Did President Asif Ali Zardari call the militant Islamist groups operating in Kashmir “terrorists” while speaking with the US newspaper The Wall Street Journal?

To begin with, we don’t have a direct quote from Zardari on the issue. This is how the report puts it: “He speaks of the militant Islamic groups operating in Kashmir as ‘terrorists’ — former President Musharraf would more likely have called them ‘freedom fighters’.”

Zardari has been castigated in Pakistan for putting it thus but what did he actually say and what was the context? We don’t know. Did Bret Stephens, the interviewer, ask him, “Mr President, do you think the groups fighting India in Kashmir are terrorists?” Did Stephens differentiate between this and that group?

Let’s assume, however, that Zardari did put it like this. Indeed, I am prepared to wager my money on the fact that he did. What does it mean?

It could mean two things: that while he may have become the presiden, he still has to learn to act as one and understand that his every word will now be scrutinised; or, and this argument grants him more intelligence than he might have, he is trying hard to sell himself despite his negative baggage.

Note how the Journal interview puts it: “But Mr Zardari is also known as ‘Mr Ten Percent,’ a moniker he acquired thanks to his legendary reputation for graft. At one time or another, he and his late wife were suspected of profiting (or seeking to profit) from corrupt schemes involving everything from the purchase of Polish tractors and French jets to the import of gold bullion. In 2006, he even produced a diagnosis of dementia from two New York psychiatrists as part of an effort to defend himself in a corruption case in Britain.” Not exactly a t-shirt slogan, this.

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