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.
No comments:
Post a Comment