Shaheen
Sehbai
“Criticising
the army has become 'saleable stuff' for the media,” the Chief
military spokesman of General Pervez Musharraf, Maj. General Rashid
Qureshi complained in a newspaper interview recently. General Qureshi
should actually be seriously worried about his remark, which is
very true. It simply translates into one undeniable fact: Whatever
mess the Army is creating is so unpopular that people want to read
about it, even pay from their empty pockets to read the criticism.
If
General Qureshi would just turn his head around and see how his
very “patriotic force” which is supposed to guard the
borders at night (people call them ‘chowkidars’, or
night guards) has turned into a “Dirty Jobs Brigade”
interfering with every thing, justifying every illegal act, messing
it up, blaming others for their failure, punishing the innocent
to hide their embarrassment and then claiming from roof tops that
they have “served” their country. They even decorate
themselves with bravery and “pride of performance” medals.
Anyone who raises a question or objects is a traitor.
That
they have messed up the country is no secret, if only history is
told to Pakistanis as it is. The Army cannot absolve itself of the
charge of dereliction of duty. General Musharraf has already admitted
to one major blunder by offering regrets in Bangladesh. But there
was no sincerity in his words as he does not believe in what he
said. Today he is doing exactly what he regretted his seniors did
in 1971. That means no lessons have been learnt and future army
commanders will have to offer apologies to the nation for what is
being done today.
The
tragedy is that the Army is playing a political game for which it
is not properly trained, and thus it cannot win. The ISI strategists
sitting in Islamabad are monitoring the election and the political
process as if they are the "policy planning and execution wing"
of a political party. Since they are novices, grave mistakes are
being committed every minute, making things worse and increasingly
out of control. Reports of how pre-polling rigging is going on are
a testimony to this. Just imagine in Larkana the Election Officer
took up the case of scrutiny of Benazir Bhutto’s nomination
papers for women’s seat at 2.56 pm, police dragged every body
out of the room and he took 3 minutes to announce his decision.
But guess what? The PTV had announced at 2 pm that her papers had
been rejected. So it is all manipulated and stage-managed.
Likewise
the ISI goons thought they would play a smart political card by
offering some carrots to the Sharif family against the Bhutto family.
The Sharifs have now been stung so many times they could see through
the game in seconds. So they stayed quiet until the Election Commission
accepted all their papers. But then Nawaz struck the blow and left
the Musharraf machinery in a quandary. As if left with nothing else
to do rejection of Sharif family papers has begun again. What a
farce is all this? Who will call this a fair and free election?
Who is the Army kidding?
As
election date approaches, these naïve political managers of
Musharraf’s Dirty Brigade will make more mistakes. Now they
have come out into the open with their dirty agenda and every one
knows it. Soon the time will come when the top commanders will find
that this entire circus was not going to produce any positive results
and should be called off. Musharraf will then try to look for an
excuse and his commanders will look for an scapegoat.
Both
are easily available. The election mess and the threat from across
the border will be enough to call off the elections. Musharraf is
the obvious scapegoat along with his key players, the ISI goons
and some civilian jokers affiliated to the government.
The
apparent misfortune of the country is that another military dictator
will have to take over, this time to sweep the floor of the muddy
droppings of the Musharraf regime. What the new guy does, and in
what manner, remains the uncertain factor. A lot will depend on
how Musharraf is removed.
That
this attempt has already been going on is no secret. One of the
most credible and world renowned journalist, Arnaud de Borchgrave,
of Newsweek, Washington Times and UPI fame, has
just revealed that six attempts have already taken
place on General Musharraf and the 7th could be coming any time.
Click here to read his latest article
This puts the entire political exercise going on in Pakistan in
jeopardy. He also reveals that except the top ISI men, thousands
of low rankers are not listening to Musharraf and are still supporting
Taliban and Al Qaeda inside Pakistan.
Given
this scenario, with politicians of all hue ganging up, Jihadis backed
by ISI regrouping, men making repeated attempts on Musharraf, and
the President spending hours dancing at marriage parties (see
Grapewine column), Pakistan is not just heading for, but already
in, very turbulent skies.
This
also leaves General Musharraf’s foreign supporters and backers
in a state of utter confusion. Washington has no other alternative
but to keep on boosting Musharraf until a better, saner and more
practically smoother transitional arrangement is put together.
The
upcoming New York visit of the Pakistani President, starting next
week, will then be the most crucial time for all sides. Anti-Musharraf
forces will try to use his absence to their maximum advantage. Americans
would like to evaluate and assess his continuing value and decide
whether it is in their interest to further polarize Pakistan on
pro and anti-US lines, specially in the war against terror inside
Pakistan and in Afghanistan.
Musharraf’s
gravest mistake has been his failure to build up on the grand swell
of goodwill that he enjoyed when he took over. He blew it and now
his tenuous position at home is becoming a serious liability for
his overseas friends. It is just a matter of time that they will
decide it was in their interest to dump this liability.
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