| Dr Naeem Chishti |
| Most of the people in the present day Pakistan treat President Pervez Musharraf as a villain. The allegations against him are many which inter alia include: 1. He initiated the battle of Kargill without approval of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif only to pave his way to power. 2. He overthrew an elected government on October 12, 1999, held the Constitution in abeyance and removed chief justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui and five other judges of the superior courts in an unconstitutional manner. 3. He made a unilateral decision to become the United States’ ally in the War on Terror to push his own country in the flames of fire. 4. He tried to change the Islamic culture of his country in the name of his so-called modernism and secularism. 5. He got himself elected as President for five years through a fake referendum on April 30, 2002. 5. His men massively rigged the general elections held in October 2002. 6. He used the NAB, ISI and other intelligence agencies to bring elected members to the fold of PMLQ suspending rules on floor-crossing. 7. He molested the Constitution through his notorious Legal Framework Order by amending as many as sixty-five articles of the Constitution. 8. He forced the elected representatives to approve the Seventeenth Amendment before restoring the Constitution in phases in 2004. 9. He promised to shed his uniform by December 31, 2004 but refused to honour his commitments. 10. He imported Shaukat Aziz from the United States and deprived the native politicians like Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain of their lawful right to become prime ministers. 11. He adopted such policies that Pakistan became the major target of attacks from the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. 12. He ordered bombing of a religious school in South Waziristan killing hundreds of innocent children. 13. He carried massacre of Pakistani citizens in Swat and other parts of the NWFP and tribal areas only to please his foreign masters. 14. He compromised on Pakistan’s sovereignty by allowing the NATO forces to hit the hideouts of ‘terrorists’ inside Pakistan. 15. He suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry only because the latter had started giving verdicts against his autocratic government and its security agencies. 16. He publicly addressed political rallies of PMLQ in clear disregard of his constitutional obligations to stay neutral especially when he happened to be the Chief of Army Staff as well. 17. He destroyed national institutions including the Parliament, the Judiciary and the Military. 18. The Military underwent worst type of politicization during his regime. 19. He was indirectly involved in the Karachi massacre of May 12, 2007. 20 He started military operation against Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad at the eve of the Supreme Court judgment in the chief justice’s case only to kill three birds with one stone. 21. His security men killed hundreds of innocent students, including young children, during ‘Operation Silence’ against the twin sanctuaries of Islamabad. 22. He brokered a ‘power-sharing’ deal with Benazir Bhutto against national interests on the intervention of the United States only to perpetuate his own rule. 23 He forcefully returned Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia after the latter landed at Islamabad airport on September 10, 2007. 24. He described Benazir Bhutto as the most corrupt politician and a security risk for Pakistan but promulgated National Reconciliation Ordinance on October 5 at the eve of his presidential election just to get himself elected as President for another term of five years. 25 He failed to provide adequate security to Benazir Bhutto when she returned to Pakistan on October 18 as a result of which hundreds of people were killed and wounded in the Karsaz carnage on that day. 26. He acted unconstitutionally on November 3, 2007 only because he feared that the Supreme Court bench hearing petitions on the question of his eligibility may decide against him. 27 His November 3 actions were the most uncivilized and undemocratic acts in the constitutional history of Pakistan as he dismissed sixty-two judges of the superior courts entitling his name to be entered in the Guineas Book of World Records. 28. He took pride in giving freedom to the media but during his dictatorial regime, the media underwent the worst type of curbs. 29. He used barbaric force against the lawyers, journalists and human rights activists which is unparalleled in the history of Pakistan. 30. His Election Commission was nothing more than a ‘fraud’. 31. On his orders, the EC rejected nomination papers of Sharif Brothers only to keep them out of the new Assemblies. 32. His government failed to provide adequate security to Benazir Bhutto on December 27 at the time of her rally at Liaqat Bagh. 33. Despite Benazir Bhutto’s letter to her, he made no arrangements to protect her. 34. BB was killed right under her nose and he cannot absolver of his responsibility in her murder. 35. His men washed all the forensic evidence from the crime scene after her death and tried to shift blame to fictional characters. 36. His men did as much pre-poll rigging before the 2008 elections as they could. 37. He avoided rigging on the Election Day only because he was sure that it might result in mass agitation against his autocratic rule. 38. He refused to accept the results of the February 18 elections and started ‘palace intrigues’ to install a dummy government. 39. He has been holding Pakistan’s benefactor Dr Abdul Qadeer as a prisoner without any trial for over four years. 40. He still continues to hold chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and his family in detention in flagrant violation of the Constitution as well as human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The above list is not exhaustive and it contains only a few of the allegations that President Pervez Musharraf’s opponents level against him. Even if a few of these allegations are correct, they must be enough to dub President Musahrraf as a villain. Does that mean that he is really a villain? Although the answer of the majority of the Pakistanis to this question, as stated above, will be ‘yes’ yet that may not be the correct exposition of the evidence. In fact, tomorrow’s historian may look at the things in quite the opposite way. When determining President Musharraf’s place in Pakistan’s history, the future historians may describe him as a hero instead of a villain. While doing so they may not only rely on the economic advancements and the liberalization of the society in his regime but may also take into account the context in which he was ruling the country. President Pervez Musharraf seized power on October 12, 1999 not for any personal reasons, as is widely claimed, by his opponents. On the contrary, he intervened only to protect the interests of his institution which had hitherto played a leading role in Pakistan’s politics. It is a fact that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s acts had pushed the Establishment to the wall. While General Abdul Waheed Kakar and General Asif Nawaz Janjua did not have enough courage to stand against the prime minister, General Pervez Musharraf refused to submit to the ‘unconstitutional’ orders of his removal from service issued by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. By doing so, he not only protected the supremacy of his institution but also undid the effects of the Thirteenth and the Fourteenth Amendment which had disturbed the balance of power in Pakistan. Therefore, as far as his institution is concerned he acted like a hero. That is why he had the full support of the General Headquarters for all his extra-constitutional acts on October 12, 1999. It is not only his decision to seize power on October 12, 1999 which was approved by the GHQ but his decision to cooperate with the United States in the aftermath of the tragedy of 09/11 could also not be without tacit approval of the GHQ. In fact, Pakistan was practically pushed to an undeclared war after the United States’ invasion in Afghanistan which began on October 7, 2001. Since that date Pakistan has all along been in a state of war on its northern borders alongside Afghanistan. This war was quite different from traditional wars as, despite being the US ally, Pakistan had to safeguard its own national interests against the United States as well. Because of this untraditional and novel type of war, special circumstances of the country required special measures. Therefore, all those steps which General Pervez Musharraf took after the US forces invasion of Afghanistan need to be looked in this perspective. No doubt, there may be some substance in the allegations against President Musharraf. However, all these allegations will lose their force once it becomes known to the future generations that President Musharraf did what he did during his regime in the ‘supreme national interest’. Some people may ask as to why the President did not take his nation into confidence if all his actions were in the ‘supreme national interest’. A simple answer to their question is that the President is silent on these issues for tactical reasons. He knows that his words may do more harm to the country than his silence. Therefore, he preferred to keep quiet on all those issues instead of defending his position in public. He knows that tomorrow’s historian might be able to understand his limitations as well as his services to ‘Pakistan’. President Musharraf has affirmed time and again that he is a staunch believer of ‘Pakistan First’. Therefore, he does not really care as to what the people say about him today. He is satisfied that he is doing for his nation what no one else has ever done or will ever do in Pakistan. Despite public perception to the contrary, he knows that he has full support from his former colleagues and they fully understand his ‘true role’. That is why he said during his visit to Europe last month that he would resign from his office the moment he became unpopular. But, the decision as to whether or not he has become unpopular will be made by him, not by anyone else, not even by the February 18 elections. The fact is that President Musharraf has full support, if not control, of the Establishment and he will stay in power at least until the War in Afghanistan continues. Those who think otherwise will need to recheck their fact-sheets. |
Courtesy: Frontier Post, 3/3/2008
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Dr Naeem Chishti
I disagree with the last paragrahphs protecting the evil acts of musharaf with one simple statement that all he did in the name of so called supreme national interest.If u want to write an article ,write in a neutral point of way lest people with solid facts.people are not fool and every one has good know how about the current situation .so plz be realisitic and accept the truth.Although i accept ur feelings for musharaf as ur ideal but it is not necessary that all people thinks from ur biased mind