Who is he trying to fool?

After all that happened for reasons that are so obvious, our president still is in denial. His rationale is so flawed that even a child can see through the smokescreen of lies he is trying to build. In the last interview to a foreign television channel, which was full of his blatant lies, he claimed that majority of the people of Pakistan are with him and only a handful of people are trying to undermine him. Let’s see what he meat by a “handful” of people that he has dealt with after the imposition of Emergency. These “handful” of people include the entire judiciary and all the lawyers, these “handful” of people include all the political parties of Pakistan and their workers, followers and families (except for one he created), these “handful” of people include all the private independent media channels and all the journalists, these “handful” of people include all the civilians who protest against dictatorship. I don’t think we even need to count these “handful” of people to understand what he “really” meant. “One man against the entire nation”, a quote of Ihtizaz Ahsen that very well sums it all up.

It just makes me laugh when I listen to the president and his claims. So who is he trying to fool? It can’t be the people of Pakistan because we all know where our president stands. It can’t be the West and United States because US is playing with Pakistan for a long time to be fooled by such statements, secondly US is the sole beneficiary of his actions. So who is the real audience of such lies? May be he himself needs some self satisfaction, may be he is trying to make himself know that he is popular. May be the façade of lies are not for the people but for himself so that whatever he does against the interests of Pakistan he doesn’t feel bad. May be he is too arrogant to accept the actual facts and the “reality on ground” his favourite phrase that he uses very often in interviews.

It is a shame that after eight years of disaster where now Pakistan is on the edge of an abyss our president is still not taking responsibility for that. All the suicide attacks, the deaths of innocent people and the blood, all the lawlessness, all the hatred in the people of Pakistan for the army, all the compromises on national issues, all the heros of Pakistan thrown in jail and treated like terrorists, it all happened in his presidency and in his rule and still he is blaming others. It is time for our president to realise that he is a failure “a failed leader” and he should take responsibility like a man for what he has done with the country and resign. He should accept his fate and let the people of Pakistan choose their own destiny because we can no longer be fooled.

Beard or Mask?

Poor Imran became the victim of his own innocence in Punjab University. He didn’t realize that Qazi remained under the shadows of Mualana Fazal for quite a long time; and that Qazi has the same beard, the only difference is that its completely white. Qazi’s betrayal put him on the same side of the line where Mualana is standing alongside Musharraf. His action today has seriously hampered the movement against dictatorship and it is a very loud acceptance and his submission to Musharraf. His adventure in PU makes Qazi a blunt hypocrite like the others in Musharraf’s political platoon.

I know today Imran must feel betrayed and his infant party got yet another grave setback but that is the reality of Pakistan’s politics, that is the reality of the so-called Islamic political parties and that is the reality Imran must face and re-devise his political strategy to deal with these thugs. Clearly the people of Pakistan want to see a change; the fame of Imran is a thorn in the eye of every traditional, status quo loving political leader; Imran just needs to realize that. He has to learn not to trust everyone because the hypocrisy of the leaders here speaks for themselves. And I’m sure after this event he will etch it in his mind.

Qazi and his brethren have proved once again that it doesn’t matter if you have a beard because as long as you have vested interests in politics everyone is the same. The advantage is that the “Maulanas” can hide their real faces with their beards so their sick-intentions are well masked and their evil plot only unfolds when it’s too late. I am not against the beard but I am against the use of it; in Pakistan Islam is being used as a façade by these pseudo political leaders to have the blind following of the under-educated and naïve masses like jamiat and to gain the trust of sincere people like Imran. In the end they defame Islam; they defame themselves and leave every patriot and sincere Pakistani suffering. And I think after this incident the real faces of these hypocrites are exposed that were hiding behind their beard-like masks and opened the eyes of many Pakistanis like it opened mine. The good thing about this incident is that it filtered and put in spotlight a good, honest and sincere leader this country needs in the shape of Imran.

The second coming

It had to happen; the dictator was ticking like a time bomb and now he exploded. He finally murdered democracy with his own hands, choked it from the beginning and now watched it take its last breath. He, for his lust for power, was waiting to crack under pressure both foreign and domestic and then committed the biggest political crime against democracy and the nation in the history of Pakistan, which some people term as serious as committing treason. Started off as a copycat, he then carried the flag of his predecessors for the second time and even went a few yards further; the only difference is that this time there was some resistance that wasn’t there before. This resistance, which seems to many as a sign of hope but still the Valium addict masses are not willing to wake up. And now it all seems like deja vu.

The pressures Musharraf faced were of two kinds, foreign pressure particularly from the US that only had US interests; the second was internal pressure that was clearly in the favor of democracy. The only country that benefited from this action is US who would have no troubles in fighting “their” war against terror in Pakistan that has killed hundreds of innocent Pakistanis as collateral damage. Musharraf is the only man with absolute power in Pakistan and it is always easy to deal with one man then waiting for a national consensus. So this pro-US leader will have no trouble assisting his US allies in their "war on terror" that has become a "war of terror" for the Pakistanis.

Pakistan now is on a verge of civil war and Mr. Musharraf is the only person responsible for this; one man against the entire nation. My analysis on this situation is that Musharraf needed a new facade to provide a cover for his dictatorship; he looped back and now is trying to correct things from the start all over again. His action is similar to the 1999 coupe after which he formed PML-Q; that became the ruling party in the 2002 rigged elections. Now again in this sort of second coupe by Musharraf, he will side-line PML-Q, which has become a liability and bring in a democratic party PPP that has some public support. And this forced transition will take place if everything goes right for the dictator. Judiciary, the only thorn in the sight of Musharraf, has been dealt with and NRO will be legitimized by the new judicial set up. There will be some resistance this time by the lawyers in particular and if the people of Pakistan don’t rise up now then this crisis will have the same result as in the past.

Analogy of a drowning man fighting to stay alive in the middle of a landless ocean depicts the condition Musharraf is in. His endless effort and commitment to fulfilling his ambitions for power is almost admirable; but he has compromised everything in his desperation. He has wrecked every institution in Pakistan, aggressively suppressed the people and isolated them from the government and created a war-like situation domestically on every front. And now he gave himself another chance to do it again and to finish the job that he started. I don’t know whether Musharraf is a complete traitor or is he being blackmailed a bit; but I know one thing, no patriot Pakistani would ever act against the national interests even if he is blackmailed.