Farrukh Khan Pitafi’s Official Website

Pakistan on the brink

When he came to the podium in an emotionally charged hall, he was in no mood to waste his time. He had a clear message and he did not take much time to articulate that. It was plain that the last nine years had not been in vain. Nawaz Sharif on Youm-e-Takbeer used numerous populist devices apparently copied from Zulfi Bhutto and his era during his address at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. He recited poems, engaged the audience through questions and emphatic talk. Yet something was missing. While populist it may well be, his talk lacked vision and long term focus of Bhutto. What he was saying and the slogans that the audience was chanting may bring him dividends in the short run. Yet the question worth asking is will the same prove to be in the long term interest of the country.
For instance he talked of Musharraf’s removal and vowed not to allow him a safe passage. That was not all though. When he paused for a few moments, the audience chanted slogans which the media despite all its attempts at lowering the volume failed to muffle as the phrase phansi do, phansi do (hang him, hang him) was clearly audible.
There is no denying that during the last few years Musharraf has made some choices which did not endear him to anyone but a small coterie of sycophants. I have no qualms in conceding that the last one year has been nothing but an unmitigated disaster. Also owing to the gift of Osama and Bush enterprise pain, violence and popular outrage are only burgeoning.
Since I have dedicated a large chunk of the last two years in opposing his policies no one should doubt my intentions. However I cannot deny the fact I am a bit taken aback by the immoderate mood of the hour. For nine years we have wished nothing but democracy and now we are taking stands which may prove the final undoing not only of democracy but most likely of the federation too. First time in my life I am really frightened for my dear country and its people. I believe that it is high time that the President bids farewell to his beleaguered throne and is given a safe passage and assurance for a safe future. We should not be so blinded by hatred that we forget a man’s positive contribution, nor should we be so intoxicated by momentary popularity that we forget that what distinguish democracy from dictatorship are good old virtues of patience, tolerance and magnanimity.
There are questions which won’t leave us even when Musharraf is gone. The impatience and anger of the lawyers’ movement is already visible. Will it really dissipate after he is gone and the judges reinstated. The lynch law and the mob rule governing the streets of Karachi and elsewhere have to be brought to an end. Will that happen in a few months? I don’t think so. Will the already beleaguered coalition hold after its sole purpose has been achieved? Will Pakistan ever be able to get out of the spider web of the Bretton Woods system? Will the Waziristan and Balochistan be resolved amicably? While incorrigible optimists may come up with a yes, a shaky yes it would be at best.
Pakistan is passing through an excruciating time. Here is what I believe will happen. The lawyers’ movement will lose any main target and yet refuse to die. By then it would have blown up enough that its movers and shakers would have lost control on it. Meanwhile since it is now running on short term raw emotions without any substantial long term vision, the country’s ethno-political polarisation will divide the activists and lead to never ending street strife. The two major partners in the coalition by then would have been by then alienated enough that the system would come to a grinding halt. If anything beyond mere removal took place against Musharraf, like a treason case for instance, it would not only leave bad taste everywhere but also offend at least some in the army. Don’t get me wrong. The army is trying to stay away from politics and so should it. But the problem is that whatever else is the case Musharraf is a former army chief. At least Mr Sharif should remember that the fact Musharraf is in power owes partly to his unceremonious sacking of an Army Chief who believed in democracy. These are deep rooted psychological issues and such negative aspects of esprit de corps will take a while to reform. Why then sow seeds for a permanent rift? Again there are positive things done by this man too. In our rage and fury should we become so short sighted and ungrateful that we forget that controversial and unpopular though his steps were they might have also saved the nation from certain extinction. Had Sharif been in power on the eve of 9/11, would he choose anything different? I think not for he to my knowledge had already conceded to the dismantling of the Taliban regime in Kabul. Read Shahbaz Sharif’s statements before the 1999 take over, and everything falls in place.
If such is the nature of things why the two parties are already preparing themselves for an eventual clash? Because the ugly reality is that our old foreign friends and brethren are hectically lobbying inside Pakistan. So hectic is the effort that rather than lobbying it is akin to the wizard’s chess in the Harry Potter world. In fact just like the chess there are two sides. The first is the west and is represented by the liberal parties like the People’s Party and the second the Saudis represented earlier by the Jamaat and now by the PML-N. The west’s strategy, if you can call it strategy at all, is myopic and self effacing. Since it is led by the US it wants the status quo to prevail till the coming US election, no matter happens to Pakistan or the country’s liberal class after that. Meanwhile the Saudis despite not being selfless are playing their cards well by effectually by banking on the power vacuum created by the ongoing judicial and economic crisis.
Tragically the polarisation in the country is becoming ideational owing to the utter impotence and stupidity of the Bush administration which is bent on destroying the better side by pressuring the People’s Party not to let any qualitative change materialise. We have long been warning that the US demand that the PPP ditch the PML-N alliance and sit with the pro-Musharraf sycophants was nothing but a recipe for disaster. The PML-N is a mainstream party and if it moved to side with the extremist forces like the Jamaat-e-Islami it would only give rise to extremism. And no wonder after the distances between the PPP and the PML-N are visible you see that the extremist group within the establishment is rehabilitating discredited folks like the Red Mosque brigade and AQ Khan and building heroes and martyrs out of them. If all sides do not wake up now and Musharraf does not choose to quit now we may have a very terrible future ahead of us.