THIS is apropos of the picture on Dawn's front page (Jan 9), showing a ship split into two and sinking.

As a Pakistani I wondered what would be the scenario in our country if the ship were Pakistani.

The immediate question raised by the media and others will be: who sank it? Did President Zardari sink it or the ISI? Others will detect a Jewish connection. The shipowners' sister's neighbour's wife in Brazil was an exIsraeli citizen, and some 'leading Pakistanis' (names withheld to add to drama and suspense) had a close relationship with her.

And there was evidence that a large sum of money was promised by the CIA and Mossad to the man or institution which would arrange to have the ship sunk, and part of the money had already beendeposited in a Swiss bank. There were eyewitnesses.

Then someone of Nawaz Sharif's stature would go to the SupremeCourt to call for an investigation into the conspiracy leading to the ship's sinking, and the National Assembly will set up a committee todetermine if the sinking was deliberate.

And there will be calls for the government's resignation, demands that the army take over; others opposing an army takeover and pleading for an interim government; still others threatening a wheel-jam strike throughout the country if the conspiracy was not unearthed within 24 hours and the conspirator punished.

And then sermons in mosques: we have such rulers as are hand in gloves with Israel.

Meanwhile, traffic violations will continue, power outages will be there as before, there will be no gas at CNG pumps, prices will continue to shoot, but the issue before the media, politicians and courts will be the ship that sank in South Pacific

TAHIR ZAMAN Karachi