To me, the situation then was reminiscent of what happened in India after Indira Gandhi was defeated in 1977 because of the excesses committed by her government during the Emergency that she had imposed solely to remain Prime Minister. That was, for India, a defining moment which could have led to its history being rewritten. But, Indira Gandhi’s opponents blew it by getting mired in the politics of personal vendetta which backfired, as it had to, and resurrected Indira Gandhi and the Congress party from the dead.
I had then posted an article, ‘A vote to save Jinnah’s Pakistan: will it?’, highlighting that the dangers facing Pakistan were far greater than what India faced in 1977. It was clear to me that Pakistani leaders needed to co-opt Musharraf in Pakistan’s internal war against terror and not repeat the mistake that Indian leaders had made. But, then itself it was beginning to appear that no lessons had been learnt and that Pakistan was heading towards a disaster of unimaginable proportions.
The mauling of Musharraf by the deadly duo of Zardari and Sharif, resulting in his resignation as President yesterday, has led to scenes of joy in Pakistan and a euphoria in the Karachi Stock Exchange. Sadly, this is really no more than a victory of the politics of petty vendetta over common sense and national interest. This mauling, rather than strengthening democracy, may actually accelerate Pakistan's slide into anarchy and fundamentalism. And that may well lead to the mauling of the Pakistan that Jinnah dreamt of by the Pakistan that Osama bin Laden is dreaming of.
At this point, it is only appropriate that I reproduce my earlier post that says it all in gripping detail.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1977, India voted to dramatically and humiliatingly rout the invincible Indira Gandhi and her Congress party out of power. In 2008, in the first free and fair elections held in Pakistan since 1970, the nation has voted even more emphatically and dramatically to tell all those who have thoroughly messed up the very idea and ideology of Pakistan envisioned by its creator Jinnah, that it wants to save the country from the inevitable disaster towards which they have been taking it for quite a long time now. MA Jinnah had visualized a secular and democratic Jinnah’s concept of In 1977, just as India was taking a watershed step towards rejection of an oppressive regime, Pakistan was equally fatefully falling into the hands of a military dictator who would go on to unleash fundamentalist Islamic forces that would make Jinnah look like an infidel and push the country suffocatingly into the grip of Islamic extremists spearheaded by the Arab Al Qaida and its subordinate homegrown arm, the Taliban. The abyss that General Zia ul Haq had pushed Pakistan into had only a one way ticket till now. Yes, there were times when victories and successes, as seen through only the narrow prism of an Islam that some mullahs and their followers preached, justified the relentless march towards increasing religious extremism. In reality, these ‘achievements’ just covered the deepening and widening cracks that were destroying the very core of Pakistan and, most importantly, concealing the fact that this was not the kind of Islam that the vast majority of voiceless, fearful and increasingly terrified Pakistanis wanted. More than thirty years after that downhill journey started, and after a full ‘dekho’ in Afghanistan of the kind of life they would ‘enjoy’ in a fully Islamized Pakistan, those who were courageous enough to say what they really wanted to through the ballot box have told the whole wide world that they do not want the Al Qaida, mullahs and the Talibanis to run their country at all. This rejection of that extremist brand of Islam has been almost complete in the areas most affected by their domination, particularly the Frontier bordering That the people of the Frontier have soundly thrashed the extremists, despite the much hated presence of US troops next door against whom these guys are fighting, is the most telling message of this watershed election in Pakistan. This can well be viewed as nothing short of a spectacular resurrection for what the Qaid-e-Azam stood for. After 60 years, Jinnah has risen from the ideological grave in which he had been buried as dead. The expected defeat of mainstream fringe parties supporting President Musharraf should not deflect any one from the real message that the voters of Pakistan have unequivocally given to those who are going to guide the destiny of their nation in future. Benazir Bhutto’s PPP, Nawaz Sharif’s PML, the ANP and independents together command a two thirds majority in the Pakistan National Assembly. Enough to impeach President Musharraf should they so desire. That seems to the consuming passion of Nawaz Sharif, the man earlier overthrown by Musharraf in a military coup, above everything else. Sharif is not willing to join the government to be headed by PPP, the largest party, as long as Musharraf is President. He is also bent upon reinstating the Supreme Court judges sacked earlier by Musharraf to legitimize his presidency. As had happened in PML (Q) and MQM, the two major parties backing Musharraf, may have suffered reverses in the elections primarily because of the anger against Musharraf for becoming the stooge of the People may hate Musharraf for fighting with the Pakistani politicians would do well to learn the right lessons from what happened in The electorally defeated extremists who want to ruin the great Satan This is the real “core issue”, to borrow Musharraf’s words on Destinies of nations are sometimes determined by a few course-altering events, not much different from the tide in the affairs of men that Shakespeare had written so magically about. That tide in the affairs of countries is upon Will they succeed? Both Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif have already dug their heels in as if the most important issue facing the country is their mutual fight to death. The right lessons do not seem to have been learnt yet. Will they and others ever learn and display necessary magnanimity, statesmanship and clarity of purpose before it is too late for Will this vote of the people of
No comments:
Post a Comment