Pakistan army has ruled the country more than the politicians. The last of the dictators is President Musharraf. When Musharraf came into power he had a golden opportunity to change Pakistan’s troubled past and set it on the path of becoming an Asian Tiger. Since Bhutto no one has been greeted in a manner similar to the reception that Musharraf got from the nation when he successfully cooped into power and ousted the corrupt incompetent Nawaz government. People distributed sweets all across the nation. Musharraf started well and did some things that no other Pakistani leader had done in a longtime. He made the Indian nation accept that dialogue with Pakistan is only possible if it pertains to Kashmir issue and confidence building measures will only follow after resolution of Kashmir dispute. Musharraf had with him a team of generals, like General Aziz, General Yusuf, General Amjad, General Mahmud, General Naqvi, General Usmani and others, who were considered passionate and nationalist. Something dramatic happened after 9/11 and that was immense political pressure from America on Musharraf regime. The problem for Musharraf was that he was a military dictator of a nuclear weapon Muslim country that served as the backbone for Taliban regime, that just happened to host the most notorious terrorist of the world ‘Osama bin Laden’. This was definitely the worst fix that any Pakistani leader has been in a long time.
Under pressure Musharraf shifted his focus from internal affairs to America’s War on Terror. This also required changing his team members some of whom did not agree with his thoughts about American war on terror. This allowed breathing space for the local corrupt politicians. The vast majority of the people of Pakistan did not support war on terror and they never have and never will support War on Terror. To create a viable environment Musharraf made the mistake of bringing back same corrupt politicians and establishing a puppet parliament. Then there is a trail of blunders that Musharraf committed during the next five years and we all know about them very clearly.
The thing to understand is where Musharraf is coming from. Primarily Pakistan has been ruled by leaders who posed themselves as Islamic or tried to mend laws that were in some way or form or at least on paper Islamic. Benazir had her tasbi (beads) in her hands and her dupatta on her head to hide her very secular youth and lifestyle of her time spent in Western world. Nawaz was always seen to be too cozy with the Tableegi Jamat. General Zia, well we all know about him. Before Zia, Bhutto implemented different Islamic laws. Musharraf is the first true secular leader that we have had since Ayub Khan. Musharraf was educated in Turkey and his all time favorite leader is Ata Turk. The Americans saw this as a great opportunity to create lot of trouble in Pakistan. The disgruntled and banned religious outfits were pitched in a battle against Pakistani law enforcement agencies. This ensured that Musharraf would be completely enraged and would start a war between the two that would be used to promote the ulterior motives of the enemies of our country.
Musharraf made two fatal U-turns during his rule. First was the forced gun point U-turn of Pakistan’s Afghanistan policy. The second was Pakistan s U-turn on Kashmir and India policy. The results have been disastrous to say the least. The real hidden ruler during all this time was Shaukat Aziz. Musharraf should not have allowed him unquestioned access into our highest decision making. But alas, such are the connections and strings that former Citibank Executives can pull. Musharraf should have realized the dirty game that Shaukat Aziz was playing in his capital city and he should not have sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudary. This and the brutal operation against Lal Masjid was a huge blow to Musharraf’s presidency. But Musharraf also did something’s that no other leader could have done. Musharraf really infuriated the American leadership on several occasions. First and foremost he kept Pakistan’s nuclear program rolling just like previous leaders had done. It should completely clear to all Pakistanis that President Zia and Prime Minister Bhutto both were assassinated by Americans and their allies because they kept Pakistan’s nuclear program going. Musharraf kept nuclear program going and his refusal to hand over Dr. Qadeer Khan to American interrogators really made them go bizerk in anger. Why does the CIA want to interrogate Dr. Qadeer? The main reason is that he is one of the few men who know inside details of North Koreas nuclear program. China has intelligence about North Koreas nuclear program but they are not going to share with anyone else. Musharraf also maintained relationship with Iran something which the Americans did not want. Musharraf also made an initiative to improve relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region. This resulted in Ahmedinejad going to Saudi and then Iran’s foreign minister meeting Turkish counterpart, etc. Musharraf also killed the American plan to sent Pakistani, Turkish, Bangladeshi, Malaysian peace keeping troops into Iraq. And last but not least he kept supporting Taliban through back channels.
This impeachment movement that has started has only begun after it has received green light from Washington D.C. Americans are done with Musharraf, they have better people to work for them more diligently then Musharraf. Bush’s hijack of the American presidency is also coming to an end. The Pakistani parliament, interior ministry is completely in the hands of the American puppet masters. Once Musharraf is gone then Zardari can become president then the Presidency too will be in the hands of Uncle Sam. The prized possession is the ISI. They made an attempt against it a few days ago but failed. There will be more attempts soon. Oh yea, since the new government has come into power they have drastically cut funding for Research and Development of Strategic Plans Division, this will directly hinder our nuclear program. What other bunnies this government is able to pull out of their hat remains to be seen. The people of Pakistan are not interested in impeachment of president or restoration of judges, their prime interest is that someone for god’s sake check inflation that is touching 30%, and this was clearly stated by poll conducted by Geo television network.
For Musharraf this is almost the end of the road. The Americans have ditched him as was said recently by former Director CIA that the new Pakistani government has promised to work more closely with America on war on terror than president Musharraf. He could either resign or take on everyone else around him and put up a fight. If there are some secrets that this nation needs to be told then so be it. No point being like Ghulam Issaq Khan (former President of Pakistan, who was supposed to know most intimate secrets of Pakistan but never disclosed them until he died). How will Musharraf be regarded in history? Alone he could be acceptable to people but with Shaukat Aziz his rule was a disaster apart from the few notables mentioned. But as Quaid-e-Azam said “every successive government of Pakistan will be worst than its predecessor”. We should all lighten up and be prepared to see worst rulers rule us and bring forth more misery and injustice for us.
Talha Mujaddidi
Aug 14th 2008
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