people of Pakistan. Pakistan is not a monarchy where the reining King or Queen has a hereditary right to stay in that position, Pakistan is a federation of four provinces and the independent territories under the federal government and the President is elected by all the federating units in a transparent process of elections. Thus, if the President strongly feels that he still represents the people of the country then he has a simple way forward and that is to opt for asking for a vote of confidence from the elected representatives of the people.
However, the President has unfortunately decided to take a defensive position by announcing through his spokespersons that he is going to face the impeachment motion and not run away. By taking this route and acting on the advise of the people who have contributed in bringing him to where he is today, the President is doing a great disservice to both Pakistan and his former institute, the Pakistan Army. This is the thin end of the wedge because the President is playing a dangerous game to drag the army in this controversy and planning to bring the whole system down for his personal satisfaction. In whatever way the situation is analysed, the President cannot stay in power any longer.
The likely outcomes may be: a) A smooth and pain-less departure of the president; b) Ugly and torturous departure of the president and c) Collapse of the whole system where everyone is sent home packing and the military imposes a martial law. If option 'c' is exercised then Pakistan's enemies will be the greatest beneficiaries because Pakistan Army would be completely diluted and weakened because of additional burden of running the civilian government. From President's point of view the best case scenario will be he survives the vote of no confidence, in the highly unlikely event of that happening the President will still not be able to work with the elected government thus the country will be torn apart pulling in different directions and the net beneficiaries will be the enemies of Pakistan.
If the President does really believe in Pakistan first then he should accept the advise of his mother and his immediate family members to quit and go into retirement. They may not be statesmen like he is but they are not deaf or blind, they can see the writing on the wall and hear the resentment of the people which sadly the president is unable to.
President has played a long innings, he has done what he thinks was best for the country. History will write its own judgement on the events of the past nine years, as it will of all the periods before and the judgement of the history will be final and ever lasting. The decision of the President in the next few days will have far reaching implications for Pakistan and President's own place in the history, thus the President should not tempt the fate and make a graceful exit while there is still time.