Zardari quits dinner amid turf war between envoys

By Shaheen Sehbai

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Hussain Haroon stayed away from President Asif Ali Zardari’s dinner for PPP leaders from across the US as the event ended on a note of utter confusion on Friday night in the heart of Manhattan when the president left suddenly without addressing the audience.

Hussain Haroon was not even invited to the dinner though top sources in the presidential camp said he had even asked for an invitation card but was denied one. So he stayed at his home entertaining some guests. When journalists asked him for comments on phone, he admitted that he had not been invited to the function.

The show was organised by Pakistan Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani but President Zardari left abruptly within a few minutes after he arrived some 40 minutes after Iftar. Scores of PPP leaders, some with their families, were astonished as Mr Haqqani had arranged a podium and President Zardari was expected to make a speech.

But as soon as he arrived, he went around a few tables to shake hands with the guests and then left the hall, leaving the guests in utter confusion whether to wait for him or to have dinner without him or to leave.

Thousands of Pakistani tax payers’ dollars were wasted because the event not only ended on a note of confusion, PPP leaders and workers, some of whom had come from far off states, did not get a chance to hear the president.

A loud shouting match started before President Zardari’s arrival when some PPP supporters wanted to put up banners and PPP flags in the hall and Ambassador Husain Haqqani tried to stop them.

The PPP supporters insisted and hot words were exchanged, which alarmed the security personnel and the hotel management. Haqqani quickly allowed them to put up Benazir’s banners and PPP flags on the walls.

When asked to comment on what happened, Haqqani told the media representatives the hotel administration had specifically told the organisers that no banners or posters be pasted as that would damage the d­©cor of the hall and heavy penalties might have to be paid if the walls were used for such banners.

He told journalists there was no untoward scene. “I told the security people not to worry as this was like an Irish wedding when people occasionally raised their voices but there was no trouble,” he said.

When specifically asked by The News why Mr Hussain Haroon was not present, he said the envoy to the UN might be busy with his UN General Assembly work.

When told that Mr Hussain Haroon is probably boycotting the event because it was his turn and right to invite the president and was denied that right, Mr Haqqani said this was not true as all community events anywhere in the US were to be organised by the US Embassy and the consulates.

There is a tradition in the UN that the permanent representative always hosts a grand dinner for the president or the prime minister at his home in which the community notables are invited and that opportunity was denied to Mr Haroon.

But the turf war between the two Pakistani envoys was swept aside by President Zardari when he arrived late and left without any public announcement or information whether he would come back to address the crowd. The president, however, went to some tables and shook hands with PPP supporters amid slogans of Benazir and Bhutto. Some shouts for Mr Zardari were also heard.

Guests sitting at the head table, including Finance Minister Naveed Qamar, Information Minister Sherry Rehman, Ambassador at Large Akbar Khawaja and others were told by Haqqani that the president had left because of security concerns and also because he had been overwhelmed by the emotional welcome he had received by the audience and was almost choking.

But the guests were not told about it as before Haqqani could inform the audience that President Zardari had left because of these reasons, he was stopped by some of the cabinet ministers. These ministers were not sure whether Zardari had left for good or he would return after a short break.

Soon afterwards, while only the first course of the dinner, a salad, had been served, most of the media and the guests started leaving as Haqqani told them that the president would not return.

A senior official of the embassy told some journalists later that the president had gone for a private dinner to a popular New York restaurant, Geisha, located at the Madison Avenue and 61st Street, a place he used to visit while he was living in New York before he returned to Pakistan.