God help us, the poor lot. There’s a strange breed of natural disasters surrounding us on all four sides - a breed, which is, paradoxically enough, manmade. We’re caught in Zardari’s twister, on one side. Nawaz’s flood torrent is on the other. There’s this gargantuan tsunami of Imran. And now as if anything was lacking, Musharraf’s massive earthquake. Who’s going to be a volcanic eruption or a rushing asteroid in our country's politics, one can reasonably ask?
The general’s rally in Karachi on January 8 was, at best, a teeny-weeny one. He couldn’t attract a sizeable number of supporters like the one attracted by Imran, on the same avenue a few days back. In a sense, the general’s show of power was more of an aftershock than the actual event. The fact that he was still able to organise a rally in the port city, speaks something for the emerging political milieu in the country.
One is, however, at loss to know the real intent of the general’s journey back home. What does he want to achieve, which he wasn’t able to during his long nine-year rule? Wouldn’t he lose more than he’d gain? Wouldn’t it make more sense, if he stays where he is right now and enjoy a life of retirement, giving lectures and thereby presenting a soft image of his country to the world? Is it less of a service to the nation?
Oh, but everyone is just so keen on bringing a revolution. God be praised, for we have a whole army of revolutionaries in our fatherland. We have Imran, Nawaz, Musharraf, Gilani, Altaf, Asfandyar, Munawar Hassan and some other invisible faces and forces. We also got each and every brand of revolution. You just name it! All of them are tailor-made to meet your peculiar requirements - neatly decked in fanciful slogans and showcased in glass windows of shops, full of deceits and hypocrisies. No one bothers to see we’re already in a state of delusion due to our past dosages: Two of them happened in the course of just last three years. Only if we had a few revolutionaries and more evolutionaries - those, who could really steer the country towards political stability and strong institutions.
Apparently, the General fails to realise that in the present circumstances, he’d make a perfect case for a scapegoat. Far from any positive change, he would add more confusion to the mayhem. And the government would just love it. It’d be more than happy to welcome his early arrival - though, of course, Rehman Malik, as usual claims to the contrary. In an interview, the President seemed to implicate the General even in the memogate scandal. What the PM was actually referring to in his statement “a State within a State” was Musharraf, he blurted. One just wonders at the naivety of the “boss”.
There’re at least three reasons why the government would welcome Musharraf’s early return. Firstly, in the wake of the memogate and the successful show of street power by opposition parties, the government is desperately in need of an issue to divert the public attention from the real to the perceived. Secondly, despite the investigations carried out by well trained and well equipped UN and Scotland Yard teams, and spending huge amounts of the taxpayers money, the PPP still needs a scapegoat to ameliorate the feelings of its disenchanted workers. Obviously, the “proclaimed offender” makes an ideal candidate for the job. Add to that the frenzy of election year and there you have it.
In an unusual fit of anger on Benazir’s death anniversary, the President challenged the apex court on the issue of Bhutto’s trial, to which the SC replied in the negative. It remains to be seen how it will respond to Benazir’s murder trial under changed political dynamics. Thirdly, the government has completely failed to deliver on the Balochistan package. It has also failed in controlling the law and order situation in the province. The mysterious disappearing of people goes unabated. There’s an apprehension of a popular uprising. Under such circumstances, the Bugti case might prove fatal to the General’s desire to reorganise the APML and come into power again.
As for the NRO and the 2007 emergency, all these cases are going to possess the General’s mind for quite some time upon his return. By the time he realises it is election year, he’d already be in jail, writing the second part of his autobiography, In the line of fire.
The basic narrative of the General consists in his view that the two mainstream political parties have time and again been “tried, tested and failed”, and that there’s a need for a third political force in the country. In principle, he is right in his approach, but fails to see that such a force is already in place. In fact, some members of his political junta are already part of it. If anything, it should serve as a source of great satisfaction to him and not vice versa. But then, there’s something of addiction about power: Once hooked, hooked forever. You cannot quit it, even when you want to. Its kick is surreal; its shot lethal. Have a look at our communal system and hereditary politics and you’d instantly know what it’s all about. During the past six and a half decades, we’ve produced many autocrats and kleptomaniacs, but no institutions, alas!
The writer is an advertiser based in Islamabad.
Email: samiurn@yahoo.com